Athena

Antidote for mental health problem

“The Ecominds project run by the UK mental health charity Mind gave 12,000 people with mental health problems the opportunity to get active outdoors; 70% of these people experienced significant increase in mental well-being by the time they had finished their project” – royal horticulture society

Gardening like mindfulness- a way of finding calm in chaotic world

The new economics foundations defined 5 evidence based way to mental well being

1) connection with others

2) being more active

3) keep learning

4) giving to others

5) taking notice of the world

Take time to practice mindfulness with gardening, take your brain off auto pilot. Start living now.

salty lunch and pan cake breakfast

I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time frying pan cake for breakfast. That’s probably 60 mins of my time, 360 seconds and Thankfully I’ve got good reviews from my daughter who appreciates food. Spread salted butter and smear honey on the pancakes and you’ll taste something heavenly. I actually just ate a piece of freshly fired pancake that tastes of egg mixed and nice smelling flour.

Oven bake salmon with extremely salty Spaghetti aglio e olio

This morning, I spent my morning life on a trip to the market. To buy not only sea caught prawns (S$16/kg) and salmon that sets me off S$25. Even though the price of supermarket fish is on discount, I found it suspiciously fake in orange dye.

Do you know, farmed salmon is grey in colour? “Since consumers don’t want gray salmon, farmers feed these fish a supplement called astaxanthin, which gets absorbed into their flesh and makes them pink. “ pEta

I’ve learned so much about buying fish. Now our food supply chain is not that safe anymore. Have you considered eating less meat? For me, I honestly can’t forgo meat and instead, grow vegetables my own in a small tiny balcony.

Wait what? I’ve achieved 100 views

After starting this blog for not too long, my garden turned into a jungle. Recently my sunflowers bloomed. I took one to my mom’s to cheer her up.

Two sunflowers one for mom and one for me and a three head one

Small achievements are great if you don’t expect much for your garden.

Then I started another round of seeding my plants and they grew. Many died in my hands and I thank them for the sacrifices they made to increase my knowledge. I’ve found that seed starting trays are useful. They have gone through many rounds of giving birth to tiny plants. Then once these young plants are sturdy enough, I’ll transplant them into hydroponics station. Sometimes it works and sometimes it don’t. If I transplant them too early, the plants died. So I did the transplant when they have a lot of tiny leaves.

Do you know, Dr. Benjamin Rush, the “Father of American Psychiatry,” said that plants can help you heal? Not the exact words. Perhaps I could learn about building one to help others.

At this age, I’m a parent and also a child to my parent. What about you?

Goodbye things, welcome sustainability

Welcome sustainability. If you are a clutter ex-addict, donate your things away.

Over the last may weeks of your life you may collect all things which (1) tried to impress people (2) impulse purchase during sales (3) thought that someone will need that and purchase as a gift (4) ought back something because you are a tourist (5) gently used item that no longer fit (6) outdated electronics items etc. Here are three boxes in Singapore you can contribute to sustainability and a minimalist lifestyle.

Givers, a little generosity help others and the earth. I struggle to throw away good things so alternatively, giving is next to throwing. If you want to throw, make the life of the item useful by not polluting earth and think of the smile you can bring for those who badly needed an item. Not everyone has a good bed to sleep in and shoes to fit.

How Not to make sushi with tiger prawn

If I see such sushi in a sushi restaurant, I will run 5 miles away
Daughter

When your head hits the pillow tonight, remind yourself that you’ve done a good job. You are headed down your path at your own pace, and with every obstacle you are trying your utmost best. Be patient with yourself, and remember that big things are achieved not all at once, but one day at a time.
– Nicole Addison

Garlic linguine with prawns and squid

Ingredients for 6-7 pax

2 tsp. dried parsley
600 g shrimps or prawn ($10/kg) ~ s$6
2 squids ($16/kg) ~ S$5.5
12 cloves of garlic (generous amount)
3/4 tsp. seasoned salt
500 g fettuccine or angel hair pasta (cooked and drained)
200 g kale (home grown)
2 tsp. dried basil, crushed (home grown)
500g fettuccine or linguine or angel hair pasta (cooked and drained) S$2.10
Sides – grilled teriyaki salmon ~S$12.40

Procedure

Combine shrimp with olive oil, garlic and toss to coat shrimp evenly.
Heat a large, nonstick skillet over medium high heat, then add shrimp and squid. Cook them 3 minutes until pink and just firm. Remove shrimp and squid to a warm platter.
Return pan to heat and reduce heat to medium low. Add 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil. Add, garlic, and pepper flakes to oil.
Toss spaghetti in the pan with parsley and the garlic oil, then season with a little coarse salt, to your taste. Add spaghetti water when pasta is too dry. Top servings of garlic and oil spaghetti with shrimp and squid and serve with grill teriyaki salmon.
Be prepared for an intense aroma

wabi Sabi

Wabi-sabi is the view or thought of finding beauty in every aspect of imperfection in nature. It is about the aesthetic of things in existence, that are “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. Wabi-sabi is also deeply influenced by the teaching of the Buddha and its school of thought can be interlinked with Buddhist thinking. It is essentially a concept or ideology that comes from the ‘Buddhist teaching’ of the three marks of existence that are namely “impermanence” (mujō), suffering (ku) and emptiness or absence of self-nature (kū)”.
https://www.kyoto-ryokan-sakura.com/archives/191

My pot is a bowl with a tiny crack. The tiny stones

Wabi expresses simplicity, flaw, imperfection and impermanence. I like the shape of bowl and the different stones of different size. It’s the inconsistency that makes the display authentic.

Similarly,