Soaked

That'll teach me for complaining. We had such a long period of super-dry. Now we have floods. Our house is on high ground, so it doesn't affect us, other than my very waterlogged flower pots.

This photo of a tiny portion of São Paulo wasn't taken by me. It is a Terra news photo:

It does give you a fairly good idea of what the city is like at the moment. I'd say its rather damp here, wouldn't you?

The photo at the top is mine though and is a photo of quebra pedra, a weed (or should that read 'volunteer plant'?) that I spent a very long time uprooting until one of the locals saw me and berated me for uprooting what is considered one of the 'sacred herbs'. 'Quebra pedra' translates literally to 'stone breaker' and is used as a remedy for kidney stones. The locals swear by it. It is a very pretty herb, the raindrops on its dainty leaves looking like tiny jewels.

This afternoon, we were meant to go into the village to enjoy the neighbourhood's 80'th birthday party. Vila Zelina is a Lithuanian community and was established in 1927. The celebration was to take place at the square. Pity it was a washout. This photo was taken at the square on a sunny day, the usual gathering of old (and not so old) men playing their dominoes. The dominoes table is always occupied, regardless of the time of day.

Rainy day

little bubbles float

down the stream

along the sidewalk

dancing, popping

tiny raindrops splash

on my face

touching my cheeks

feathery light, teasing

a puddle shimmers

in cloudy reflection

on my path

rippling, lapping

a watery fantasy

clouds play games

on a rainy day

dripping, sprinkling

© tint

Raindrops are falling on my head... *insert music note*

See what happens when you complain? We have gone from hot and dry to cold and wet. Overnight, the temperatures dropped and it is now cold with constant rain. Make that cold by Brazilian standards, with temperatures averaging 18°C (64°F).

In honour of this auspicious event (unaccustomed rain), I present you with one of Tat's favourite treats, Bolinha de chuva. Actually, it was a friend of hers that introduced us to this local confection. 'Bolinha de chuva' translates to 'little rain cake'. Every time this friend would visit, she would haul out the pot and the flour and make bolinha for us. She loved cooking at our place, as she wasn't allowed to at home. Herewith, my translation of a Bolinha de chuva recipe...

Bolinha de chuva (I added the Brazilian version of the recipe just as a curiosity)

Temperature: Hot
Difficulty: Easy
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Makes about 70 balls

Ingredients:
1 pinch of salt
about 1/2 cup of milk
4 tablespoons sugar
2 cups flour
1 level tablespoon of baking powder
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon cinnamon
oil for deep frying
3 cups of sugar for making the cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

Method:

In a bowl, mix flour, eggs, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add milk little by little with a mixer until you have a smooth batter. The mixture is ready when it starts to keep the shape of the balls. Heat sufficient oil in a frying pan to deep fry the balls. When the oil is hot, put small balls into the oil with a spoon. Fry the balls until golden brown and crisp. Remove with a straining spoon and place on paper towels to drain off oil. Toss balls in cinnamon sugar and they're ready to serve/eat/whichever-comes-first ;)

Portuguese version:

Temperatura: Quente
Dificuldade: Fácil
Tempo de preparo: 10 min
Rendimento: 70 unidades

Ingredientes:
1 pitada de sal
cerca de 1/2 xícara (chá) de leite
4 colheres (sopa) de açúcar
2 xícaras (chá) de farinha de trigo
2 ovos ligeiramente batidos
1 colher (sobremesa) rasa de fermento em pó
1 colher (sobremesa) de canela em pó
óleo para fritura
3 xícaras (chá) de açúcar (para misturar com a canela em pó)

Modo de Preparo:
Coloque numa tigela a farinha, os ovos, o fermento, o açúcar e o sal. Aos poucos, adicione o leite e misture com um batedor até obter uma massa homogênea. A massa estará no ponto quando começar a formar bolhas. Em uma frigideira, coloque bastante óleo e leve ao fogo. Quando estiver bem quente, coloque pequenas porções de massa, com o auxílio de uma colher. Frite os bolinhos, deixando-os dourar bem. Retire e coloque sobre papel toalha para absorver o excesso de óleo. Em seguida, passe os bolinhos no açúcar e na canela e sirva.

Footnote: I am about to totally lose it with Blogger.com. I have to reset my password every day and I know it's not me. Its the same one I have used ever since starting with Blogger. I simply reset it to what it was and it works. Enough already :(

Patterns

Do you see patterns in everything? Do you look at the clouds and see teddy bears, giants, mountainous landscapes? I see patterns all over. In the shower, I amuse myself seeing people, animals, flowers and all manner of other fascinating shapes in the water droplets collecting on the tiles. I will look at the pattern formed by the leaves blown on the grass or the moss on the ceramic pot outside. Heck, I see patterns in the oil in the pan and (shh, don't tell anyone) have even been guilty of photographing those patterns

I took bunches of pattern photos yesterday. I can't post them all, obviously, but see what fun you can have with these...

The patterns on the bark of the Eucalyptus tree

The patterns in a nest in the ground. I have no idea what nest this is. Giant ants?

A piece of bark on the ground?

This last photo has me chuckling. I was hunkered down on the ground and kept having to push Romany away. Me on the ground with him takes him back to his puppyhood and he loves it. I couldn't get him completely out of the photo. See if you can spot Romany ;)

Just up the road

Yesterday, Jorge and I went for a walk to the crematorium up the road. The man is crazy... it was extremely hot and he opted to go right after lunch. I came home looking like a broiled lobster. The dogs flitted from one shady patch to the next. Even hyperactive Dingo spent a lot of time just lying in the shade.

Guess which one of the two is laid-back Romany and which one is hyperactive Dingo. Of course, you can't see her tail whipping back and forth in this photo. I personally think she's a clockwork dog and needs to wind herself up all the time.
The crematorium grounds here is where everyone goes for their exercise, to walk the dog and to just get out a bit. Its the only place around here with any amount of green... if you can call it green. Everything is dead. Between the heat and the lack of rain, there was very little green to be found at all.

If you didn't know where you were, you'd have sworn it was Autumn with the banked up mounds of crisp brown leaves.

The crematorium is divided into two parts. One part for the wealthier, with little headstones and the other part for those whose dedication is far greater than their purses. Ashes were sprinkled around trees, flowers planted, signs and ornaments put up. It was my first visit there. I had avoided going there for so long, thinking it would be depressing, but that wasn't the case at all.
I do hope we get rain soon. Brazil isn't meant to be a dry country... at least, not this part, although a part of me is grateful because, on a more personal note, the dryness is far easier to deal with than the humidity.

Moving

Two things have let me down here at Blogspot.

1) It's not very community-orientated. I like people. I like visiting blogs (and not just a random choice when one clicks on 'next). I like people visiting my blog. I find Blogspot to be very difficult to navigate to see other blogs and broaden my horizons. I won't even go into the fact that not a soul reads blogs in here. Few blogs I visited through the ubiquitous 'next' button at the top right had any number of commentors.

2) The new Blogspot has me disgusted. It is well known that I live in Brazil, but I am English! I want to manage my blog in my language... not the language that their cookies decide I should be using. Sure, I can switch my language preference to English, but when visiting friends' blogs, I get to face a comments page in Portuguese. I don't like the new Blogspot. I didn't choose it. I was finally forced to accept it or not access my blog. They want it that way, they can have it that way.

My blog is now at Yahoo 360°. The community spirit is wonderful and its so easy to browse and find new friends. There are a number of ways for me to show my photography and tools that allow so much flexibility with page design and blog post setup.

Do stop over and visit: http://360.yahoo.com/tintalasia.

Christmas 2006

Christmas eve was beautiful. We exchanged our gifts at midnight, as we do every year - who wants to wait for morning?? From Linda, in Vancouver, I received a mini scrapbook album to decorate and fill in as I wish. Its done in a poinsettia style.... very pretty. So at the end of the evening, just before I went to bed, I journalled in it:

"Tonight we had our most special and memorable Christmas ever. Tat wrote a message to us on a 'scroll' and resting on it was a tsuru bird for luck. Jorge had already given us our memory sticks for our immigration documents. We each have one now. I made mini-scraps for Jorge and Tat with the theme, '10 things I love about you'.

We had a Runescape Christmas We all met in the party room at Seers Village. It was fun!

The fireworks are very loud and seemingly unending. We gave the dogs some rescue remedy and treats to calm them. Its warm and damp outside after a day of rain."

For those who don't know, Runescape is an online game set in medieval times. We play it as a family. Some people watch TV, we play Runescape.

Christmas day was just as good. I still need to write it up and print the photos for the scrap book. We slept late, had our Christmas 'photo shoot' and prepared our Christmas slunch (sic) of turkey, carrot salad, potato casserole, green bean salad, beetroot salad - yes, there are a lot of salads. Its too hot for the traditional fare. Our South African custom is to have cold meats and salads for Christmas. Turkey was a brave move for me this year. For desert there was this super-rich chocolate tart. Halfway through our slivers of tart, we gave up and packed the rest away for later.

Today was a lazy day of Runescape, cleaning up a little and this afternoon/evening, we watched Eragon. Nice movie... reminded me a lot of LOTR. Jorge has gone to bed now. I'm settling to sort out the rest of the photos and journal the Christmas. Tat is colouring in. Yep, she got a new set of coloured pencils for Christmas and has downloaded and printed some pics to colour in

White Christmas!!

We had a snowball fight today - in Brazil!


Reality check: Its raining buckets outside, interspersed with thunder. We took the turkey out of the freezer this morning. It was quite thoroughly caked with ice. Tat started scraping the ice off - a weirdism of hers. She scrapes ice from the supermarket freezers too. I looked at her hands and it looked so like snow... white, crystally and cold. I scraped off a handful and threw it at her.... she threw some back - a snowball fight!! It was wonderful! We decided to spread our seasonal cheer to where Jorge was sitting. Suffice to say, he's threatened to get his own back on us =D

The spice cookies are in the oven and I've just taken the first batch out. They came out perfect and smell heavenly! Once they're all done (I quadrupled the mixture), I'll get started on the shortbread and the chocolate cookies. Yum!

And so this is Christmas...

So this is christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young a very merry christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear and so this is christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The war is so long
And so happy christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let’s stop all the fight a very merry christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear and so this is christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so happy christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young a very merry christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear and so this is christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas... and what have we done... Another year has passed and what have I done. Nothing much of anything, it seems. No major accomplishment. A couple of new friends, the loss of a couple of old friends. Am I a better person than I was last year this time? I wish I could say I was. Well, I'm working on it and working on getting the newly resident 'Grinch' atmosphere cleaned out here.

So... And so this is christmas. I hope you have fun, The near and the dear ones, The old and the young a very merry christmas And a happy new year... Let’s hope it’s a good one....

Saturday...

And I decided to, once again, clear out my mailbox. I'm an e-mail junkie, packrat, hoarder... there's no hope for me ;) So, I went to the bottom of my mail pile. The oldest message is always a good place to start, but the hardest too, as it is usually a message that I have decided once before to keep. It turns out to be a poem sent to me by my very dear friend, Diane. I can't possibly delete it, though I may do the intelligent thing and save it somewhere, so the mailbox can be lightened. And then I can do the next best thing... share it with others, as its so beautiful.

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
God forbid love ever leaves you empty handed,
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
When ever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance...I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never settle for the path of least resistance,
Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin'
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin'
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,
When you come close to sellin' out consider,
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance...I hope you dance I hope you dance...I hope you dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,
Tell me who wants to look back on their years
and wonder where those years have gone.)

I hope you feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
When ever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

Dance.. I hope you dance...I hope you dance I hope you dance...I hope you dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years
And wonder where those years have gone.)

Lee Ann Womack

Isn't it beautiful?
Its hot here again today with an incredibly high humidity, thanks to the thunder showers we're expecting later. Tat is on her way out to meet a friend. I hope she doesn't get caught in it. We have low-lying areas between here and town that will be flooded.

I slept late this morning. Nothing too unusual considering my 3am bedtime. My plans for the day? Well, I need to work on something I have for madam while she is out. Need to get laundry and dishes done first - there, my note of the mundane thrown in. Hm... and I simply have to get started on my Christmas baking. Chocolate creams (for South Africans, they're Romany creams), Spice cookies, and the quintessential shortbread.

Away in a manger

I was about 3 when my gran, Ouma, who raised me, decided I had to have some sort of religious training. She was Nederduitse Gereformde Kerk and my grandad, Jim (everyone called him Jim) was Presbytarian, like all good Scotsmen. So one Sunday morning, Ouma marched me down to the Salvation Army on the corner, where I was introduced to Aunty Val who sat at the door welcoming all the kids to Sunday school. A little later, I was shown through to the hall where the children gathered for Sunday school. I remember clearly the rows of wooden chairs… the kind with the flip-up seats (many a boy lifted one of those while I was sitting and made me fall over the years). The floors were wood. To the left of me as I walked through the door was a strange entrance. I found later it led to a den under the stage – a most exciting place. Up ahead was the kitchen, an office, a store room and the ablutions. But this day, the gathering was in the main hall. Ouma took me on a good day. There was no Sunday school. We were going on a march.

We walked through the main streets of Port Elizabeth, Aunty Val holding my hand. Everyone looked so smart in their uniforms and the band played beautifully. My eyes must have been like saucers. I was in awe. It became my dream to wear a uniform. The Salvation Army taught me about the Bible. They taught me about caring for others. They taught me about love for my brothers and sisters. They encouraged our talent and trained us for leadership. It was my second home for so many years.

Christmas time! If there is a part of my childhood Christmases I treasure and holds happy memories for me, it is the part that I spent in Salvation Army activities. A while beforehand, we would go from door to door with our little wooden boxes. Naturally, I was accompanied by an adult. We collected, so that we could make Christmas special for those who would otherwise go without. In later years, I became part of the sorting of other donations for this as well. Then the most exciting part – the carolling! We would all stand on the back of a truck. The band sat at the ‘front’ behind the driver’s cab and, as the truck drove slowly through the streets, we would sing our hearts out. I loved those evenings on the back of the truck carolling! I was listening to ‘Away in a manger’ playing tonight and the memories came flooding back.

I still love carolling. Oh, another favourite Christmas memory has just come to mind – Carols by Candle-light in Happy Valley, Port Elizabeth. Happy Valley was where the river that ran through Settler’s Park ended before running into the sea at Humewood beach. The place was a popular picnic and strolling spot by day and by night, a fairy tale come true. In among the bushes and trees were lit-up scenes, sprinkled with fairy lights. If anyone out there reading this blog has photos of Happy Valley at Christmas time in the 70’s, please let me know! Nativity scenes, Disney scenes, fairy tale scenes…. a child’s dream come true. I honestly believed that those scenes would spring to life at any moment. In the flatter area, closer to the beach with the fun fair up on the hill, they had Carols by Candle-light. We each held a candle in a paper candle holder and by the light of those candles, in front of the huge Christmas tree and the lit up Nativity scene, we sang carols in the dark. What a beautiful scene from the hill… all these candles and lit up faces and the music…!

If my Ouma were alive today, I would love to thank her for giving me those very special memories to hold on to and hopefully pass on to Tatiana and the generations to come. My wish for all my friends is that you also build special Christmas memories and traditions and experience the love and joy of the season in so many ways.

Water, water everywhere...

São Paulo is flooding. There are areas flooding that don’t usually get flooded much. Below the Pinheiros River (or next to it or somewhere), there is a huge underground reservoir to collect flood water. Well, the Pinheiros flooded and the surrounding neighbourhoods along with it. We have moved away from the Tiete River now and I see those areas are pretty much under water now.

If you would like to brave some Portuguese, stop by at Terra and look at the photos. Scroll down on the page until you see, in bold print, “Veja mais fotos” with a tiny camera next to it. The rather bland photo, with no apparent flooding is just drawing attention to the fact that there was 115km (71 miles) of backed up traffic in the city. A few of my own photos of São Paulo’s version of ‘in the wet’ can be found here.

My daily gratitude: I am grateful to be in a house that doesn’t leak and I am grateful to be on a hill. The days of sweeping water out of the house are over. That is surely good =)

Turkeys and trimmings

Its Christmas time. On Dec. 1st, I decided to go officially into Christmas mode. Many have already received the cards we sent out. Just hope the few gifts get to their destination on time. I, once again, made our own cards. I really enjoyed making these. If I had a regret, its that they are small. I should perhaps have made them bigger. Next year, I think I’ll do A5 cards with more trimmings.

We put up the tree yesterday. I video’d it with grand plans to make a spectacular Christmassy… uh…. thing to send out to friends. I’ll see what I can do with that. The tree looked miniscule (judging by the glorious pines I see on the net), but gorgeous! Then last night, I was sitting peacefully at my desk when… crash… the tree came down. Specs sat here with huge saucer eyes, so I immediately expected her paw to have been involved. I took the fragile ornaments off, just in case, and put the tree back up. Jorge says it came down this morning again, he left it down, and said Specs was sleeping in her box at the time, so she wasn’t the guilty party. We just have a highly unbalanced tree *sigh* So today, we’re making tree plans… to see what we can come up with to keep the thing upright for the month.

And…. today… I am cooking turkey for the first time ever! Wish me luck. Roasts aren’t my strong point, though I do a pretty good chicken roast and this is just a huge chicken, right? We bought the turkey for Christmas day, but delivery was overnight and it arrived home partially thawed, so we have to cook it. That’s fine with me, as it gives me a practice run for Christmas. I’m going to cook rice with the turkey, as madam doesn’t eat mash - sacrilege – I love mash! Anyhow…. the turkey won’t be cooked with me sitting here. Its time to take the covers off and get it in the oven…

Zuurberg

I’m having a serious case of ‘wanna go home’. I had a dream the other night that is still with me. I dreamt I went back to Zooberg – or Zuurberg Inn, its real name. I dreamt there are new owners (naturally, as its been more than 25 years since I was there). The building had changed somewhat, though it was added on to the original structure. I dreamt I met the new owners, who didn't know me, naturally, but were interested in the stories I had of years gone by at the Inn. Some time later, I met an old man who recognised me, though I didn't recognise him. He reminded me who he was, the man who used to take me horse-riding as a little girl. As he spoke, in my dream, I remembered parts of my experiences at Zooberg that I had long forgotten. I dreamt too, that I got a job there and we found work for Jorge and Tatiana too.

The next morning, I looked up Zuurberg Inn on the net and found it looking much like it did in my childhood. Gosh, I can even smell the place! I remember the kitchen knew me well and always had a bowl of their custard ready for me for my desert. Custard still has the power to take me back to those idyllic days. I so want to go back. I will still go back... some day. Those were happy, innocent days.

Busy busy...

Its been hectic around here, but I’m finally seeing ‘the light’. Seal Restore depends on word of mouth and folks going to the site. Seal Restore is where my heart lies. I so enjoy working on history…. with all the human interest that surrounds it. Then there’s the Store =) My favourite part of the store is the printable greeting cards and the bookmarks. They’re so easy to open and print. We’re especially proud of our new gsd files though for Wishblade and Craft Robo fans. We’re going full-steam ahead with creating these files. I hope to soon have them integrated with the greeting cards, bookmarks and scrap sets. Carol is so talented and is a wonderful partner in this. Her video tutorials should attract a lot of attention – they’re great! Yesterday, a friend (thank you Cheryl) sent me a link. This lady started baking out of her kitchen and now has her own commercial bakery and even takes online orders for mailing. Now I can do that! My kitchen is by no means fancy, but it works and the things I bake are good. The question is finding the market. What I bake is not known around here, so I’ll have to introduce it to the locals. I’ll see how that goes. For now, I am setting about pricing my ingredients and calculating profits. Hm… I think I’ll involve Jorge in that. Perhaps a “Seal Confections” is in the making? Maybe not… the locals will understand ‘confection’ to be tailored clothing. I need a way around that.

We have another rainstorm this afternoon. The sky turns a greenish colour. I guess summer is truly here. And we bathed the dogs this past weekend…. nice wet dog smells coming up. On the subject of dogs, we had Rover put down this week, so we’re down to 2 dogs. Ah… life happens…

Pete's pond

This is where I wish I had a larger readership of this blog. I wanted to share Pete's pond with the world.

Pete's pond is a live cam in Botswana, where one can watch African wildlife around-the-clock. Do yourself a favour and go to the link on the National Geographic site. You will need to install Real Player to watch, but it is well worth it.
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/

Enjoy the stunning African sunsets, bird calls, elephant calves frolicking at the water's edge, various buck. The whole video is in real time, so you'll watch and hear the wind in the trees. See the wind ruffling the feathers of a kingfisher in the thorn tree on the side of the pond. At night, thanks to the night-vision camera, you can watch the cats come out.

For those who, for some reason, can't support the video, stop by at the wildlife flash-cards. This is great for children. Click on each animal, hear what its called in Tswana, the local language, listen to information on the animal that goes beyond what the encyclopedia will tell you. See what the animal's tracks look like and more.
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/animal_gallery.html

I have decided to keep the cam open in my browser just for the sound effects. Can't think why... but I love the sound of the African bushveld ;)

counting petals

A blog 'must visit'... counting petals

I was blog-surfing tonight. There are some weird, wonderful, strange, thought-provoking blogs out there, but few I felt the need to save and go back to. Lené's photo's are perfect in their reflection of the world she visits and her writing creates pictures and sensations in my mind. I've been told I'm very visual. Reading her word transported me to where she was, feeling the breeze, the sand....

Do yourself a favour and visit her blog!

Updates

I've been updating my site. I just need to get the Brazil albums all uploaded, but of course, your's truly has decided in her infinite wisdom to redo a number of the pages. Might have something to do with Tatiana's frantic working on her site - its catchy. Her site is looking great. Do stop by and visit and bookmark it while you're there to see her poems and stories.

Oh and while I'm talking about sites, please take a moment to visit the ASPCA's blog. There is some really good info on pet care.
http://www.aspca.org/aspcablog/index.html

Just muddling along

I was trying to word what I would write in my blog and got to thinking about the Oval. The Oval, in Port Elizabeth, was an athletics sports track with a field in the center. It was used by the local schools for athletics day and field games. My title for my blog was going to be 'running in circles', but it should have been, 'running in ovals'. I have this sensation of running around and around looking for the starting line - never mind the finish line. In front of me is a 'to do' list. I look at it daily. The items are so varied and so unrelated to each other that I simply usually don't know where to start and often don't get started at all as a result.

Tonight was pancake night. Pancake night on a Sunday is traditional in our little family.... a tradition that started when Tatiana was around 4. Oh, pancakes, for us, are thickish crepes... not the paper-thin French type... and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. We absolutely pig out (talk about killing sugar cravings!) Of course, its not always cinnamon sugar. If I have other goodies that go well in pancakes, we have that. Nothing slimming, of course. Sometimes savoury mince (ground beef) or chicken in white sauce, or whatever. When Tat was little, we used to do the pancakes in the lounge and make them while watching Disney. I would haul out our camping gas drum and cook the pancakes as we watched. That poor pancake pan made pancakes for our school fetes when I was in primary school. Jorge replaced the handle for me a couple of years ago and its feeling like its going again. I really think its time for a new pan.

To those that read this blog, have a simply wonderful week!

Falling off the bandwagon

Its been a while since I blogged. No apologies :) I always said I was the world's worst at keeping journals or diaries.

Hm... new and newsy?

Tatiana did her stint in South Africa. Many lessons learnt and an enriching experience for her. I need to look back in my blog to see if I wrote about that time. It wasn't a good time for me. I hankered to go home myself, but wanted her to see her country of birth and learn to love it as I do. At the same time, it was extremely hard letting go of my daughter and friend for so long. She came home changed too. New attitudes, renewed goals and full of... verve! Gosh, I haven't heard or used that word in years. For those who are bound to ask, it refers to enthusiasm, vigour, spirit, vivaciousness (not that she's ever lacked any of that).

Jorge has just returned from his stint in Lithuania. He's in love. I just know that if we showed the slightest inclination, he'd pack our bags and ship us off to live there. He took no less than 6 dvd's worth of photos! We haven't even looked at the video footage he took yet. As soon as I have been through the photos - how on earth will I choose? - I will put a selection up on my site. Watch this space for news. Jorge is thrilled with his family up there. They treated him well and he discovered a lot about his ancestry and got the documents he needs for his EU passport.

Its nose back to the grindstone now though. All the holidaying and traipsing around the globe is at an end for a while. I'm working very hard on getting Seal Restore going and actually earning for us. Then there's More than Molly, where I now sell my graphics related goodies. The store is looking good with stuff for digital scrappers and those wanting to print clipart, bookmarks and greeting cards too, not to mention note paper and so much more. I'm branching out into gsd files for Craftrobo and Wishblade too. Hey, something there for everyone! =)

My to-do list for tomorrow is looking far too long. I need to go shopping before anything else gets done. Nooooo fun! I think I am going to go back to preparing my monthly menu's. Its such a big help knowing in advance what to buy and cook. Not tonight though. I'm past my bedtime and am trying to get rid of this horrible cold before it gets me down.

Have a great Spring to those of you who, like me, are in the southern hemisphere. Apparently the south of Brazil has had -10°C (14°F) temps with snow, so we're heading into a cold front for our spring. Not too bad, considering our winter has been a milder version of summer.