Funny. I was contemplating buying coffee bags in the supermarket the other day. Like tea bags, but filled with ground coffee. I’ve bought them for others before as a gift, but that’s different. You always spend more on others than you do on yourself. Certainly, I’d consider these an extravagance for myself, especially at the …
Whenever I utter that oft-repeated declaration — “We can’t afford it” — one or both of our kids will invariably respond, “You can afford it, you just choose not to!” That observation is not necessarily incorrect. Technically, I could buy each of them an iPhone 14 Pro Max, or whatever it is they’re nagging about …
Looks like a bumper year for garden fruits. All of that time spent doing nothing at all really paid off, it seems. Our fig tree has barely fruited in previous years. This year, it’s literally covered in fruit. The apple tree, meanwhile, has only ever produced the tiniest of apples, but this year sports whoppers. …
Naturally, the garden has gone wild in our absence. So much rain followed by a warm spell that we have cherry seedlings growing in the middle of the lawn. Clearly, i have my work cut out once I have the house in order. No rest for the wicked.
We have a very hungry caterpillar in our household. I bought a box of ice-cream lollies for the family, but the caterpillar polished them off in one go. There was a tray of chocolates in the fridge to be gifted to friends, but they chomped their way through the lot of them (except for the …
Unless you’re involved in farming in some way, you tend not to make the connection between climate impacts and rising food prices. While the Irish side of our family is heavily invested in farming, I had no direct experience until we bought a small plot of land in Turkey about fifteen years ago. While I …
Difficult to resist Turkish coffee, especially served like this.
You would think that after thirty years of trying, I would have learned to cook rice by now. But no, no matter what I do, it always comes out as a sticky, stodgy mess. On this particular occasion, I was cooking with Turkish pearl rice, which is very different from the basmati we favour back …
It’s a shame that by July the back garden has pretty much finished doing its thing. All that remains now is the rampant growth of bind weed, Russian vine, brambles and ivy from over the garden fence. The triumphant floral displays of May and June are all now long forgotten. The garden protests its neglect.
Ooh, diabetes in a box. No, but I will resist. Those days are done. This body now knows not to succumb to its eyes. Resist!
Every year, the same mistake… capitulating when that plate of baklava is pushed in front of me. This time in a café, offered with the proprietor’s complements, free with a free cup of tea. Generous indeed. But now such sickness. Baklava and I no longer get along.
Wandering in the garden this evening, I could not help but marvel at such beauty right before my eyes. Who could enumerate the blessings of their Lord? “So which of the favours of your Lord would you deny?” Quran 55, Surah Ar-Rahman
