We Are Moving!

We will be moving shortly to a new blog!  The details will be posted here, once the new blog is up and running.

After some thinking and talking, we've decided that we want to change direction a little.  We've really enjoyed a whole year of "A Tranquil Heart", but we feel we want to move towards a blog that has a cosier, more lighthearted feel.  I won't be posting quite so frequently, but there will be lots of recipes, crafts, photographs, book reviews and more, all with a simple, homespun theme.  It's a bit of a change of direction which we hope will reflect the lives we lead, and also what matters most to us - our family and home.  We've made this decision in the wake of a few "real life" changes - my health preventing me from being able to be quite as busy as I'd like just now, a birthday, and a return to the Church of our childhoods which has taken our faiths in a new but very familiar direction which we are all really enjoying.  It's all good - my aches and pains aside, though in a way, it's just my body telling me to slow down, which is no bad thing - but we felt we'd like to make a new start with the blog too, to mark the beginning of a new way of doing things at home.

We hope you'll want to visit us there, so we'll be posting the details of the new blog once it's ready for readers!

Back soon

Birthdays!

Source for this image here.

The next day or two I shall be busy - preparing for a special occasion!  Yes, it's Cubby Bear's birthday, and we will be celebrating it tomorrow with not one, but two special meals!  One of which will indeed be featuring a chocolate cake - though perhaps not quite as fancy looking as this one!

It will also be the first birthday of our blog soon as well!  To mark the occasion I'm going to be making a few tweaks to it, and hopefully making it a little more interesting and inspiring.  Originally we had themed posts for several days of the week, however I did begin to find that this was sometimes quite restrictive, and meant I had to tailor what I wanted to write about according to the constraints of the theme for the day.  As the blog has evolved over the year it's been running, I've found I prefer to have a freer hand in how I write my posts.  But now I'm starting to feel that I'd like to focus on some different themes again, without necessarily making this into a weekly event.   I'd also like to be able to put up my own photographs again.  When I started this blog, we had a different laptop - a wee "net book" which was easy to use and had a webcam that took reasonable pictures.  Our new laptop is much larger and heavier, and that means it's more difficult for me to use it to take pictures, unless I get some help holding and adjusting it while I'm pointing it at whatever I want to take a picture of.  I know that blogs are more interesting to read and look at if they have photographs, and while we're not at all bothered about how many people visit our blog, it does matter to us that those that do, have an enjoyable and hopefully enriching experience!

So for our blog's "first birthday" I'm going to make some small adjustments so that hopefully it will be more user-friendly, and enjoyable to read.

In the meantime, I'm off to make a cake!

Spring Cleaning!

Source for this image here.

The snow has begun to melt a little today - and I'm not sorry!  Although it looked beautiful when it was freshly fallen, by now it has started to look very dingy and slushy and dirty - not pretty at all.  It's wet and cold and difficult to walk in, and we're all quite glad that it's finally begun to beat a retreat.  Papa Bear hopes to be back at work soon - which I'm not so happy about - but it will be nice to get back to our usual routines.

Winter's Crystal Art

Source for this image here.

We were treated to a scene of true winter beauty when we rose this morning.  The snow has hardly melted at all, but at the edges of the roofs where the warmth from the houses underneath them has melted it a little, it has formed beautiful icicles - much bigger and sharper than the ones in the picture above!  They really are amazing to look at close up - like glass spikes - yet another example of God's wonderful and amazing creation.  

Today I've been getting a lot of pain from my arthritis - partly the weather, and partly the extra stress on my joints that walking in snow and ice causes.  I'm very uncomfortable, but my sweet family are taking very good care of me.  Papa Bear has been especially sweet, and has insisted that I rest today - and I've been trying to!  

I'll write more when my pain is better.

Feeding The Birds

Source for this image here.

It was minus 13 this morning outside - and not much more than that, indoors, first thing!  Everywhere looked so beautiful, snow covering every single surface outside.  Every gatepost, telephone wire, chimney pot and washing line was coated in shimmering white.  Jack Frost has visited and decorated everything with winter sparkle.  It is so breathtakingly lovely - even more so, when viewed against the backdrop of a sunrise - pink, orange, gold and red.  God's treasures - for all of us to enjoy.

Vivaldi - Winter

We have snow forecast for this weekend - I don't know whether to be glad, because we will all be at home, so we won't have to be outside in it, or sorry, because it will mean we're cold again, after being spoiled these last few days with beautiful spring-like temperatures and (occasionally) sunshine!

I have been listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons as I do my chores - such beautiful music, I'm sure it makes me work faster!  Certainly the time has flown today!  I thought I would share the Winter movement with you so that you could enjoy it too.

I'm off to make enchiladas for our evening meal now!

Spelt Flour

Source for this image here.

Recently I have been baking our bread using spelt flour instead of our usual mixed granary flour.  We've all liked the results so far, although the texture of the bread is a little different to ordinary wheat flour.  I find it to make a softer loaf, that rises well but perhaps not quite as well as wheat loaves, and with a softer crust also.

Honey Don't!

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"Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever". (Deuteronomy 4: 39 - 40).

Do you know what a "honey-do" list is?

I didn't, until a few years ago, when I read about how some women like to leave their husbands lists of chores or tasks that they think need doing, and that these are affectionately known as "honey-do" lists.  According to Wikipedia, this is a play on the word "honeydew" (which I think is a sort of melon?), though I am not sure how the connection between fruit and lists is made!  I think it's rather a sweet term - but I have never used them.

Cooking With Coconut Oil

Source for this image here.

Recently, we (or rather, Little Bear and I) have started using coconut oil in our cooking, instead of regular oil (the kind we normally buy is rapeseed oil, sold under the brand name "Crisp'n'Dry".   Our reasons for changing to this oil, which is much more expensive than any other kind, is that it is thought by many sources, to be much healthier than other types of oil.

Sunrise And Love

Source for this image here.

This morning, walking through the park with Papa Bear, we saw the most beautiful sunrise!  First it was dark red, then pink, then threaded with gold, then the most specacular orange.  The bare dark trees silhouetted against it looked spectacular, and although it was about 7.30 and almost rush-hour, the whole world seemed so still and peaceful as we walked along, admiring God's wonderful creation.  Just as we reached the edge of the park, we were treated to another wonderful sight - a sleek, golden fox, strolling elegantly across the path in front of us, as if he owned the park!  He looked so proud and serene!  He was almost the same colour as the sky behind him, and although they are really considered as pests here in England, he was so beautiful too that we couldn't help thinking how lovely he looked, and how lucky we were to have seen him.

Sweetness And Light

Source for this image here.

Do you make new year's resolutions?

We don't usually make resolutions, but the start of a new year is always a good time to review your daily habits and routines, and your living environment, and see if there are any improvements that can be made!  Today Little Bear and I were very busy doing a little "spring clean".  I focussed on the bathroom, and Little Bear worked on the kitchen.  Now that we are done, everywhere is bright and sparkling and it really feels as if we've made a fresh new start for the year!

A New Salad And Some Appley Dappley Bread

Source for this image here.

Today we have been resting at home after the busy run-up to Christmas.  It has been lovely to be just the 2 of us!  Little Bear and Cubby both had to go to their shop jobs today, although neither of them seemed very sorry!  It is so nice to be back to our normal routines.

Father Christmas - A Cultural Perspective

Source for this image here.

Oh!  I have been delving deeper into Cozi since I wrote yesterday's post, and am finding it a wonderful resource!  Today I discovered that it has its own recipe cache, and it also has lots of useful articles including advice pages, organising suggestions, planning tips and much more.  No, I am not an affiliate - just very excited to share this great website, which I have only just discovered!  I've already downloaded a few recipes from the site, and am finding the shared family journal and scheduler really useful for our busy family of 4 adults.  I can't recommend it highly enough - why not check it out yourself and see if you agree?

One of the articles that I had a look at was about Father Christmas - and the whole issue of whether it is acceptable to include the mythology that surrounds him as part of your family's Christmas traditions.

Planning For A Healthy New Year!

Source for this image here.

Today I am having a quiet rest day!  And very pleasant it is too.  I really enjoyed the rush and hurry of Christmas, and all the fun that we had together.  But I also rather like the peace and tranquility of the period between Christmas and New Year, which for me is a time to "take stock" and think about the year that has passed, and about how I hope the year to come will be.

Silent Falls The Winter Snow

This beautiful song is featured in the Beatrix Potter film "The Tailor Of Gloucester" which we have enjoyed many times as a family, being lucky enough to own on DVD along with several other famous tales by this well loved writer and artist.   I particularly like "The Tailor Of Gloucester" at this time of year - it's a Christmas story!

Today our walk through the park was especially lovely.  There had been fresh snowfall in the night - only a little, but enough to frost all the branches of every tree so that they looked as if they had been carved out of ice.  Close up, each branch was coated in tiny sparkling droplets of frozen snow.  It was really so beautiful, I didn't want our walk to end!  All day it has been so cold that the snow hasn't even melted slightly, and along with freezing fog it has been extremely cold here.  It's supposed to warm up soon - but we don't mind!  It's lovely being cosy at home when it is so cold outdoors, and the bad weather means Papa Bear is soon home from work!

I'm busy at the moment with chores, Christmas preparations and taking work related telephone calls and book-keeping for Papa Bear, so my posts must be a little shorter than I'd like just now - but normal services will resume in a couple of weeks or so!

Snow Storm

Source for this image here.

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end.
The steed and traveler stopped, the courier's feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.

Come see the north wind's masonry
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer's sighs; and, at the gate,
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structure, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Twins

Source for this image here.

I am feeling very much better today.  Papa Bear took me to see the doctor yesterday because he was so concerned about my constant sickness, and the doctor prescribed some medication for me that helps to ease the nausea.  It makes me feel a little drowsy, but so much better that it is worth the sleepiness just to feel normal again.  Today I was able to eat much better than I have for days, and therefore I  have a lot more energy and feel more cheerful and able to get on with my chores again.  I have been so well looked after by my family!  Little Bear has been taking care of all the cooking and kitchen chores whilse I have been feeling so unwell, and she has done a marvellous job, leaving everything beautifully tidy and clean, the sink sparkling and the fridge (which I especially didn't want to go near when I felt ill, as just the sight of food was making me want to rush to the bathroom) is immaculate.  Thank you so much sweet Little Bear!

Our Congratulations

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How lovely to hear on the news today, that The Prince and Princess of Cambridge (Prince William and Princess Catherine) are expecting their first baby!  Our congratulations go to them both and are shared, we are sure, by millions around the world.  

Computer Problems

We are having trouble with our internet connection again just now.  The connection is intermittent and keeps cutting out so for the time being we can't use it.  Apparently it is because of the weather - lots of rain and high winds, but hopefully it will be better soon.  

I will drop by again when the connection is restored!

A Rainy Day

Source for this image here.

Today it has rained all day.  It has been a day for ...