planet vegan scotland

Got home from work yesterday to find the builder has started and my damaged w...

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:29:23 GMT

Got home from work yesterday to find the builder has started and my damaged wall is now in a skip. It is good to see it made safe.

I'm going to Balloch this afternoon to the Lomond Folk Festival. I'll hear t...

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:28:19 GMT

I'm going to Balloch this afternoon to the Lomond Folk Festival. I'll hear the Electrics this evening. It will be good.

potatoes

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:46:30 GMT

pink and white tatties

Never before have we had so many of these beautiful apples of the Earth. Pull a stem and reach into the ground for tuber after tuber – the plot is full of them Weather conditions have no doubt contributed to this abundant harvest but I’ve also been a more diligent waterer on dry days. Sunshine finds me standing at the well, filling cans with the water so rich in iron it smells of metal. Plants love it. Potatoes are thirsty roots.

…and we do love these pots: in salads with mayo and chives; as a side dish with marg and parsley and in soups with kale and onion from the garden too

Christmas without Cruelty Edinburgh 2005

wild garlic

cooking and coast

Vegan woo hoo's and other stuff

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:28:23 GMT

I've had my eye on a pair of skullcandy headphones for a while now, but I wasn't sure if the earpads were leather or not, so i wrote to the company and got no reply, So I googled it and found a thread on a forum where someone did the same thing and also got no reply. Luckily another answer to their thread came from a peron who's friend works for the comapny ( and is also a Vegan) and said all but one pair of headphones are are synthetic. So a big woo hoo! from me because I realy,really want these ones. I'm terrible with earphones as I always manage to break them, I wrap the cable round the ipod so it must break it inside. So I've been using poundland ones but the sound is not worthy of my ipod so I'm going to splurge and get a set that I can't wind up round it. These are them

the other vegan woo hoo! Is that jammie dodgers are now vegan so emm woo hoo!

I was doing my scribe gig today and got a bit of a shock from Nicky. We were in the student union having a slush puppie when she pointed to one of the guy's who works there and said "He dosn't look like a student here" I asked "Why" her reply was "he dosen't look bright enough" I was shocked! and said something alone the lines of "that's a terrible thing to say" and then I said "I though your lot (meaning christians) were all for peace and love and loving your neighbour as your brother" her reply was "We don't always practise what we preach". That poor guy did nothing to her, said nothing to her yet she just attacked him anyway. At least when Jesus called people "dogs" etc he had a reason.

Amanda Donohoe is leaving Emmerdale!!! This is very sad news, the Dales were lacking posh totty since Zoe left all those years ago so she filled the void nicely. Check out previous posts for AD ramblings and to see the photo of me and her together ( don't like that pic of me however!)

Here

photo

I was standing in WHsmith reading an interview with her in what I think was Womens weekly ( It was an old lady mag anyway) and she said she wants to go back to the stage. So heres hoping that's what she does, since I saw her in the Graduate and in Manchester when she was in Miss Julie so it would be nice to go and see her live again.

Another guest has been announced for Invasion. It's Clea Duvall. Who was in Hereo's ( when that was a good show) ,Carnivale and was the invisable girl in Buffy. But more importantly she was in the movie "But I'm Cheerleader" playing a Lesbian called Graham. Why would you call your daughter a boys name and then be suprised when she says she gay? Here's the trailer.

Off to Javids for dinner tomorrow. David is picking me up in Lenzie, Jason is cooking and then David is taking me home later. Will be an awesome night, haven't seen them since they came back from America, where they went to Washington DC. I want to find out if they saw CJ Cregg anywhere.

I cant decide whether I like the BBC Sherlock or not. It took me two days to watch it which means i might not like it all that much. Its just I find him (Sherlock) to be to much of a smart arse. He's like a British Patrick Jane ( The Mentalist) and I stopped watching that cause of him annoying me. I don't like the idea that someone can tell you know all about you when he has only just met you. Amd I don't like that he is almost always right, except the Harry for Harriet thing ( that was funny) Still there are only 2 more in the series so I'll probebly just watch them.

I've got my programme organised for Thursday evening on http://www.celticmusi...

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:19:58 GMT

I've got my programme organised for Thursday evening on http://www.celticmusicradio.net/ I hope you will listen at 8.00 pm

Notorious Kitsch

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:56:58 GMT

are these for me? no...

I was a very lucky girl recently on twitter and won a retweeting competition from Notorious Kitsch! My chosen goodies are above (and no, Willow will not be having her dinner off them ), they have lots of other gorgeous retro things including clocks, phones, aprons, bags, cards etc. It was hard to pick

sew and save mug

Roadhouse Cafe Plates:

the Red Hen Grill

The Starving Turtle

Vespa Mugs

mainly sudoku

spring

festive madness

sweet things

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:45:07 GMT

Alpro soya milks and puddings

Have been sent some Alpro goodies to try We do like their soya milk. The only one I didn’t know about was the ‘milk alternative’ suitable from 1 year old. Lots of extra vitamins and iron in it (and surprisingly nice in nocaf!). The chocolate puddings are lush lush lush…

Blackcurrant smoothies, there have been a few more – here’s a before pic Layered up are borage flowers, gooseberries, blackcurrants, leaf beet, parsley, linseeds (flax), brazil nuts, bananas and apple juice.

smoothie to be

sweet red onion from garden - very pleased with these

blackcurrant cake - currants cooked in batter and raw squished into icing too

also made some banana muffins with lots of redcurrants in – no pic but very good

Charlotte's strawberry jam bubbling on cooker - taking 'sweet' to new levels!!

raw mom summit

woods, hands, feet, bread and soup…

catkins and cheeze

RT @dracos: Ooh, plotting boundaries on e.g. Google Maps now as easy as maps....

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:19:41 GMT

RT @dracos: Ooh, plotting boundaries on e.g. Google Maps now as easy as maps.google.co.uk/... :) <-- possible thx to www.mysociety.org/...

Today was really good. A great time of worship at Loch Lomond and seeing my ...

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:40:46 GMT

Today was really good. A great time of worship at Loch Lomond and seeing my son baptised was wonderful. A great day overall

I hope this sunshine stays and I can enjoy the weekend. My son is getting ba...

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:48:28 GMT

I hope this sunshine stays and I can enjoy the weekend. My son is getting baptised on Sunday so I'll be there and really pleased for him

Stolen Alligators and Strawberries

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:43:29 GMT

Had my scribing job today, we just went to the the uni library. It went well we wrote a Sermon on Immigration, Nicola is very much against the Coalition governments plan to cap it. The sermon was pretty much saying that God would be against this decision and she stated passages of the bible. It was interesting. I think that's the job over with for the summer but she's offered me a permanent gig for term time at a whopping £12 an hour, she stated it will probably be about 8 hours a week. At first I was a bit worried that she'll be basiclly letting an idiot type up her essays but even if my punctuation etc was perfect she would still need to proof read it before handing it in, so I'm worried no longer.

We will need to meet up before term starts to try and sneek an Alligator back into the Theology dept. Not a real one obviously cause that would be silly. The Minister of her church graduated from Glasgow and one day just decide to steal the Alligator and has since taken it round most of the churches in Scotland for photo's ops ( much like my mum and dad do with one of my "My little ponies". Now he wants her to give it back! So she thought of leaving it in one of the toilet bowls lol but I said we should just take it to the office and say we caught him trying to ring the doorbell. So who know's how we'll manage to sneek this Alligator back. Will keep you posted.

I've discovred a new use for my Bananna guard. It can take 6 strwaberries. Just thought I'd share that with you all.

I made a new wallpaper. It's a celebration of susan Dallion AKA Siouxsie Sioux. Lyrics from my fave Banshees song "sin in my heart". I've left a bit too much room for desktop icons mind you.

RT @das05r: URIs for every UK railways station, including postcodes, now at s...

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:26:41 GMT

RT @das05r: URIs for every UK railways station, including postcodes, now at stable URIs here: http://data.ld.is/ <-- one for you @crowbot?

RT @jeremylimb: How can anyone mention 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' i...

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:56:56 GMT

RT @jeremylimb: How can anyone mention 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' in the same breath as 'Everybody's Got Something to Hide Exc ...

a blackcurrant smoothie

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:06:32 GMT

blackcurrants

Very blackcurranty and lovely, makes a big jug (about 3 and a half pints, good for 4 people, quantities very adjustable):

lots of blackcurrants, about a quarter blender jugful

lots of borage flowers (optional)

huge bunch of parsley

a handful of brazil nuts

1 banana

1 avocado

1 apple

1 litre of orange juice

Blitz it all in a blender…

enjoy in the sun

toasties and art

green

getting better all the time...

A good day today. I've chosen the music for my show tomorrow on www.celticmu...

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:52:19 GMT

A good day today. I've chosen the music for my show tomorrow on www.celticmusicradio.net Listen at eight o'clock

SAAS n stuff

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:05:48 GMT

Wonderful SAAS ( Student award agency peeps) given me a bursary of £1000, apparently this is a new thing they've started for certain students who qualify. So woo hoo looks like i'm going to Invasion after all. I got the letter in today and panicked a bit, because I did my usual and didn't read it properly. They are paying it in instalments with £100 a month. Silly billy me thought that, that was what I was getting as a grant and was all How the hell I'm I going to survive on £100, I can't even get my zonecard for that". It wasn't till I phoned them, regarding a different matter, that I found out I'm silly. I live in lolly land most of the time, so reality confuses me.

I went into Glasgow today, for a wee wander round the shops. Was meant to meet Angella but she couldn't get a babysitter so I was on my own some. Other than boring toiletries I bought a DVD for the grand sum of £1, it's called "The last supper" basically it's about a group of pretentious students who have a weekly dinner party with an invited guest and if that guest doesn't agree with their opinions then they kill them. If only Come dine with me was like that. It's a film from the 90's and has Cameron Diaz in it, it's one of the few movies i actually like, that has her in it. Javid and I were talking about this movie the last time they were round, so it's bizarre that I find a copy, especially since it's not well known.

Ive fianlly been able to watch the new V, thanks to a site on the Internet. Sadly not been able to see the first 2 eps, well I saw about a minute of the 1st one. but from 3 onwards had me hooked ( and not just because of the hotness of Elizabeth Mitchell, well of course I would comment of the babe factor, it wouldn't sound like my blog if i didn't) The writers have teched up the idea from the 80'version plus they got rid of those god awful sunglasses ( fashion is important people, regardless of whether you are really a reptile in cloned human skin or not) I'm a bit disturbed by the woman who plays head "V" Anna ( new Diana equivalent)as she looks like, to me anyway, the female version of one of my favourite actors a guy called Micheal Cera

I've had to download most of the eps to my hardrive as my Internet chucks a hissy fit at night and refuses to play videos without stopping to rebuff every 3 seconds. Now ( having seen the show) I will be able to actually know what people are talking about at Invasion in May.

I've also been watching Spartacus: Blood and sand online too. Well I've only seen the first episode so far. It wouldn't be fair to make a full judgment on the first episode but plenty of violence, plenty of sex and a little Lucy Lawless so whats not to like? Just kidding. I was kinda shocked by the level of violence, which is strange as I'm Xenite and that's a pretty violent show. But this one is bloody, spurty bloody but in a 300 type way. There's also a heck of a lot of nudity like full frontal nudity but it's just the women, so that's not fair,I hope that balance is re-dressed as the series goes on, not that I have a desire to see any naked people on my TV mind you. And I could do without the use "C" word but other than all of that I actually thought it was okay and will get round to watching the rest at some point.

100% unit test coverage for mr sisyphus on table 12 please

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:32:32 GMT

100% unit test coverage for mr sisyphus on table 12 please

the tale of the strawberries

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:50:33 GMT

Once upon a time a princess planted 3 tiny strawberry plants in her garden.

carefully planted in the newly created bed

They began to grow. Then, despite being guarded by a beady eyed and brave fox, they were eaten down to the quick by saucy young rabbits who were very numerous throughout that kingdom. Over the summer one of the plants recovered and produced 2 strawberries

Many years later (well, 3), many self planted runners later, this is how they looked:

a wild and mysterious forest had grown up around the fox

Rosemary and lovage were shunted to the side, still doing well at the edge of the forest (one of those stray potatoes growing among them too). And what a royal harvest there was! Big bountiful bowls for all the family several times a week

with soya cream

with a cherry on top

a strawberry from this magical garden was even purple-ised and put on a t-shirt…

purple strawberry tank top

the frog prince

Frogbert called from beside the pond, “I’ve found the golden ball that you dropped in here some time ago!”, but nobody heard as they were all too busy with their strawberry obsession

There is even a strawberry Lucy now

rhubarb, tweets and elderflowers

festive cheer :)

tatties and cookies

how does your garden grow?

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:26:18 GMT

Wildly. Freely. Abundantly. Rather similarly to Cat’s I see this morning! Sadly my courgettes are nowhere near as good as Penny’s (I’m hoping they’re late developers ).

Some very early pics from before the sun was properly up this morning:

raised bed with kale, onions, radish and some small tomatoes

the small toms are ones I took out of an organic tomato and just stuck in the ground as an experiment – they are doing amazingly well though were started off a bit late. In there are also the four surviving cabbages that I overwintered. They gave us green leaves for smoothies right through to the end of January when most of them died (very low temp was hit one night). I should have put plastic over them… gardening is a constant learning experience.

This is a long post with MANY pics so click below if you want the rest of it

raised bed of broad beans, peas, sunflowers, leeks and the odd potato

odd potatoes are everywhere in the garden grown up from layers of kitchen compost – I let most of them grow and they’re already very delicious cooked with mint and then served with marg and parsely

broad beans - pods growing about 1cm a day just now with the heat and rain

peas, best straight from the pod into your mouth

amazing kale - harvested everyday, it just continually grows back

French beans in the tyre garden (no actual beans as yet)

growbag on patio - with last years lettuce and more of the experimental toms

Leaving things in as opposed to tidying everything up for winter, while disorganisation/laziness was the reason, has proved very fruitful. We use most lettuce as cut and come again – these are similar to iceberg and leaves are frequently nabbed for sandwiches, juice and salads. Some more winter surviving lettuce:

in the cold frame, a more likely place to live through winter

the jungle of the allotment bit at bottom of garden

Lots of potatoes in there (officially this time), purple sprouting broccoli, leeks, lettuce, chickweed, some late peas, beetroot, carrots, kale, leaf beet, rhubarb, parsley and garlic.

keenly awaiting broccoli

I planted rows of leeks between most things down here and in one of the raised beds – good for biodiversity and avoidance of pests (and another wonderful winter survivor/grower). I didn’t grow these from seed but bought a pot of about 300 from a small local hardware and garden shop for £1.75. This was a rather fabulous price – when visiting a popular big garden centre I saw a set of 12 leeks there for £2.99, only very slightly larger then the potted ones I bought!

beautiful leek

flower power

Moray coast

pie and bed

Here she comes.........Miss Terry Farrell

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:03:35 GMT

I, being the fangirl that i am, got very exited the other day when I clicked a starfury link on facebook for the UK L word Convention. I had a look at all the other con's that Starfury ran and saw one called "Invasion" which is to be held in May 2011. One of the guest confirmed to appear is none other than TERRY FARRELL *swoon* so I must, come hell or high water, try to attend this convention. The other guests that are appearing I couldn't give a bugger about as I haven't seen their shows as I don't have bloomin Sky TV. The others are from Caprica and the new V but there are still 2 guest spots to be announced but I bet they will go to Firefly people, bloody Wheadon!!!!!( can you tell I still hold a grudge for him and his show firefly getting Dark Angel cancelled?) Although there is one BSG actor appering ( the guy who plays Galen) so that will be good. I already know what I want Terry to sign (nope it's not my boobs) it's a DS9 poster mag for the episode Rejoined, it's a bit tatty as it was up on my wall for years. It's not in too bad nick considering its from 1997.

Thanks to Javid I already have an autographed pic but at the con I'll be able to get my pic with her :o) and yes that is Fozzy bear at the side of the photo lol, he's attached to the wall and it would have been more trouble than it would be worth to move him.

and just for the hell of it, my action figure.

I wonder if I still have my copy of Hellraiser 3, need to have a look for that.

I've only met one Actor from DS9 and that was Chase Masterson ( Letta) and she was a doll. She's gone blonde now and it makes her look completely different, its amazing what a change of hair colour can do.

If I had to pick the other two guest anyone from the following list would be awesome.

1. Jamie Bamber ( BSG)
2. James Callis (BSG)
3. Lucy Lawless ( BSG)
4. Mary McDonall (BSG)
5. Katee Sackhoff (BSG)
6. Elizabeth mitchell ( V, okay haven't seen it but I loved ER)
7. Avery Brooks (DS9)
8. Nana Visitor (DS9, Dark Angel)
9. Alexander Sidig (DS9)
10.Colm Meaney (DS9)

new old dress!

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 19:59:27 GMT

so, about three years ago, i made a strapless dress for j’s brother’s wedding. the design included a fitted empire-line bodice and below-the-knee slightly A-line skirt with a back that ran the length of the top to bottom hems without break. it took me a long time to sketch it out but when it came to drafting the pattern and actually sewing the thing, i ran a bit short of time.

it was in the middle of our move from oxford to glasgow and we were trying to cram in as much as possible. i wore the dress for the wedding but it was hemmed with double-sided tape and never really got the attention it deserved either before, during or after the event.

since that day, it has led a sorry existence hanging in a wardrobe in j’s ma’s house. that is, until my friend sam decided to have a birthday tea party tomorrow. i decided to try and revive my forgotten friend, and turn it into something that is not only finished but also brings pleasure to wear.

i brought in the seams from the top hem to the hip by 2cm each side, and brought up the bottom hem by about 5cm, which immediately gave it a better fit. then, lacking a strapless bra, i added some straps but also included those sort-of cap sleeve/frilly things that look quite vintage and lounge-singer. this is the result:

i’m stoked with the finished article and really look forward to wearing it with some cute socks and shoes tomorrow – maybe with a flower in my hair…

cup of tea, anyone?

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 08:09:53 GMT

Tetley for Soya

I was most intrigued during the week to be offered the above product samples for review on the site. It didn’t seem likely that a major company was producing something so accommodating to vegans and non-dairy drinkers. I googled to make sure it was true… and it was: Tetley for Soya

I don’t usually drink black tea now – I’ve had two cups this year. Once when out with a friend in a cafe and then again when visiting another friend after a long day out. I sampled this however and it is rather pleasant – it looked a bit pale after brewing and soya milk poured into it and I expected it to be mild tasting, even bland. But it has a strong flavour without being bitter. Basically I think it’s rather a better quality tea than standard Tetley. Davie is a more regular tea drinker and declared it “affa fine” (English transaltion: very good/nice) Currently available in selected Tesco stores, all of them in England, going by the Tetley website!

no delicate floral teacups here

While on the subject of tea and dairy alternatives we were sent another great product a couple of weeks ago: Good Hemp Dairy Free Alternative to Milk (from the makers of Good Oil that we use all the time), which I imagine would be nice in the above tea too. I tried it in Nocaf, Dan on cereal and we both really liked it, more nutty than soya milk. According to the booklet sent with it, it’s in Waitrose and health food shops from Monday.

Good Hemp Milk

mmm

walnut cake and sheep

pressies

Gin.

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:27:30 GMT

Gin.

maturing my felonious little plans

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:32:52 GMT

maturing my felonious little plans

Chit chat

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:56:06 GMT

Been a bit slow in blogging lately, sorry folks. So what have I been up too? Well Chris, Lyndsey and McKenzie came up the other weekend. It was lovely to see them and the wee one has grown a fair bit since i last saw him. The arrived late Friday night on the Saturday we went to the pram centre in Glasgow to get a bath seat thing for well the bath, then we had a little stroll around the Forge. Sunday they went home about lunchtime. It was a nice weekend, we're going down there in September plus I can met my facebook buddy ( Katy) for a spot of tea as she doesn't live to far from Telford I don't think.

The scribing went well, I did that on Tuesday although I stayed from 12 till 16:30 we actually only really done about 2 hours of work the rest of the time we just chatted and laughed our heads off. We get on well and make each other laugh. I outed myself religions wise as she was asking questions that could really only be answered by actually mentioning my religious beliefs. She's very much like me in the sense that neither of us care what religion ( or no religion) a person is because each have their own path to follow. I probably made a bit of an arse answering some of her question as I'm not used to talking about them ( my beliefs) mostly I just blog and write on my website. I mentioned the Universal life Church She was very interested in that and liked it's multi-faith membership idea. She is also intrigued by the fact that I'm ordained in that church and can legally use the title of Reverend. It was a very interesting and informative afternoon for the both of us. Our next session is next friday. Hopefully at the Uni as it's a trek to get to Balloch.

Great news about the new series of CSI:NY, the absolutely awesome Sela Ward is getting a part woo hoo! She played House's wife in House ( like Du'h!)her character had a fling with Cuddy but Cuddy broke it off because she is in love with House. Okay some of that may be a lie but I'll let you work out what's true and what isn't.I bet Mac gets to date her, he always gets the babes well except he's never dated Stella but then he is her boss so that would be a bit weird. A picture of Sela you say, why sure I can do that.

Talking of CSI my lovely folks bought me a CSI game for the Wii the other day. I haven't played it yet ( that's tomorrows fun) but I'm rubbish at computer games, so know doubt I'll end up getting stuck at level one like I did with the CSI game for the DS, shame it isn't the same game at least then I could get stuck while watching a bigger screen.

It's official I have no cinema card anymore. It feels weird not to have it as I had it for years even when I was dole bludging scum I could afford it. My folks said they would pay it for me, but i declined after all it's a luxury not a necessity and they could but the £13:50 to better use. Besides it's only till September then I'll get it again. I'll still go to the pics obviously, I'll just need to plan ahead to afford it lol. Besides i only really want to see Toy story 3 and Salt all the rest can wait.

I emailed the people that made the Xena DVD's to complain about the season one box set. They fobbed me of by saying I should just take them back to where I got them. I got them from Play.com in 2006 so I don't think they will replace them but i may as well ask them anyway I wont lose anything.

Finally someone on youtube has put up a video of the trailer for Allison Janney's new TV show Mr Sunshine, techincally it's really Mathew Perry's show butwe'll just forget that. She plays Mathew Perry's boss. She's very funny in it, especilly towards the end when she gets scared by some clowns. See for yourself.

The Graduate!

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:18:52 GMT

When Johnny and Jane were wee, we sometimes went to the Stirling University campus to feed the ducks, coots and moorhens which inhabit the beautiful lochs there. (The other day, when I went there specially to take a photo for this blog, there were mostly swans in evidence…)

‘When you’re big, you’ll maybe come here to study!’ I told them, as I held their little hands and made sure they didn’t get too close to the water. But I just couldn’t imagine that far ahead. It’s difficult to picture your toddlers as grown-ups…

Well, two years ago Johnny graduated from the university; this year it was Jane’s turn and, after four years’ hard work, she graduated with a BA (Hons) in English Studies and History.

A proud moment for her adoring family! John, Johnny and I were there, of course!

As were Nana and Auntie Syl…

A very happy, and loving, mother and daughter…

The next day was the Graduation Ball. Our fairy tale princess didn’t have a fairy godmother, but she did have the PDSA charity shop, who, for the sum of 20 gold coins (well, they accepted a £20 note…) supplied her dress…

… and a mother who, using a crochet hook rather than a spinning wheel, magicked her a matching bag, just the right size for her camera and phone to sit side by side.

Jane had a great time at the Ball. She had a delicious vegan meal and danced a lot. Sadly, there was no Prince Charming to sweep her off her feet, but on the plus side, she didn’t have to be back by midnight (apparently she rolled in at about 3 am) and the next day she was able to lie in bed as late as she liked and didn’t have to do any housework at all!

And the day after that, it was off to the JobCentre…

The Stirling newspaper always shows photos of local graduates, naming the school each attended before university. Jane has never set foot in a school. Her photo will appear with the caption, ‘Jane Veitch from Dunblane, who was home educated, graduated from Stirling University with a BA (Hons.) in English Studies and History’.

Today’s title: The Graduate, film starring Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hofffman.

Today’s smoothie Today’s soup Today’s allotment haul: raspberries, strawberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, red gooseberries, Swiss chard, peas, yellow courgettes and green courgettes. Lovely stuff! Courgette flan is definitely on the menu tonight and John and I have decided that we’re going to have to clear a space in one of our sheds and buy another freezer!

strawberries

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:20:57 GMT

from Charlotte's garden today

a big bowl each

garden pics

honeysuckle

frog

RT @chrisblizzard: Paul Rouget gives an awesome demo of the power of HTML5+ i...

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:00:56 GMT

RT @chrisblizzard: Paul Rouget gives an awesome demo of the power of HTML5+ in Firefox (from the Mozilla Summit Science Fair) - http://b ...

Good. Firefox 4 is good enough for me to switch back from Chrome.

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:07:46 GMT

Good. Firefox 4 is good enough for me to switch back from Chrome.

Work was not too bad. Busy today but I do enjoy my job and am so pleased to ...

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:40:04 GMT

Work was not too bad. Busy today but I do enjoy my job and am so pleased to be working and have a wage.

new designs in shop

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:58:39 GMT

borage being my favourite

Great program photoshop I’ve created a few new designs for the spreadshirt shop, some based on flowers from the garden, some ballet, old pictures and still the original vegan and home ed categories too. There is an offer on from today, 12th July to 30th July (2010 for future clarification) – if you buy £40 worth of stuff you can choose a baseball cap, messenger bag or apron for free with the voucher code ADDONFREE

Other designs:

pink

little flowers

rose

ballet shoes

purple pointes

sign at Findhorn

and the old faithfuls, gorgeous...

and not a school bag

shop front here

a toolbox of lettuce

good things going on in the world

books and dancemat

Back to work tomorrow. It's been a good two weeks holiday and yet it will be...

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:48:24 GMT

Back to work tomorrow. It's been a good two weeks holiday and yet it will be good to be back in a routine.

orkney redux

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 09:45:22 GMT

we went back to orkney (again) last week. this time, with j’s mother, sister, sister’s boyfriend, and three dogs. we kept our visits to the main tourist attractions (skara brae, maeshowe, broch of gurness, tomb of the eagles) down and instead spent a lot of time on the dramatic coastlines watching for puffins, and mostly spotting fulmars and razorbills!

yesnaby:

•the yesnaby coastline looking to marwick head•

•the orkney coastline is peppered with all these amazing flowers that grow out of scree•

birsay:

•a view of the tidal causeway to mainland orkney from the brough of birsay•

•jumbled-up norse & pictish settlements on the brough of birsay•

•seabird cliffs on the brough of birsay•

•the barony mills in operation•

•vintage flour sacks•

•the drying floor (there’s a beautiful old kiln directly below that smells of woodsmoke)•

•outside the barony mills•

deerness:

•the covenanter’s memorial near mull head•

•bog cotton – not as spinnable as it looks on account of the fragility of its fibres•

•the gloup, a collapsed sea-cave that looks better the rougher the sea is, but looks amazing anyway•

marwick head:

•me wearing dutch world cup orange (hey, it’s worked so far – we’re in tonight’s final) in front of the kitchener [stitch] memorial•

•abandoned boat winches by the fisherman’s huts along the west coast•

stenness:

•the bewitching ring of brodgar, one of those incredible stone circles we’re so lucky to have in abundance•

south ronaldsay:

•photo of the holiday: j’s boardshorts have “here comes the sun” printed on the waistband and he was trying to put them on in the car while the rain pelted down outside… welcome to scotland!•

bay of firth:

•this was the view east as i was eating breakfast at 5am yesterday morning before catching the 6:30 ferry back to the scottish mainland for an 8-hour drive back to edinburgh, from where i caught a train to glasgow and arrived home in time to see the first uruguayan goal of an eventful third-place play-off that germany eventually won – phew!•

i’m working on some orkney-themed socks at the moment, which i fully intend to post something more about by the end of this week. however, there is the more pressing issue of a Very Important football match tonight that i now owe my heritage to spend a significant part of the day working towards. if you have access to a screen, you may want to watch history being made tonight (no, i’m not being over-confident. even if we lose, spain will still win the world cup for the first time ever, so it’s history no matter the outcome!)… let’s hope it’s a beautiful game.

Not food related- Why I've been away, and latest wedding gossip

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:09:23 GMT

I've just got out of hospital on Tuesday after being kept in for nearly a week for observation following a gastric bleed.This is after being in for a fortnight in total 4 or 5ish weeks ago where I had about 3 bleeds (I was let out then took relapses within a few hours twice!) and I've needed transfusions of about 11 units of blood in total over this time.

They still don't know the cause of my gastric bleeding and I've already had an endoscopy, colonoscopy, half an enteroscopy(this had to be halted as apparently I took a panic attack while under sedation), and barium meal xrays which failed to show anything. On Tuesday I had a capsule endoscopy but it can take around 4 weeks for results.

The same thing happened 4 and a half years ago too and was just written off as unexplained gastric bleeding and not further investigated as I never took a relapse over that time until these more recent incidents. One doctor said it was possible they might not even find anything there (which I find rather worrying). I'm feeling a bit better now, just a bit run down and tired.

I'm hoping everything will be sorted by the time of my wedding- only 6 weeks to go now!

We found out last week that the chef who was going to make our all vegan menu had left the hotel where he rented his restaurant, so Jay and my mum have been looking into finding a new place to go for our after wedding meal. I'm really glad we're having an intimate(13 guest) family wedding on a Tuesday so it (hopefully!) shouldn't be too difficult to find an alternative place to cater for our meal- had we been having a huge wedding on a weekend I'd be panicking!

I'm back after a long break! And here's a Pongal-inspired pilaf thing

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:20:46 GMT

I discovered Venn Pongal in Dino Sarma's Alternative Vegan book, and as he says himself in this post it can take a while to make. He has a few suggestions for new takes on it himself which I'll have to try out shortly. I came up with this pongal-inspired pilaf recently for a quick dinner- I've used the same spices(see Dino's blog) but instead of the traditional rice and split peas which take a while, I've used quicker-to-cook amaranth and a drained and rinsed tin of kala chana brown chickpeas for a speedier alternative. I'm very pleased with this experiment so I've tried a few variations and quinoa or cous cous also work well in it. :)

We got h0me safely last night to find that someone has driven into our garden...

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:01:29 GMT

We got h0me safely last night to find that someone has driven into our garden wall and left a section unsafe and needing to be rebuilt.

Enjoying the last few hours of fuerte before we get to fly back to stupid man...

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:28:18 GMT

Enjoying the last few hours of fuerte before we get to fly back to stupid manchester. #boohoo

Silmarils

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:29:46 GMT

Listening to an audiobook of The Silmarillion just now while browsing the Atlas of Middle Earth. This follows on from our epic watching of the extended versions of all three Lord of the Rings films in preparation and inspiration for our own mountain quest. Nice to be back in Middle Earth

other jewels: smoothie and brambles. Todays smoothie consisted of LOTS of kale and leaves from the overwintered cabbages which are now huge, LOTS of borage flowers, cleavers, a few black and red currants that are just starting to ripen, bananas, brazil nuts and an apple.

a contrived pic of a smoothie with bramble flowers and honeysuckle

The brambles (blackberries) are growing all through the honeysuckle and produce wonderful big juicy berries in autumn so there is no thought of ‘weeding’… the flowers are very beautiful:

bramble flowers and buds

pink

sunshine and books

linkage

in the garden

We are up early today and have started packing. It is not raining so we hope...

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:29:59 GMT

We are up early today and have started packing. It is not raining so we hope to pack a dry tent.

It's raining and tomorrow we are packing up and going home. It has been a wo...

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:19:51 GMT

It's raining and tomorrow we are packing up and going home. It has been a wonderful holiday. Still for the weekend off to sort the garden.

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