I can’t believe it is already March! 3rd month of 2019 – the time goes so quickly.

It doesn’t help that I have another birthday, so am one year older. I remember my father telling me when he was 80 that he didn’t feel any different to when he was 40. At the time, I didn’t quite believe him, but now I understand. It is a pity the mirror can’t be more understanding and show you a younger face as well! LOL!

At the moment, the environment around here is still dry. All through January and February we were crying out for rain and relief from the heat and still we wait. The ground water table is low and my house has moved and the doors don’t close. We desperately need moisture in the soil. The fields here were nearly dust when they should have been lush and green.

The fires, in Tasmania, were ravaging the land, the snow, in the Canada and the USA, was frigid and thick, and the floods in North Queensland killed cattle by the thousands, and with them, people’s dreams and livelihoods.

Nature is, and always has been, cruel. We hear of famines and floods in the distant past as well as now. Potatoes in Ireland full of disease, droughts in Africa with thousands dying of starvation, earthquakes in Europe burying people, and mudslides in Asia eradicating whole villages.

Perhaps the Earth has been trying to tell us for ages that we, as a species, need to be more mindful of this beautiful planet. I honestly feel that we haven’t learnt – we populate at a staggering rate, ruin habitats that have been sheltering animals for years, and pollute oceans with rubbish and plastics without a thought or care about other species.

Can you imagine a life without dolphins, whales and fish in our oceans – no eagles, owls, bats or birds in our skies, or Polar bears, majestic cats and great elephants on our lands? It would be a sad and sorry planet. And it is heading there fast!

It is time we did something to halt the spread of our peoples ( almost like a virus) over the planet.

Suggestions? Is education the answer?

Is the earth ready to eradicate us? Are governments so full of idiots that they can’t and won’t see what is in front of their eyes?

OK. Enough said.

But I would love to hear that we can do something – the plunder of our planet and greed that causes a lot of it – must stop.

Just so we can end on a positive note – let’s have a lovely recipe.

(just be aware I add sultanas in place of raisins.)

Barabrith – Welsh tea bread.

Ingredients:-

250g mixed dried fruit/raisins/sultanas – your choice

125g raw sugar

250g SR flour

1 egg

½ tspn mixed spice

1 cup cold tea.

1. Soak fruit overnight in the tea with the added sugar.
2. Next morning, pre-heat oven to 180-200°C.
3. Add egg, flour and spice to the fruit mixture. Mix well.
4. Place in 2 greased loaf tins or one large square cake tin.
5. Bake for approx 45mins.
6. Serve cool, sliced with butter. Serves 8-12.

YUMMY!

With Kindness

Maureen

P.S. – Have you checked out page two and three yet? There is another story to read on page two ( readeatdream.net/free-childrens-picture-book ) and some art to look at on page three ( readeatdream.net/sweetfields-products-and-mykelcee-designs ). Some of my archives have recipes, too. (I haven’t learnt how to tell the contents of each post in my archive list – sorry).