Write … Edit … Publish … Bloghop /IWSG hop: Life is Beautiful

 

Life is beautiful for us … for some not so … for others it was until life intervened …

We are so lucky … has anyone experienced homesickness … what does it mean? Missing home, or family, or friends, or all three – and then there's our emotions that affect us so profoundly.

I left home – the home that was security – yet exploring beyond my own realms was actually beyond my own imagination …

Victoria Falls with its bridge
(Southern Africa)

I made life easy so used the same language – was able to engage with like-minded people, though different … but I missed home; I couldn't go back – well I could, but I had to give myself a chance living overseas.

Within the environment I embraced … things were much the same … the humour, the music, the books, and yet new memories would be created … I was not going to be culturally bereaved.

Our maternal homeland
(I always miss it!)

Now I am back home – in the country I was born in ... and have that freedom that comes from being in a safe place … there are other adjustments that others cannot easily make …

But I can learn … and need to learn to appreciate others' ways of life – the whys and hows of how others think about life away from their roots …

Look at the other side
of life too

When my mother was in her last years in a nursing centre … I became more aware of how others' felt – in other words how I was feeling – not being completely in control, as I needed to be with my mother, rather than worry too much about myself.

There are two sides of a hand … the palm, or the dorsal side … I learnt that if someone was frustrating me – I needed to rethink … and used my hand as a metaphor to change my thinking.

Others' lives are in our hands

It has made my life easier for me – I can adjust … Life is beautiful – yet it needs to be for all peoples of the world … as a child we are (or should be) born into a positive world … where compassion and thoughtfulness abound – each person helping, caring and understanding the other …

Our world is becoming 'upsy-down', horrific for many, sad for others … so many are homesick yearning for what was …

Courtesy of: NHS Tayside Mental Health

Let's help each other have hope – and allow them time to create their own life of beauty …

Ugliness and cruelty are unnecessary

Life is Kind and Beautiful

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Pasta Primavera – Spring Pasta …

 

The delights of Spring … those early vegetables … and the thought of enjoying a Spring meal using young Spring greens – with luck new peas, sprouting broccoli, watercress, sorrel, Spring cabbage, early broad beans or runner beans, pasta with a creamy sauce … and some herbs …

Pasta Primavera with asparagus

Healthy flat ribbon pasta (tagliatelle) – steam or lightly cook your veggie as you usually do … boil the tagliatelle, drain … add the fromage frais and gently stir in (making sure the sauce doesn't split) as you warm it through …

Sprouting Broccoli - one of
my favourites

Add the veggies and chopped herbs of choice (parsley and chives come to mind) with a splash of pasta water … stir very gently … lightly season …

Broad Beans - also delicious!

Serve scattered with parmesan, and a drizzle of olive oil …

Spring Meadow - with blackthorn in the 
background

As this is a Spring dish … I prefer not to add tomato at this stage in the season … preferring a green pasta dish …

Pasta Primavera with Shrimp

We could add salmon, or seafood if so desired for a Good Friday lunch/supper …

Apparently the dish was invented in the 1970s in Canada by a New York restauranteur … I feel fairly certain the Italians would have been making similar dishes over the centuries in their villages … but so be it: it introduced me to Roberts Island, in Yarmouth County …

Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia -
their shipping museum

… but I can't find a satisfactory image – so I'm showing you Yarmouth County Museum – which is full of shipping history. Nova Scotia has an interesting coastline – suitable for rich barons who need summer homes!

Personally I wouldn't add asparagus as ours really doesn't come into season til the end of this month … on checking – St George's Day is when it commences here (23^rd April) … til mid-summer's day (21^st June). Then of course May will arrive rather sooner than expected – so please use asparagus if you'd like to!

Peas growing ... so good straight from the plant

A simple meal to prepare over the Easter weekend … with the fish appropriate for Friday … I doubt it's going to be warm enough here to eat outside – some years it has been.

Happy Easter to you all – here is a collection of Ukrainian pysanky with traditional folk designs … and I'll be back with my WEP entry next week … 

A variety of Ukrainian Pysansky eggs

Note: Pysansky are Ukrainian Easter eggs – decorated using beeswax and dyes. The verb comes from pysaty, “to write”, as the designs are not painted on, but decorated with beeswax.

See the history here ... Pysanksy Eggs project ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories