MARIE'S MUSES

When I have lost my temper

I have lost my reason too.

I’m never proud of anything

Which angrily I do.

When I have walked in anger

And my cheeks are flaming red

I have always uttered something

That I wish I hadn’t said.

In anger I have never done

A kindly deed or wise,

But many things for which I know

I should apologize.

In looking back across my life

And all I’ve lost or made,

I can’t recall a single time

When fury ever paid.

I found this little poem today. I can’t tell you who the author is, because none is listed. It’s words rang with truth to me, and so I thought I’d share it here. No, I’m not going to say I never get angry, far from it! I do get angry sometimes, but I’m not a person that lashes out in anger. I am much more likely to go somewhere quiet, and cry in frustration, rather than to go off on one! Or stay stoically silent, whilst I grit my teeth, my every movement speaking the words that my voice just can’t.

There have been lots of times I have wished that I could say things or tell people around me how I really feel, but something always keeps me from doing it. Perhaps that is a good thing. I don’t have to regret speaking out in anger, or apologize for words spoken that can’t be taken back. Todd is like that as well. He’s not a person that gets riled very easily or lashes out in anger about things. It takes an awful lot to get either one of us going. As a consequence we have never really had a flaming row in all of the almost seven years we have been together! That’s not to say we have always been 100% happy with each other, but there’s never really been anything truly worth disagreeing over. Life’s far too short to get annoyed about somebody leaving the cap off the toothpaste or a pile of papers on the table. We’re just grateful that we have each other, and thank God for every day together!

Two good friends of ours from where we used to live in Chester, Audrey and Peter, arrived yesterday for a few days’ visit. It has been so nice to see them. They used to live across the back garden from us in Chester, and had been Todd’s friends before I moved over here to England. They were the first friends I made over here, and we get along really well as a group. I really miss them now that we are living down here. We often used to go out walking together of an evening,  or just share a meal together and some company, or a rousing game of scrabble and some brilliant conversation. We once spent two weeks together in the South of France, and there’s not many friends that you can do that with and still stay friends! It’s really good having them, and I dare say the time together will pass all too quickly … it always does.  Time spent in the company of good friends is always worth every second.

Todd and I walked down to the village yesterday morning. It’s only a small village, I’m not sure what the population is, but it’s not very many. There is a local butcher cum green grocer there and I wanted to buy some eggs. It saved us the petrol of having to drive to the nearest town where there’s a grocery store, and we got the pleasure of going for a walk with Jess besides. Of course I walked out of there with more than just eggs.  The butcher had just made up some lovely looking burgers and there were some bananas that were just begging to be made into a Banoffee Pie and so I got some of them as well!  Todd was waiting outside with Jess,  and when he heard the butcher say the price he almost passed out.  £7. 43 for a dozen eggs!  Outrageous!!!  But then, he didn't know I was also getting half a dozen beef burgers and a bunch of bananas as well, haha.  J

It’s such a pretty little village and I found myself wondering why I didn’t do this more often. When we go for walks we usually go wandering through the orchards that surround us, we only very rarely walk through the village. I guess it’s probably because we don’t have to keep Jess on a lead when we walk her through the orchards, but we do when going through the village.

There’s an awful lot of traffic that goes through the village, for it being so small, but there are still a lot of very old buildings there and it’s very picturesque. We still have our village post office, which is saying something! Plus we have the butchers and of course a pub. There is an iron forge and a gallery of sorts, but that’s about it. There is a lovely village church school, a sports club and a beautiful old church. I love to walk around the graves that surround it and look at all the headstones. Because we are in Kent, there are also some lovely Oast Houses as well, plus a newly refurbished poor house that someone has made into luxury homes that people are just now moving in to. It’s truly a peaceable and beautiful place to live. We really are blessed.

On our way back I noticed the rose hips along the stone wall that edges one side of the long drive down to the cottage. They are all ripe and red and you can see where the birds are already starting to partake of the feast in a few places. A few errant roses are still blooming amidst all the glorious red hanging fruits and so I dashed home to grab my camera and back to take a few pictures while they are still all in their glory. The conkers are hanging from the chestnut trees as well, almost ready to drop, as are the pears. Can Autumn be far off …

I made us a lovely vegetarian curry for our lunch yesterday. It comes from off those recipe cards you can pick up in the grocery store and I’d been eyeballing it for about a week now and wanting to make it. The picture looked delicious and let me just say, I was not disappointed! Of course I made a few changes and so it’s not exactly like the one on the card. I like to think it’s better!

Serves 4

This delicious rice dish combines several of my favourite flavours. Sweet and tender cauliflower, wonderfully crunchy cashew nuts, aromatic spices and basmati rice all work beautifully together to create a very tasty pilau! You can add a can of chickpeas or a peeled, cubed and deseeded butternut squash instead of the cauliflower if you wish.

1 TBS vegetable oil

1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped

400g basmati rice

1 TBS Korma curry paste

750ml of boiling water

1 TBS vegetable stock powder

1 cauliflower, cut into small florets

50g roasted cashew nuts

A small handful of fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped (cilantro)

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

4 TBS natural yoghurt, to serve

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the onion for several minutes over medium heat, until softened. Add the rice and curry paste, cooking and stirring until all the grains of rice are coated.

Tip in the boiling water, the stock powder and the cauliflower florets. Bring back to the boil, then cover the pan and reduce the heat. Allow to simmer gently for 13 to 15 minutes, until the rice is tender and all the liquid has been absorbed.

Stir in the cashew nuts and coriander leaves. Season to taste. Divide between four heated places and serve with a dollop of yoghurt!