Poetry Saturday . . . I met a man . . .

I met a man in love with life,
Who felt the magic of the world,
Whose heart thrilled to the commonplace,
Smoke from a chimney lightly curled,
The blue upon the distant hills,
The blessed gold of daffodils.



His eyes beheld the rainbow's hue,
And marvelled at the sky's clear blue,
A clump of marigolds . . . a tree,
The golden wonder of a bee.
A woven nest against the eaves,
The scarlet tracery of leaves.



He loved to see the shadows crawl,
Along a quiet garden wall,
As night was settling on the town;
He loved a dog's soft coat of brown,
The furry warmth against his skin,
A kinship you could almost see.



He loved his church and found therein,
A sweet forgiveness of all sin;
A happy man in love with life;
Proud of his children, and his wife,
Taking the day for what it brought,
And clothing it, in happy thought.



A man in love with Simple things,
Who wouldn't trade his lot with kings.
~Edna Jaques, Fireside Poems



I hope you've enjoyed the poem and the pictures I have shared here this morning. They are all pictures that I took at Scotney Castle several years ago. That was a place that Todd and I loved to go. It was breathtakingly beautiful any time of the year and it was no small wonder it was known as one of England's most romantic gardens! With a beautiful moated castle surrounded by beautiful gardens it was a place we frequently visited.

Yesterday we popped off to one of the trading estates close by to pick up a new mouse for the laptop. I can't get on with the mouse pad on the laptop. It is ok for some things, but I like a real mouse for most things and the mouse I had was beginning to cock up! Anyways we found one in the Curry's shop and then I said to Todd, lets have a look at the mobile phones. I wanted to upgrade at some point to a more modern phone that you could do e-mail and such on. We couldn't find the phones but a nice young lad kindly directed us to the area where they were and we were looking and I was pointing out the different features etc. Then a sales person came over and started to talk to us and he told us he could give us this really wow phone for free, and not only that . . . he could give us £150 cash in hand for my old phone! To make a long story short, we walked out of there with not only a new mouse, but a great new phone and a Nintento Wii Sport system so that I can whoop Todd's arse at bowling and such, and all we paid for was the mouse! I am on a phone contract, but I was anyways, so that's no biggie. I have a new mobile phone number now though, so if you had my old one, it won't work , and I need to send you my new one. E-mail me!

We are supposed to have a heat wave starting today. I'm not sure about that, but Todd and I are going to be optomistic and go to Llangollen this afternoon for a walk and a drink, while my knee is behaving pretty well. (Here's hoping it lasts for a bit longer this time.) We might even take Mitzie, depending on if it is showery or not. If it is showery we won't because if it starts to rain we will want to pop inside and we can't do that with a dog in tow!!

I'll probably pop something into the slow cooker for our tea, something like this delicious bean dish here today. SO easy to make and quite delicious! You can't really find the Great Northern Beans over here in the UK, but no worries, I used tinned haricot beans, which work out very well! You could actually use any mixture of tinned beans and it always tastes great. I've even used chickpeas! If you want a heartier dish, add some browned beef or turkey mince and some sliced smoked sausage! Delicious!!



*Slow Cooker Tex Mex Beans*
Makes 14 (1/2 cup) servings
Printable Recipe

Hearty and delicious. You will want to serve these with some warm cornbread or a crusty loaf to sop up all of that delicious sauce!

2 (15 1/2 ounce) tins of great northern beans, drained and rinsed
2 (15 1/2 ounce) tins of black beans, drained and rinsed
8 fluid ounces of tomato sauce (tomato passata)
1 (4 1/2 ounce) tin of chopped green chilies
3/4 cup of your favourite barbeque sauce
3/4 cup of chunky tomato salsa
1/4 cup soft light brown sugar, firmly packed

Combine all the ingredients in a 3 1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker. Mix together well. Cover and cook on low for at least 4 1/2 hours, until the flavours are well blended and heated through. Delicious!

Note: you can make it heartier by adding some well browned minced beef, and or sliced smoked sausage!



Baking in The English Kitchen today, a delicious Oatmeal Cake!