Vegan Salal Berry Crumble Recipe

The crumble topping; 1/2 cup quick oats, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup all purpose flour, 1/4 cup solid coconut oil. The Salal filling is; 1 cup salal berries, 2 Tablespoons water, 2 Tablespoons white sugar. Grease 8 x8 baking dish. Mix ingredients for filling in a bowl. Use a different bowl for the crumb topping. Use two knives to cut in the coconut oil. Put salal filling in bottom and sprinkle crumble topping on top. Bake 350 for 25 mins. I have no grass in my yard thanks to the native salal berry bush with its moderate growth. I trim it back where I do not want it. I find hand pruner's simpler than a lawn mower or a weed eater and over the years I have had no problems with this approach.

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My bamboo dip pen

I snipped some green bamboo with my secateurs, trimmed it to my liking and sharpened it with a pocket knife. I dipped it in a water based blue ink and was surprised! There is probably a lot of wonderful advice online about bamboo dip pens but I never bothered to look. It's straight forward - simple and so beautiful that I love it. I use it for my shopping lists, draw with it, and I wrote a cheque with it. I dropped it on the floor and have yet to re-sharpen it. It hold's a reasonable amount of ink and glides across paper like a soaring bird. I may never buy another discardable pen again.

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When less is more

The simplicity of having little in terms of material goods is an awesome freedom.  Every item takes a certain amount of upkeep - either in money, time or both. I only want that which is important enough to take up my time. Making more time happens when I let go of that which I have accumulated. Real wealth is subjective. When I feel rich inside than I am. William Wordsworth wrote in "Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower," ( one of his poems about a child of nature) "The stars of midnight shall be dear to her;" It really is about perspective isn't it? I'm certain she felt the same way about the rainbow.

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Tapestry bookmark

This sampler bookmark measures 7 1/2" long ( excluding the beaded fringe) and 2 3/8" wide. I wove it from thread and floss. It has a liner that I sewed on the backside made from repurposed silk fabric and the fringe is finished with seed glass beads. I've put it in my summer reading, an old copy of the "Encyclopedia of Needlework" by T. Dillmont. 

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Trust

I found this rufous hummingbird nest in a blackberry vine on the edge of the forest where I work. It was close enough to the ground to make it easy to look into and each visit brought joy to my heart. At first the two downy young were snuggled down into the nest sleeping. Than they spent their days eyes wide open watching the world around them. On the final visit which was today, the last remaining young made her first flight. In this miracle I see God sustaining the tiniest of things. Do I trust Him with the big things and the little details of my life?

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Soil

My grey water system came about as the result of my own experiments on learning what works and what does not. It's very simple. An empty ten gallon bucket sit's upside down buried in the ground with sand around and under it but not in it. On the bottom of the bucket is a hole for 1 1/2" ABS pipe to enter. This keeps vermain away. On top of this is more dirt and a small cedar slab to mark the spot. Over time the bucket slowly fills up with debris that goes down my kitchen sink. Using a sink strainer slow's it down and since I share my kitchen with my weaving studio there are exhausted dye bath's that go down there too. There is also a bathroom sink and a shower that I plumbed into this system. Eventually when the bucket fills up with debris it must be dug up and emptied. The question is what will I find? When I dug it up this spring the sand surrounding the outside of the bucket was rich with nutrients and there was an abundance of wild red wrigglers and earthworm's living there. I filled up a wheelbarrow with it and brought it to my garden. I feel like I am doing something positive for the earth. The organicness of it fills me with wonder and hope.

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White Roses - part 2

I did a product review for ThermaLeaf® and received my roses for free. My beautiful roses are found on this page:

https://www.silkplantsdirect.com/roses-white-pack-of-1-chw-8231s.html

See also: - fire retardant artificial foliage -http://www.thermaleaf.com/ for an extensive collection for any season.

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