What a surprise! One damp and dreary early Autumn morning I stumbled out to feed the chickens and was suddenly stunned wide awake by this beautiful bright blue flower positively glowing – Morning Glory! It’s supposed to be really easy to grow but I nurtured tiny seedlings that struggled to survive and, when I finally planted them out they just sat there and refused to climb up the bamboo wigwam – until I got bored waiting and forgot all about them – until this morning! Every morning since there have been new flowers – they love the early mornings and close up later in the day – hence the name. It’s a type of convolvulus – our native white version can be a troublesome weed as it chokes other plants – hence its common name – bindweed. All of the plant is poisonous as it contains tropane alkaloids – especially the seeds – but this flower certainly brightened up my morning.
There are some amazing train journeys from Whitchurch Railway Station.
One Friday morning, I was travelling by train to a conference in Wakefield. It was a long journey and I had to change trains 3 times so I was not looking forward to it – I thought it would be really boring – how wrong can you be?
I got off at Stockport to find that I was getting the one train a week to Stalybridge. Evidently it was featured on Paul Merton’s TV programme about ‘Request Stops’ – except there are no request stops on the Stockport to Stalybridge weekly service – as the train has to run at least once a week by Government decree and the train has to stop at every station. It’s mainly a freight train line but has to have at least one passenger train a week in order to stay open.
I was about to get on the train when someone said: “I hope you’re not planning to come back on this train.” Puzzled I asked why: “Because it only goes one way once a week. If you want to get back to Stockport you have to go via Manchester.” The speaker got on the train with me – and I discovered that most of the people on the train were travelling for fun – I was probably the only person for a long while who had actually used the service to get from ‘A’ to ‘B’. One of the passengers was a member of ‘The Friends of Denton Station” who told me all about it along with the conductor who nearly featured in Paul Merton’s programme – but it was his brother who was the guard on the train that day.
The little old train rattled along the track – brushing past overhanging brambles, trees and shrubs, purple with buddleia – it was like going back in time. I got off at Stalybridge and ran to the other platform where the TransPennine Express was waiting – which brought me rapidly up to date – until I got to Huddersfield and climbed aboard another little old train that took me to Wakefield Westgate.
So the train journey that I thought was going to be really boring was really interesting. The scenery from the TransPennine Express was absolutely stunning, rolling hills interspersed with Yorkshire stone villages, old mills and brick chimneys, the railways often follow river valleys and travel alongside canals busy with barges wending their way through locks – so there’s lots to see.
We went under Yorkshire stone bridges, soot blackened from long forgotten steam trains; through cuttings with blasted rock faces, past towering walls, painstakingly built brick by brick, now pink and white with valerian and daisies. History unfolded before my eyes – labourers laying the rails, stokers shovelling coal on steam engines, bricklayers, stonemasons, signalmen – their presence is still felt in the very fabric of the railways and their ghosts still haunt the train tracks – and the train to Denton station which is often called ‘The Ghost Train’ as it is the least used track in Britain.
I always grow some sunflowers as the birds love the seeds. I tried to get some ordinary size sunflower seeds but must have ended up with giant ones – either that or the rabbit manure has worked wonders as these sunflowers are over a foot across – and one of the plants is over 12 feet tall! It’s a wonder it’s still standing – my time spent staking the plants in the spring has paid off.
I used to spend ages collecting the sunflower seeds but it takes ages scraping them all out and the earwigs seem to like hiding in them too – so now I just dry the whole heads in the barn then put them out for the birds in the winter – they don’t mind the earwigs!
The height of laziness – waiting for dinner – Lunar the Cat!
Reading this website, a friend in Birmingham, who adores cats, emailed me this morning:
“Yesterday was such a lovely day, our queen cat was basking in the sun and I noticed her watching the skies, I looked up to see seagulls high above, riding the thermals. It’s still strange to me that they have made the cities their home – but the city is a survivor’s success story for them.”
It’s buzzards that wheel in our Shropshire skies, keening and calling and being chased by crows.
She also asked for some pictures of our cat – so here he is – he’s a Russian Blue and belongs to Dane, our eldest son. Very good at catching mice, but usually doesn’t kill them, Betsy the dog does that – if Dane doesn’t get there first and rescues them by tip of the tail!
The opium poppy, papaver somniferum, family Papaveracae, is the species of plant from which opium and poppy seeds are derived. The Latin botanical name somniferum means the “sleep-bringing poppy”, referring to its sedative properties.
I have always wondered if it’s safe to eat poppy seeds from the garden so I did some research. Evidently the seeds contain very low levels of opiates and the oil extracted from them contains even less. Poppyseed oil has many uses and poppy seeds are used as a food in many cultures. Poppy seeds are rich in oil, carbohydrates, calcium and protein.
The opiate drugs are extracted from opium. The latex oozes from incisions made on the green seed pods and is collected once dry. Tincture of opium or laudanum consisting of opium dissolved in alcohol or a mixture of alcohol and water, is one of many unapproved drugs. Laudanum was historically used to treat a variety of ailments but its principal use was as an analgesic and cough suppressant until the early 20th century.
Poppy seed is mentioned in ancient medical texts from many civilizations. The Minoans a Bronze Age civilization (around 2700 BC) on the island of Crete, cultivated poppies for their seed, and used a milk, opium and honey mixture to calm crying babies. Poppy seeds have long been used as a folk remedy to aid sleeping, promote fertility and wealth, and were even once believed to have magical powers of invisibility.
Morphine is the predominant alkaloid found in the cultivated varieties of opium poppy. In some countries it is illegal to grow poppies although generally poppy seeds as a food are allowed. In the UK there are no restrictions on growing poppies, only for extracting opium for medicinal products.
Ripe seed from both the opium poppy and corn poppy (papaver rhoeas) does not contain harmful substances and can be used as a spice in curries and sprinkled on bread and cakes.
So now I feel reassured that I can safely collect poppy seed and sprinkle it on my home-made bread, sausage rolls and mince pies.
There are lots of spring plants that rabbits like and, fed in moderation, they are really good for them – too much green stuff can upset their digestion – but a few leaves of a few different plants every day is fine – and they really enjoy them.
Comfrey leaves and flowers are a favourite – not to be confused with foxglove which has the same shape leaves. Comfrey is very easy to distinguish at this time of year as it’s in flower and foxglove is just leaves.
Foxglove is digitalis and very poisonous so make sure you pick comfrey plants with flowers.
Rabbits like most herbs, these are chives which have a slightly onion smell.
Another spring weed in garlic mustard, or Jack-by-the-hedge which has a mild garlic scent – rabbits like flowers and leaves – smaller plants are most tender.
And of course the dandelion, just leaves and again in moderation – just two or three leaves a day.
I like to give each rabbit a choice of leaves and see which they eat first – they don’t all choose the same ones first. Dandelion likes comfrey and Fiver likes chives.
Every day I get real pleasure from picking a few choice titbits and watching the rabbits enjoy eating them – the hens like some plants too, particularly the brassicas, but their favourite is always bread and they come running when they see me carrying a basket.
Eny’s babies are 4 weeks old now and they are hopping about happily.
Chives are growing quite well in the garden and the rabbits love them – just a few stalks each day along with their piece of apple.
The original Easter Bunny was the Hare. The Anglo Saxon’s believed that the hare laid eggs in its form to signify the imminence of the year’s rebirth. However, the church changed the hare into a ‘bunny’ in order to lead the people away from pagan stories and ways. The Spring Goddess was often depicted as a woman’s body with the head of a hare.
One of my favourite spring flowers is coltsfoot – unusual in that the flowers appear before the leaves.
The Christian word ‘Easter’ is derived from the pagan word ‘Eastre’. Eastre or Ostara is believed to have been the Saxon Goddess of the Dawn, hence the reason why Easter is celebrated at the time of the Spring Equinox.
The connection between Easter and the ‘egg’ symbolising new life also originates from pre-Christian times but fits perfectly with the Christian belief of the resurrection.
Although our youngest son is now 15 (and the others are 25 and 22) we still have an Easter Egg Hunt each year – but now with cryptic clues and riddles they have to solve rather than a trail of tiny Easter eggs. Clues like:
What has to be broken before you can use it – and where can you find some? The answer is of course – eggs – in the hen house.
Family time is so important – and often so difficult to organise with so many computer distractions – but it’s always worth it.
If someone asked me what common theme my Twitter account has then it would have to be ‘Things that make me Happy’. My glass is always half full – there’s absolutely no point in looking at life any other way. I collect beautiful pictures, bluebirds and daffodils, great sayings: “There’s no point looking back ‘cos that’s not the way you’re going.” Funny video clips and happy tunes – I absolutely love ‘Room without a Roof’ because everyone dances to it and I love sharing happiness.
John is the same – and has finally published a book which is full of happy pictures and inspirational words – you can download it from:
I have had bad times, days when I just couldn’t face getting out of bed, mornings when just the thought of cleaning my teeth was too much effort – but I’ve always found something to focus on, some reason to carry on, something I love – and on those days I have found if I can just get outside and feel the sun on my face and the breeze on my skin, the scent of primroses and a robin singing, life is suddenly wonderful again – even if it’s just for a moment when ‘a chaffinch sings on the orchard bough’ or ‘a crowd of golden daffodils’, and you stop and immerse yourself in nature and forget everything else.
Many people find meditation helps – and is often much better therapy than drugs for lots of stress-related conditions, like headaches, insomnia, IBS, indigestion and phobias. Sleeping and eating are a vital part of every day and our bodies need a regular balance of both or they start to complain. www.meditationalstate.com has some beautiful music and images.
Running a business, working for yourself, can be really hard sometimes – but if you love what you do then it’s like having a hobby 7 days a week – and if you do have a bad day where everything seems to go wrong – it’s just one bad day – and you know you’ll be doing something you love doing tomorrow.
The days are getting longer, Spring is in the air, with the promise of summer to come, there’s a great sense of excitement in the garden, you can almost feel the grass growing and the daffodils bursting into brilliant yellow splashes of sunshine.
Here is Charlie with his foster-mum – Mrs Grey – and I’ve called the other chick Ebony – I think he (or she) is a pure is a pure Vorwerk. If so (s)he’ll look like one of these when (s)he grows up:
This is Captain Von Vorwerk with Violet, they are quite impressive hens and they lay little white eggs.
