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Veggie Guide to Glasgow
Cruelty Free Guide to Edinburgh
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July 21 2010
the tale of the strawberries
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
Related posts:
July 02 2010
sea, river, Balvenie, vikings

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).
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 05 2010
wordle
(click for bigger one)
This is the sort of thing that’s get played with when procrastination is occurring! Transferring the frugal mailing list to a different server, a long and tedious job… (should you wish to sign up for the said frugal updates feel free to do so
). However it is interesting to see how different the commonly used words are now in 2010 compared to the word cloud in 2006, a nice evolution I think
March 06 2010
polytunnels and taps
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!!
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