topped off by this

To complete our little holiday I handed over the little people to my parents and headed to a cooking class held by one of my most favourite bloggers, Amber from Mindfully Green.
Amber is one passionate human, passionate about eating well, being gentle to the planet, raising and loving awesome children and passionate about her love for her beautiful partner Fritz. She is also on a mission, a mission to gently educate and inform the masses, one workshop at a time, her workshops include everything from skin care, cheese making, the joys of fermentation to eating with the seasons.  It is always a delight to connect with people, but to find a spark in blogland and then witness as it quickly ignites to moments of mutual admiration and declarations of commonality and then affection, is not only pretty surreal but also totally wonderful.
So you can imagine my delight when I realised that one of Amber's Wholefood cooking classes coincided with my trip to the Coast, we would get to actually meet and eat together, whoa.
In the class we discussed warming winter meals and ingredients, marvelled at the wonders of turmeric (so amazing it even helps to heal cuts), shared wholefood journeys, waxed lyrical about the wonders of kombucha and looked at what steps can be taken to change the way in which the majority of people eat and view food, the environment and health. All this, whilst sipping tea and devouring a delicious red lentil soup, complete with grated beetroot, black sesame seeds and yoghurt and then savouring the warming delight of millet porridge.

But just quietly, my most favourite moment of the day was when I walked in the room and spied Amber talking to someone, she looked up, our eyes met, our grins widened and we quickly embraced, emerging from Blogworld into real world and realising that the connection that had been created in was real, tangible and more than a little special.

Oh and speaking about specialness in the form of blog friends coming to 'real' life, in a week or so we will be heading up north to Mullumbimby to catch up with the lovely Nikki again, oh I can't wait, there has been talk of a bonfire, multitudes of children, deliciousness and the mandatory overload of embraces. 

To connect and hold connection are both wonderful and at times very difficult things, but my heart does swell when I feel that bit of magic with special folk, folk to me, that hold intimacy dear and cherish the journeys that come along with the openness of the self. I admit to struggling and at times holding back in fear of hurt or judgement but then I can't resist, it is the beauty of life and in turn makes so much possible. 

Oh and for those couple of lovelies interested, I just added one extra photo to my last post, i couldn't resist, it is of the beautiful and oh so grown up Jenna, having a read and a snuggle with Poe and Ilo.