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| Fidelia Bridge - Amercian painter 1834 to..... |
Funny story on living in the country. Friend got an email from a couple who had moved into the village a year ago. Who owns the pheasants in their garden they asked? Obviously they did not like the intrusion, makes you think.
Yesterday my green grocery stuff came from Daisys. I had also ordered four herb plants for £10, Rosemary, Sage, Marjoram and Thyme, all good sized plants.
It reminded me of all the books that I had read on the usefulness of herbs, their various healing qualities. How the lungwort growing in the garden at the moment, is really named after the fact that its mottled leaves look like lungs, so therefore in the middle ages was seen as a cure. You can eat the new hawthorn tips, the wild garlic leaves, nettle and ground elder leaves for soup or greens.
I like the sweetness of marjoram, and its flowers makes the bees happy. Rosemary with fried potatoes, sage leaves added with lemon to chicken, and thyme for omelettes. Their culinary aspects adds a lot to meal times. I already had all these plants but I am just happy to have them around, chives are already starting to flower and hopefully my parsley seeds will also take root. One thing I do not have is a bay tree, for that brown dried leaf which always was added to the little herb bunch, neatly tied in muslin and dropped in casseroles.
My cut and come again lettuce sprouts in the cold frame, beans, both runner and french reach for the sky, and the little plants of tomatoes and courgettes bought last week are dying to get out of their pots and grow.
Satellites are massing in space much to the disgruntlement of astronomers, oil is piling up because we are not using our cars or planes, can you not remember the time when there was dire predictions of oil running out. The air is fresher because of less pollution, people are beginning to fret against the harness of 'stay at home'. Things are turned on their heads - Welcome Alice!
I have to say, we are enjoying the simplicity of life at the moment, when work is leavened with creativity, crafting, walking, and just plain sitting and enjoying the sunshine with a good book.
ReplyDeleteSnap on theherbs - I have planted the herbs I had about the place - so few, and I used to have so many - in an old Belfast sink. Would love some more young plants but don't know when I will be able to get those. I have a HUGE Bay tree here - would you like some leaves?
I'm glad your seeds are doing well. Ours have been a bit slow off the mark in the Chilli department (no show so far) but others making good progress, especially the beefy chaps such as the Greek Gigantes beans.
My nasturtiums are not showing either but the seeds are fairly old. Must admit I have just pulled out material for patchwork and now wondering what to make. Woman's Hour is talking about death at the moment, so I better get a move on ;)
DeleteThat last quotation is so apt for the situation at the moment Thelma. I am really quite enjoying the simplicity of things here for me - but most of my friends are desperate for lockdown to end. I have just been to a virtual lockdown coffee morning - five of us, all friends. All but me were desperate o 'get out' but I don't find it irksome.
ReplyDeleteNeither do I find it irksome Pat, the weather is beautiful. Irene and I talking over the weekend reckoned us over a certain age, will be kept in for months, so your friends will have to find something to do.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it a little early to be thinking about putting courgettes and tomatoes out? You are fifty or more miles north of Sheffield and we can get frosts right up to the end of May. It can be a bit of a gamble. I guess you just have to feel when the right time has arrived.
ReplyDeleteYes, and of course I grow a lot of stuff on the south side and the wall keeps the heat of the sun over night, plus because there is only a small amount of stuff I can move the pots indoors.
DeleteI thought of my mother the other day. I threw the bay leaf right into the rice dish I made, and it did not reappear until I had the 4th serving (it lasted that long). Just as in my childhood, I licked the bay leaf clean, and said to my mother, "I didn't eat it." And she always said "Good, just throw it away after supper."
ReplyDeleteLovely story Joanne, the bay leaf is a bit like the little sixpence that goes into the Xmas cake and no one knows who is going to get it.
DeleteI love herbs too. We bought an aloe vera when we first got the Tucson house and it's spread amazingly. They are healing also.
ReplyDeleteAloe Vera became a very fashionable herb at one time.
ReplyDeleteI have two books by Terry Tempest Williams, purchased and read when I was trying to come to terms with living in the perpetual drought of the interior west. I lack the passion [and energy] for taking up a cause, but found her writing impressive.
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