planet vegan scotland - posts tagged 'garden'

sheep, a candle, a cake and the sky

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:57:58 GMT

sheep

candle and bubbles

another soul searching Transformation Game was played… it really does embody that Findhorn-esque quality of sharing and discovering deep things openly with others, love it. Wonderful companion to the morning pages of The Artist’s Way.

40 - my life begins now then

sky gazing

Crimbo

festive cheer :)

ladybird

the melon

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:46:35 GMT

about the size of a medium tomato

Was amazed to notice this morning, that one of the tiny melons has swelled into a potentially viable fruit! Back when planting, I did read about the ‘proper’ way to grow melons, cutting them right back and only leaving 2 or 3 fruits for the energy and nutrients to focus upon. But the plant vined all round, with lots of lovely little pea sized melons and was so beautiful that I didn’t have the heart to do that.

melon plant in the porch

still flowering

maybe we will eat melon yet

chocolate cups

maths day

lemon cake

this morning

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 07:42:20 GMT

sunflower so tall I had to hold the camera up high and click!

setting the above as my desktop (click for bigger image)

doing: 5 Tibetans

listening: Gregorian Chant (CD bought on our visit to Pluscarden Abbey a couple of years ago)

reading: The Abundance Book and The Wine of Angels

off to pick almost the last of the blackcurrants for a smoothie

white chocolate buttons

Crimbo

old aberdeen

raised beds

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:10:04 GMT

We have 3 new ones for next season, hopefully one more to come Planning to give over the whole allotment bit at the bottom of the garden to potatoes next year, with the chives, rhubarb and some other bits (maybe leeks? nasturtiums?) for biodiversity.

the four big beds, all made of reclaimed wood and old tiles from the roof

It’s been really noticable this year that the more food we grow, the smaller are our shopping bills, also much more work, but it’s very joyful

So now, my baby bed in detail…

just created

It’s in “the hot place”, a sunbathing area of near tropical climes, the place of the toolbox of lettuce (actually mixed salad leaves this year) with house walls to the North and East, shelter from trees and shrubs all round and refelective light walls too – I think I could probably lay cookies out to bake there on a hot day!

All the beds are layered up thus:

a layer of kitchen compost, should be thicker really but wanted to get this one going

seaweed from the beach, mainly kelp

4 growbags chucked in the top

Having learned the propensity of lettuce to survive even the fiercest winters I have planted winter density seeds in there and also garlic round the edges. There may be something unsightly done with bubble wrap and wire as it gets colder.

and randomly:

blackcurrant and apple pie

oatly less artistically arranged this time… we highly recommend growing blackcurrants – the abundance! the easy jam making! the easy freezing! the gorgeous smoothies… and pies…

and a mother sheep feeding lambs behind barbed wire:

beautiful horns she has

wild garlic

new designs in shop

how does your garden grow?

Montbretia

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:13:28 GMT

over the pond

joyful swimming and pie

mellow

images from a cycling afternoon

apples

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:06:54 GMT

a great abundance of these this year

there will be pie tonight

beautiful shiny juicy

faeryland

if the mountain defeats us...

getting a bit festive

Transformation

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:24:24 GMT

flame and bubbles

Angel party playing The Transformation Game, a spookily accurate spiritual game devised at Findhorn. Wonderfully light humour pervades it.

Toby thoroughly enjoyed it

Freedom

playing snacking laughing

chocolate buttons, walnut and crisps

bubbles and trees

toast, Valentine cookies and a cheesecake

bits weve been up to

raw mom summit

broad beans

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 14:35:20 GMT

the sunflower opened, by newly painted bench

waiting to be shelled

I worked very hard painting that furniture so expect to see it in every picture! Shelling the beans was somewhat labour intensive, aching arms for one bowl to put in soup…

beautiful beans

While shelling I contemplated growing runner beans instead next year…

they are tasty raw, been having them in salads

But then I put them in the leek and potato soup a couple of minutes before the end of cooking time:

leek, potato and broad bean soup

oh my… the flavour, the tenderness, no bought beans compare to this. The just picked freshness… totally gorgeous. They don’t take much room to grow, each plant produces lots and lots of pods… I now intend doing them again despite the shelling drudgery

recipe similar to this but with the obvious inclusion of beans instead of peas and I didn’t bother thickening it with flour.

One more day to enter the competition below!

tomato and rice soup

strawberries

flower power

sunflower

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 14:47:17 GMT

about to bloom

honeysuckle

Silmarils

green soup and juice, raw chocolate pud

preserving

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:53:51 GMT

redcurrants and rosemary awaiting sugar

What a bumper year it’s been for the currants – were having berried up green smoothies daily, there are lots in freezer which will extend the berry smoothie season and it’s looking to be a very abundant bramble year too. Last year we gathered quite a lot for the freezer as well as smoothie-ing them fresh. At least I thought we’d gathered a lot until I met a man in the woods with 3 huge bucket loads of them. He must have spent all day picking. Maybe for jam? I really want to try preserving in different ways this year so we can eat the home grown stuff in winter too. So we made strawberry jam as mentioned, and then moved onto:

redcurrant and rosemary jelly for savoury things

This was inspired by the home baked blog, that mixing of flavours is beautiful! I used Delia’s redcurrant jelly recipe with quite a few rosemary sprigs thrown in and then used the same basic technique to make:

blackcurrant jelly

which is wonderful – what a sensational taste blackcurrants do have!

Cooking on the stove this morning is Apple and Ginger Chutney from the Cranks recipe book with the apples from the bike ride heavily supplemented with ones from our trees and our own onions in there too Adapted recipe on the sauces page.

paint the planets

blackcurrants and tyres

bloggage, food and snow

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

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...

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

strawberries

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:20:57 GMT

from Charlotte's garden today

a big bowl each

garden pics

honeysuckle

frog

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

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

rhubarb, tweets and elderflowers

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 08:32:32 GMT

rhubarb and ginger jam

We have a veritable forest of rhubarb so into jam some of it went yesterday! recipe over on frugal where there is also a twitter competition detailed on the front page to win my copy of The Moneyless Man (who is vegan by the way, don’t think I mentioned that before)

Gathered some elderflowers in the wood yesterday too and made some cordial sort of from this recipe though I made much less as I know it doesn’t keep for long even in the fridge, even with citric acid which I didn’t use this time… the taste of summer in it is amazing…

smoothie and hummus

herbidacious!

summery greenery

joyful swimming and pie

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:57:09 GMT

early morning swimming

When we bought this house the old endowments associated with our previous mortgage were no longer needed and we wanted to invest the money from them in this property (trying to be sensible). The kitchen was hanging by a thread so that got replaced and the children were given the choice of what the rest should be spent on. Their chosen pool has been a fantastic buy, on it’s 4th summer now, Charlotte being the most determined swimmer among us, beating her personal best every day!

from above

Wishes Come True Pie from the novel Hubble Bubble, very delicious even with some substitutions for things like grains of paradise and job’s tears

root veg, nuts, seeds, grains, gravy topped with pastry

much ado about nothing

samosas

penguins and seitan

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

fruitful flowers and summer reading

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:36:36 GMT

pea

It’s wonderfully warm here just now. In between all the cycling, walking, climbing and meeting badgers in the woods were loving the cool of the pool and reading in the sun

Fiction being perused: Mariana, a gentle tale of reincarnation and time slipping and the latest Sophie Hannah, A Room Swept White – very impressed with this author’s progression. Non fiction-wise: The Moneyless Man, a guy who lived without money for a year (and continues to do so – see his blog), quite mind blowing, lots of info about the financial system as he was an economist and The Age of Absurdity, a great antidote to, well, total nonsense and status quo worship and it’s very funny too!

Jodie Picoult’s House Rules is also well worth a mention, though I read it a while back, as the main character has aspergers syndrome. He may have been given almost every trait going but he does come over as an authentic aspergian person and Picoult makes so many good points and references much current research, I feel it’s a valuable title to have in the mainstream.

borage

grapes

toms

red peppers, just watered

parsley, getting ready to self seed

melon

silver stick and Yule pudding

baking and mistletoe

snow…

Mags May…

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:44:58 GMT

…I’ve found, if confined too closely, and without proper care and attention, become rebellious and may even launch attacks on humans, dogs and cats in frenzied bids for freedom! Let me explain…

I don’t buy many mags off the shelves these days. Have you seen the price of them? The cheaper celebrity and ‘harrowing real-life stories’ magazines have no appeal for me whatsoever and the magazines I like are over £3 each!

I do, however, have subscriptions to these mags…

Lifescape because it’s a glossy magazine that advertises only veg*n goods and runs articles about animal rights and other ethical stuff. History Scotland because Scottish history is one of my great interests. Writing Magazine and Mslexia because SOME DAY I may write for profit! (In my dreams!) And New Internationalist because I care about human animals, too!

I’m also sent newsletters/magazines from the Vegan Society, Animal Aid, Viva!, Amnesty International and Dr Hadwen – all for obvious reasons! – and from the Barbara Pym Society: she’s one of my favourite authors.

And I keep them all for years! I mean, you never know when you’ll want to consult a back issue, do you?

And you’ll remember all those housey mags I got at the Meadows Festival? And when I saw digital photography mags being offered on my local Freegle group, how could I resist?

The problem was, my mag basket in the dining room was overflowing.

Mags were piled this way and that. No wonder they rebelled!

Every so often, a pile of them would gang together, sometimes with like-minded mags, at other times in an eclectic mix of genres, bonded by their shared desperation for freedom. Then, moving furtively to the edge of the stack, they’d bide their time before, gathering their papery strength together, they’d launch themselves at the first set of unsuspecting legs to walk past. Several bruises and scratches and some nervous animals convinced me that this could not go on!

So I bought a flat-pack shoe rack and some paint testers and turned this…

… into this…

Don’t these mags look happy? No more are they crammed together. They can be moved out and in with no dragging or damage. They have room to spread out their covers and fluff their pages! If only all really sentient beings could be as lucky…

Now, I’ll be honest with you… (Am I ever less than?) These aren’t all the mags that were in the basket. The colder season housey ones are tucked away cosily in an upstairs cupboard and will swap with the summery ones after the holidays. It makes sense, doesn’t it?

And on a nice summery day, what could be more pleasant than a break from studying, sitting in the garden with two snuggly pooches and a happy mag?

Today’s title: Maggie May, recorded by Rod Stewart

Today’s smoothie: Didn’t have one. I’ve just had a tooth out and am in too much pain to prepare smoothies… Made do with a fruit yogurt, eaten on the left of my mouth…

Oh, what a beautiful day!

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 20:18:52 GMT

Well, I’ve been sitting here this past week, composing this blog entry, with the rain chucking down from heavy grey clouds, but last Saturday WAS beautiful, thank goodness. Why ‘Thank goodness?’ you may ask. I’ll tell you. It was the day of the Meadows Festival!!! Last year I blogged about this special event here. This year all four of us managed to go. We had planned to take packed lunches, as there’s rarely anything suitable for us to eat there, but this year we were just too pressed for time…

There are lots of stalls at the Meadows Festival.

John was thrilled to find a plant one right at the start. But that meant him lugging lots of plants around… Johnny and Jane enjoyed book and CD stalls and made a few purchases and I was looking for interesting things for the house, as well as books, of course. I was thrilled to find a wicker basket full of magazines including special treats for me: Country Homes and Gardens and Period Living magazines, which were selling at 6 for £1!

I bought 18, which John carried for me…

I also found a present for Sylvia’s birthday, which was VERY HEAVY. That’s all I can say at the moment, of course… I carried that…

I was NOT tempted to buy this book! Can you guess which one? Honestly! This was NOT going to be an addition to my recipe book shelves… ‘Almost vegetarian’, indeed! Oops, gave the game away there, didn’t I? Oh, well, I wasn’t offering any prizes for the correct answer…

I DID buy a bumblebee badge to add to the collection on my bag…

… but decided to give these a miss! I mean, revolting, or what?

We had high hopes of something to eat when we saw this place…

but although I loved the decor (very ‘me’!)…

… because of some misunderstanding between John and me, we both thought there was nothing suitable. This turned out for the best, though, as you will see, if you read on… (Are you excited? I like to keep the suspense going…)

Just past the cafe we met, and made friends with, this gorgeous wee fellow. His name’s Alfie and he was VERY ‘dog-nappable’! We could just see him fitting into our household nicely. Sadly, but understandably, his owner wanted to hang onto him, however…

A couple of days before, Trudi, from Scottish Vegans, had written to me on Facebook to ask if we were going to be at the Festival and had given me her mobile number. Of course, I forgot to take a note of it with me. (You’re not surprised?) I was wishing we could phone up Molly, the cleverest of our cats, to ask her to check Facebook for me, but she wouldn’t have been able to pick up the receiver. This lack of opposable thumbs can be a problem… However, after wandering around peering at the faces of total strangers I thought might be Trudi (I’d met her only once before) I suddenly remembered that Jane can go on-line with her fancy, new, 21^st birthday phone! She logged onto my Facebook messages and there was Trudi’s number! I phoned her and we met up with her and her daughter and baby son. The wonders of modern technology!

By this time we were about to leave, as we all needed sustenance, but Trudi very kindly invited us round to her flat, which was only about five minutes walk away. There we had hummus and salad sandwiches, washed down with mugs of tea. Trudi said she couldn’t see vegans going hungry! Thank you, again, Trudi! It was very much appreciated!

Johnny then set off for a demo, against real fur sporrans, with Ethical Voice for Animals (EVA) and John, Jane and I, heavily laden, staggered off for the train home to Dunblane.

After a VERY warm welcome from the pooches, John and I settled down in the garden. He had a new gardening magazine (do you see Molly in the background? Apparently she’d been out all day anyway, so wouldn’t have been in to answer the phone even if she’d HAD opposable thumbs)…

…the sun was blazing down and I relaxed on the swing seat and browsed in my new housey mags. Bliss!

When Johnny came home, I made one of our favourite meals: Italian marinated tofu (from Vegan With a Vengeance) with potatoes, broccoli, green beans, peas and gravy made from the marinade. Mmmmm…..

Yup! It was a beautiful day!

Today’s smoothie: orange juice, apples, apricots, half a bag of mixed green leafies, lettuce, alfalfa and a wee piece of kombu. Delicious!

Today’s title: from ‘Oh, what a beautiful mornin’!’, Oklahoma, Rogers and Hammerstein

mellow

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 10:32:58 GMT

iris by pond, cleavers among

a very mellow listen: Deltadream - based on the ancient lost Solfeggio frequency “Ut”, a tone linked with releasing guilt and fear, the shorter track there is a free download.

mellow and cooling eat: minted noodle soup

books weve been mellowing out to in the sun: Named of the Dragon, a gentle mystery, writers, Arthurian and Tudor themes; The Other Half Lives, from Sophie Hannah, the best of her psychological thrillers I’ve read so far and Ask Mother Nature, another nature spirity book responsible for me feeling happy about all the chickweed growing in with the lettuce now

chickweed helps retain water in the soil and is a nice inclusion in salads

bridge over totally calm waters

Had a nice time with some more pilgrims to the house, this time the grandson of the man who built it. We all learned much from each other – apparently the roof used to be covered in solar panels, was the first house up here to have them… no trace of them now… hopefully one day we’ll have them again

borage buds, soon time for blue stars and berries in the smoothies

fully open

I want to ride my bicycle

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 08:06:31 GMT

I want to ride it where I might There’s been lots of sunny days, there’s been lots of bike rides in various directions.

I love my purple bike - my first ever bicycle

I rather like these old railway bridges too

We were on The Buchan Way here, an old railway line.

found lots of apples trees on the line

the scent was astounding

bridges are good resting points on the normal road too

back home in the garden:

there will be a pop soon!

a mouse and relaxation

Fri, 28 May 2010 08:05:21 GMT

mouse on peanuts - what a beautiful tail

off he goes

peanut acquired

We bought some Relax Kids CDs at Findhorn years ago and they have been used to great effect for relaxation and self esteem boosting ever since. They now have many new titles for children and teens and a wonderful website where you can listen to excerpts

Nature meditations being our most used

coastal pics and pink meadow

Thu, 27 May 2010 08:29:04 GMT

Shipwreck!

washing lines - spot Nemo

what a wonderful airing the laundry must get!

melon, meadow, Lion

faeryland

Tue, 25 May 2010 09:49:49 GMT

the borders

highly perfumed bluebells, wild garlic in back

on the faery path

path

flowers

These cards remind me of the woods – a lovely story telling tool

story telling cards

Other faery places:

gorse blooms

pink snow is falling in the garden

CD of ROC’s lectures UK and US, there is deep wisdom within, much before it’s time as concerns the environment.

herbish

Mon, 24 May 2010 10:44:30 GMT

sage

dill

thyme

golden oregano and marjoram

self seeded borage

wild garlic in flower

and as recommended by the tasty herbalsist – a totally gorgeous tea this one, were drinking it with the fresh leaves just now :)

blackcurrant leaves drying

fruitish:

red currants and apples

apple blossom

and finally some more plantings of lettuce and salad leaves:

salad station

a favourite book being perused just now – the complete book of herbs

stones, chickens, nettles

Tue, 18 May 2010 11:04:46 GMT

stones in the light

Parkhouse stone circle – we have visited this circle so many times, having lived closeby for 12 years, that it always feels very welcoming and familiar

the circle

the large recumbent

At the farming museum we saw a Rhode Island Red mum with Silkie chicks (she had sat on the eggs):

mother and babies

silkie chick

another

The dandelion pancakes have been written up here, chive variant below:

chive pancakes

Drying some nettles for tea this morning, having worked out that it’s a bit ridiculous how we buy nettle tea (lovely as it is) when we are surrounded by them! Will finish them off in the dehydrator later.

nettles drying in sun

having said that no exotic planting experimentation would take place… well…

melon in the front porch

flowering rather later this year but so beautifully:

cherry blossom

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

growth

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:38:09 GMT

colour

Planted my berry bushes from Suttons yesterday, well protected there from the rabbits Potatoes are going in today… Dipping into the Anastasia series again to get truly inspired again with growing, so different from anything else I’ve ever read.

honey berry bush, in beside goji and blue

Made wonderful leek, potato and wild garlic soup from the recipe on Cat’s blog

pond flowers

fairy all springlike now beside the Archangel dead nettles

rabbit bones

daff

new leaves on sweet chestnut

flowering currant - is full of bees, lovely noise

new mint

Penny has a darling Lamb

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:54:41 GMT

No, unlike my sister, Sylvia, I DON’T have a rescue male sheep. Here’s my Lamb here (in sleepy mood!):

John, my husband, known to me as Lambie!

John celebrated his 50^th birthday last month,

so what better time to immortalise him in a blog entry? (Well, a better time would have been earlier than this, but I’ve been writing essays… And acting as his secretary… Something’s gotta give! But he wanted me to get on with it as he said it was a strain being on his best behaviour for so long, in case I said something nasty about him! So, here we go…)

You’ll have noticed the candles? Yes, true to form, I forgot to check the candle situation beforehand…

When John and I first got together, I was part of the junior management in the Civil Service office where we both worked and he was (and still is!) 13 years younger than me and a member of the clerical staff. Although he was very clever, he hadn’t gone to university, as his father had been ill and the family needed John’s income. I knew he was very shy… What I didn’t know was that he fancied me! (Yes, dear readers, I was slim but curvy and quite fanciable in those days. Luckily he thinks I’m now curvier and even more fanciable, a piece of rose-tinted-bespectacled-ness, but I’m not complaining!)

One evening, at an office ‘do’ for some people who were leaving, we found ourselves sitting next to each other. I was recently separated and in no rush to get home, so when he told me that he hadn’t brought his car, had missed the last train home and didn’t have enough money for a taxi (!!!), I offered him a lift. We talked for hours, both on the journey and after I stopped near his house. We liked the same books and films and most of the same music. He loved the 60s and was very impressed that I’d seen the Beatles live! We supported the same causes. We had the same sense of humour. I was a Quaker at that time and he knew Quakers were pacifists, not just pictures on a cereal box! This time I was the one who was impressed! A couple of days later we walked my dog, Sammy, together. A couple of days after that I took him to an Amnesty International meeting. Soon after that he moved in with me!

Earlier that year, John had seen an advert for the Open University in the Radio Times and had started studying. He had also given up smoking, thank goodness, or this love story wouldn’t have happened! Since then he has completed his BA honours degree with the OU, a Masters degree in Education at Stirling University and a diploma in Philosophy at Glasgow University. He was promoted in the Civil Service and then, a few years later, decided to change career and become a teacher. He has become head of his department, a lecturer with the Open University and, one day a week, he trains student teachers at Stirling University. And he’s the principal exam setter and marker in Scotland for one of his subjects. He’s done all his studying while working fulltime and looking after me and our babies. In fact, he sat his first Open University exam the day before Johnny was due to make his appearance. He expected to be called out of the exam room at any moment, but our boy waited!

He is an adoring husband and father, which is nice, because we’re pretty fond of him, too!

John loves his allotment where he grows lots of vegan-organic fruit and vegetables but so that he could bring stuff on nearer to home, the extended family clubbed together to buy him a greenhouse for the garden. John is NOT handy, but here he is, pleased as Punch, after having built it up all by himself! He says it’s the best 50^th Birthday present he’s ever had!

He is and has been devoted to all our cats and dogs, past and present, but his favourite companion animal of all time is … Bobby!

John is a thoroughly modern male, but feels that it’s his duty to be the main bread winner, since I’ve raised and home educated the offspring and looked after our home. He works very hard for us all and is loving, kind and considerate. He’s also great company and VERY funny! He makes us all laugh A LOT!

Happy (very belated!) birthday, Lambie!

Oh, sorry, did you want the chocolate cake recipe? OK! Here it is! I adapted it many years ago from a muffin recipe sent to me by an American omni friend. It has graced most of our birthday celebrations since then!

Penny’s chocolate cake:

Ingredients:

130g margarine

130g sugar

1 ½ teaspoons egg replacer

26g cocoa powder

224g self raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

166ml soya milk

Method:

Set oven to Gas mark 5/375F/190C

Whisk the egg replacer into the soya milk and put to one side. Mix together all the other ingredients and then add the liquid last.

Because this recipe uses margarine instead of oil, the mixture is stiff, so I prefer to start it off in the mixer, as I get a very sore arm otherwise – but it can all be done by hand.

Once everything’s mixed through, I get a silicone spatula and wallop it about in the bowl a goodish bit, to get plenty of air in there, to make the cake nice and light.

Divide the mixture between two round cake tins, lined with baking parchment (I use round cake tin liners from Lakeland) and bake for 35 minutes, until the top is cracked and a skewer comes out clean.

Cool in the cakes in the liners.

Once they’re cold, spread jam on the bottom one (blackcurrant jam is nice and sharp and contrasts well with the sweetness of the cake) and then sandwich the cakes together with ‘butter’ icing. Slather more icing on top.

Now, I’m afraid you’re on your own with the ‘butter’ icing, but you know how to make it, don’t you? I never measure it; I just chuck together margarine, icing sugar and cocoa in vast quantities and blend them together. I’m sure you’ll manage…

Well, for goodness’ sake! How on earth did that picture slip in here? Sorry about that….

Today’s smoothie (Yes! It’s smoothie time again, folks!): orange juice; kale; rocket; lettuce; apricots; apples; broccoli stalk; celery. Mmmmmm……

Todays’ title: I won’t insult your intelligence!

Loudon Wood, feet and newts

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:22:28 GMT

feet of sleeping Lion

After many years of searching in vain, we finally found Loudon Wood stone circle. The length of time was contributed to by a council sign pointing into completely different, unconnected bit of wood – ignore that and use google maps instead if wanting to visit! Beautiful place.

path to circle

first glimpse

recumbent and flankers

flanker and white tree

through the tree

carved lines

stones

cloud formation as we leave

Davie put on music down by the pond as he set up some solar lights we were given and it did seem to attract lots of newts over to investigate

newts

newt rising to surface

rainbow

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 19:53:29 GMT

rainbow over the trees in the garden

Nora Batty stretches

mirror

flower

narcissus

tulip

primroses

frogs and barre

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:43:29 GMT

It’s all very magical down there in the pond – just been out listening to them tonight by the light of the moon Below should be a short video of them – turn up your volume to hear their frenzied ribbuting! Apologies for the poor picture quality – they are more shy than they appear and I had to do it on zoom from a distance.

Thanks to wonderful Davie we now have our own fabulous barre – 4 and a half metres of split-slidingly strong pine

even gets warm in the sun for us...

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!!

fox in the snow

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:08:44 GMT

Lots more has fallen – we are ankle deep again…

just as I was taking photos this fox came and had a good look into the garden. We do see them quite often here, but not usually when holding a camera

then, while eating my porridge by the window this morning I noticed I had an onlooker!

among the snowdrops

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:49:51 GMT

more snow… some little bits I’ve been meaning to mention spread among the lovely signs of spring to come

Wayne Dyer’s new program: Excuses Begone! – been enjoying listening to that – he is always so motivational and uplifting.

The Bristol Dyslexia Centre has some interesting stuff on it’s site including some free educational games taken from the Nessy learning program.

Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome: Different Sensory Experiences, Different Perceptual Worlds
Olga Bogdashina has written a wonderful book here – helpful in very practical ways and quite refreshingly non-patronising in it’s manner of looking at autism and the associated sensory and perceptual issues. There is evidence that these may be at the core of ASDs and what is actually physiological has been treated as purely psychological for far too long by the so called experts. A fascinating read
Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

planet vegan scotland - posts tagged 'garden'

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Mags May…

Oh, what a beautiful day!

mellow

I want to ride my bicycle

a mouse and relaxation

coastal pics and pink meadow

faeryland

herbish

stones, chickens, nettles

planting log, sitting, eating, stones and sea

growth

Penny has a darling Lamb

Loudon Wood, feet and newts

rainbow

frogs and barre

Spring pics

polytunnels and taps

fox in the snow

among the snowdrops