Summer Solstice 2012

Sun setting at 10.30 on the Summer Solstice.

Sun setting at 10pm a day later.

The Soltice sunset was quite impressive, for about 15 minutes! I love the way you can see the pale blue and faded mint sky behind the more dramatic gold dusted rain clouds. I was hoping to get a nice shot at midnight since the previous night had looked bloody gorgeous (but could I find my camera? Nope). Sadly it was a bit too cloudy for a good photo at midnight but there were some lovely red hues in the north sky over Edinburgh.

Soaking breakfast overnight

Glass after 2hrs soaking in water (hard to see but the water is in there).

Another food photo for Liz (better late than never) I typically soak my seeds/nuts/grain mixtures overnight (at cool room temp or in the fridge if it's too hot) and top up with water as needed. Next day enjoy as raw porridge, as lightly cooked porridge (lovely with fresh fruit added), added to smoothies or drained of any water and used in salads. Full of goodness, particularly if you don't heat it. And packed with protein, for those who think you can't get protein without eating meat.

Reach for the sky...

This Clematis has suddenly settled in this year and is putting on a load of excitingly rampant growth which I've not been dutifully training in my usual fashion, so it is heading for the sky!

Garden snapshot May 2012

Narcissus, Clematis, Angelica

Clematis, Clematis, Solomon's Seal

Acer, Narcissus, Heuchera

Rhododendron, Tulip, Pieris, Tulip

Click images to enlarge.

My head for names has gone so I hope nobody wanted details of each variety. I'm hoping the nice weather will help get me enthused about the garden again and then the names will pop back into my head. Fingers crossed.

Floor tiles from Claesson Koivisto Rune

Back to my blog at last

Preparing my beetroot to stuff. Far to thick, I was being impatient (still holding out for a lottery win so I can get a Stainless steel De Buyer Mandoline)

So much has happened in the last two months that I've pretty much neglected my blog and now I see they are forcing their layout choices on me. Lets hope I have remembered enough html to at least prevent the text wrapping. Already it's clear I will have to make my images fit the full width of the page as it's the only quick way to stop the text skooching up the side of the photo. I like it when you just grabbed the corners of your image and scaled it to whatever size you wanted, and the text stayed put!!!! This feels like stepping back to 1990's computing. Ugh.

And with the cold wet weather that has clung on for most of March to May I've not had any gardening mojo either. But this week the sun has returned and I'm hoping that will kick start me into posting again, gardening again etc. My M.E. is still very much in evidence but there has been a definite shift towards managing to do things that in the long term will hopefully help a lot. I've certainly managed to deal with the recent traumas and dramas better than I would have expected given how low my energy has been.

Although home and garden have been neglected I've been pretty much on the ball as far as food goes, staying 80-90% raw even through the vile weather. I've lost weight, which is a real blessing when every pound feels like a kilo to chronically fatigued body. I've also regained my balance after several years of dizziness and bouts of vertigo so extreme they'd wake me from sleep. Aside from the obvious delight of not falling on my face when I get out of bed, the best thing about having balance is finally managing to do a bit of yoga again after having to give it up about 4 years ago.

I've been horrified by just how short and tight all my muscles have become without it. No wonder it was getting so hard to even bend to sniff flowers! My wrists are getting a bit of strength back too so that will let me do some work to build my arm muscles again. Then maybe I can start gardening again. And on that note I'm off to take some flower pics now that the sun is back in our lives again.

Food (for Liz)

Hi Liz, it's all very well offering to make you food but you might want to see it first so here a a couple of pics of yesterday's food and ingredients. Most things tend not to get photographed because I'm too busy scoffing, or have made too much mess, but I'll try and document more when I can.

The granola is the only way I can get Mr P to be keen on oats and the refried beans and rice is a great base for then adding raw shredded veg to in the last minute so it gets a little bit limp but doesn't lose any flavour or nutrients. As you can see I only had a wee bit of Rainbow Chard, Tenderstem Broccoli and Spring Onions left, but it was very tasty. It's all organic, of course, and the rice is brown basmati, boiled the day before with saffron, cardamom and a bay leaf. The cannelini beans were slow cooked the day before in my hot box.

In the March garden

Kerria buds, Spirea, Hellebore, Daffodils unknown, Daffodils 'Tete a Tete', Lilac leaves, Pieris 'Cupido', Cricus 'Ruby Giant' with Heather unknown, Kerria in flower, Flowering Currant.

So much grew and flowered in March, especially blossom which I would have expected in April and May. There will be a bit of a blank period in those months now but it was amazing to see everything flowering at once - Magnolia, both Cherry trees, Forsythia, Amelanchier, Kerria, Flowering Currant and so much more. I've not had time to get my other 100's of plant pics on to the computer yet. Will try.

March Sunset

Lighter nights now the clocks have gone forward.

The calm of a cat

These are old photos of Mo when he was quite young.
Just looking at a sleepy cat seems to calm my brain and slow my heart rate
(in a good way). Hope it can do the same for you.