Happy Thanksgiving to my American Friends....

And here is a recipe for using up all that leftover turkey!

remove skin and break cold turkey meat into small pieces.
Sauce:
12.5 ml oil
1 small onion, chopped
12.5 ml curry powder
125 ml chicken stock
5 ml tomato paste (I often substitute tomato sauce)
12.5ml lemon juice
25 ml sweet chutney
250ml mayonnaise
Heat oil and fry onion until transparent. Add curry powder and cook slightly. Add stock, tomato paste, lemon juice and chutney. Cook until the mixture boils and simmer for 3-5 minutes.Allow mixture to cool and then stir in mayonnaise and turkey pieces.

If you like, you can bling it up a bit by adding chopped canned peaches or fresh mango, which go very well with the mild curry and add an interesting sweet and sour element.

Here's one for all you autophiles (if that's a word!)

We took Ethan on a visit to the VW Auto Pavilion today. It is a really amazing place to go if you are into cars, and even more so if you grew up a few decades ago and have fond memories of the beetles and Kombis that were such a part of that era.

Two 1952 models stand together!

Ethan was fascinated by this safari beetle hanging over the doorway, but did not trust it not to fall on his head!

Back in the day, this was the perfect vehicle for our good climate. Anyone who was young in the late 60s and early 70s would have fond memories of touring around in some form of beetle!

Ethan drives along on wide screen TV....

And here is how it was done.

Grandpa couldn't resist getting into the picture!

I have particularly fond memories of this particular colour of Kharman Ghia. My dad, who was a car fanatic, had one that looked exactly like this. Her name was Olga and it was a rare privilege to be permitted to drive her!

Remember the Herbie movies? Ethan loves them so he was delighted to come across herbie climbing the steps.


Because blogger seems to have changed the way you move photos around while writing posts, and you can't drag and drop easily any more, it is an absolute pain doing lots of pics, so if you would like to see more, and especially the racing vws and a laser cutting a beetle in half, I am going to make an album of the rest in Facebook.

the circle of life

As I look back over this blog, one thing that recurs over and over is the "circle of life." We have suffered many losses over the last few years, including my dad, Max's mom and dad, our cat Joshua, my godmother. But we have also had much joy, the birth of two grandchildren, our nieces and nephews marrying and giving birth to children, our son's wedding..... The last month has been no exception... while we were away in Bulgaria, we heard the shocking and sad news that Max's younger sister, Joyce, had suffered a burst vein in her brain, and she was gone within a day. It has been difficult coming to terms with it... because if we visualize her, we see a vibrant, capable, funny person, full of plans and dreams and busy working to make them happen. Being so far away when it happened, and not part of all the actual drama at first hand, it is so hard to accept that it is real. I featured her on this blog in a previous post, as she renovated her lovely old historic Karoo house.

from the left.... "Little sis" Joyce, Max and "big sis" Charlette

However, as we have dealt with the sadness and loss of our "little sis" we have simultaneously been looking forward to the birth of our grandson.

He finally arrived today, and as you can see, he is a delightful little chap! He is still waiting for a name... welcome to our world little guy!

so, as always in life, loss is balanced by happiness, day follows night, and we keep on taking it one step at a time.

still armchair travelling....

I have posted another photo album from our recent trip to Turkey and Bulgaria, on my facebook page. This features the fascinating village of Pamukkale in central Turkey. It is home to an ancient ruined city (Hierapolis) and the travertines, a hillside covered with glistening white calcite formations from the calcium rich spring water that flows over it. There is also a fascinating ancient pool, a thermal hot spring full of mineral water, that is full of broken Roman columns from the ruined former Roman baths there.

(this may look like snow, but it was 35 degrees C when this was taken! It is calcite. On top of the hill you can see one of the ruined buildings from the ancient city of Hierapolis.)

more travels

Hi, I'm afraid I've been neglecting this blog for a while. I have been uploading lots of holiday photos but it is just so much easier on Facebook. So if you want to see more of our trip to Turkey and Bulgaria, check out the following albums:


Random art in Turkey and Bulgaria


Plovdiv


Around Bulgaria


Srem Bulgaria, july 2009


Goreme


and here are 1 or 2 random pix taken on the trip, for fun:

at Heiropolis in Turkey

our staple diet in Bulgaria!