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People

Posted in Musings on September 15, 2009|

tb4

From the wall of Shishu Bhavan,
Mother Teresa’s children’s home in Calcutta

…

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

…

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies. Succeed anyway.

…

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

…

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

…

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

…

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

…

Adapted from:
The Paradoxical Commandments by Dr Kent M. Keith

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Whimsy

Posted in Musings on September 10, 2009| 9 Comments »

Garden

We are incredibly blessed with lives that are full of laughter and gentle whimsy.

Perhaps it’s a byproduct of slowing down – when life was frenetic and chaotic, it was hard to see the funny side of things.

Perhaps it’s a result of having truly offbeat, quirky kids with their own distinct personalities and eclectic tastes. Small Man has a passion for old show tunes, magic tricks and Mr Bean; Big Boy has a razor wit, writes  prolifically and plays a mean french horn. One morning, when Small Man was very young, he climbed out of bed, sleepy and scruffy-headed, and greeted me with, “Good morning, Mum.  Can you make me some prosthetic hair?”

Perhaps it’s the way Pete has taught us all to view the world, with appreciative, attentive eyes (I’m not nearly as good at this as the boys are).

Perhaps it’s a gift from my wonderful, crazy parents – particularly my father, who  in his late 70’s rang to say he was buying a chainsaw to prune his “shrubbery”.  Or my beloved, truly bonkers sister, who gave us a fossilized mammoth’s tooth as a gift (she haggled down the archeologist who brought it back from Siberia) and once tried to catch a five foot catfish in a swimming pool. With her hands.

Perhaps it’s the result of watching too many Muppet Show reruns (our favourite is the Harry Belafonte episode).

Whatever the reason, I’m incredibly grateful.  I hope you all have a moment today when something puts a smile on your face.  If you’re struggling to find that something, perhaps one of our favourite Muppet clips can help!

. . . . .

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Fig Jam

Posted in Food & Friends, Musings on September 7, 2009| 19 Comments »

fig-and-rhubarb-002

I need to clear something up here.

I didn’t call this blog Fig Jam and Lime Cordial because I’m an arrogant git who has dibs on herself.  I didn’t even know what the (Australian?) colloquialism “fig jam” meant until a couple of weeks after I’d started the blog.  We really were making fig jam and lime cordial the weekend the blog was born, hence the name.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t had a lot of explaining to do.  The first phone call was from Kevin.

“Hey, did you call your blog Fig Jam and Lime Cordial
because of what ‘fig jam’ means?”

“Kev, I have no idea what you’re talking about..”
(panic was starting to set in at that point)

“You know, F*** I’m Good, Just Ask Me!”
(sotto voce, since he works in an open plan office)

My immediate thought was that it could have been so much worse.  Especially since I’d paid for the domain name a few hours before he rang.

I cornered  Big Boy and accused him of letting me make a goose of myself.

“Hey, why didn’t you tell me what ‘fig jam’ was slang for?”

“Mum, I have no idea what you’re talking about..”

When I explained, his response was accompanied by a  condescending eye roll…

“Ok, who told you that?  Uncle Kevin.  Right.  And how old is he?
Don’t worry about it, nobody uses that expression any more.”

Oh, if only he’d been right. Unfortunately it seems pretty current with anyone of my generation, and they’ve been ribbing me about it ever since.  But I promise, hand on heart, that I honestly had no idea what it meant (I can be remarkably naïve at times….)

There.  I feel much better now.  Thank you for letting me get that off my chest.  And here is a photo of the figs, just to prove I’m telling the truth.

figs-and-ham-001

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Neighbours

Posted in Food & Friends, Musings, tagged , on June 30, 2009|

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We have the best neighbours in the universe.

Some of them, like Maude and Pete V, have been our friends for over 25 years and moved into the neighbourhood after we did (we were deeply flattered by the inferred compliment that living near us wasn’t going to drive them bonkers).  Others, like Dredgey and El, have become our friends since we moved in.  These people aren’t family, but they are our tribe.  Together, we share our time, our food and anything else we have to offer in the give and take of village life.

A day doesn’t pass without some interaction with our neighbours, be it Dredgey arriving unannounced with a home-smoked trout for us, or Big Boy ringing Pete V to ask a history question about Julius Caesar, or Maude popping over for our regular cups of tea.  I feel blessed that we have people so close by whom we can call on for help at any time and who, conversely, know that we’re here should the need ever arise.

At the end of the day, this old house we live in is just bricks and mortar.  What makes our urban village a joyous place is the community we have, and the relationships that have evolved with the people who share our street with us.  Happy days indeed – long may they continue!

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Milestone

Posted in Food & Friends, Musings on June 27, 2009| 6 Comments »

orchids

We’ve reached a milestone!

Fig Jam and Lime Cordial began just four months ago at the end of February 2009, and today we’ve had our 10,000th hit.  I know that’s tiny compared to the “serious” bloggers, but for a pet project I play around with on the weekends, that kind of feedback is desperately rewarding.

Thank you for your kind support, particularly to all our friends who have made all their friends read our blog.  Thank you to the people who have taken the time to make comments, and particularly to those who’ve actually tried a recipe – I can’t tell you how exciting that is for me!

Last week, Big Boy put me onto My Life Is Average, which is the sort of thing that appeals to his quirky sense of humour.  It made me reflect on our lives and how un-average they really are.  I wouldn’t trade this life with anyone or for anything; there isn’t a single aspect of it that I would want to change.  In many ways this blog is an outlet for that happiness.  Thank you for sharing it with us!

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