Tag Archives: blogging

Living Life & Thank You

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I had dreamed of getting a blog post written last night but life got in the way.  As you all know, I try to make sure that meal preparation is done ahead of time because of the late hour that we arrive home.  I did quite a bit on the weekend so it has been a very simple matter of heating and eating the past couple of nights.  Last night I cooked a pot of rice and made Mexican Bean Pie ready for our dinner tonight.  I will just need to cook the vegetables when I get in this evening.  The pie is my own invention and has 2 ingredients – refried beans and rice.  Mix quantities of each together, spread into a pie plate or shallow casserole dish, top with breadcrumbs and grated cheese.  I heat it in the microwave then finish the topping under the griller.  I use a gluten-free version of topping using almond meal, flaxseed meal, and spices.  The choice is yours.

Leftovers

Tonight will be a new ‘Foodie Friday’ post in which I will focus on growing at least some of your own food and the benefits it provides.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to those of you who commented on my previous post about reaching a milestone of 3 years of blogging.  Your thoughtful and positive feedback is so valuable.  Although I said that this blog is essentially my diary, it gives me great joy to realise that you are out there reading and see value in what I write.  I hope that will continue and I will not let you down

Thanks, once again and I look forward to many more posts and comments.

What to Write

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Some days my head is exploding with ideas for blog posts and I am overwhelmed with things I want to tell you.  Tonight is not one of those days.  I feel completely devoid of things to write about.  This set me to thinking about where I get the inspiration for the topics I write about.

2014-02-20 01I write about what I have done that day – today I was at work in an office environment all day.  I was focused on masses of spreadsheets and reports which are hardly the stuff of riveting posts.  This week has been almost entirely about work so you are lucky that the posts of the past few days were roughed out on the weekend because since then I have been almost totally immersed in my work.

Things that I read can sometimes be the basis for a post – it can be a book, another blog or a news item.  Nothing comes to mind.

It can be something as simple as an overheard comment or phrase that triggers the creative juices and gets me writing for you.

Perhaps it is a case of the saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”.

What would you write about tonight?  Do you have a story to share?

Edging Closer

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It is not a new year nor the anniversary of my blog but I am on the brink of a milestone.  As I write this the statistics show that there have been 99,992 views.

100000

Almost 100,000 views of my blog!  Who would have thought when I started this almost 3 years ago that I would still be writing posts almost every day and that there would be people in well over 100 countries on every continent reading my blog.  It is the knowledge that each and every one of  you are interested in at least something that I write that keeps me going.  Your comments and feedback are very welcome and thank you for visiting.

Simple Food

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Simple really does come in all sorts of guises and one of them is food.  Here is what we had for dinner on Friday night.  It was the end of the working week, we were both exhausted and not keen on creating a huge meal so I pulled this together with what was in the refrigerator and pantry.  It took about 5 minutes, presented well and was nutritious and filling.

Dinner

The tomatoes, figs and pumpkin were from the garden.  The pumpkin had been roasted to use on pizza and I had some left over.  Cheese, capsicum and cucumber from the refrigerator and finished off with walnuts and dried apricots.

Do you make any truly simple meals?

This is just a quick post as I have been away for a couple of days with my job so no time for blogging.  I am working on a new post about my wardrobe.  It may be ready tomorrow night so look out for it coming soon.

2014 – A Clean Slate

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Well, that is another year done and dusted.

I am pleased to be able to rule a line under 2013 with all of its ups and downs.  Unfortunately, there were quite a few downs last year and I am hoping that this year will be brighter.

Thank you to all of my readers for your loyalty during the past year. I am grateful to you for your comments which really adds an extra dimension to the blog.  I am considering the structure and focus of the blog for this year and would love to hear from you if you have any suggestions.  Some of my thoughts include doing a series on a particular topic for a week or having a regular focus on a particular day of the week such as Project 333 on Monday, recipe on Tuesday etc.  I could simply continue with my totally random posts which are based on whatever pops into my head.  The other conundrum I am facing is whether to continue to post almost every day or perhaps only weekdays or perhaps 2 or 3 days per week.  Please let me know what you would prefer.

Happy New Year
Wishing you health and happiness for 2014.

Blessed

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Once you post a new entry on your blog it is out there for the world to read.  I sometimes wonder who reads what I write and what they actually think of it.  I am not alone in finding that those who comment represent a minute proportion of those who read.  However, the identity and thoughts of most of my readers will continue to be a mystery.

Since I have been blogging, I tend to find a lot more blogs that I read.  Some are like old friends that I diligently seek out every time there is a new post, others less regularly and many that just capture my interest with one post.  Many have an underlying theme of struggling.  This may be financial, health or relationships.  For some, the struggle appears to define them but others it seems to be an ever-present shadow lurking in the background.

The more I read, the more grateful I am for what I have.  We are both employed, have a roof over our heads and plenty of food.  Severe chronic or terminal illness is not part of our world.  I maintain good relationships with family and friends.

In other words, we have the freedom to make choices about how we live rather than it being driven by the need to deal with issues that constantly threaten our physical or mental well-being.  For that I am forever grateful.

Itis easy to take much of what you have for granted.  Blogging and connecting with others’ blogs adds to my awareness.

What are you grateful for in your life?

AARGH!!

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I have just come to the awful realisation that I have deleted most of the photos from my blog.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered that I could not upload any more photos as I had used all of the available space.  So, this techno-challenged fool just deleted them as they were no longer required.  However, I have now discovered that my action has also deleted them from the blog posts.  This has rendered some of the posts almost useless and many others are lacking a lot by not having the photos that were originally part of the post.

I do not know whether I will ever manage to recover and reinstate many of the photos so I apologise if you are new and looking through the archives.

I was going to do another post tonight but I am too shattered at the moment.

Perfect or Edited

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I read this post by Celia over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial this morning and it certainly made me think.

Do bloggers tell the truth?  Are we presenting the equivalent of a glossy magazine while the reality is quite different?  Is it lying or simply omission?

What I write here on my blog every (almost) day is exactly what is going on.  I take the photos, pretty average ones sometimes and write the text pretty much as it tumbles out of my head.  Some days the editing is very poor.

Autumn sunshine
I post about things that interest me and that I hope will be of interest to my readers.  Occasionally I post something that is totally self-indulgent.

My blog is just that – a blog and it is mine.  It is not my life so you do not get every minute detail of what is going on – it would end up looking like some people’s Facebook pages (and I don’t read them either).  The fact that it is mine means that I get to pick and choose what I write about and what I leave out.

Have a great weekend and I will be back on Sunday evening with a round-up for the month of slow living for June.

Tidy Up

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Just a short post tonight to let you know that I have had a bit of a tidy up on the blog.

Cookbook : Recipe book

One of the tabs at the top of the blog is labelled ‘Recipes’.  This is supposed to contain links to all of the various recipes that I have posted in the blog so that they do not get lost in the mists of time.  I have been somewhat slack in keeping this up to date but now they should all be there.

The list is divided into categories to make your search as simple as possible.

One of my next projects will be to make a similar index for all of the non-food recipes such as furniture polish, cream cleanser, chest rub etc.