2020 The year of the rat

Sunrise at Franklin Farm

Hello lovely people
I have high hopes for the year of the rat as according to my brief research it stands for intelligence, something that seems to be lacking worldwide, and an ability to adapt to outside forces. So come on people lets get our act together this year shall we?

My short retreat into a hermits life has been relaxing, rejuvenating and re-energising. Ok, I know, not many hermits have sparkly wine to hand. But what is a girl to do....
Having our 3 plus 1 children around for a whole 2 weeks has been excellent for thinking about new ideas how the next steps with our little business and what possibilities the future could hold for us and also for them. I will have to release most of them back into the wild from our little bubble. And then continue with the innovation and activities with Gavin. Luckily the days are already longer and there is always some warmth when the sun comes out. Though not enough to let the home fires go out.

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Patrick providing for our warmth in the winter sun

Helped by Soozie

I tried to remember to take photographs of food when we sat down to eat but it appears i just have a plethora of photos of empty plates. We ate well. We usually eat well except yesterday when I ran out of enthusiasm and sent Koen to forage for 3 packs of sausages. The sweet, deluded boy said that he did not think they would all fit in the roasting pan. After one of my special eyebrow raises he said "you mean I should just squidge 'em all up and chuck 'em in, don't ya?" great knowledge of the english language for a non native speaker, I thought. So we had sausages and whatever you wanted to eat from the fridge/larder/cupboard, for lunch.
My creative contribution for the day was making butternut chutney based on a recipe given to me by some clients. I say based as I was missing some ingredients, so made it up with similar things. It is delicious with sausages. I felt quite decadent as I used a lemon from our own tree to season the chutney. In Zimbabwe we always had lemons on the tree in the garden and it is such a luxury to be able to do it here. One day we will have a glass room for our lemon trees, as it can be a real nuisance hauling them in and out to avoid the frost, which we did have the other day. Emily made mince pies.

butternut chutney

yummy food

mince pie and lemon tree

sausages

boxing day

could this be my lucky day

I also watched the news yesterday. A mistake, it always makes me want to cry. So now I have to try to improve my own knowledge and my own practices to make my piece of world a better place and hope that it may spill over the edges a little and that others will pick up the baton and so on.

Next week it is back to proper work for me. Starting with the first market on Friday 10th.
See you very soon   
Helenx