This love of Ours

Any house looks better by the presence of flowers

A city can be distinguished by its standing towers

Crops will flourish if there is a sufficient rain showers

And thus dear, is the same to “This love of ours”

Let’s put flowers to our love meat

And add towers to make it stand firm and fit

Plus the rain showers to make it clean and neat

For you can’t sow rice to harvest some wheat.

This love of ours is of great value

And a kiss always means “How are you?”

Let’s avoid big mouths, so we can’t argue

Then love of ours could stand even in Dafur.

Your love to me means a lot

For it clearly keeps my feelings hot

Let’s pray that it’ll never be cut short

As we live in each others strong love fort

To match you my love there is none

I’ll say this in time of trouble or fun

I’ve never loved any other woman

Like the way I love you my sweet hun.

So, let’s fortify our love

And each other being ready to serve

As pullet taken care by the mother-dove

Only then can we overcome any hurdle or curve.

This love of ours, dearly is the best,

To both of us, the other comes first,

We have endured n won countless life tests…

Now its time for us to enjoy our love, n have a rest….

Kheri Mbiro © 2009, February 26^th.

Crafty yet Classy

Interior decor doest have to be as expensive as we think it should be. We often see nice vases that cost like thousands and we cant afford. Ever thought of making something straight from your backyard? You probably have but you keep on thinking "where the heavens do I start from". It's just creativity and you are good to go...

So now, are you ready to roll with me, tiihihihhihi, but of course I know you are.
Buy/make a pot out of mud and decorate it however, maybe draw a few patterns and let it dry. Once it dries you can paint it, the color of your choice to suit you taste. Let it dry and and your pot/vase is ready.

Now, the flowers...It's easy. You don't need to go and buy plastic flowers so that they can stay for long. Here is an idea, get small branch -like sticks(you can get outside your house or a nearby tree make sure they are dry) and paint them the color of your choice, it could be red, yellow, green mixed then let them dry.

The next bit of flowers, take your broom whether grass -like or stick -like, cut them to a level size and put aside. There you go, now you have flowers and a vase. Put the colored sticks and the broomsticks in your vase then place it at your favourite place.

Voila! Affrordable yet classy, creative and crafty vase made with your own hands.

I did one myself and it's awesome, everybody thinks its worth thousands!. lol. Have fun!

Split Peas (dengu)

Last Saturday was a good day... For the first time I made split peas (dengu) and they came out splendid. At least everyone who tasted liked them. Amazing! Here is the recipe, try it out!

½ a kilo split peas

3 cups water

1 big onion chopped

1 teaspoon garlic paste

1 teaspoon ginger paste

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon coriander

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon white pepper

Procedure

Boil the split peas, till tender but not so tender, to avoid it being over cooked.

In another saucepan fry onions till translucent then add the ginger and garlic paste.

Stir fry for about 2 minutes then add salt, turmeric, cumin, coriander and white pepper.

Let it simmer for 2 minutes while stirring then add the split peas without water.

By now you should be feeling the nice aroma from your food. Keep on turning after every 2 minutes for 10 minutes.

There you go! Your sauce is ready.

Serve with chapati or rice.

Enjoy!!!

Eggplant (Biringanya) and Peas

We are used to having our eggplants in meat. It becomes monotonous having to eat them when they are in the stews, they don't give the taste as it's supposed to be. You end up loosing the stew's taste as well as the eggplant's taste.

We end up loosing the nutrients when the eggplants are boiled for too long.

So, here is a recipe that will ensure you have all the nutrients, more tasty and not monotonous than what we are used to. Give it a try, its incredible.

1 cup peas

2 big Eggplants(biringanya)

3 Cups water

1 ½ Big Onion

1 Big Tomato

1 teaspoon Tomato Paste

¼ cup Cooking Oil

½ teaspooon Tumeric

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cumin

5 Peppercorns (Optional)

Dhania/Coriander

Procedure

In a pan bring the peas to boil till soft.

 

Cut the 'biringanyas' in small pieces and set aside.

In another saucepan, fry the cumin and turmeric. Add the onions and stir fry till translucent before adding the tomatoes. Let them simmer for several minutes till soft then add the salt and tomato paste.

Add in the biringanyas, stir to avoid them sticking on the saucepan. Let them simmer till soft then add the boiled peas with very little water.

Crush fresh peppercorns( optional) just before you remove it from the heat. 

Garnish with dhania.

Serve hot with rice or chapati.

Maya Angelou- Global Renaissance Woman

Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.
Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou was raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. In Stamps, Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture.
As a teenager, Dr. Angelou’s love for the arts won her a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School. At 14, she dropped out to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor. She later finished high school, giving birth to her son, Guy, a few weeks after graduation. As a young single mother, she supported her son by working as a waitress and cook, however her passion for music, dance, performance, and poetry would soon take center stage.
In 1954 and 1955, Dr. Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows and, in 1957, recorded her first album, Calypso Lady. In 1958, she moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, acted in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks and wrote and performed Cabaret for Freedom.
Dr. Angelou has read and studied voraciously, mastering French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language Fanti. While in Ghana.
With the guidance of her friend, the novelist James Baldwin, she began work on the book that would become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Published in 1970, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published to international acclaim and enormous popular success. The list of her published verse, non-fiction, and fiction now includes more than 30 bestselling titles.
A trailblazer in film and television, Dr. Angelou wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia. Her script, the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Dr. Angelou has served on two presidential committees, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and has received 3 Grammy Awards. Dr. Angelou has received over 30 honorary degrees and is Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
Dr. Angelou’s words and actions continue to stir our souls, energize our bodies, liberate our minds, and heal our hearts.

http://mayaangelou.com/bio/

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

I was looking through my favourite poems by my favourite poets and I came accross this one...I hope it will motivate and inspire your day as it has mine.


You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.