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Category Archives: America

Flowers, Asparagus and Hopes

Next door to Roots is a small company van where beautiful flowers grown on a local specialist farm are bunched up for sale. There are fresh blooms and dried flowers and all of them are gorgeous.

Today a small team of us repotted 144 young asparagus plants. Not long ago they were a miniature forest and now they are nearly ready for their permanent home. My Mum, whose birthday is today, would have loved this whole enterprise.

We are watching events in America with bated breath and hope all turns out well with no bad repercussions…….

A Book, An Excerpt and A Cake

12 Feb

Our trains were delayed both going to and returning from London last week so I had many peaceful hours in which to read. This book really caught my imagination and the hours, more than five each way, went by unnoticed as I was completely immersed in Elsa’s story of the dust bowl in Texas and her journey to California.

A very good read!

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I posted about a new recipe which used Pangrattato. It delighted me to read the following description of how to make it as Elsa learned how to do just that.

Excerpt from The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

We’ll be going to Roots tomorrow and it’s Valentine’s Day this week so I’ve made a cake in the shape of a heart.

Gluten Free Orange and Almond Cake

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on February 12, 2024 in America, baking, Postaday 2024, Uncategorized

Tags: Kristin Hannah

Christmas – A Concert, A Poem and Our Tree

18 Dec

Tomorrow evening, both my choirs are singing in the ShelterBox Christmas concert and although, Dear Readers, you are all over the world, you can still join the festivities from the comfort of your own home by watching live at shelterbox.org/ChristmasConcert. I hope you’ll be able to join us. If you do, please add a like or a comment tomorrow evening. We’d love to know where in the world the concert was watched.

The lovely poet, Brian Bilston, has very kindly said I can share another of his poems with you all. For me, it sums things up very well indeed – if only we still had a cat. We have tickets for his gig in Falmouth next May!Our tree is covered in angels. They have been bought over many years and all around the world where we have visited. (Still need to go to Vietnam, Cambodia and Australia!) There are angels from Warsaw, Volcano in Hawaii, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Denver and Seattle, from Munich, Salzburg, Sheffield and Truro, from Mapoch in South Africa, Nepal and more! The fluffy ones were my Mum’s.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 18, 2023 in America, Celebration, Cornwall, music, poetry, Postaday 2023, ShelterBox, travel, Truro

Thanksgiving and Jelly Babies

23 Nov

Happy Thanksgiving to all much-missed family and friends and many dear Readers in America! We usually do a Thanksgiving dinner and use family recipes to share the day with friends and family. This year, for various reasons, we have declined the big cook and instead given a nod to the flavours by getting delicious Turkey and Cranberry Sausages from our fabulous local butcher.

It’s been a jelly baby kind of day, had to miss singing so needed a treat!

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 23, 2023 in America, Celebration, Postaday 2023

Tags: The Grow Box

Navajo Wisdom and Affogato

20 Oct

I bought a beautiful little book while we were at the Grand Canyon, a gift for a dear friend, and took photos of some of the pages before I gave it to her this evening while we were all out together for dinner.

I’ll share pages over the next week or two. I love all the wisdom therein.

We enjoyed excellent pizzas and then affogatos.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 20, 2023 in America, Eating out, friendship, Postaday 2023

Tags: Lessons from Native America, Listening with your Heart, Wayne Peate MD

Walking Around the Neighbourhood 2

04 Oct

Our room in the Sugar Magnolia B&B was called the Aviary. The ceiling had very lovely birds painted on it.

Our room wasn’t square – here’s the ceiling

On the door frame

And, around this delightful neighbourhood………

Leaving Albuquerque for Atlanta

30 Sep

Seeing the clouds from the plane reminded me of one of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings called Sky Above Clouds

This beautiful house, Sugar Magnolia B&B, is to be our base for the next week.

Sugar Magnolia B&B

I love this weather vane.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 30, 2023 in America, Georgia, nature, New Mexico, photography, Postaday 2023, travel, Uncategorized

Tags: Georgia O'Keeffe, Sugar Magnolia B&B

Ghost Ranch and A Church

29 Sep

What a wonderful trip it was to the Georgia O’Keefe Ranch, going on a tour to see where she painted her glorious landscapes. Have a look at the website for the tours.

Looking at paintings with the actual landscape right there!

Georgia O’Keefe’s home

Landscape

The mountain she regarded as hers.

Tree painted by Georgia O’Keefe

After the Ghost Ranch we drove back to Santa Fe via a pretty twin towered church, Santuario de Chimayo, part of a pilgrimage route. You might spot the scallop shell…. Here is the fascinating history for you.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 29, 2023 in America, art, environment, mosaic, nature, New Mexico, photography, Postaday 2023

Tags: Georgia O'Keefe

Two of Santa Fe’s Museums

28 Sep

We visited two of the many museums in Santa Fe and really wished we had had more time to visit more – next time maybe! Two were close to each other, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, and the Museum of International Folk Art and the precinct between them was full of sculptures.

We first visited the Folk Museum, and exhibition of Mexico’s Day of the Dead memorabilia:

We absolutely loved the Museum of the American Indian, the words as much as the exhibits. Please click on any photo for greater detail.

I love this whole concept

And one more touching and very beautiful sculpture outside…….

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 28, 2023 in America, art, ceramics, embroidery, New Mexico

Tags: sculptures

Santa Fe – Breakfast and Loretto Chapel

27 Sep

We loved the soft architecture of Santa Fe (of which more later) and the place we stayed had features of the same.

We had the most delicious breakfast in a lovely hotel in Santa Fe where glass panels were all painted and very lovely. As far as I could tell, each of the 100+ panels had a different painting..