April pics

Here are some April pics. In my mind April means spring. The days are getting shorter here, but apart from that it does feel like spring. 

Coline has fun with marker and ballpens and Leila still does, which means that they really have something in common now. They also both like the cat a lot, and playing on the rooftop, where we are busy putting together a "forest", and clipping their nails in the loo at 7 am (Cristiano took the picture because I was still asleep!!)

Pourquoi on ne parle pas politique avec ses voisins

Ca fait bien longtemps que je n'ai pas ecrit en Francais sur ce blog, voici une entorse a cette regle. Il se trouve que les temps sont exceptionnels, du fait qu'ils sont presidentiels. C'est un terme que vous entendez certainement largement plus que moi, vous qui etes en France, mais n'empeche que je l'ai entendu ce lundi, de la bouche de mon voisin. C'est un voisin qui me dit bonjour de la main a peu pres tous les jours mais avec qui je n'avais jamais eu de conversation, pas meme quelques mots. Il a decide en ce lendemain-la d'elections de dire houste aux habitudes, m'a interpelee dans la rue, alors que je sortais de chez moi Coline au bras gauche et Leila a la main droite, et m'a demande ce que je pensais des resultats electoraux de la veille. Comme ca!

Comme je suis a la fois polie et un peu anthropophile, j'ai repondu, qu'effectivement j'avais vu les resultats, que j'etais un peu decue de voir que S. risquait d'etre reelu (je ne met que son initiale pour preserver son anonymat bien sur) et que je trouvais le score de L.P bien trop eleve, et puis je me suis apercue que mon interlocuteur en fait ne m'ecoutait pas, il me regardait fixement, puis m'a dit qu'en effet il y a un probleme en France, "S., on se demande s'il est meme de droite, pas assez. Ce n'est qu'en me refaisant le film de notre conversation que j'ai compris ce qu'il m'avait dit. Et puis savais-je qu'il y a dans le centre de la France un boom Chretien (boom n'est peut-etre pas le terme qu'il utilise, mais comprenez, j'etais en mode traduction simultannee avec deux enfants aux bras, je n'ai donc pas note le vocabulaire technique), que la France a ete le 1er pays Chretien en Europe?

Moi qui n'avais pas encore pris conscience de ce qui etait en train de se tramer, ai cru l'informer du fait que les choses ont change au moment de la revolution Francaise, et avant d'avoir pu terminer l'expression "pays laique", il avait lache "quelle tragedie". Ecarquillement d'yeux pour ma part, et lui: quelle tragedie pour la France et le reste du monde que cette revolution Francaise, la France qui s'est fait detroner par l'Angleterre de sa position de 1ere puissance mondiale.  Moi: " on est en retard pour la danse".

Oui parce que j'ai appris, avec le temps, pas assez mais ca vient, qu'il s'agissait encore d'un de cette trampe de vieux mecs qui ne peuvent s'empecher de deverser leur opinion sur une innocente qui ne souhaite pas la connaitre. Ca m'a rappele ces vieux moches qui regrettent l'apartheid et ne peuvent s'empecher de me le dire, au cours d'un vol de 12 h (de jour), les racistes et homophobes qui cherchent a etre brosses dans le sens du poil.

Tout ca m'a file un petit coup au moral quand meme, comme quoi les fachos sont partout. Sur ce, votez bien dans 10 jours, j'ai une petite revanche a prendre sur mon voisin.

morning cereal

I have been eating cereal at breakfast ever since I can remember. It only occurred to me very recently that I could make my own instead of hunting for the one and only type that is not loaded with sugar, coconut and other stuff that I do not enjoy much (have I mentioned yet that shopping in Ouro Preto is not like shopping wherever I lived before?), and just make it crunchy and nutty to my taste. It is a kind of granola, inspired from many recipes on the web, although none in particular and so I will just call it my own.

G's Granola recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup cashew nuts

1 cup wholewheat flour

3 cups oats (I mix rolled oats and oat flakes)

1/2 cup seeds (sesame, linseed, pumpkin seeds)

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup oil (sunflower, soy, canola or other vegetable oil)

1/4 cup fruit juice (generally apple juice or mango or peach nectar)

1 tea spoon (tsp) of cinnamon

1tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (note of warning: I do set my oven at 180, but I think it is actually cooler, so if yours can be set at 160, then it is probably wiser to do so).

Using an electric blender chop the nuts and combine with all the dry ingredients. Combine the wet ingredients. Using a wooden spoon combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir until all is wet. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Spread the mix over the tray. Bake at 180 degrees C for 1 h or until dry and golden. Allow to cool down and store in an airtight container for up to two weeks, if you dare. It does not last that long under our roof. Best enjoyed with milk and raisins, or yogurt, jam and fresh fruits.

fun with colors - playdough recipe

I felt like finishing what I was busy with and so Coline, Tintin and Scratchy had 20 min of freedom in the living room.

I was checking on them every 5 min and found that they were doing great together.

I guess that next time I will have to make it in 15 min.

(that was blue and green chalk that she chewed)

And now for something completely different, even though it could also have ended up in Coline's mouth and resulted in the same color, our playdough recipe.

1 cup cake flour

1/2 cup salt

1 cup water

10 mL cream of tartar

10 mL vegetable oil

food coloring

The way we do it is that Leila measures and combines all ingredients (started with the oil) in a non-stick pan. Then I cook it on the stove on low heat, while constantly stirring, until the ingredients are all combined and a dough is obtained (as opposed to a gooey mix). We let it cool down for as long as Leila can stand it (5 min?) and work the food coloring powder into the dough. This time I added lavender oil too.

Picnic with just a little bit of water

Just a little bit of water and let the fun begin! There was a bit of chocolate cake too that day, because it was somebody's birthday, a lot of sun as well, at the "Cachoiera das Andorinhas", just outside, or should I say just above Ouro Preto. End of summer has been very enjoyable.

mail

I fell in love at first sight with some people and they became my best friends. One of them is the friend who sent me this book. And there I was on this Tuesday afternoon taking a quiet read and happy moment with an author I also fell in love with. Here is a link to her website http://www.emilygravett.com/, and a big thank you (THANK YOU!) for this wonderful surprise in the post today.

I am pleased to report this international post success story but also felt like sharing a word of warning: it does not always work so smoothly. Two Christmas parcels from SA did not arrive, as well as one from Germany, and I once had to pay the equivalent of the value of the goods declared on the parcel to the customs and their state counterpart. It made me feel sad when my friend's presents did not arrive and so I would like to recommend this:

- avoid sending parcels at Christmas (that is, avoid sending in November - December)

- get a tracking number from the post-office (in some countries this can be done without having to pay as much as registered or express mail)

- lie about the content and its value: nothing organic (from the earth, I mean), and a value lower than 50 US Dollars.

Oh how good I feel when I get mail in my hands.

win an apron

Dear friends (this includes family), as I read the first comment on my apron - robe du soir, I started wondering what it was that was going to end up in the little pocket in the front of that apron. I thought it would probably be a pocket screwdriver, a shopping list, a randomly abandoned hair clip, a nut, a shell or a set of keys. I wished it would be my favorite pen (currently gone missing although it is surely inside the house) and hoped it would not be a snotty little tissue paper used to blow some child's nose. Then I forgot about it. How astounding it was to find out that the first thing to enter my apron's pocket was in fact...

Be the first to guess the end of the sentence above and win your own custom made apron (it will necessarily be of another fabric because I buy fabric from a local shop that sells it by the kilo and rarely has the same two weeks in a row).

Send your guess or a question as a comment (one per person per day, email me if you cannot drop a comment). hi hi hi.