A walk by the City Lakes {Wordless Wednesday}

 

 

 

I'm linking to
 

   

Tea & Biscuits

This weeks theme in Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday is "cuppa", so I took a picture of my new favourite tea: White Temple Tea. I've used Kim's new texture 1301 on this picture.

Teas with bergamot flavour has been my favourites until I tasted the White Temple Tea ... the flavours of mango, papaya, strawberry, pine apple and black currant do tickle my taste buds in a wonderful way! 

With the White Temple Tea I can easily settle with a thin short bread cookie - no longer craving for Oreos or Jaffa cookies - the fine, fruity taste of the tea is complete with a plain biscuit (or a few of them!).

I want to share with you this sweet poem about Tea and Bisquits - I wrote just the first and the last verse here. You can find all the verses by clicking the author under the poem.

Off comes the lid of the special tin

The special tin with biscuits in

Biscuit time with a hot cup of tea

Just the one will do me....

... Biscuits I must confess are the food that I love

A gift for my taste buds from Heaven above

Well I might as well finish with the last Butter Crunch

They're ever so thin and won't spoil my lunch.

- blackangelwings -

What is your favourite tea & biscuit at the moment?

One Small Step - Counting Your Blessings

I have a habit in the evening, when I'm closing the day with a little prayer:

I think about the little things,  that have made me smile during the day,

or that in some way have warmed my heart

- things that I'm thankful for.

I follow a lovely and encouraging blog by Ann Voskamp. 

Ann tells that she writes down daily 3 things, she is grateful for 

... ending up with 1000 things in a year! 

I'm attracted by the idea of keeping a simple diary on the things, I'm grateful for. 

Writing them down would probably help me to focus on the good and positive  

- the daily graces - even more. So I thought of writing them down in little notebook. 

As I was searching for the books on communication in Amazon, 

I stumbled upon a devotional book by Ann Voskamp - One Thousand Gifts - 

where the last pages are filled with 1000 empty lines to note down the three daily blessings.

I received The One Thousand Gifts- book yesterday, so now I'm "counting the blessings" in this book. The book contains also 60 short devotionals, where Ann writes about the blessings she's experienced when counting her daily graces. She has named the devotions as different types of graces - I look forward of reading about "urgent grace", "graffiti grace" and "anti-anxiety grace" :-)

Some of the blessings I've counted this weeks are...

... Our family. 

Our younger son had his 12th birthday this week! 

These pictures are from last summer and autumn.

... The moments knitting. 

I knitted 2 tube-scarfs and 2 long scarfs for Christmas presents, and now I'm knitting one to myself.

The yarn is a blend of 70 % merino wool and 30 % silk, so the scarf will be very soft and comfortable :)

... A message form a friend.

I received a nice text message from a friend of mine today, which made me happy!

... The promise in Psalm 91:4:

"With his feathers he will cover you, 

under his wings you will find safety. 

His truth is your shield and armor."

What are the things that have made you smile - that you've been thankful for this week?

I'm linking to:

An apple a day

       Linking to:

Apples of Gold

 



 

I sat my grocery basket down in the supermarket, at I was choosing these apples yesterday. I found 8 round, nice and fresh Pink Lady apples, and I sat them down to the grocery basket, and went on.

 

As I was standing in the que to pay for my groceries, a smiling lady came to me and said "I'm sorry to disturb you, but you seem to have mistaken with your grocery basket ... You are carrying the basket with my groceries!"

 

I looked down to the basket and was surprised ... under the apples was not my zucchini nor the bread I had chosen, but a milk and other things, I hadn't put down! I said to her that I was so sorry - that I must have picked her basket up after choosing the apples! The lady smiled to me kindly and said that everything was fine - it was better to swop the baskets now, before paying for the groceries. She kindly showed me the way to my own grocery basket - it was standing by the fruit section, under the apples.

 

I'm thankful for the kind lady that she came to me and pointed out, that I was carrying her basket ... instead of maybe thinking that "How odd - that woman is carrying my grocery basket without even noticing, that it isn't hers?!"

 

So I totally agree, that



 

A word fitly spoken is like

apples of gold

in a setting of silver.

 

Proverbs 25:11

 

 

I'm linking to

 

A Light in the Heart

You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Psalm 16:11

About plants, books and communication

The succulents at my office were doing fine even though they were 2 weeks without water - they're lovely plants to keep! I'm not very good at keeping flowers or plants, but plants with waxy leaves seems to be very grateful plants, as they survive in my care.

I got the succulent in the upper picture about 1,5 years ago - it was about a size of a tea cup, round and sweet. It started to grow in height this summer, and has also made another little plant / branch ... I wonder if I dare to separate the little plant from the bigger and put it into a separate pot?

The plant below is all ready 15 years old - it has survived longer periods of time without water, so it is a fighter - I like it and hope that it will keep growing. The stem of this older plant is getting thicker, starting to look like a real tree.

I'm fond of the little statue in front of the plant. I got it from a good friend of mine, when I graduated. The way the persons relate to one another is very symbolic - it might represent a mother and a child, an adult and a child, and older and younger person ... What stands out for me in the statue is the connectedness between the persons... a relationship with closeness and intimacy.

I've chosen to keep this statue in my office, reminding me of the importance of being related and connected - as oftentimes, the process of being  (re)connected - to oneself, to an ability, to another person, to a wish or a dream, to a group or another system, is one of the areas in focus.

I look forward of starting to read these books in the weekend. They're about interpersonal communication ... I'm reading to refresh the old things and to learn new things - to a project at work, that we're planning together with a colleague. I'm waiting for a few books from the library ... and ordered two books from the Amazon this afternoon ... the feeling of being motivated and captured by the process almost tickles in my stomach (in a good way :)

If you come to think about a a good book or article you've come across, and if you like to share it with me, please write a comment on this post or to the mail on the right sidebar.

Communicating - finding the right word to form your thoughts with - is sometimes a challenge itself. Another thing is, how are the words, you form, being received? How does the other person(s) understand the message, you're trying to get across?

I like how S.T. Elliot is describing the process of finding the right words:

Trying to use words, and every attempt

Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure

Because one has only learnt to get the better of words

For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which

One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture

Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate

With shabby equipment always deteriorating

In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,

Undisciplined squads of emotion.

S.T. Elliot from ”The Four Quarters”

Another quote from Mikhail Bakhtins thoughts about language, 

words and utterances as voices, creating anew:

“An utterance 

is never just a reflection or an expression 

of something already existing and outside it 

that is given and final. 

It always creates something 

that never existed before, 

something absolutely new and unrepeatable, 

and, moreover, 

it always has some relation to value 

(the true, the good, the beautiful, and so forth). 

But something created is always created out of something given 

(language, 

an observed phenomenon of reality, 

an experienced feeling, 

the speaking subject himself, 

something finalized in his world view, 

and so forth). 

What is given 

is completely transformed in 

what is created” 

Bakhtin (1986)

... So this weekend I'll be reading and taking notes - and drinking many cups of tea!

The view below is from this morning. It was raining a bit as I was driving to work, and all of a sudden the clouds broke and the sun appeared. I stopped the car and stepped out to take a picture. I enjoyed the  moment, taking deep breaths of the fresh air, letting my eyes rest on the trees and fields ...

... With these thoughts & images 

I'm wishing you 

a great weekend!

Nina