Ten Million Changes Everything

Learn abundantly: This film-making lark is addictive. Like my fellow learner, Raffa, I go home and go over scenes and shots in my head all night. I have successfully edited my first very short film, nearly 4 minutes long, with two of my fellow learners, Raffa (from Italy) and Damian (from Scotland) acting, and with myself as well playing a very small role, and two others we dragged in as actors. The three of us, (Raffa, Damian and I) separately edited the footage, so we have three separate films with the same story. It is so much fun! My edition of the movie is called Ten Million Changes Everything. I love it!! I have converted it to DVD and watched it on the upstairs DVD player and it works. Fantastic. If I could find a way to upload it somewhere, I would, but it is possibly too large a file. But no doubt an idea about how to do it will come from somewhere.

New giftmaking in progress

Love uniquely: We're making calendars for our loved ones this year. They are very groovy. They are for getting organised and are similar to the ones that Flylady (www.flylady.net) sells but are designed for us in the southern hemisphere. We're not making them all in one go, that would tire us out and detract from the pleasure. Instead we are making them in three months at a time and will feature my fonts, our drawings, and our own recipes (yum, Taryn's zucchini Chocolate cake) and also garden reminders suitable for our seasons. We can put in quotes, drawings, proverbs and anecdotes relating to the season as we'll be in that season when we are working on it. Fantastic. I so love these ideas we have, and we have all year to get pleasure from our unique Christmas gift-making and giving rituals.

Below is a recipe we will include for the month of January, which will help use the surplus zucchinis in everyone's gardens. Beautiful summer. (We are also having something chocolatey for February being the month of lurve.)
Taryn's Zucchini Chocolate cake
125g butter
1 1/2 c sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 c flour
1 t vanilla
1/2 c milk
1/4 c cocoa
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
350g grated zucchini

Line a 25cm cake tin with butter paper. Cream the butter with the sugar until light and creamy with a mixer or food processor. Add one egg one at a time, with a spoonful of the measured flour to prevent the mixture curdling. Add the vanilla and milk, mixing well. Sift the dry ingredients together. Stir in, with the grated zucchini. Bake at 170°C 45 mins.