Challenges

Challenge 

1. To invite or take part in a test of skill or strength

2. To make demands on

Sometimes it is not so much that we feel challenged, but that small things can become challenging without us even realising.

The only thing challenging me today is my head cold.  Sniffles, sneezes and sore nose!

However, this cold has given me...time,

and time has allowed me to be inspired.

As often happens, for me at least, inspiration comes from reading.  Today I finished Sally Wise's book A Year on the Farm, which led to...

Vanilla cinnamon biscuits

Two vegetable quiches and a cottage cheese and oat loaf,

Mango and passion fruit muffins and some dark rye bread.

I had some freshly squeezed grapefruit juice and gave Herman a stir.

In a few days, Herman will become a sourdough cake.

So one never knows where their reading might take them.

I love my reading adventures.  I can't help getting excited about books.

They have taught me so much and taken me so far.

Despite being part of a couple of book clubs, it is not easy finding others who get as equally excited over a good read.  I know you are all out there, but getting even a small handful of you over once a month for book club is becoming challenging!

More book related challenges; reading daily, reading in French as much as in English, remembering what I've read...

Then there are those other types of challenges; exercise regularly, drink more water, smile, gardening, next house project, finish all those creative projects...

Bridges over Madison County

Tina Pech's review 

May 19, 14  ·  edit

5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: favorites, decorates-my-shelf, made-into-movie,photographie, histoire-d-amour, sensual, touching, poesie,tissues-required 

Read from May 19 to 20, 2014

I saw the movie years ago and recently picked up the book second hand.
So I knew it was a love story. I relish good love stories and have read many whether classics, chick-lit, comic, young adult, paranormal romance...the list goes on.
I read them and read, generally speaking, for the joy, hope, fun, dreams, adventure, sadness, excitement and escapism that they bring to me. 
Honestly proud to be a sap, nothing like a bit of unbelievable corny romance for a bit of fun. 
They make you hoot with laughter, blubber like a baby and cringe like a teenager, some even steam you up like?..yes well, you can imagine. 
Despite any tendencies towards cynicism, I still believe in romance and we can all use more of it in our daily lives, where ever we may find it.

Surprised that so many found this book dreary.

I felt it to be powerful and intense, sad and lonely, painful in a melancholic way and beautifully simple in a very strong way.
There are so many who have just what they settle for in life and relationships.
To find someone, even briefly, who helps you to ripen and blossom physically, emotionally, intellectually, even spiritually, can only be magical.

In Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, it is described as being like a box of matches. There are only so many and even fewer who can set the sparks free. It would be sad indeed to go through life never experiencing such a sensation. When was the last time you stayed up all night just talking to someone, oblivious to time, to everything, except that person? When was the last time you felt appreciated in such a way?
Or even ready to experience such a love?

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Days#27 to 30

Wednesday sunshine

Primary school play

High school sport

Tea and chats

Day#25

Sunday morning

Eventually it was too hot

To stay out front

Tea

Reading

Lazing

Watering

Cooking

Washing

Day#26

Despite the sunshine

It was a flat day

Even the stars are dull tonight

Days#22-23

I have been sleepy

And much less mindful

With my time outside

On these days

I still spend time 

In the morning sun

On the front verandah

Which seems to be 

A winter ritual

Tea and books

Hand in hand

As well as brief moments

With the chooks

Or at the clothesline

Sometimes I have morning tea

With the neighbours

Or walk to the library

Day#24

Today showed me 

The pleasure of

Mindfulness.

When my time outside

Is mindfull,

It is also meaningful.

Admittedly we had a glorious

Grasse matinee

I saw a foggy kind of haziness 

Outside my window

And continued dozing.

It was a beautiful day

Reading to Artemis in the

Morning sun

Washing and drying

Hanging out the washing

Is a slow task

The mind can unwind

And flap around in the breeze for awhile

With the clothes

It is also methodical

I have my way of hanging and

I fold clothes as I take them off the line.

This afternoon there were 3 kookaburras

In the gum tree having a laugh

And I am usually accompanied by

Our dog and 2 cats

I planted the second rosemary bush

In the front garden

And we prepared the veggie patch

For whichever winter veggies we

Decide to plant

My treat before bed

Was looking at the stars

On this clear clear night

Seeing the clusters

That make the Milky Way 

Moving around the garden 

In the cool night air

To see beyond the tree branches

The southern cross

And a shooting star

I felt incredibly still and peaceful

And was reminded of nights

Under the stars

On the other side of the world