I can proof it - men are hunters and women are gatherers!! The evidence was very clear this morning when I woke up. But let me give you some background information first.

We love venison - we meaning my husband, me and the dogs. Oh yes, and venison biltong for my son David. So every year, my hubby goes hunting to fill our freezer and satisfy our craving for free-range, antibiotic-fee venison biltong. Now before you start getting all upset and angry at him for doing such a cruel thing - he is a professionally trained hunter, does not wound any game and only shoots by foot (never from the back of a bakkie or at night). So he is ethical, he is a superb shot, and no animal ever suffers. He also just shoot enough for us to eat, never for trophies or for fun.

So this is the hunter bit - my husband the man - has gone hunting with other hunter men.

Now comes the gathering bit, and no, I did not walk barefoot through the cold winter Delmas landscape to gather berries and little bits of unidentified fruits and bulbs. I gathered bits of my wardrobe from the front lawn!

My big, big puppy must have a transvestite gene in him, because he took out all my hair creations and tried them on. And he did not stop there - no!!! he also had to try on some shoes. Obviously furious because he could not get the look just right, he destroyed the offending bits of feathers, fabric and bling.

I wanted to be angry, but it is only bits stuff after all, so I just laughed instead. Please look at that quilty face!

There is one good thing about winter, and that is that the lemon tree in my backyard is fully pregnant and bearing wonderful, sour, fragrant lemons.

So tonight I include 3 cookie recipes made with lemon, and although I do not eat cookies - they look nice and everybody else love them. So go on - look on the sour side of life and bake some winter sunshine cookies.

Cookie 1: Lemon icebox cookies (so called becasue you freeze the dough before you bake them)

Cookie 2: Lime-glazed cookies (ok - i do nto ahve a lime tree so it is lemon-glazed cookies)

Cookie 3: Glazed Citrus Cookies (they have orange and lemon in them)

Since hubbie is in the bush HUNTING - I GATHERED all my scrapbooking goodies and did 3 of my challenges last night. 

Two of them came from http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/gallery/projects/challenges/. I had to do a page using the colour combination of green and pink, and decided to use an old picture of my husband and his sister while they were kids. Old photo's have such a special appeal to me, so I love this page.

The second one had the theme of an old postage stamp, so again used an old black and white photo of a rondawel in the Kruger park.

And then again - my favourite challenge currently and one I cannot wait to do every week comes from http://embers.typepad.com/e/mini_art_journal_challenge/page/6/. This week's challenge for card 2 was to create a card about something that I find powerful. I know it might be a bit morbid for some of you, but I think death is so powerful. it is a transformation of one type of energy into another type of energy. it is a transformational process and it fascinates me. I have worked with lots of dying people, I have sat next to my mother's deathbed, and although it is a very sad and heartbreaking event, it is also a beautiful and necessary transformation.

I have used another old picture I found in an antique photo album I bought at an auction. In the old days people use to take photo's of the dead and for me this is a very powerful and exquisite photo. The power of death makes me feel powerful and alive.

Lots of lovies
Lizette