Getting back in the swing of it............

I spent this afternoon out in my garden; it's been a long, long time since I did this because of illness. I think a few hours in the sunshine did more for my health and general demeanour than anything over the previous months. I played with the goats and talked to chickens and ducks; watched the bees busily flying in welcome warm sunshine; inspected all teh spring flowers, miraculously unmauled by chicken depridations over the ast few weeks - oxlips, celandine, daffodils, violets, cowlsips, fritillaries, pulmonaria, winter box, all sorts of hellebores; my little cherry tree is covered in blossom, looking very healthy and pretty; lots of blackthorn blossom too, and a good covering on the old damson in the orchard; the other trees have promising spring green leaf buds, and everywhere there are leaves pushing up through the ground. I cleared and sorted the first greenhouse, so now have somewhere to put the first trays of seeds I sowed last week; stacks of pots and trays are ready, and the kiwi vine in there is bursting with furry little leaves on branches that seem to be making for the next village over the hill..........it won;t be long until that greenhouse will be full of cucumber vines and tomato plants, emerging beans and baby flowers. I cant wait. I have missed my garden so much while I've been ill and was thrilled to bits to get as much accomplished as I did, a great boost for me. Welcome back to the garden :)

Some days..............

Some days are better than others. This was not one of them :(

Bread

Bread. Make it. Simple.

Don't believe anyone who says..........

I don't have space and time to grow any of my own food!

This little pot of cress was ready for cutting this morning; I had extra eggs to use up, so boiled up a few, made egg mayonnaise and cut the cress into it - enough for a good few days' sandwiches there.
The little tray is the bottom of an Ecover washing up liquid bottle that I turned into seed labels last week; inside is a folded piece of paper towel - I use the blue dairy wipes, half a sheet, folded to fit, soak well in cold water and sow the cress seed thickly on top. Keep watered and cool, and 6 days later, you will get this result. I used Sutton cress seed, £1.45, and there's enough in there for at least 6 little trays like this I reckon.  When cut and used, the rooty stalk ends go into the compost bucket along with the paper, and the tray is re-sown immediately to give a constant supply. Minimal time, minimal space - maximum flavour and freshness, not to mention satisfaction :)

Yarnbombing

Why don't we listen?

“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy--sun, wind and tide. I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.” ― Thomas A. Edison (1931)

Hat for a forager

Field mushrooms, leaves and wild raspberries under a darkening and starlit sky, finished off with a swinging acorn tassle  :)