TANDOORI ROO

Come and share a barbeque meal.

What are we serving?

Kangaroo Tandoori steak with almond and chia spread.

This is cooked on hot coals out on a farm along with some hot bread. Scrumptious!

(Did I say that this video was made by my son?)

Tole Painting

Give me a paintbrush, some paint and something to paint on, and I am happy. 
I like simple, uncomplicated painting and this is what has drawn me to Tole painting. Tole painting is known in Australia as Folk Art painting and sometimes as Decorative painting. What's in a name? They are all beautiful painting.

I found that tole painting is a great way to teach people to paint. very often people love the finished product but have no idea how to get to that point. Because tole or folk art painting is so simple, or naive, people who have never painted or drawn before are happy to learn this type of painting. 

Once they learn the basics, they often take off into other styles of painting. 

Tole painting is made up of lots of little strokes. As you learn these, you learn very good control of your brush and how to manipulate the paint.

The Power of Red

Red Energy

Red is a very powerful colour. It has the lowest vibration in the visible colour spectrum of light. When you look at a coloured picture or painting, the first colour our eyes pick up is the colour red. 

Artist's Red

There are three primary colours from which all other colours can be made from. These are 

• red
• blue
• yellow

Secondary colours which are made from a mixture of these colours are

• red + blue = purple
  blue + yellow = green
  yellow + red = orange

Complementary colours are opposites on the colour wheel. The opposite of red is green. So when you put red and green together, they sparkle and they make each other stand out. 
  

Advertising

Red is used as an advertising colour to make things jump out at you. Think McDonald's fast food chain. Red gets you moving through quickly. 

Red attracts, but you don't want to hang around it very long.

GrumbleTumms food van

 Energy

If you are feeling down and tired, put on some red clothes. This will cheer you up and get you energized. 

When little children get agitated and irritable, if they have red clothing on, change it to blue and it will help them to calm down. 

Red in the Garden

Red flowers are very strong. Red hibiscus and red roses will grow very well in hot sunshine. Other red flowers are nasturtiums, dahlias and poppies, tulips and salvias. They bring strong colour into a garden. Generally, bees are not as attracted to red flowers. So, it you are allergic to bee stings, add some red flowers into your garden. 

Chakras

Chakras are energy centres of the body. There are 7 main energy centres and numerous minor centres. Each of these main energy centres are assigned one of the seven colours of the rainbow. The Base chakra is located at the base of the spine inside the body. The colour associated with this is red. 

Red Crystals

Red crystals are used on the red Base chakra for healing. These red crystals are a reddish brown to black colour. They are red jasper, red calcite, garnet and ruby. They balance the energy of the ares and help the blood inside our body.

Red Food

Red food is important for our body. The bright red colour has special nutrients which help us to stay healthy. Some of these foods are tomatoes, red peppers, red capsicum, beetroot, strawberries, raspberries, apples, rhubarb and cherries. 

 Graphics and designs by Therese Vahland

Six Secrets of Green Garden Design

Garden Greenery

Looking out into my backyard, the overwhelming colour I see is green. It is the beginning of Spring here now. We had rain yesterday after some warm days. The garden has come alive. 

 

 

Green garden setting

Lawn

Often the first thing people think of in a garden is a lawn. It can be made of all sorts of grasses, clovers or weeds. You can get slow growing lawns or quick growing. They need regular cutting to keep manageable. The rest of my garden is awash with green, from low growing plants 30cm high to large bushes 2 mtrs high to trees 3-4 mts high. They are all covered in green.

Spiny grey green leaves of Aloe vera

Create Interest in your Garden

To make this greenery interesting, take into account

1. height of plant
2. shape of plant
3. shape of leaves
4. texture of leaves
5. aroma
6. shade of green
7. colour of leaves 

• The height of the plant is important. Plant tall plants at the back of the garden.

• The shape of the plant is important. Look for narrow plants for narrow beds. It is annoying to have to be always trimming back a plant because it is always in the way. 

Turk's Cap, 2 metres tall with large rounded green leaves

• Vary the shape of the leaves on your plants, like round leaves of Nasturtiums, long narrow leaves of a spider plant, large, frilly leaves of rhubarb or star cut edges of a maple tree. 

Spider plants can grow inside or outside.

• Texture of leaves can bring interest to a garden. Lamb's ear's silvery grey leaves are soft and furry and invite you to bend and rub them. Borage leaves have hairs all over them but they are not prickly.

• Bringing perfume or aroma into the garden is a pleasure. Lemon scented geranium leaves have a beautiful perfume when rubbed as do lavender leaves and rosemary.

Bamboo

• The colour of leaves can change, starting out burgundy and ending up green as in some roses. Leaves can be emerald green or variegated in a green/cream mix, or blue/green of many Australian native plants. 

As you can see, green in your garden can be interesting, as interesting as you wish to make it. You can be the artist in your garden.

Easy Grow Borage

Borage is easy to grow

I'll tell you a story of my borage. Some years ago I had a borage plant. It grew to about 40cm tall (about 15 in) and I treasured it. Borage is a herb that attracts the bees. It is also known as star flower. It has beautiful, blue flowers. Borage also self seeds. This means that it drops its seeds and they will come up again by themselves - no work for you. 

This little plant and its babies flowered on for two or three years, then it disappeared for a few years. Another plant appeared, a thin, spindly plant. Then we had a drought for ten year.No more seedlings appeared during those years and I thought 'Well, I have lost it this time.'

Vibrant blue coronet of Borage herb photographed from above

 

No Borage to a Surplus of Borage

Recently we dug up the garden in that area and built a chicken house. The ground around it was bare. A few months later some borage seedlings appeared. Wow! I was excited. I'm sure the borage fairies hovered in the area to make sure these plants grew. 

Now we have the most amazing, sturdy, large, tall patch of borage you could ever imagine. This has grown to nearly one metre (3ft) by about 1.2 mts (4 ft). It has been covered in beautiful, blue, nodding stars for a couple of months now. 

The large happy plants of the Herb Borage. 

How to use Borage

Borage flowers can be frozen in ice blocks and used for cold drinks in the summer. They can also be used to decorate dishes of your favourite food and can be eaten. The leaves are dark green and hairy, having little spiky hairs all over the leaf. These are not prickly although they look it. The leaves can be dried, ground and used as a tea. 

How Borage Benefits the rest of the Garden

We need bees in the garden. They pollinate a lot of plants. Lots of vegetables need to be pollinated by the bees so we can get their fruit, for example pumpkin, zucchini and tomatoes. 

Borage brings bees to the garden. Bees especially love blue flowers, so will gather in abundance, enjoy the borage flowers then buzz on over to your vegetable flowers. Then you will get an abundance of vegetables. 

There is no need to be frightened of bees. Welcome them into your garden. Say 'Thank you for coming' and just stay away from your blue flowers while the bees are working in the hottest part of the day. 

Benefits of Borage

The seeds of this lovely blue flower are also collected, crushed and the oil from them is used in the cosmetic industry and as a supplement. Borage is filled with essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Borage is soothing and calming and helps the adrenal glands. These are affected when we are under stress. 

Photos by Therese Vahland

Spring Gardening - Blue Flowers

At the beginning of spring all of Nature seems to burst into life. New leaves on trees appear from nowhere. 
One day the limbs are bare, a few days later the tree is covered with leaves.  
Flowers burst forth in their short burst of glory...

Pink lavender and blue borage flowering together

 In all the colours of the rainbow. Yellow brings sunshine into the garden and looks good when side by side with my purple flowering Hebe.

Bright, yellow, daisy - osteospernum

Bright yellow daisies bloom, bringing sunshine into the garden ..... 

Blue flowers abound in my garden this year. Below is some Borage and Echiums making a show and attracting all the bees. This will ensure a good seed crop for all my other flowers too. 

Stunning blue Borage flowers happily beside Echium and Nasturtiums

Blue Echium always makes a stunning show

A bright deep yellow and brown Australian native with it's pea shaped flower

This year I have re-potted many plants into self watering pots. I find these so great any time of the year, but especially during the long, hot, summer days when you really don't want to go out to water. You know your precious plants can last a couple of days.

Spirit Painting

Surrendering to Spirit

Sometimes I just like to give everything up to the spirits around us. They know more than we do about lots of things. I am always careful to ask for only good energy to come in, and to surround myself with White Light. 

I settle myself in a quiet corner with a drawing pad and pencil, close my eyes, and wait. It can take a while for the energy to build up. The more you repeat the exercise, the easier it becomes. As you and your Spirit Guides get used to communicating, the quicker things will happen each time and the more easy the flow will be. 

Spirit Painting

Amazing drawings have come out of this exercise and I am sharing one painting that I did from one of these drawings. 

Amber by Therese Vahland and Spirit

How to Draw with Spirit

There is a feeling of excitement each time your pencil starts to move and you know you are not moving your arm or hand. To make sure I have little conscious input into these drawings, I keep my eyes closed. So the entire drawing is done before I open my eyes. I do not know what has appeared on the page until this moment. 

My Spirit Artist has a unique way of drawing. Most of the drawings have been done without lifting the pencil from the page. When It wants to move to another part of the drawing, It traces exactly over the top of other lines. This is all done with my eyes closed. Some intricate and geometric patterns have been built up this way.

This painting was copied faithfully from one of my Spirit drawings.

Please email me if you are interested in my painting.

Pure Distilled Water for Health

Distilled water is mostly free from all impurities.
It is not so simple to make although it sounds easy. 

How to make Distilled Water

 

Now doesn't that sound just so easy? Boiling the water is OK. The steam that arises from the boiling water is just extra hot water in another form. Collecting the steam? Well how do you catch steam? It tends to evaporate and we need to give it time to cool down again so that it can turn back into a form that we can handle. 

Water Distiller

This is where a distiller comes in just so handy. It is especially made with a big stainless steel tank for the water, and has lots of coils inside with a fan to cool the pipes (coils). As the pipes cool, the steam loses heat and becomes water again.

As it comes out of the distiller, the liquid is caught and bottled. 

This is far easier than messing around with saucepans or kettles of boiling water. Safer too!

Differences between Normal Water and Distilled Water

Normal water has many impurities in it. It includes minerals, bacteria, chemicals and can also carry parasites. If you leave a bottle of water in the sunlight for an extended period you can see algae growing in the water. 

With distilled water, all these impurities are left behind. They are not carried into the super heated steam therefore a bottle of distilled water will not grow algae. 

Uses for Distilled Water

Distilled water has many uses:

• bathing cuts and scrapes
• washing eyes
• making Homeopathic liquid remedies
• making beauty creams 
• making Flower Essences
• adding to liquid herbs
• cleansing the face
• filling the car battery
• drinking purified water

 Drinking pure distilled water is known to draw toxins or impurities out of the body.

 Pure Distilled Water by Enhance you Health can be found at My Garden Treasures Ebay shop

Love and Crystals

When people are introduced to crystals they know instinctively if they are attracted to them or not. The people who are attracted to them take little time to fall in love with them. 

What are Crystals

Crystals  are actually rocks or stones that are formed below ground in great heat and under great pressure. Many have specific shapes that are formed and all the crystals of that variety have a similar shape. Very perfect specimens of some crystals are called gemstones and fetch great prices in the jewellery trade - think diamonds, rubies and sapphires here as well as emeralds.

There is a huge variety of crystals. This ensures that there are plenty for people to fall in love with. Crystals come in all colours, many in multi-colours depending where they are formed in the earth. Crystals are not as expensive as gemstones. 

Everything on this planet resonates. We cannot see it but it still happens. Things that resonate at the same frequency tend to move towards each other, for instance, two people who are friends. They resonate nearer the same frequency. So too with crystals and people.

Two Crystals to Fall in Love with

Two of the most favourite crystals and ones that are well known, even by people that know nothing about crystals are Amethyst and Rose Quartz. 
  

Rose Quartz

Rose quartz is a beautiful soft pink colour, about the colour of coconut ice. It has a soft energy and resonates with the energy of the heart. It is said to be the stone of Love. People are greatly attracted by this stone, especially if they have difficulties with love in their life. This does not necessarily mean romantic love. Rose quartz softens the heart and brings love. 

Rose quartz pyramid array

Amethyst

Amethyst is a purple crystal.  It's energy helps to calm the mind and help sleep. It has eased headaches. It's vibration resonates with the vibration of the chakra, the energy centre between the eyes and at the top of the head. 

Amethyst wand

 You can buy the beautiful rose quartz pyramid array at Crystal Spirit on Facebook. 

Crystal Spirit photo and design by Thérèse Vahland

Dairy: 6 Reasons You Should Avoid It at all Costs

Mark Hyman, MD, thinks there are many good reasons NOT to drink milk.


Over the years we have worked toward avoiding milk.
Now everybody thinks of milk as that white liquid that comes out of plastic bottles and is kept in the fridge in the supermarket, right?







Well, there are just so many other ways that the dairy industry has devised to get us to consume milk and this milk does not even look like milk anymore.

First there is yoghurt. There are so many varieties of yoghurt but the all contain milk. Then there is butter, cream, cheese, cheese sticks, Parmesan cheese and all sorts of other varieties. 

Next, chocolate comes to mind. There's lots of milk in milk chocolate. Milk is also included in cakes and omelettes. We have been seduced into eating this food which is meant for baby cows. Oops, didn't you realise that?

Listen to hear what Dr Hyman has to say and it just might improve your health, stop all that sinus trouble and all those sore throats.

 

Healing with Crystal Energy

Crystals Benefit our Health

Crystal energy started me on my road to recovery twenty years ago. I was seriously ill. Doctors and specialists had no answers. After spending years in bed with very poor health I started on a slow recovery with the help of the healing energy of crystals.

The effect of these  crystals had a profound effect, not only on me, but also on my family. As I improved in health, I began to study many forms of healing in natural ways. Naturally, crystals were my first study and became a great love for me. 

I gradually learned many ways to use them for healing and collected a vast array of crystals. 

Amethyst runes

Crystal Elixirs

After learning about Flower Essences, I also found out about Crystal elixirs. These have the energy of the crystal held in water and drops of this crystal infused water is taken by mouth.

Many years of helping others with their health problems followed by doing healing with crystals. 

My daughter also was fascinated by these beautiful rocks and their secret energy. She too learned to use them for healing. 

Crystal Spirit

Today, she imports unusual crystals and sells them at very reasonable prices. She wants to make them accessible to many people. 

Lapis lazuli geometric wand

Clear quartz Angel

  Click on any of the photos to be taken directly to Crystal Spirit Facebook page. 

 Photos and designs by Therese Vahland

Pigs and a Cooking Show

Pigs on the Farm

Pigs are one of the animals I have never had. My husband flatly refused to have them. 

A pig called Stephanie

I have always loved animals and had many varieties over the years. We lived on an eighty acre farm. That's about thirty two hectares in size.

Animals on the Farm

We have had

• goats - angora, dairy (a few varieties) and cashmere
• sheep - carpet wool and a few other varieties along the way
• donkeys 
• mule
• horses
• cows
• chickens - lots of breeds
• ducks - 120 ducklings one year
• geese
• rabbits
• cats
• dogs
• birds - a variety

But we never had pigs.

Stephanie, the pig, features in one of his latest videos.

Cooking Shows on You Tube

One of our sons, Bevan, is a chef and makes videos with great recipes and scrumptious food. 

Why don't you check you his You Tube channel, subscribe and share? He'd love to have you visit.

How to Build a Deck

I came across this video about building a deck. Have a look if you are thinking of building one too.


Now, to be fair, I really must tell you that this young man is my son, and his lovely boys and dogs appear in the video too.


Bevan would love you to have a look at his video, 'Like' it and 'Subscribe' too.


He has lots of videos. He's a chef too, and you will find lots of mouthwatering recipes there too. He makes everything look so easy. Yes, you can have great food too by following his recipes. 

I think building a deck might just take a bit more energy.

Free Artwork by Therese Vahland

 Today I am offering for free, your choice of one of these three original artworks, signed by Therese Vahland, artist. It is valued at $50. All are prints.

 'Twisted  Trees'

 

 'Twisted  Trees', is a gel plate with lino print over the top, printed on Japanese paper.

'Mist'

'Mist' is a mono print. You can never reproduce these. The rainbow colours will ensure it fits in to any colour scheme.

'Red Sunflower'

'Red Sunflower' is also a gel print in Japanese paper.

All you have to do to get your choice of print for free is leave a positive comment below, email me with your details and pay the postage. Only one print will be given away. The others are for sale at $50 each plus postage.

If you wish to buy more than one they will be sent together at no extra cost. 

You will have to get the prints framed to suit your decor.

Payment is by Paypal. If you don't have an account with them you can use a credit card in a secure environment. 

The free print is being offered only until September 30, 2014.

A Picture of Innonence

Whenever I see little babies I think of them as being so innocent. 

They have not had time in this world to become 

• deceitful, 
• sly
• cunning
• jealous or
• greedy

We could all take note of how they act, living for the moment, not living in the past or waiting for the future.

Photography

Babies give us great pleasure to watch and be around. Some are very quick to smile and make great subject for photography.

Today we can do so much with cameras and editing programs. Even Apps can contribute much to our final photographic experience. 

Many apps are free and you can get more variety if you pay. The writing on the photo above was added using Font Candy.

 

You can get apps to turn your photo into soft sepia colours ...

Or into a modern collage. Have fun by extending your photographic experience with apps which you can install in your phone or tablet. 

Photo taken by Therese Vahland

Painting and Printmaking

As an artist who has been painting for over 25 years, I have collected a huge number of paintings, and prints along with many other forms of art. 

I have decided to sell some at very reasonable prices 

hoping that others may enjoy them too.

These are all unframed. 

You have the opportunity to frame them to suit your decor. 

These are all original artworks and are signed.

Here are a couple of soft, pastel coloured paintings. 

These are painted using acrylic paints.

This a a soft acrylic painting of roses.

It is painted in a watercolour effect. 

This one off gel print is in brighter colours but still with a soft effect. 

It is a square print on Japanese paper. 

Both paintings and print are for sale, $55 each plus postage.

Please email me to purchase a piece of artwork 

or for a quote for postage.

Kookaburras

Kookaburras are an Australian bird. They have a large head and beak, much larger in proportion to their body than other birds. They also have an extra large beak. Their body seems to get smaller the further it goes away from its beak. It has a small back and even smaller tail. It really looks top heavy.

However what kookaburras have going for them is their laugh. It makes a resounding noise in the Australian bush at dawn.

Kookaburras can be friendly. They eat worms and small lizards and they like meat. It is not unheard of for a kookaburra to swoop onto a barbeque and steal a sausage as it flies though. 

On our recent holiday we met a wild yet tame kookaburra. He liked meat patties. He liked them so much that he came to within 30cm (12 inches) of my feet to get his reward of small pieces of meat. 

Trees Give Us Peace and Serenity

I had been feeling the need to visit some more trees. There is nothing like being among the tall gums trees of the Australian bush. Often the colour of these trees is not bright green but a dull, muted, blue-green, the colour of the Aussie bush trees. 

We went on a road trip for a few days to visit some trees.

We found some tall gum trees with grey-green foliage along the Murray River. They were offset by the bright emerald green of the lush grass. 

Along the Campaspe River we found some young trees just starting to grow. These will be beautiful, large trees the next time we visit them. 

The trees also also stand in their stark splendour against the evening sky.

You might also like to see the kookaburra that befriended us while on our trip. 

Friendly Birds

We have just met some overly friendly wildlife. We visited Moama and Echuca, towns on opposite sides of the Murray river, the dividing line between Victoria and New South Wales, two south eastern states in Australia. 

We stayed in a lovely cottage with very friendly birds. 

 This lovely Kookaburra sat on a tree near our unit most of the time we were there. Every now and then he would fly down and catch a worm from under the grass.

Kookaburras are known for their wild and loud that they make. Koo koo kaa kaa koo koo kaa. It sounds as though the birds are laughing. The sound echos through the Australian bush.

This lovely fellow was so friendly. He came up to 30cm or 1foot from my feet. These birds love meat. I had a meat pattie left over and broke it into little pieces. My friendly kookaburra enjoyed it bit by bit. 

My kookaburra had a friendly rival for the meat pattie. It was a magpie. This cheeky bird visited inside our unit on three separate occasions. He visited every room in the house and even checked out under the couch. Here he is strutting his stuff in the kitchen.

A Nutritious Breakfast - BAKED MUSHROOM AND RICOTTA CHEESE

Bevan shows us here how to cook a quick and nutritious breakfast. 

 No excuses that you don't know what to cook. 

Please subscribe to his food channel.

I must tell you that I am biased about this chef. 

He's my son and has been cooking daily since he was three years old. 

Before that he played with the pots and pans.

Keeping Children Amused

Children Need to Move to be Healthy

We all know that it is not a good idea for children to sit in front of the television for hours. These days there are lots of electronic gadgets that can keep children amused but is it good for them?

Oxygen for our Brain

Scientists and doctors tell us that the more we sit, the more unhealthy we are. When we sit our heart, blood flow and breathing are not stimulated. If we go for an walk the blood is pumping through our veins at a faster rate. This gets our metabolism going. t makes us breathe faster. When we breathe we get more oxygen into our body. We need oxygen for our brain to work properly.

Walk Barefoot

The best thing for children to do is take off their shoes and socks and run barefoot on the grass, at the beach or even play around on the concrete. The important thing here is that they do this barefoot. When our feet touch the ground we are earthing ourselves. 

Electrons travel through the soles of our feet into our body getting rid of those free radicals that everyone is telling us are causing illness, inflammation and ageing. We want to keep our children healthy, so get them running barefoot on the ground. 

Children need to move. They need to be active. Give them little projects. We all feel more useful when we have something to do.

Things Children Can Do

Give them a plastic bottle of water to make patterns on the concrete. Let them run through the water on the concrete in their bare feet.