Stefan's scrumptious bread!

In addition to being generally amazing, Stefan makes wonderful bread. So good that it is worth blogging about!

It takes some time (but not too much effort), but it is SO worth the wait. His best tips are: kneed the dough well until it is smooth and elastic, don't use cold ingredients, leave the dough to prove somewhere nice and warm (i.e. fill your kitchen sink with hot water and let it rise on a tray over the sink), give it time to rise to double size and don't be discouraged if it doesn't turn out perfect the first time. His recipe will follow shortly! 

If it seems like to much work and you bump into him he might, if you flatter him or let him talk about time and modernity for a while, give you one of his precious loafs.

Just to tempt you further a picture of my breakfast:

Check out my friends giveaway!

Here is a link to my lovely friends first giveaway. She makes lovely things so I hope this is the first of many to come!

The Promise of Bare Branches

The text for the second Sunday in lent can be found here

Early spring can have such a moody nature, at least here in Oxford. One day you catch glimpses of the sun and feel the warmth on your back, only to have the next day be gray, damp and cold - with all promises of warmer weather blown away. 

Abram (this is before he is given his new name)has had previous meetings with God (Gen. 12) where he had been given the promise of children and a great inheritance, had set out on a strenuous journey in faith, but he has still not seen any of it come to pass. So when God comes to Abram this time proclaiming that He is his shield, rather than being comforting to Abram, it evokes despair and doubt. He questions God and the fulfillment of the promises the Lord has made to him. Even though he has had encounters with Gods glory, he is still overcome by gray cloud of the mundane and lack of fruition of the promises he thought were given him. God takes him outside, but there is no spectacular vision the Lord shows Abram. He asks him to look at the starlit skies, probably one of the most ordinary, mundane and familiar sights Abram knew having spent a lifetime living under them. God takes the ordinary and shows that it is an embodiment of His promises, He makes it a meeting point and constant reminder of His relationship to Abram.

Under those same stars, when Abram has descended into deep sleep and terrifying darkness - again so different from what I think the experience of God's glory might be - God forms a covenant with Abram. A commitment made by God that Abram only has a sleeping part in... God is the initiator and upholder of the promise made.

To me this infuses the season of spring and Lent with new depths, let me see if I can articulate why...

Spring and Lent are both to me times of fluttering of life. 

Spring is moody in nature, just as much making starkly obvious the lack of life in the bare branches, the withered decomposing remnants of last years plants and the dark empty soil, as announcing the new life to come in the returning heat and light of the sun, the tips of green sprouting from the ground. As one prone to winter depression, a lovely spring day can sometimes seem even more cruel than a dark winters day as the contrast becomes too great and the fear of being left behind in the death of winter darkness, when others emerge in the new life of spring, can hit hard. 

Likewise Lent to me has the same characteristics of making starkly obvious the lack of life in the stripping bare - in the laying down comforts through the practice of fasting, an unveiling of the heart in the disconcerting and unfamiliar clouds of God's glory (as in the previous musing on Moses's encounter with God) and the knowing that the darkness of Good Friday - where all that is left us is, echoing Mary Magdalene words, it that: "Our Lord is dead, and we do not know where they have put him.". Yet at the same time in the practice of lent and the stories we read and the in knowledge of the Resurrection that is to come, just as with spring, we are always reminded of the life and promises that are breaking through just under the surface - this is the promise the bare branches of spring carry for me. 

And until it comes into fruition, God comes, like He did to Moses, showing us His glory and promises in the humdrum of our everyday lives - if needed, he even comes into the midst of our tiredness and surrounding darkness, letting us sleep while he does the work.              
 

A very productive week-end!

We are now already steadily approaching midweek, but I had such an amazing week-end that it is still buzzing in my heart.

Friday was spent at home with my man, my embroidery and the final chapters of Robin Hobb's Tawny Man Trilogy.Pathetic as it might be I'll miss the characters in the book that have been part of our life the last 6 months... While listening to Stf read I finished embroidering/embellishing 4 of the patches for Aline's play-mat.(Pictures coming shortly!)I tried placing all the patches I cut out on the floor, and realized I was overenthusiastic as to how many fabrics I wanted to incorporate and the number of patches needed. What looked sensible and not to big in the sketch I made nearly covered our living room floor! So now it will probably end up being two quilts instead. 

On Saturday, after sorting through the cupboard in the kitchen, I was benched behind the sewing machine. 
I made a protective pouch for my new camera so I can take it out and about with me. I took step-by step photos so look out for the tutorial and pattern which I will post as soon as I have time! It's easily adjustable to make a protective sleeve for your phone/laptop and so on. 

I also had time to make two kimonos/wrap tops for little Aline with some material, trimmings and an old Kashmir cardigan from the Thursday market. I did it by making my own pattern(size 6-12 months)! It was actually much easier than I thought it would be! I'll definitely be making more of these. If you are interested let me know and I might see if I can get around to posting the pattern and a tutorial.

Sunday would have been a very gloomy and gray day had it not been that my lovely friend Mary and I went to a jewelery course on PMC. That is Precious metal clay - we made silver pendants, charms (all the little charms I want to use for my bird pendants that I made last summer)and earrings. It was SO much fun. Time went by so quickly, I didn't get to finish my things of completely, I need to go back to shine them up.

I hope you had a nice week-end too! And very soon the next one will be upon us!

Homemade Crunchy Muesli

Yesterday we ran out of cereal, and being lazy as I am I couldn't be bothered to go to the shop so instead I made some (actually quite a lot...) crunchy muesli. This morning when I woke up I had a lovely bowl of it with rhubarb at our kitchen table. It was so good that I will share the recipe with you!It's very easy to do and it's basically use what you've got in the house approach. I'm not that fond of dried fruit in my muesli so I didn't put any in (I normally put fresh fruit on top instead), but of course feel free to throw in some raisins, dried figs or peaches whatever you fancy or have at hand.

Ingredients:

1 cup or nearly 2,5 dl rapeseed/flaxseed oil (or other healthy oil e.g. coconut oil or olive oil - not extra virgin unless you want your muesli to taste like olives...) 

5 generous tbsp of honey

1 tbsp of vanilla extract

 

500g of rolled oats

300g of mixed nuts (I used almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts as that's what I had lying about...)

75g pumpkin seeds

75g sunflower seeds

50g linseeds

50g sesame seeds

75g oatbran

50g wheat germ 

1.Put the oven on 170C.

2.Gently heat the honey and oil with the vanilla in a pan over low heat until the honey is nice and runny and you can stir the mix easily.

3. Mix all your dry ingredients in a BIG bowl and pour over the honey and oil mixture. Stir well until all the dry ingredients are evenly coated.

4. Split the mixture between two large baking trays and spread into an even layer. Bake in the oven for about 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown, remembering to stir and toss it every 5 minutes! I know this sounds like hard work, but if you don't you'll end up with some of it burnt and some of it soggy... Why not use the 20 min in the kitchen to do the dishes? (not that it was what I did...I watched movie trailers on my mac, they very conveniently last around 4 minutes each...). Take out of the oven and leave it in the trays! Continue to stir through the trays every now and then until they are COMPLETELY cool, if not you loose your hard earned crunch.

5. Store in an air tight container and enjoy! (if you do want to add dried, fruit this it the time to do so) It lasts for up to two months...that is if you don't eat it before that.

  

If you were wondering this recipe give you about 1kg of muesli.

The fruit of my labor

Here is as promised some photos of things I have made so far in January and February. As you can see I have had lots of fun making things for Aline. It will now all be waiting for her in a basket along with some beautifully knitted blankets her Grandma (Stefan's mom) has made. It must also be said while all this has been stitched together(mainly by hand), my dear husband has been reading out loud for us from Robin Hobbs books (which are highly recommended by the way!). I've not posted pictures together before, but you should be able to get a bigger version by clicking on the photo. When the weather is nicer I want to find a branch to make a mobile with the birds I made. For now they are perching in my little tree.

And Yes I have been working on my PhD too! I've written nearly 20000 words so far since Christmas! I've been a very busy bee! Here is a photo to prove it:

In Preperation for Glory

Today, as you might know, is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Over Lent I have decided to write down some of the thoughts I have around the texts that are set out in the Lectionary for the Sundays until Easter as part of the way I will be 'doing' Lent this year. So here are my ponderings on the first text from Sunday the 14th of February; Exodus 34:29-34(stay tuned for the next one!)

 

Moses came down from the mountains having met with God. He was transformed by this encounter - his face shone so brightly that he had to cover it with a veil when speaking to the Israelites so that they would not be afraid. What a glorious encounter that must have been to produce such effects! Moses must have been taken to the very throne room of heaven, surrounded by angles singing 'Holy, Holy, Holy to the Lord God Almighty', felt rapture and bliss...  

Yet when we read of this encounter in chapter 34 it is far from the kind of glorious encounter I imagine it should be. It happens in the clouds and mist. Moses is standing on the rock as he was told to do, squinting into the mist trying to make out his surroundings. He probably looses track of time as he stands there in the early morning chill. Maybe there is a small pile of stones behind him that he accidentally dislodges that causes him to spin around to catch a glimpse of God only to stare into another direction of cloud.

Then suddenly he finds himself in the narrow cleft of the rock. Squashed on every side by cold black stone. The water trickling down the inside of the cleft finds its way down his neck, a jagged rock is poking him in his side but there is no room to move into a more comfortable position. Mist and darkness enshroud his senses. If he had not lost track of time before, he certainly did now. In the darkness of the cleft every second lasted forever. He strained his senses to become aware of God's glory passing by, but God had covered the rock with his hand. 

God was passing by on the outside.

Out there Moses could hear the Lord proclaiming His name: The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation". 

How long would it take for God in his entire glory to pass by? 

When Moses found himself free of the rock, his experiences of God is like the smell of a lingering cologne or the settling of dust after a herd of sheep has passed by and he falls to the ground in worship.             

This is the glorious encounter with God that transformed Moses, one that might have been a wet, dark and confusing encounter for Moses...yet in the midst of cloud Moses gets to know God in a way that lets him go before the Lord unveiled. "Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out."

When in a place of darkness, feeling stuck and uncomfortable, surrounded by cloud and mist and loosing the capacity of one's senses, it not only feels like a light veil covering my face, but like a heavy bag pulled over my head, and there is no awareness of glory in that experience. 

It might be that what is  happening is an unveiling of my heart, a stripping back of the scaffolding that holds my conception of God together and all my pretty answers of how things should and shouldn't be. The God I encounter in the cloud and mist has no boundaries I can grab hold of to shape into a nice comfortable place. Rather the encounter forces me to trust a God I cannot clearly make out, in a situation I cannot control. I am stripped of my layers, unveiled before God, encountering God's glory in a manner I cannot fathom.