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July 30 2010
potatoes
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
Related posts:
July 22 2010
a blackcurrant smoothie
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
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July 12 2010
new designs in shop
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
Related posts:
July 10 2010
Silmarils
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
Related posts:
June 27 2010
green soup and juice, raw chocolate pud
minty pea and nettle soup
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
Related posts:
June 24 2010
fruitful flowers and summer reading
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
Related posts:
June 06 2010
mellow
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
May 24 2010
herbish
sage
dill
thyme
golden oregano and marjoram
self seeded borage
wild garlic in flower
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
May 18 2010
stones, chickens, nettles
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
May 15 2010
planting log, sitting, eating, stones and sea
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
April 25 2010
wood sorrel
wood sorrel on forest floor
beautiful plant – edible too
in a tree stump
Perfect book for this time of year if interested in wild foods and foraging: Richard Mabey’s Food for Free
April 15 2010
growth
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
April 08 2010
of Russians and swans
woods and loch
Totally loving the gorgeous springness that is all around now Had some lovely wild garlic pesto yesterday and think may do same today. Seems to have less of a garlic hit when very young though still very good.
freshly picked wild garlic and the sky
Swans are still following us around – whooping ones fly over the garden and woods regularly just now and look – we have new swan taps on the bath following a water gushing disaster with the old very antiquated ones!
swan tap
fitted for us by a Russian plumber, first plumber to come here who didn’t make a soap opera-esque drama about getting the water on and off with our old system and was also gentle and kind to elderly cats and frenzied frogs! More Russian-ness in The Turning Point from the beautiful Misha and Grishko ballet shoes from here:
ballet shoe heel
sandy shore of the loch
March 17 2010
Spring pics
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
February 09 2010
lovely herbs and the unintended
Cat has a wonderful new website: The Tasty Herbalist - go see
Strange day today where a slight disaster led to us doing totally unintended things such as visiting the Wallace and Gromit exhibition at Satrosphere. It was very good, also being about other animation and techniques etc.
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