1000 Fields of Roses

Growing Season

Winter probably wouldn’t be the season I associate with “growing”, but our little container garden is flourishing. We have styrofoam growing containers, made to a pattern by Spurtopia.

Here’s the boxes to the right of the patio…

Capsicums, thyme, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, mint and parsley.

The boxes to the left of the patio…

Red onions, snow peas, chia seeds, dwarf beans, cucumbers, celery, spring onions, broccoli, carrots and beetroot.
Everything’s growing well (except the broccoli, which seems a bit weedy), and we should get edible stuff soon. 🙂

The strawberries have already yielded some fruit, from pretty pink flowers.

…and the snow peas and cucumbers are flowering well, with loads of tomatoes appearing all the time!

Winter salad! Yummy yummy. 🙂

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on June 24, 2015 at 12:31 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: growing vegetables, spurtopia planting boxes

Aimless

Coming to the end of a winter long weekend – back to ordinary life tomorrow! I’ve been resting this weekend, contrary to my expectations. Saturday was a low energy, sniffly kind of day, which I spent reading at odd times, but mostly sleeping. Today, as my littlest bean said this afternoon, was also a bit “aimless”. More reading, less sleeping, though!

Some of the books I’ve read this weekend, while snuggled in my warm chair.
I’ve been feeling the cold this winter – Friday I found it impossible to get completely warm. Conversely, I am almost boiling at the moment…

I could be tempted to feel guilty about “wasting” time. I’ve decided that resting and reading was the best use of my time this weekend. One of the books was discussing the cycles and rhythms of seasons and the body. Sometimes you just have to have a “go slow” time, don’t you? If you don’t slow down when your body is telling you to, sooner or later it will catch up with you… Sometimes “aimless” has a destination – being able to cope better with the rest of the week!

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on June 8, 2015 at 11:13 pm Leave a Comment

Fibonacci In The Wild

There are patterns in the world, and beautiful secrets in hidden places…

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on May 30, 2015 at 6:13 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: fibonacci sequence

Pie!

Again!

Wednesday’s contribution – a bacon/potato/onion pie

and a strawberry/apple pie.

We used the recipe for the pastry, but the fillings were a bit more freeform…
The strawberry was supposed to have fresh ginger in it, but we didn’t have any. I forgot to add rosewater, as well. Still very nice. 🙂

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on May 30, 2015 at 6:10 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: bacon potato pie, strawberry pie

Pray…

…joyfully!

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on May 22, 2015 at 10:50 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: build your kingdom here, rend collective

Exquisite Corpse

Well… that’s a title to catch the attention! 😉

“Exquisite Corpse” is the name of a game played by the Surrealists in the 1920s (although it has similarities to earlier parlour games). Each person in turn adds to something that has been written or drawn, but that they are not able to see – the previous person only provides enough clues on the visible paper for the next to continue.
Much hilarity ensues…
We’ve had a few goes at drawing the exquisite corpse, and it’s been fun. Today we tried writing. Still fun. It can be difficult to read it out loud after (giggling can get in the way). We played fairly fast, which is probably reflected in the story. Here’s our effort…
Try to figure out who wrote what! 🙂

Nobody knows what happened, on that dark, cold day in September. The wind was howling, the leaves were dropping, and Gerald trudged on, neither noticing nor caring what was happening in the street. Gerald did not know how things could get worse…
He had a sister who was so likeable that his friends deserted him to go and play with her. She played in the sun with a friend whose face was that of a rose and she was a laser shooting dog-bot with a tail made of marshmallows and happiness who blasted him to the end of time and space. While there he saved the world from space alien lizard people who wanted to scuff the leaves with his shoes. He thought it might rain. It was always raining!
How could this happen? Why? One minute the plan was proceeding smoothly, the next it had fallen in a heap. Perhaps he wasn’t cut out to be a lion-tamer. Why care about the collapse of a childhood dream? Because it is so unbelievably dreadful and you should care very much if your childhood dream collapses around you, yes you must care about these things if they suddenly happen.
What do you think? “I think you have a very large bottom.”
He then proceeded to use his large bottom to expel gas and fly back to Earth. After crash landing in the middle of a park (with some curious stares) he decided to learn to deep sea dive instead. After all, it was the sense of adventure he was after. His mother had suggested teaching beading and jewellery making classes at the local college, as he was quite proficient in the art, but that didn’t quite seem to fill the void in his heart. He sighed, as something suddenly fell from the sky and landed on her head. She cried out in pain and sank to her knees and saw an apple and a pear.
She pondered for a while then she went for the chicken and ate it whole.
And the world was saved from aliens and chickens alike.

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on May 22, 2015 at 2:08 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: exquisite corpse

Still Learning

I finished two diplomas yesterday.
That sounds a bit more impressive than it really is… I was using a free learning site, so each diploma was fairly short. They were both interesting, though, and helped to clarify some things for me. I used an Irish education site called Alison.com (Yes, you can learn to speak Irish, if you so wish…). I chose a Diploma in Educational Philosophy and a Diploma in Teaching Skills for Educators. The format is a series of slides with the information, with assessment quizzes throughout, and a final assessment at the end. You have to achieve 80% or more to pass.
The study is absolutely free. The certificate has to be paid for. I wasn’t too fussed about that – the diplomas probably wouldn’t be valid here, and you can download a learner report to show that you’ve studied and passed. It’s not the first port of call if you need documentation, but it’s great if you just want to learn something new. I’ve signed up for a short course on Aesop’s fables – it’s aimed at school level, so I’ll go through it with the boys.

It’s a good preparation for going back in to full time study. I’ll be signing up again to complete my previous studies, although I’ll be focusing on Western Herbalism rather than Naturopathy, and I’ll be with a different college.

It’s been a good year so far! 🙂

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on May 20, 2015 at 4:11 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: alison, online learning

Back To Baking

Wednesday again! Pizza day today…

We made up a very quick and easy dough.

We were a bit worried about the dough being able to rise, but it wasn’t overly cold today.

Each of the boys had their own dough to prepare. The recipe said to roll it out, so one of the pizzas was rolled and shaped into a circle. It turned out thin and crispy.
I used to make this recipe fairly often, but I didn’t have a rolling pin – I would just stretch and shape it with my hands. The other pizza was shaped like this – it was a bit thicker and more springy.

Ready to go in the oven 🙂
The sauce on the base is roasted tomato and bacon (pasta sauce, I think). They were topped with steak fried with garlic, bacon, onion and ricotta.

Yum! 🙂

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on May 20, 2015 at 3:45 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: pizza

Clanger Pie

Baking day again!

We decided to make a pie today, but couldn’t decide which one to do. A few days ago, we watched an episode of River Cottage, where they made a Bedfordshire dish called a “Clanger”. It’s a bit like a pasty (or “elongated suet crust dumpling”…) but with a different filling at each end. The original pasty had savoury at one end and sweet at the other – a meal in one package… We were making a savoury meal, but why not use the same concept for a pie?
So was born the Clanger Pie! 😉

Waiting to be covered – one side cheese and onion pie, one side “shepherd’s” pie (although nothing to do with a shepherd, since it’s beef and bacon…)

Covered with pastry one side, potato the other, with an egg wash.

Cooked!

…and ready to eat! 🙂

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on May 13, 2015 at 7:20 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: baking, bedfordshire clanger, river cottage

Blessed

Mothers’ Day today!
I was woken up this morning by smiling (sleepy) boys – I knew I would get some choccies but was surprised by homemade cards, too. ❤