Tuesday 24 June 2014

Daybook ii

Trying to get back into blogging.  It aches a little to stretch these weary muscles so let’s start out with a nice exercise stolen lovingly from a friend.

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Outside my window, I live right by a train station and they are doing some form of track work.  There is a lot of machine noise interspersed with the workmen yelling to each other.  I can’t make out what they’re saying but there’s a lot of bantering and laughing.  It’s probably a good thing I can’t hear what they’re saying, actually!  The weather has finally turned into something resembling winter.  Overcast skies and temperatures requiring jeans and hoodies.  My feet are a teensy bit chilly though.

I have been listening to Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.  I just adore Grace’s voice and I love their music.  It’s kinda rock, kinda bluesy and it’s great to turn up loud.  They recently came to Australia as support act for John Mayer and I was gutted that I couldn’t see them perform as they didn’t come anywhere near my hometown.  A song I come back to again and again is this one called ‘Timekeeper’ as I love the lyrics and can 100% relate to the feelings.  Here is an acoustic version performed by Grace.

I have been wearing mainly pyjamas.  My roomie is away for a while so I have been home alone and therefore, pyjamas.  Although to be real, I still wear PJs all the time when he’s here too. 

I am thankful for animals.  They are the best.  The love they have for humans and the way they show it just makes my world go round. 

I am pondering why my upcoming holidays are causing me more stress than pleasure.  Like, I know, I know… first world problems.  But seriously, why can’t I just enjoy the thought of my holidays instead of having stress dreams. 

I am reading a biography of Caterina Sforza (written by Elizabeth Lev), who was an Italian noblewoman from the 15th century who amongst other things led her own troops into battle.  This is the first biography I have read in years and it’s a bit hard going at the moment because my brain’s just not in the zone, despite the author’s best efforts and the awesome subject matter.  So to temper that, I’m also devouring “Dragon’s Blood” by Jane Yolen.  This is about a poor boy who works in the local dragon stables where the fighter dragons are kept.  It’s a lovely read and just what I need to balance out some world history.

I am creating an Irish chicken stew with dumplings.  I am very haphazardly creating it so it’ll be interesting to see if it is as tasty as it has been in the past.  I went a bit crazy with the dumplings, as they’re obviously the best part and I added WAY more than I normally would, so we’ll see how they are!  It’s bubbling away on the stove and has been for the last few hours.  It’s making me so hungry because the house has smelled of chicken soup for hours and I haven’t been able to eat any of it!!

And since writing that… my dumplings took over and took away all the moisture.  So there is like no soup in the chicken stew.  But it still tastes good!

A picture-thought I'm sharing is of my first little plant that I planted recently.  I am surprised to find that I quite like it.  The plants are not enjoying their slow, laboured demise but hopefully I can get better at not killing them.