early morning......

It's early morning here and I have already been up for at least an hour. I always get up seriously early on my work days to allow myself plenty of time to get ready and then to also sit quietly and have some time for myself before heading into a long day of work. My job is as a nurse and we work 12 hour shifts so it's important for me to head into that in the best state of mind that I am able to be in. After all the tasks are done to present myself to work and also have my meals to eat there are ready I head to my mediation room so that I can sit quietly and let my mind be still for a time. This has always been important for me.

This morning I have smudged with a beautiful sage that we bought when we were in the west last fall. It has a special name from the region it is harvested from and it escapes me this morning but I will ask my partner today and let you all know from where it came. It is such a beautiful scent. There is music softly playing and this morning a choice of vanilla incense also wafts in the air. I have done a crossing for 3 souls that were not yet home and then also did some self Reiki to allow my day to flow well. That included a long distance sending to my workplace which will enhance my day also.

All of this is what allows me to stay in balance with myself and life. I will say that there are times that I veer away from some of these practices but inevitably I alway instinctively know to return and find that peace that it brings me. Our lives are busy and fraught with so much that can make us lose our peaceful perspective. This makes it all the more important for us to take some time out of our day to focus on our inner space and create that calm and peaceful being for ourselves that we know is there. It is simply a matter of unlocking the door and letting it come out and shine. Ah, I say 'simply', well it can be simple if we allow it to be. But so much of the time we place roadblocks on our path of peace and calm. Maybe look at clearing some of them away, even just one cleared will allow for a better focus. Even if you only begin with 5 minutes of your own uninterrupted time. Let it be yours and only yours and let your mind be clear and calm. Try it on for size and see if it fits. I think it just might.

I must go now. Blessings to all and may you find 5 minutes of peace today.

Hugs,

Maggie

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Garlic scapes.....pickled!

Garlic scapes are relatively new to me. It was only a couple of years ago that I was introduced to them at our local farmers market. I love how they curl themselves into a spiral and then it ends with the flower bud wrapped in what looks like tissue paper. Nature has such an interesting way of presenting itself! I love it! So, I have sautéed garlic scapes, but apart from that I really didn't know what to do with them. We have a huge plot of garlic at our community garden plot and I managed to get my hands on some scapes this year. I was looking in my new canning book, Food In Jars, and I found this garlic scape pickle recipe! I just had to try it and so yesterday I set out to pickle my garlic scapes. I think that they look great just in the jars, let alone how great they will taste when we open the first jar! Once I open them up and have a taste I will let you know how good they are! 

 I hope that you might be inspired to look for some garlic scapes in your local area. Please shop locally. It's really important for your local economy and keeps the world healthier in a lot of ways. 

It's my last post of the week and I need to shut things down now. The morning hours come early and I have to work one more day before having a few days off. 

Good night all.......

Maggie

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simple pleasures.....

I have decided that in my quest to eat for my wellness, that I will make my own dressings for our salads. It is easy enough to whisk together a mix of oil and vinegar and add some herbs from my small kitchen garden that I have on my deck and voila!! ..... I have a delicious dressing that has only real ingredients in it! It is usually just enough for our dinner serving of salad and so there is nothing to keep that would require all the preservatives that manufacturers put in them. Given that I make my own dressings I love to have different vinegars on hand and there is a gal at our local market who makes them! I love to see what she is going to have on hand for my pantry each time I go to the market. I have had garlic vinegar, herb vinegar and recently she had chive vinegar. I had access to organic chives and I thought I would try to make my own. I happily plucked the chive flowers from the tops of the tall chives and began my journey into vinegar flavouring. It was truly an easy thing to do and I love being able to make my own. There is great satisfaction for me in making my own food and ingredients to cook or bake with. I love looking into my root cellar and seeing all that lines the shelves. Funny to think that this is something that brings me such joy. It is a simple pleasure for me! So this morning I realized the final product and bottled my first batch of chive vinegar. I was proud and pleased to say the least!

Here's what it looked like as I made it and the final product!

I started with the chive blossoms and an organic white wine vinegar.

After it was bottled in a mason jar and stored in my root cellar for a couple of weeks I strained it and it was ready to bottle. 

And here it is folks! My finished product! I just love the pink color that it came out as....so pretty! I can't wait to make some delicious vinaigrettes  to drizzle over our salads this summer and the seasons to follow although I don't think it will last into the winter ;)

My Instagram photo !

So I think my first attempt at a flavoured vinegar was a success! I think lemon verbena might be next on the list of flavours to come! 

Blessings to all,

Maggie

P.S. if you want to follow me on Instagram my user name is 'maggjoy'....have a great day all!

simply a bad decision.....

I work as a nurse and I have been on night shift the last 2 nights. I don't like to work nights as they get me all turned around and I have difficulty sleeping. I'm off today so I only slept 3 hours given that I don't want to waste my day off sleeping and when I got up I wanted to clear some things out of my mind so I decided to go for my power walk. I often walk at our local community centre since it has a walking track around the top of the ice rink. I do find sometimes that it is somewhat boring so today I opted for an outdoor walk. I like to take in people's landscaping and gardens and just the nice summer weather. What I didn't factor into the whole thing was the fact that it is 31 degrees celsius out today! So I'm tired and dealing with being turned around from nights and have an issue on my mind and I go out for my walk. Well, that was a total mistake and I'm surprised that I'm even writing this blog post! I could have easily collapsed and been taken to the hospital! So now I have contracted with myself that if the temperature is more than 25 degrees celsius I will not walk in the outdoors, but instead go to the track and walk under safe conditions.

I'm still learning after all these years!

Blessings,

Maggie

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the garden keeper........

I found this little guy on a weekend trip to Ottawa! I just couldn't resist him and had to bring him home to our garden........ he's the official keeper of the garden ! 

I love a little whimsy in my life!! 

Blessings, 

Maggie

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backyard life.......

It's hot and steamy Monday morning and I did a bit of work in the backyard before heading inside to the cool air. I live in the city but manage to have a garden that I love to sit in and find my zen. It's a flower garden with trees and shrubs and on our deck I have a small kitchen garden in a planter. This morning I watered the flower pots since they dry out so easily being that they are clay. I felt dreadful last week when one of my pots was looking rather sickly after it dried out from the hot sun. I soaked it well and kept checking on it all day to see if it was going to make it.......and it did! So nowI make sure that I water daily if not more, so that they can show their beauty each and every day!

My grandson is over this morning and he helped out the best way he knew how with his little watering can in hand. It was mostly the garden river rocks that were watered by him :). Just before we went inside we picked some lettuce from the small kitchen garden. It's just big enough to hold some lettuce, basil, thai basil, lemon verbena and a sprig of oregano that is giving its all to stay alive! I must say it's nice to hand pick some lettuce for a salad or sandwich or quickly pluck some basil to whisk into some oil & vinegar for a salad dressing.

Here's a peek at my kitchen garden planter ........ I just love having it right outside my door!

My grandson proudly holding this mornings harvest!

Lemon verbena for my morning tea!

A beautiful small bouquet of lavender from the garden......

I hope that some of you are able to enjoy a garden whether it be a vegetable garden or a flower garden! It truly will bring you pleasure! 

Blessings to all.....

Maggie

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over thinking.....

Yesterday was a busy day in my mind......way, way too busy. I had a day filled with 'thinking'. I've come to understand over many years and from previous experiences that 'thinking' can be a good thing. It can produce good results and can move a person further along in life. It can allow you to see things as they truly are and help you to come to a greater understanding of that which you are processing. These are the effects of positive 'thinking'. Then there are days like yesterday where I was guilty of 'over-thinking'. It was a matter of over-thinking, thinking stuck on 'repeat', in the past thinking, future-thinking, re-thinking, circular thinking and any other kind of negative thinking possible. All in all, it created an atmosphere in my mind that was not a good one and by the end of it all I was no further ahead than when it all started. And I spent hours inside of this whirl of 'thinking'. My mood was overwrought with worry and concern for something that wasn't even a reality, but that didn't seem to matter as I continued with this pattern. It's like a saying that I once heard and part of it was that 'worry goes round and round'. And that was truly what was happening yesterday. It was like a carousel ride that was on full speed and out of control. It was like being in a 'funk' that you can't rid yourself of. It was as though something had taken over my mind and I could not let it go. 

As I reflect today on the events in my mind yesterday, I have a much different sense. My mind feels lighter today and that is possibly a result of a 'new' day (sometimes that is what we need to move on) and the fact that I was able to go to that place of better logic in my mind today to process this all better. I was able to share with my partner this morning and engage in conversation that helped me to come to a place of positive comfort rather than where I had been. Today it almost seems silly, but yesterday it consumed me. So as much as I have worked on my personal growth for many, many years it remains evident that I can have days where that growth seems to be buried somewhere deep inside of me and I have to go through these times where I search again to bring myself to that place of understanding and balance. Understanding that the 'work' on ourselves is never done is sometimes disappointing and other times comforting. Knowing that we can still grow and become wiser and a better person for ourselves and others is a wonderful thing. My growth is present today and will still need some 'tending' but I'm on the right path.....and thankfully so.

Blessings to all,

Maggie

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tasty real food.....

My partner and I are involved in a community garden project. We live in a small city, but don't have  a yard that would be enough space for a vegetable garden. This community garden allows us to dabble in vegetable gardening a little and yesterday we reaped the first bounty from the garden. What a great feeling to be able to pluck a little something from the garden and take it home and have it with our dinner salad. I know for some this will be second nature, but for us its new.......and we love it! So here's a pic of our first harvest from the garden! Look at that amazing red colour!! The best looking radishes ever!! lol.......at least that's what we think!!

If you are in your garden today......have a great gardening day!!!! Here's to putting real food on our tables! Yay for gardens!!

P.S. - the deer ate our beans and nibbled at a few other things :(. Oh well, it's a learning curve for sure!

Sending blessings,

Maggie

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Preserving goodness......

The last couple of days have been filled with strawberries at our house. It has been a rainy season here and the strawberry harvest is small so I was very lucky to be able to get a flat of organic strawberries from Cathy my farmer friend. The fact that they were knowingly grown with love and then turned into sweet, sweet jam is just the best ever! I used a new recipe this year from a great cookbook by Marisa McClellan, who writes the Food in Jars canning blog. I have a real sensitivity to sugar and I used a mix of both organic sugar and agave hoping that it would give me a tasty jam and create a good set. By making my own jam I don't have to worry about us eating anything other than what I stirred into the fruit myself. All the goodness of homemade jam in the jar! I managed to put up 15 half-pint jars from two batches. I can't wait until the snow starts to fly and we can taste the sweetness of a June strawberry!

By all means if you are interested check out the Food in Jars blog at http://www.foodinjars.com

If you've never canned before Marisa's book is a great place to start!

Have a great day!

Maggie

Two things......

Two things...... "life is short" and "am I making a difference?". The first quote came up for me yesterday after hearing from a friend that a life had been unexpectedly lost in a car accident. A partner of 18 yrs now sadly gone. It conjures up this all too familiar statement of 'life is short' and yet I wonder if we ever really hear ourselves when we say it. It rolls off our tongue so easy and then more than likely minutes later we have forgotten the real meaning of those three words and we are back to living life outside of the moment. Yes, outside of the moment because if we are living in the moment then we are aware of just how precious life is. Life needs to be lived fully and in the present moment. The next time you hear someone say those 3 words listen to them carefully and reflect on how you are choosing to live your life. I pray that it is a life that enjoys each and every moment as best possible.

The second quote was noted today in a conversation on FB and a friend wrote and said  "am I making a difference?. In our world today we applaud so much that is on a grand scale. Everything is about 'big' and 'global' and in the world of accomplishments. These accomplishments are not to be disregarded but  neither are those that are any less. We can all make a difference whether it is big or small. I believe that every time you make an effort you are making a difference. Your energy goes out to the universe and it's vibration is felt globally. So never underestimate the power of your small efforts because they all contribute to the differences that are happening in the world today. Yes, you do make a difference!.....and I am grateful for your effort.

Those are just a few words for today.......

Blessings to all,

Maggie

Hello again.......

For many months now I have been thinking of having my own blog again. I enjoyed blogging in the past and yet for reasons that are various and number many I turned away from it and let it go. It was the right thing to do at the time and I have no regrets. My life has changed and so now has my blog. I have now chosen to write anew......with a new blog to share with whomever choses to visit.

What I choose to share here will not necessarily be profound. It will simply be what I might find interesting or relevant to the world at large or maybe just myself. I hope you enjoy reading my blog and I welcome your observations and comments.

Blessings to all,

Maggie

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