Cooking and writing. :-)

Song of the day: “Relight my fire” by Take That feat. Lulu. Oldie, I know, but it’s there, it’s easy and not all that bad. Hah.

It is a rather miserable rainy day at the moment. We’ve had cloudy, misty, thunder and rain in all shapes and form, so suffice it to say that everything is either damp or soaked right through. Grrr.

But let’s start with yesterday, ‘cause compared to today, it was absolutely divine. No wind, no clouds; perfect. We did of course make the best possible use for it and went down into the yard to plough the “field” hah. Nothing like working up a sweat in the winter sun and ending up with a nice even terrace where we can put seedlings in at any time now.

While I was blissfully digging in the dirt, big brother and grandpa were working on fixing the fence in the south corner of the property. Due to our recent tree trimming down there, we discovered that the struggling tree had been leaning heavily on the poles, so some repairs were in order. They finished the task today, so it should be fine from now on.

Considering I’ve been having a hankering for a rich veggie, oven dish for more than a week now, I figured I might as well give into temptation and do some cooking as well. Eight veggies with and egg, milk and cheese base was a unanimous success, I’ll have you know. It came out perfectly and with today’s lunch combined, I’ve had three portions, hah.

Let’s do a recipe, shall we. It’s easy enough to make and the veggies can be substituted to personal taste. Here goes:

Potatoes. 8-12 chopped in cubes.
Carrots. 4-6 chopped in cubes.

Potatoes and carrots boiled together in water with a spoonful of sugar, salt and some mixed pepper grinds until they’re done: Stick a fork in a piece and if it slides off, you can drain the water and let it cool for a bit.

Cauliflower. Half a mid-size one. Sliced thin.
Bell peppers. 1 green, 1 red. Chopped in small cubes.
Sweet corn. 1 teacup.
Sweet peas. 1 teacup.
Onion. 1-2 chopped small.
Leek. 1 diced.
Green beans. ½-1 teacups.
Zucchini. ½-1 sliced thin.

Just mix it up raw with a bit of sugar, salt and pepper, and set it aside for a bit.

Herbs/spices:
Paprika. 1 teaspoon.
Pepper. 1-2 pinch.
Salt. 1-to taste.
Parsley. 2-4 table spoons.
Basil. 1 tablespoon.
Oregano. ½ teaspoon.
Thyme. 1 pinch.
Garlic. 1-4 smashed and then diced.
You can add a pizza herbal mix too, along with a provincial herbal mix…much easier that way.

Throw it all in half a teacup of olive oil, or sunflower seeds oil and let it stand for about half an hour.

Base:
Nutmeg. 1-3 pinches.
Salt. 1 pinch.
Pepper. 1 pinch.
Milk. 3-5 coffee cups.
Egg. 3-4
Cheese. (Gouda or Edam) 1-2 pounds grated.

Mix milk and eggs until it’s a light cream color. Add the salt, pepper and nutmeg and the grated cheese and put it aside.

Parmesan. 1-2 teacup grated.
Cottage cheese. 1-2 teacups.

Take an oven dish, or two, spread out the boiled potatoes and carrots. Add the raw veggies, mix them up and spread out the Parmesan with cottage cheese, through, or on top of it.

Now evenly disperse the base over the mix, put it in a preheated oven (approx. 260 degrees (c)) for about an hour…just keep track of it, once the cheese starts to form a nice golden crust, you’re set to go.

Just writing about it now makes me salivate all over again. Gotta have another lunch. Hah.

But enough of that. The remainder of yesterday was spent with small tasks throughout the house. While big brother and grandpa went out to get replacement gaskets, little sister and I did some cleaning in the kitchen and then hung a new lamp in the patio. The old one had lost its cover last year, so it was definitely time. The new one looks absolutely adorable.

Next little brother and I hung a shelf in his room, right beside his new closet, and it worked out without any trouble, so, yay!
There was loads of laundry again, of course. I still cannot say if we have more of that in the winter or summer, but it is a lot, always. Hah.

And the evening was spent doing some more writing. Yeah! It’s is going rather splendidly at the moment: I’m putting out an average of six pages a day now and it feels downright awesome…just as soon as I count them and realize that I’ve written more than my mind categorized. It still remains to be seen if the pages (added 20 pages in the past four days, hah) are any good, but that will come once the read/edit starts. It’s too raw to ponder such things at this point; for now I’m just focusing on the creative process, seeing as I need a completely different part of the brain for it. I’ve found that writing and editing absolutely do NOT go together. It’s like a complete gear shift that I seriously do not want to make while the story is still liquid inside my head. Once the time comes for editing, it’ll all come together and become solid, so to speak.

Which brings us back to today: The night wasn’t as cold as the ones of the past week, but still I was a tad chilled when I woke around sunrise and found myself balancing precariously on the edge of the mattress…Knight II had stretched out completely and was pushing us off, aaargh…feeling particularly sore for some “unfathomable” reason. Hah. I so did not want to get up to this miserable weather, but the new day had arrived and it was time to face it.

The morning was mostly used for minor chores inside the house (such as laundry, grrr) fixing up an old closet that we put in the pantry for storage, and then starting on the courtyard storage room, which is an absolute mess. It really needs a proper cleaning, and seeing as I should get to it, I better wrap this up and call it a day for blogging.

The fun of getting there.

Song of the day: “I’m like a bird” by Nelly Furtado, and yesterday morning: “Don’t worry, be happy” by…I don’t have a clue actually. I believe he’s a composer now, though. But anyway, both are quite accurate, ‘cause let’s face it, worries don’t get you anywhere and being a bird right now, would be, like, totally awesome! I’d be above the rainy clouds in a minute catching me some sun. Brrr. Cold and wet are not my favorite things to be. Ha.

So yeah, the last couple of days: There was writing, of course. Didn’t get much of it done the day before yesterday when we poured the concrete in the carport. It was a rather cold day, and though the pouring went well enough, it was sorta draining on the ol’ bod, if ya get my meaning. Hours of hauling, bending over to smoothen the stuff out took it’s toll, and by the end of the day it was all I could do to keep my eyes from falling shut.

It was kinda funny actually, I found myself sitting in front of the computer, the story tumbling through my head…images and everything, and my fingers still on the keys as I gazed blindly ahead. At one point big brother nudged me from beside, and asked me what was up, and I was like: “Huh. What, oh yeah, writing.” I wrote a paragraph and then ended up drifting along with the images again. Hah. Hysterical, I tell ya.
In total I did manage to add ten pages to the manuscript, which means that there are only a hundred and fifty or so more to go. Hah.

Luckily yesterday was a relatively quiet day. The wind was still cold, but since we went to the lower part of the yard to get a start on the future veggie garden. Considering we could hardly work in the carport, what with the concrete still drying, it seemed like an excellent opportunity to get warm with ploughing the first terrace over. And warm it was. Out of the wind, in the full sunlight, I could actually divest several layers until movement was no longer an impediment.

While big brother used the chainsaw on trees that regretfully didn’t make it through the past few hot summers, grandpa and I made nice headway. I went up front, using the heavy hoe to slash through the clay soil, and grandpa followed with the shovel to turn the whole mess over. Got a nice patch of three square yards ready for planting. Yay.

Little brother painted his new closet and it is looking grand, almost brand new even, and that’s marvellous. If you don’t know better you’d swear it was this way always. I love it when a project works out that way.

Yesterday, after the “ploughing” we made a slight change in plans and headed for town to get some building materials on sales, and then went the long way back, so we could have a nice stroll through a forestry area nearby. While walking there, we saw seedling of Eucalypti and Oleander…they never make it through the winter when the riverbeds flood over…and decided to take a few. Considering we’ve been looking for Eucalypti for months now, and the local nurseries are no longer selling them, we figured we might as well save these little ones. So, now grandpa has corralled off a section of his little yard (protected against the dogs, you understand) where we’ve put all the seedlings in pots. Now they’ll get several months to get a bit bigger and stronger and then we’ll put them throughout the property.
Oh boy is that gonna look good once they grow. Before you know it, we’ll be living in a forest again.

So there are some new plans in the making: First off, we’re finally forming some serious plans about a proper bathroom. Up until now we’ve been making due with a temporary shower stall in the corner of the patio (temporary being a whopping ten years, I kid you not). It’ll still be a shower, but this time a little more than just a stall. Yay.

Second: Considering we use so much water for hosing both courtyard and patio down every day, we’re going to build (at some point, naturally) an aqueduct that will run all the way down the property (zigzagging) and water our future veggie garden with all the left over water. It’ll be quite a project, but I think that the end result will be downright gorgeous. Can you imagine, terraces filled with plants and trees, flowers everywhere, with a low curling wall of natural rock where water runs through? I can hardly wait to see the end result. It’ll be a while yet, I know, but sometimes the anticipation is killing me. Then I always remind myself that the path of getting to a finish of something is a lot more fun than actually arriving there. *sigh*

Remember Lego? Having that castle, house, or whatever finished was just no fun at all. The searching through the massive pile of building blocks the design, that was the fun part. I would always built something, play with it for half an hour and then take it apart to start on something new. Building a real house, or in this case a garden, is much the same. The actual doing is what it is all about.

The same goes for writing, really. Developing a story, it’s characters, and discovering what makes them tick and what is going to happen next, that’s the most fun part about it any time. Sure, it is satisfying to have a story ready, and perfect for that occasional read, but in the end I’m always looking forward to the next one, where I can start all over again: Getting to know the protagonists and finding out how they will respond to the next hurdle my sometimes twisted mind throws at them. IT IS FUN!

But anyways…today started off with clouds all round. We are literally inside the clouds at the moment. Miserly rain is coming down occasionally and everything is sorta damp. I started off the day with the usual chores such as laundry…luckily I’ve been going through the piles like mad these past few days, so now there is only little…a little bit of cleaning, and then went up to our tenants for her exercises.

It went rather well, actually; we’ve finally reached that point where she does better leaning on her cane, rather than me, or her caretaker. I’m thinking that indecisiveness as to whether she needs to depend on our support, or depend more on her own body, is what is keeping her back. Her body wants to do it herself, so if we let her, it will. She barely needs support when she uses her cane, and that is a milestone to say the least. A definite bonus for me, when I go up there, is that in her bungalow it is always wonderfully warm, allowing me to “defrost” a little. Hah.

Like me, the dogs really do not like the cold, by the way. The lot of them, in particular the short haired ones, look rather miserable whenever we’re working outside, huddling close to the fire vat to keep warm, or else finding that one spot where there’s sunlight (not today, though, hah) and then shivering delicately when immobility brings the chill to unbearable levels. For all the heat Knight II produces, he’s always remarkably cold, the poor fellow. Same goes for little Dax and Mosha, who will literally run into my cabin whenever I take pity on them (meaning most days) and open the cabin door for them when I’m outside. They’ll huddle up on the couch and their baskets, only to come running outside every thirty minutes or so, to check if I’m still there.

Well, ‘tis time for me to get back to work now, so this is it for today, I guess. I still have power plug-ins to put up in the office, so I better get to it.

WRITING!!!

I know, I know, I’m late, late, late. Couldn’t be helped ‘cause I was writing…as in Writing with a double capital W, or better yet, in all capitals: WRITING! Yay.
I mean, seriously, if there’s a choice between writing about the daily chores and just tapping away in a world of fiction, with handsome heroes, pixie heroines…I mean really, do you see the scales tipping heavily down to the latter? I sure can. Hah.
Can’t wait to get back to it, so let’s do this fast. I still need to get out there in the “freezing” cold of the morning, to prepare for concrete pouring, ‘cause we’re doing the carport floor. Yikes. I still haven’t warmed up from a rather chilly night, actually. But hauling wheelbarrows, bags of cement and shoveling sand should take care of that in no time.

Seriously, editing, proofreading and such is all nice and fine, but it is a must rather than a pleasure. After doing it for more than a year, I have to say I am more than ready to leave the proper punctuation and such be, and just go with the flow of the story for a bit. Which means that I’ll probably have even less time for this blog thing in the near future.
Even now, the story’s images are ghosting through my head, just bursting to get out. I guess I’ve closed off the door of inspiration too long already.

But, being a conscientious gall, I do a quick rundown anyway. *eye roll*

So, where did I leave off? Gawd, this memory of mine sucks. Middle sister’s desk is all done…for my part of it anyways. She only needs to paint it now and then it’s all done. She and little brother already carried it down to her room, so if I’ll ever see the end result is somewhat iffy. I’ll have to remember peeking into her room some day and see how it all turned out.

Same goes for little brother’s closet. Taking three inches from it’s depth worked out properly and yesterday afternoon we spent several hours setting it up…worrying all the while if I forgot anything, or did something wrong. There were a few minor adjustments to be made, and the back still has to go in, but otherwise it worked out fine. The doors fit, so do his clothes, and in the next few days little brother can take his time painting the freshly sanded wood to his liking.

The carport section that is going to get a new floor was emptied yesterday too, so it is all ready for today. It actually looks rather spacious at the moment, hah.

Little brother and sister both repaired the patio door beautifully. Now glass is in, the wood painted and neat sections of thick plastic coverings protect the wood against eager dog paws at the bottom. Looks much better this way, I’ll admit.

Though I figured that basically the majority of furniture projects are done, there are some plans in the making for a big closet wall in big brother’s attic room. The old one simply won’t do, and some closet space certainly wouldn’t go amiss for him. We’ve got eight of these really neat square wooden doors that are just begging to be used, and with a little bit of effort they would make for a nice wall of cubby-holes, rather than the dusty, dirty shelves that now take up one end of his room. We’ll have to see if there’s time for such a project in the near future.

Also, there is the trundle bed that I’m pondering on for little brother; I have the basic ingredients for it, and he does appear to like the idea, well enough. It should look good, once I figure out how to make it.

The dogs are really enjoying the fire barrel, which we are burning most of the time now. What with the cold, it is rather essential to have some source of warmth. They’ll all be lying around it the moment the fire gets lid, and loathe to get up whenever they deem it necessary to follow us from one location to the next.
Their preference of heat, however understandable, is somewhat of a pickle for me, considering that they’ll all want to cuddle up on the bed, leaving not much room for me. Heck, when they curl up on my blankets, I will actually have to get up and throw them off, just to be able to crawl back under. Selfish idiots. Hah.

Ah, yes, the washing machine likes me again…I don’t know what changed, but now it responds again when I press the button. Strange how machines can be temperamental at times, huh.

Grandpa is keeping busy too; for the past few weeks he’s working like a whirlwind on his own bungalow, and has already covered one of his walls with beautiful, light yellow paneling, and is now finishing it off with a half ebony, half yellow wall. Not really my style, but it does look very fancy. I never realized how much he like smooth surfaces, hah.

As for me…well, I just want to write, so I’m going to leave it at this and get to work on the carport. With a little luck I’ll be done in time to star working on the book by nightfall.