Category: What I love about …

Everyday cake

Posted in anxiety, cooking/baking, favourite quotes, health, life, reading, solace, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ...Tagged , , 7 Comments

Other people’s words about … cake

The other day, in a dark moment, I was trying to compile a list of things that make me feel better when I’m feeling bad.
(I write these lists often. You can draw your own conclusions about what this says about me!)
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One of the things that’s always on my list of consolations is: CAKE.
Cake never fails, right?
Lovely blogger Stacy Ladenburger talks about this over on her blog Delightful Crumb.
Her solution is something she calls ‘Everyday Cake’ —
a cake to eat and bake through all life’s trials and tribulations.

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Everyday cake.
Even the idea consoles me …

Note:
I have never posted a recipe on my blog, and don’t intend to. One reason is my self-imposed word limit. It’s hard to publish a recipe in a post that’s 101 words or less.
But if you would like a recipe for everyday cake, I’d try Stacy’s recipes here and here.
And whatever recipe you try, I hope that baking and eating the end-result will console you as I have found it consoles me…

Early Autumn

Posted in Autumn, birds, nature, solace, South Australia, staying humble, staying true, summer, What I love about ...Tagged , 3 Comments

Sometimes, in early Autumn, the days become sunny in a way utterly unlike summer.
The mornings are cool.
There’s a brief wave of heat in the afternoon,
before coolness returns with evening.

Grey heron standing in a rockpool 22 March 2016 12.12 pm
Grey heron standing in a rockpool
22 March 2016
12.12 pm

I wish you could hear the sounds accompanying today’s photo.
It was still.
Hot.
Intensely sunny.
I could hear gulls’ legs moving through the water,
and tiny rock-creatures made bubbling noises beneath the surface.

By late April, this weather will vanish,
and the grey skies of Autumn will begin.
You have to treasure these moments, don’t you?
Treasure them.
Treasure them.

The quality of blue (2)

Posted in a thought, solace, South Australia, staying humble, staying true, summer, the beach, the sea, the sky, What I love about ...Tagged , , 1 Comment

As I mentioned in my previous post,
there is something about the colour of the sea in summer.
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The quality of blue is different from other times of the year.
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It’s silky blue.
Pearly blue.
The truest kind of blue.
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Blue sky.
Blue sea.
Bluer than blue.
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A celebration of blue.

Tangled

Posted in Australian bush, birds, native coastal vegetation, native flowers, solace, staying humble, staying true, summer, What I love about ...Tagged , , 1 Comment

The bush is in the throes of mid-summer right now.
It’s dry and brown.
It’s a tangle of trunks and branches —

and grasses —

and twigs and leaves.

But the mistletoe in the trees …

… is in flower:

And one or two bushes are heavy with creamy blossom.

Insects tick.
Shrike thrushes sing.
Whistlers call.
Black cockatoos swoop and shriek.
Kookaburras laugh.
Summer slumbers on.

Long days, hot nights, mirror seas

Posted in gratitude, moments of beauty, solace, staying humble, staying true, summer, the beach, the sea, the sky, What I love about ...Tagged , 1 Comment

The longest day of the year has just passed.

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One night this week, before the sun set, I wandered down to the beach.
It was the end of the fifth day in a row over 40 degrees Celsius.
It was a still, sultry evening,
the skies stormy,
but the sea shining like a mirror.

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It’s a beautiful world.
Merry Christmas, everybody.

Rebecca xo

Coming up roses

Posted in anxiety, gratitude, moments of beauty, solace, spring, staying humble, staying true, What I love about ...Tagged , , 1 Comment

Since my last post on roses,
I’ve started glimpsing them wherever I go.

Outside the entrance to my office, there’s a bed of low-lying roses.
They catch my eye as I walk through the automatic glass doors on my way in to work.
So I sneak down to soak up their beauty again in my morning tea-break.

After rain, the petals and leaves hang heavy, glistening.
And it feels to me like a moment of stolen beauty.

Coming alive for the first time to the beauty of something
that has always been around you
is one of life’s greatest joys.