Fermenting Goodness

  This morning

my sister shows me how to fill the preserving jars I bought from Lakeland ( I love that shop - all those wonderful cooking gadgets I don't need  - I should have shares in it) with the  fermenting red cabbage, carrot and fennel sauerkraut that I started the other day. And the ingenious trick of keeping the air out with a plastic bag filled with water and plopped on the surface to create a seal in the jar.

All in the good cause of supporting the delicate and recovering microbiome in my gut.

While the icy rain drenches the garden and the birds outside, we sit at the table in the warm kitchen, and she helps me to fill out a questionnaire in preparation for a Feng Shui consultation that I'm having in a few weeks ...about the house. 

I feel that it may need some energetic healing....and me too ...and some support and advice about my still uncertain plans to make it into my home.

Tricky questions to answer like:

" How would you describe your present physical, mental and emotional well being?"

Answer : Wobbly.

And

"How do you feel about your home?"

Answer : Unsettled.

And easy questions like:

"What gives you your greatest joy and support in life?"

Answer: My family and friends.

Being surrounded by beauty and nature.

And cooking for loved ones.

I've been thinking a lot about my parents recently. 

It is my turn in the family to be the guardian of three of their possessions for a while. I have known this pair of beautiful little horses, made by Wade China, all my life. I can't remember the story of them - maybe they were a wedding present -  but they have lived on every mantle piece wherever my parents lived for all of their lives.

 They aren't valuable but apart from one broken ear they are still perfect.

 As a child I had a collection of tiny Wade China animals including some Disney characters like Thumper the rabbit and  Bambi, the fawn, and a baby seal and polar bear, still in their little hat boxes. I wish I'd kept them. I'm sure you can buy them on Ebay now for a few pounds.

 But I have my parents' sweet horses instead  - a much more evocative link to my childhood... and the story of their lives.

The other link to my parents is this fine glass figurine of the Madonna which, like the pair of horses, has also lived on every mantlepiece in every house in every country they lived for as long as I can remember. And now she stands on my mantlepiece, guardian of my hearth - for now anyway -  and may be she is what I need to help me decide what to do about the fireplace.

Like my fermenting vegetables I can trust that some magic is bubbling away below the surface and all goodness will show itself when the time is right.