Word for the Day What defines us?
Garden BASIL
My Canadian friend, Joan, was telling me that she was bottling her home grown tomatoes, adding delicious basil along with purslane for its health benefits. I told her about the time I slow cooked a meat dish which had oodles of basil in it from the garden. I treasure the memory of the smell for those hours of cooking - a delicious aroma filled the whole home!
Clothes and possessions don’t define who we are.
But what’s inside us does! Robyn
Home January's challenge: BE TIDY
Today is "tidy-up-the-receipts-day"! I am slightly paranoid that our bank records may one day not match what I actually bought, and so I keep receipts for a few months, popped in a drawer until my "tidy-up-the-receipts-day" arrives. I was really pleased that for the past few months, there were not too many receipts, as I don't want to be manipulated in my spending habits by pressures that can easily come our way when one lives in a consumer-driven-society.
I even photocopy the receipts to be kept for warrantee purposes after I once discovered that receipts sometimes fade.
I found the receipt for that expensive eucalypt tree from Bunnings (Ouch! It had cost $46!) but it was a present for hubby's birthday, and I knew that he would just love that beautiful flowering gum. Sadly it died soon after his birthday. Good job I one day found out that Bunnings will give a refund within a year if one humbly goes to their Returns Counter with a receipt and the dead plant! So off to Bunnings we went, then we put the refunded money towards a luggage pod for our next travelling holiday. Cost somewhat more than The Tree! But I did take a photocopy of the receipt!
I even photocopy the receipts to be kept for warrantee purposes after I once discovered that receipts sometimes fade.
I found the receipt for that expensive eucalypt tree from Bunnings (Ouch! It had cost $46!) but it was a present for hubby's birthday, and I knew that he would just love that beautiful flowering gum. Sadly it died soon after his birthday. Good job I one day found out that Bunnings will give a refund within a year if one humbly goes to their Returns Counter with a receipt and the dead plant! So off to Bunnings we went, then we put the refunded money towards a luggage pod for our next travelling holiday. Cost somewhat more than The Tree! But I did take a photocopy of the receipt!
Garden BASIL
My Canadian friend, Joan, was telling me that she was bottling her home grown tomatoes, adding delicious basil along with purslane for its health benefits. I told her about the time I slow cooked a meat dish which had oodles of basil in it from the garden. I treasure the memory of the smell for those hours of cooking - a delicious aroma filled the whole home!
There are more than
30 different basils – with ruffles to stripes; green, purple and red colours; delicious scents of lemon, sweet licorice, cool camphor or spice mixed with the traditional sweeet basil scent.
Basil likes well drained rich soil and a warm sheltered position.
It is a summer-growing annual which needs replanting each spring.
Basil is an effective companion plant for tomatoes as it repels whitefly and other pests and a pot of basil can be used as an outdoor centrepiece to repel insects in the summer months.
Pinch out the growing tips regularly to promote bushy growth. Don’t allow it to flower too early or it will stop growing.
Basil is an extremely popular cooking herb for use in soups, tomato dishes, meat dishes and pasta sauces.
It should be torn and not chopped! Preserve the flavour by adding to cooked dishes at the last moment.
Too many things to tidy and scrub,
Too many clothes in the rub-a-dub-dub.
We might take a look at what weighs us down
For too many things could bring on a frown.
May we be realistic about what we hold dear to our hearts.
from Robyn 