planet vegan scotland - posts tagged 'friends'

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

if the mountain defeats us…

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 06:22:39 GMT

Mither Tap against sun

but it didn’t, so we did not have to brave the mines of Moria, 3 times up and down Bennachie accomplished and quite a bit of money raised for the trees :) My legs hurt today!

at the bottom of the Mither Tap path

top of first climb up steep Mither tap path

down the Donview way

caterpillar

back up on top and heading down Rowan

These new signs help to avoid confusion, there are even paths at the bottom linking different carparks so you can go down different ways without reclimbing if you wish

no such plan for us - back up Rowan

This was the toughest climb being our third, even though it is the easiest path and most gentle slope.

resting on way up - some of the shoes did not make it (5 years old, ethical wares, much walking done)

reaching top 3rd time

steep final descent

down down down

treat picnic at bottom

rose cupcakes

sunset

rhubarb, tweets and elderflowers

swan lake

sea, river, Balvenie, vikings

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:10:05 GMT

dunes

Had a wonderful afternoon with friends, sea swimming and boogie boarding – walking over dunes beforehand. Then another busy day yesterday at a home ed group viking re-enactment workshop (associated with the Dufftown Heritage Festival this weekend), also visiting Balvenie Castle and Banff Museum (which is exactly as I remember it as a child, slightly disturbing).

had picnic by the river Deveron in Huntly

Balvenie Castle door

looking down to hall

window

club with spikes

bits and pieces

battling vikings

Saw some of the lovely t-shirts made by one of the families in the group beautifully modelled – they have home ed, breast feeding, Pictish and Celtic designs (Charlotte has a Celtic one).

there be magic in them there woods

Tolquhon and Mystic Wood

the snow queen and a caste system

green soup and juice, raw chocolate pud

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 13:26:58 GMT

minty pea and nettle soup

recipe up here

wheatgrass

been drinking wheatgrass juice with friends

slight deviation away from green

Raw chocolate pudding teamed up with Swedish Glace (booja booja stuff in a tub is raw if you prefer). Pudding was made thus: grind up some raw chocolate nibs (could use cocoa though of course not raw) then blend with a large avocado and 2 ripe bananas with a squirt of agave nectar – makes enough for four people. I also added a little water for a smoother result.

Poppies:

inside a flower

seeds within

blackcurrants

mellow

knitted digestion

Tap o’ Noth and Dunnydeer

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 07:37:04 GMT

OS thing at top, Pictish fort walls visible

Practice triple climb of other hills! Tap O’ Noth first, then Dunnydeer twice.

a tough climb this one

up we go

then on Dunnydeer, Tap o' Noth in misty distance

down the other side of dunnydeer, before going back up and home

beautiful hill

trees for life

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:52:18 GMT

Four of us girls (Charlotte, me and Lucy and Eleanor from moonrabbits) are doing a sponsored climb to raise money for trees for life, the wonderful charity that is replanting the Caledonian Forest. We intend climbing Bennachie 3 times in one day, taking all three routes to the Mither Tap in about a months time. Trees for life is not a member of just giving or any such online fundraiser but please feel free to donate directly on link above if you wish For every £5 raised a tree will be planted.

A favourite of our kids years ago, the lorax speaks for the trees. Richard St. Barbe Baker “the man of the trees“ who inspired Trees for Life, was sometimes fondly known as the lorax

(lorax on amazon) Buy UK or Buy US

A nice tree filled place we cycled round recently, thanks to a neighbour telling us the best way to get in there:

rhododendron way into the woods

more rhoddies

a little loch

Peregrines

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:14:48 GMT

Peregrine Wildwatch Centre

Wonderful place this, great home ed group event there

quarry face where the nest is

red squirrel

female peregrine in tree - she was making a lot of noise!

fast

building a hide

impression of a caterpillar called Bob

best friends

a few more pics in our home education set on flickr

and a short video of the squirrels below, much topical talking in background…

planting log, sitting, eating, stones and sea

Sat, 15 May 2010 16:23:52 GMT

broad beans and leeks in one of the raised beds

I have just planted over 300 little leeks, lots of kale and purple sprouting brocolli seedlings, carrots, radish, garlic, basil, sunflowers and flat leaf parsley as an alternative to the madly (but wonderfully) continually self seeding curly

allotment bit at bottom of garden, greenhouse left

The thinking of the planting this year is to grow things that both do well up here and that we eat lots of, no experimentation with things like aubergines which only just manage to flower before winter! Also in are lettuce, rocket, mixed salad leaves, french beans, broad beans, peas, potatoes, onions and in greenhouse there are tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, courgettes and a giant grapevine obtained on freecycle and doing very well so far. Perennial things like rhubarb, chives, lovage, bronze fennel, mint and leafbeet are thriving. Fruit bushes and trees all look to be heading for a bumper year. Cold winter can’t have hurt them

sitting together continues, even in sunless situations

and the eating: chocolate sesame snaps now have thick chocolate stripes on them

chocolate sesame snaps

Made some gorgeous dandelion fritters to go with wild garlic pesto – saw them on home baked a while ago and used basic vegan pancake mix of soya milk and self raising flour beaten to a thick batter, a flower in each spoonful/fritter:

a nice lunch

no shortage of this ingredient in the garden

next wild food recipe on the list to try – Cat’s nettle pies!

stones and sea

broken arm update: after two weeks it has healed so well it does not need cast anymore and writing can take place again

a spot of sun

Mon, 10 May 2010 15:18:27 GMT

Fantine and Toby - not the best of friends but they will share a sunspot

and some ballet feet pics:

in parallel

rise

must learn to pull socks up

… gardening snowed off today… much hilarity reading P.G. Wodehouse’s Laughing Gas

Spring pics

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:10:59 GMT

The only crocus to survive intensive rabbit grazing

beautiful biscuits for a ballet day with the girls...

cake too, no anorexic dancing here

poor mangled nut feeder - deer trample it to get the peanuts out!

soon there will be daffs

willow catkins and the sky

chives

parsley

free veg seeds from the bbc here

polytunnels and taps

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:41:31 GMT

Weve had a few spring-like days now, causing me to dig over some ground for the little polytunnel and clean and set up the coldframe to let the ground warm up for salad seeds. Browsing Suttons trying to decide what to plant this year – will have more room with extra raised beds… this really does feel like waking up after winter! The pond is finally unfrozen today so I expect frogly activity soon It’s been like this in varying thickness of ice and pattern for months:

Dance mania continues with ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary being studied :)

Books and films amany dug out to accompany this in fine home educating fashion. The Ballet Companion is a gorgeous book, it’s been to good for me to read that things have come on with problems such as eating disorders and painful pointework (ouch pouches – love them!) being dealt with much more compassionately in general. High quality vegan ballet shoes are even available As for films… oh so many, from White Nights to A Chorus Line, loving them all, also deeply appreciative of friends sharing the enthusiasm and cost of DVD purchase… Had a nice time reading over T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats and then watching Cats and boring delighting others with tales of cast members I knew/was taught by or with… same goes for Billy Elliot… ah to be an old “when I was young — fill in with unbelievable sounding fact–” person – it’s great fun!!

swan lake

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:44:43 GMT

There were swans on the loch yesterday

Had a lovely day with friends morphing into a very balletic afternoon which was great fun. It’s been wonderful rediscovering ballet being for enjoyment, rather than an eternal striving (not to mention starving) for perfection. Looked out the old class music etc. I have but it’s all on cassettes – technology moved on a bit fast for me there

Watched Fast Food Nation (quite good trailer there on amazon), fictional film based on the non-fiction book – strong stuff, a round of exploitation to go with the fries… good cast, making it very watchable though gradually more horrifying.

a casserole and a cookbook

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:19:22 GMT

We will have been married 20 years this year… which causes me to reflect how far weve come, how much the world has changed in that time and to note the two items above. They were given to us as a wedding present by friends who I used to babysit for and here they are still with us, I don’t think any other dish we own has survived that long! The Cranks Recipe Book sparked my interest at once, as I had eaten in their restaurant in London while a student, and it called to mind lovely brick walls and earthenware plates of hearty soup (they now have one restaurant in Devon).

It really taught me to cook, being the only cookery title I had at the time (bit of a change there then) in our first flat that we loved so much. I was fairly clueless when it came to the culinary arts. I remember phoning my mum at times with questions such as ‘how do you cook a neep? I can’t even seem to cut it up’. With the book I learned to bake bread, make cakes and the wonderfully frugal crecy plate pie, prepare soups and casseroles got put in the dish It influenced me in more subtle ways too. Being the one and only it got thoroughly read and I absorbed the health oriented nature of the pages, reading for example, how much adding fresh herbs enhanced the nutritional value of the food. I remember the excitement of planting up a small herb garden and reading more deeply into these subjects. Looking at it now I notice all the cheesy recipes but you could just use any one of the many vegan cheeses available now or leave it out altogether.

Bit different when we first went vegan - a vegan cookbook obtained from the library that shall remain nameless (mainly as I can’t remember it’s name, I think it was somewhat generic, but also I do not want to slander it as it may have had other redeeming recipes) was responsible for me making a vegan cheese out of marg and yeast extract 13 years ago - absolutely disgusting, totally foul!!

So, my cranks book, heavily marked with food, water and childrens crayons. It is now available in a swanky new asparagus covered edition but you can still pick up the original for a penny

As for the dish, it still gets used though not as much anymore. The odd apple/rhubarb crumble is popped in it. I now favour my big Le Creuset that you can cook on the hob and in the oven with - very handy for making a sheperdess/red dragon pie base in and just putting mashed tatties on top and then into the oven it goes. I am very lucky to also have two similar cast iron AGA pans/casseroles given to us by another friend who had them sitting unwanted and unused in his garage, and these are my 3 usual dinner cooking pans now.

Weve always been blessed with friendship I am currently reading Walking to Greenham sent to me by a wonderful woman and friend… a fascinating book and I find myself contemplating the larger worldwide changing of the times. What will the next 20 years bring?

getting a bit festive

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:12:29 GMT

Charlotte’s mince pies and chocolate logs made by a friend… said logs went very well with A Christmas Carol in 3D. Wonderful film, amazing having snow falling all round us like that

planet vegan scotland - posts tagged 'friends'

how does your garden grow?

Related posts:

if the mountain defeats us…

Related posts:

sea, river, Balvenie, vikings

Related posts:

green soup and juice, raw chocolate pud

Related posts:

Tap o’ Noth and Dunnydeer

trees for life

Peregrines

planting log, sitting, eating, stones and sea

a spot of sun

Spring pics

polytunnels and taps

swan lake

a casserole and a cookbook

getting a bit festive