Wombling for a good cause

This week I'm channelling my inner womble and finally using up some of the stash of card, tissue paper, ribbons, cords and other bits and pieces from packaging and gifts that we've always known would come in useful one day. For the last few years the lovely folk at Transition Loughborough have taken part in the local church's Christmas Tree Festival to spread the message about low-impact living and offer practical hints and tips to folk who go along to enjoy the festivities. This year they are going for a giveaway of seeds as part of their display which means I can actually do something practical to help from here by making up some packages using our own saved seeds. So, dear reader I give you the cost-me-nothing and almost-completely-home-compostable seedy cracker!

1. Using quartered loo roll inners and tubes made from the card sheets that you get new clothes and similar stuff, I made little tubes.






2. A twist of newspaper is
filled with seed and short growing instructions written on a pretty label.

3. And then  popped inside the tube.

4. A wrap of paper soon becomes a cracker tied with cord, ribbon or oddments of embroidery thread.

4. A simple pretty little giveaway that, with the exception of some of the re-used ties and the little bit of sellotape is waste free but fun.



Obviously you can decorate them with all sorts and I did pop a button on one to make it pretty but then realised that the recipient would have to dispose of anything that couldn't be composted so went back to plain and simple.

Lammas - First Harvest

The wheel is turning again and we reach the month of August.  Traditionally this marks the festival of Lammas or the celebration of the first Harvest - there's more information about the festivals on the The Goddess and The Green Man website as well as lots of other sources out there for those that are interested in such things. For me it's a chance to pause and think about what we are growing, what we might want to grow in the future and which seeds we want to save for next year (yes I still make such plans).It's also a chance to be grateful that we have the space to grow our own.
This year it has also, wonderfully, coincided with the first ripe tomatoes from our garden plants - just 3 but hopefully there will be a few more in the next couple of days so that I can incorporate them into the weekend's meals.

Happy Harvest.

And didn't we have a loverly time...

Today is Js birthday and luckily it dawned cold and crisp with beautiful blue skies and hardly any wind so we bundled up in thick jumper (J) plus scarf, thick coat, woolly hat and gloves (me) and headed off to Warwick for the Snowdrop Day at Hill Close Gardens. 

A wonderfully resurrected piece of the town's Victorian past the gardens were once owned by individual families and are now beautifully maintained by a small staff and lots of volunteers. They are open to the public all year round and hold various special events too but despite working in Warwick for years, today was my first visit. It was wonderful and with the help of my trusty wheeled walker and a few carefully placed benches I managed to enjoy most of the gardens. Each one has it's own "personality" - for some it was carefully sculpted parterres and small hedges, others boasted mini ferneries and bosky glades, yet more had clipped lawns and sleeping beds or veggies, compost bins and fruit trees. several also have interesting little buildings well worth exploring and displays of art work, old tools or potting shed set-ups.

The snowdrops were planted daintily beneath hedges, in lawns, dedicated beds and even hanging from some venerable old apple trees. They were joined by emerging irises, hellebores, crocuses and aconites. Soon there will be daffodils and tulips too so if you are nearby I thoroughly recommend a visit.

Imbolc - light in the darkness

 

snowdrops

 According Glennie Kindred in my copy of her Sacred Celebrations the end of January/beginning of February marks the old festival of Imbolc- the re-awakening of the Earth. As she says "The days are beginning to lengthen....Sap is beginning to rise....Everywhere there are signs of the Earth stirring." 

So it's time to light a candle, admire the snowdrops and once again mark the turning of the wheel.

and the promise of more to come

Perversely the first few days of February usually bring snow here in the Midlands so I'm busy watching the skies and hoping it holds off for a few days more as Hill Close Gardens in Warwick is having a couple of snowdrop days this weekend and we've planned a visit on Sunday all being well. It's J's birthday and snowdrops have always been a favourite of mine - that dainty little nodding flower emerges at the darkest time of the year, stubbornly flowering before almost everything else despite hard frosts, harsh winds and whatever else the winter decides to throw at us.

 No wonder they have been used over centuries to symbolise Hope and Rebirth.

Kindness of friends and the dedication of strangers

It's my birthday!!! This time last year I was laid up in Coventry Hospital recuperating after radiotherapy and not knowing what was going to happen next. So today I've celebrated quietly but joyfully and very, very thankfully.

Fragrant flowers from a friend

Tasty treats and pretty bits from my sister

Stories to savour from my lovely J

New puzzle from my Mum

Happy person!

Ringing the old year out...

Rachel Unthanks & the Winterset- Tar Barrel in Dale - perfect for this evening

It's a strange time of year, that feeling of pondering, looking back, stock taking and reviewing coming right up against a sense of anticipation, of suspense, of something just hanging in the air, lurking around the corner, a whisper of potential, of possibilities, of opportunities to come... It lingers here even now when we hope that nothing changes too radically as that probably won't be a "good thing". So here I am as we bid farewell to the Old, stepping into the New Year ready to see what I can do with it's potential, or at least to do my level best to do so and to carry on taking each day as it comes for as long as they come.

May good fortune be with you...

Celebrating our way.

Family traditions evolve over time and often make no sense to anyone else at all but nonetheless become a valued and ingrained part of your celebration. For us it all starts when the BBC broadcast the Christmas Special edition of the 1970s comedy "The Good Life", entitled "Silly but it's fun" it sort of sums things up for us.  After all, we have just celebrated Christmas Eve with our traditional breakfast of Hot Cross Buns - bought as an "oh how could they" giggle many moons ago when we were setting off early to visit Js mum, hot cross buns have now become an out-of-season must have for us. The tree, if we have one, has to be real, the topper a star. If we are lucky enough to get too many cards for the living room pelmets then two red ribbons get attached to the door and the remaining cards get attached to them. Any greenery brought in has to be home grown or foraged. And Boxing Day, well Boxing Day is, weather permitting, Pruning Day - whether we just do the garden tree or we manage to get up to the allotment - we always try to prune the apple trees on Boxing Day and kick off the new growing year in style.

So, however you celebrate the turning of the wheel and the coming of the longer, brighter days that are just around the corner, may the next few days be everything you wish for and bring you good health and much joy.

Happy Solstice all

Good morning all. The Solstice has arrived and the wheel turns again. 

Have a wonderful day all.

'Tis the season...

Cake, cookies, roasts, nuts and nibbles. Time to create, time to slob, people to feed, new tastes to try. Whatever you celebrate at this time of year I'm sure food plays a big part of it. Already this year we've had the first of the vanilla biscuits - simple to make and great to share - dusted with cinnamon sugar they just scream "warm and happy."

Vanilla biscuits dusted with cinnamon sugar - mmmm

At the same time the first cheese and onion biscuits have been baked, packed up and delivered to Js colleagues. Of course you have to make sure your bakes are edible so a few were tested by the chief taster before I boxed up the rest.  He approved them - as did Mum who is here visiting so below is a recipe to share, bake, tinker with and enjoy.

Cheese and Onion bites 

Gas Mark 6/ Lightly greased and floured oven tray. Makes about 18.

Cheese and Onion bites ready for the oven

I used...
6oz plain flour
3oz margarine
approx 1/2 tablespoon dried onion powder
approx 2oz strong cheddar grated
black pepper
soya milk to mix (obviously water or other milk would do)





Rub fat into flour as for shortcrust pastry. Stir in onion, cheese and pepper. Bring together with enough milk to create a firm dough. Refrigerate for an hour or so and then roll to about the same thickness as a commercial digestive biscuit. Cut out using 2inch round cutter and bake for approx. 20 minutes until lightly golden.Leave to cool on a rack and then store in airtight container - not sure on the shelf life as the spares didn't last 5 minutes!

Please play with the ingredients to find flavours that suit you - I've made variations of these with other types of cheese  or even without cheese at all, and with onion, black pepper and herbs for a great vegan savoury munch. This is also a great way to use up any odds and ends of cheese that may be past their best which given The Observer article that raised lots of people's blood pressure on Sunday should be a good and useful thing to have at your disposal.

May your kitchen be warm and your house be bathed in the scent of baking for the rest of the month!

Bringing in the green...

The tree is up and decorated but the greenery doesn't usually stop there. A few years ago J made a willow wreath for the front door which we decorate and hang each year. using whatever the hedgerows, allotment or garden can offer up. Whatever we cut we always make sure there is plenty left for the wildlife and it's all composted or re-used afterwards. This year I've redressed the hoop with greenery and berries from the garden - J cut these on Sunday before the rain set in and I spent an hour or so yesterday evening weaving in berried Ivy stalks, holly twigs, rosemary sprigs, fern fronds and privet berries then finished off with some twining ivy and a couple of pieces of reused red ribbon. I've also added one of the little stars he made to the centre of the wreath so now any visitors will be greeted with a sweet scented celebration of our garden as we count down to the Solstice and the New Year beyond.

Not one to let all the cut greenery go to waste I've also started a jug for the living room - it still needs a few bits of paler greenery to lift it so I'll have to see what I can find but it's not a bad start.

Soundrack to the season

Music always features heavily in the house at this time of year - the now traditional rash of Christmas themed pop songs always get several airings but so do some gentler more ethereal tunes that seem to better reflect the thoughtfulness provoked by the season. This is a small selection of the ones that I keep coming back to. I hope you enjoy them too.

Solstice Carol - A glorious invocation of the season from the Canadian band Wyrd Sisters.

Sarah McLachlan's haunting Wintersong is also a favourite at this time of year. Until I started putting this post together I hadn't realised just how many Canadian vocalists featured amongst my favourites. The next one also hails from across the pond.

In the bleak midwinter - So many beautiful versions of this haunting song but this one by Loreena McKennitt is one of my favourites.

White Christmas - There have been many but for me, nothing beats the one and only Bing Crosby

Enya's voice is always beautiful and no matter what she records it is  evocative and ethereal. This version of the sublime Silent Night is no exception.

Happy Listening!

Deck the halls...

Well the living room and landing anyway..with maybe a few extra lights for the kitchen and porch.
We picked a beautiful tree up from our local farm on Friday and let it settle overnight. It's a locally grown Nordmann Spruce that will eventually be chipped and composted to make a mulch for our blueberries but that's jumping ahead a bit, for now we are enjoying having it in the house for the next few weeks. A warm pop of tradition to brighten the gloom of Midwinter.

J popped the lights on for me, we found a second set neither of us could remember buying and they look really good on the tree, so we now have one set an icy-blue-white and the other a warm-orange-white so to me, it looks a bit like having both the moon's and the sun's light on one tree. It's been a seriously soggy dismal grey day so spending a few hours decorating the tree really brightened the world. I've topped it off with a wicker star J made a few years ago from our allotment willow and has been wrapped with strings of larch cones and adorned with a mix of ornaments - red, gold and silver glass ones bought the year I moved to the Midlands and had my own tree for the first time; a clay gingerbread man made by one of my nephews when he was small; a wooden cracker made by J the first year he had a lathe; papier-mȃché baubles that used to be on our family tree and a few others picked up, given and made over the last decade. A hodge-podge of smiles and memories that will brighten the room for a few weeks before being packed away carefully wrapped in tissue paper until next December.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we'll dress the wreaths and bring some more green inside. I've also promised to make the first batch of vanilla & cinnamon biscuits as gifts for friends and neighbours. I do like this time of year.