Better late than never

My post is late today because we've just returned from the Gold Coast. We had a call from Kerry late yesterday to tell us that Jamie was on his way to hospital after having a convulsion. He wanted us there with them. We were just about to eat dinner but jumped in the car and took off. Luckily, by the time we got there, everything had settled down and Jamie came out of hospital around 9pm. We stayed down there overnight because Kerry had to fly off to work today and we wanted to take Sunny and Jamie to his own doctor to make sure everything was okay. It is. After a delicious Sunny-cooked lunch of fish and salad, we drove back, pleased we made it through a family crisis with smiles.

Luckily, I'd already written my post and just had to add the photos.

♥♥♥

I wanted to share to beautiful gifts with you that I received recently. The first is a book given to me by one of our recent German visitors - Sasha. I had never met Sasha before but I met his mother Dagma when we lived in Hamburg in 1979 and 1980. The book is called Grandma's German Cookbook and it's filled with the most brilliant receipes for everyday German home cooking - all the things Hanno loves. Hanno's mother died shortly after we came home in the early 1980s but she did teach me how to cook kartoffel puffer, lentil soup and a few other family favourites.  This book will help me add a lot more German cuisine to our winters.

It's full of good soup recipes, as well as main meals, cakes and desserts. Just the kind of cookbook I enjoy reading. If you're interested in good hearty food, this is the book for you. It's available from these retailers.

The eBook version of Down to Earth - a guide to simple living will be published by Penguin and will be available in Australia and New Zealand next week on the 15 December. I'll have more details for you soon.

The other gift I received was this beautiful embroidery of a Carl Larsson painting. It was sent by Gerri, a long-term reader in France. I love it so much! Gerri said it's been hanging in her kitchen for many years and she wanted it to go to someone who would appreciate it. And that would be me. :- ) The stitching is done on the softest linen and every time I see it I want to touch it. 

Gerri stitched it herself and from the look of it, it must have taken a very long time. I'll be having it framed soon and will then hang it on our wall here, many miles away from where it originated. Thank you again Gerri!