Friday 18 February 2011

On my mind today, family and friends

Continuing in the theme of the last post... On my mind today, the blessings of family and good company.
It won't exactly show, because the only photo of a person is me, but I hope you'll read between the lines.

Me and my sister's borscht, one of the best soups in the world, especially when paired with sour cream like here. (Oh, and no, it's not traditional Czech. Go further to the East.)

Wearing:
- Pinkish purplish t-shirt, second-hand
- Long skirt, dark blue with white and silvery horizontal stripes, second-hand
- Felted bangle, Fair Trade (if I remember correctly, from Nepal)
- My good old watch (featuring a teddy :-) with new leather strap
- Chalice necklace, family heirloom


The watch: I stopped wearing my watch back at Grammar school when I played basketball (badly, but I did), and started using my mobile phone instead. At the trainings, we had to take all our possessions with us to the gym, because the dressing rooms could not be properly locked. I usually threw everything into my bag... the watch together with my keys. Which, naturally, resulted in scratched watch. Recently, I figured out a watch was more useful for checking the time than a mobile phone, especially when running to a railway station with the mobile phone safely hidden in the depths of my backpack...
Oh yes, and I'm wearing it so far down/up on my forearm. It's practical.

The chalice necklace: A Czech protestant variation on cross necklaces... The chalice is a symbol of Czech protestantism, dating back to the 15th century, the hussite movement and, more importantly, the utraquist movement that promoted serving both bread and wine to laypeople at the Communion (I hope this makes sense, I'm not sure about the English words for this). So, in fact, it's a symbol of the Communion.
I got mine from mom, who probably got it from someone else in the family. I wear it almost all the time now.
* * *
Yesteday, I met with my friend as planned. We went to our favourite café (which also happens to be the only café in our hometown, but I think it would be our favourite even if it weren't). Had chocolate/honey cake and beverages to our preference.

Chocolate/honey cake

Beverages to our preference
(blueberry milkshake)

Then we went to her home and she showed me their new sewing machine and her new basketry.
And then we just walked the streets and talked which is how our meetings usually end.
We plan to go to theatre together as soon as possible.

7 comments:

  1. Give us a recipe! :D We really don't have anything like borscht here.

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  2. I've been experimenting with Borsht this winter, as we had a wonderful beet crop last year. My family loves it, especially with sour cream and apple cider vinegar. . . Just looking at yours had made my mouth water!

    Thanks for sharing!
    ~Kellie~

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  3. I love borsht, and make it often. But I would like a recipe for chocolate honey cake :)
    Your necklace and the story behind it is wonderful.

    P.S. Thanks for the .PDF file. That meant a lot to me.

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  4. I would also like to know how to make chocolate honey cake, but it must be the cafe's secret. The blueberry shake also looks good - I was just looking at some smoothie recipes, but I usually don't think of them in the winter.

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  5. Thank you so much for sharing aspects of your life! I was particularly interested in the chalice pendant...what an intresting history. That cake and blueberry shake sure looked and sounded yummy!!!
    Maria from Australia

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  6. I'm glad you all liked it!
    The cake must be the café's secret, but I guess you could approximate it by baking a chocolate cake filled with butter cream sweetened by honey... The top layer is spread with the cream and topped with "crumbles" of the cake.
    And I could have blueberry milkshake any time of the year. :-)

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