Fair trade

Earlier in the week Laura suggested we go for a short walk this afternoon with her daughter's dog she's looking after for a few days. I was grateful at the time, and grateful this morning too when something came up and she changed the plan - after a busy week gadding about (ie. attending to medical matters mostly) I was happy to swap pause rather than paws.

Instead I've been inside giving thanks for the sight of the roughed up sea and the writhing trees and the sound of the roaring wind. I've been grateful for completing some important little tasks like making lentil stew and cleaning the loo and falling asleep on the sofa (grateful for those pause and rewind buttons again!) and for doing a bit of sewing and knitting though it does make my arms ache afterwards and typing rather hard...

Now I've eaten a bowl of stew I have to give thanks for one day experimenting with spices and coming up with paprika and garam masala as a combination, they really do taste good together! Gratitude too for the Co-op's Fair Trade rooibosch tea which to me tastes nicer than all the others, even the ones that have been around far longer. Pretty much all the Fair Trade products I've tried taste better than their presumably less fairly traded counterparts. Could it be they're produced with more love/willingness/enthusiasm? Who knows... My enthusiasm for cooking has run to a crumble but I think I'll either have the energy to eat it or wash up not both. I'm grateful the solution to this choice should not be hard...unless I've made a horrid crumble of course!