Tag Archives: living

Cologne 1st January 2016

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Cologne 1st January 2016 – what price freedom?

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I was appalled by the events in Cologne on New Year’s Eve – and in Finland, Sweden and Switzerland – and London.  That women were specifically targeted, that the Police did nothing, that they tried to cover it up (although with social media they must have realised that was impossible) and then that women were told ‘to go out with chaperones and carry rape alarms’.  I therefore decided to do a social media campaign on International Women’s Day this year to highlight these issues.  I am no feminist, but I feel very strongly that if we had more women in positions of power the world would be a better and safer place.

All children deserve access to education and this education needs to include the teaching of respect.  Anyone choosing to live in Europe must demonstrate that they respect our culture – and that includes respect for women.  Emmeline Pankhurst would be turning in her grave if she was watching Cologne on New Years Eve.

At a recent co-operative Ways Forward 4 Conference ‪#‎WF4 www.cbc.coop Alan Semo was one of the final speakers.  He spoke about the  Middle East Crisis, and the people of Rojava in Northern Syria, a community with a mix of ethnic and religious people – Kurds, Christians, Jews – living together, supporting gender equality, and setting up co-operative projects.  Cath Muller from www.radicalroutes.org.uk summed this up at the end:

“We are inspired by you, the people of Kobane and Rojava – by your determination, by your sense of solidarity and by your commitment to fairness, to ecological sustainability and to freedom for all.  We have much to learn from you and to share with you. We look forward to developing mutually beneficial links between our co-operatives and your co-operatives and contributing together to the development of truly co-operative economies.”

All women deserve the right to education, the freedom to choose who they marry,what they wear, where they work, where they live, what they say and where they go. We sometimes forget how lucky we are living in this Western world where these things are taken for granted.

Please join me in a social media campaign on International Women’s Day, 8th March by sharing my posts on

https://www.facebook.com/barbara.rainford

www.twitter.com  @strawfields

Snowdrops

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Snowdrops

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The very first flowers of Spring.  Our very first visit to the cottage each year was to pick some snowdrops and I remember those journeys looking out of the car window searching the fields wanting to be the first to see the new lambs.  That feeling of looking forward to Spring returns with the snowdrops.  Mum used to say:  “If you have good health, you can change everything else in your life.”  As I am getting older, I have good days and bad days and I really make an effort to make the most of the good days – those days when you get up in the morning and feel like changing the world.  But however you feel, whatever your health, you can always enjoy the little things in life, using your senses to the full, listening to a robin sing, watching blue tits on the bird table – and the scent of flowers – did you know that snowdrops have a very delicate, fresh, green smell?

Squash, Apple and Sage Soup

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Squash, Apple and Sage Soup

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Ingredients:
50 g (2 oz) butter
1 kg (2 lb) squash (or pumpkin) peeled and diced
2 medium onions, chopped
1 large potato diced
1 tin chopped tomatoes or 4 large tomatoes, skinned* and chopped
2 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped
2 level teaspoons of sage (fresh sage** is best)
1 level teaspoon of thyme
2 pints stock (vegetable or beef – stock cubes are fine)
Salt and black pepper to taste

*to skin tomatoes easily simply put in a bowl, pour over boiling water, leave to stand for about a minute, plunge into cold water, and the skin just rubs off.

**Sage is a perennial so it grows all year but is better picked during the summer. For ease of use I pick lots in the summer and freeze in small quanities in plastic bags, or chop it and freeze in ice cube trays. Then it’s all ready to use for sage and onion stuffing in the middle of winter.

Method:
Fry the onion in the butter gently until soft,
Add the squash and stir for a few minutes,
Add the potato
Add the tomatoes
Add the stock
Stir in the sage and thyme
Add salt and pepper
Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes
Add the apple and cook for another 10 minutes
Cool slightly, puree in a liquidiser or food processor.
Add a sprinkling of black pepper and serve.

Pumpkin Soup for Bonfire Night

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Pumpkin Soup for Bonfire Night

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Snap up the pumpkins left over from Halloween and make some spicy soup for bonfire night.  There’s nothing quite like sipping hot spicy pumpkin soup gathered around the bonfire and watching the flames and sparks drift into the night sky.

Pumpkin freezes quite well so when you’ve scraped out all the pumpkin flesh to make Halloween Jack-O-Lanterns, cut it into cubes and put into a polythene bag.  It will store in the fridge for up to 3 days or will freeze for over a month.

The seeds can be dried to use in bread and muesli – or to feed to the birds during the cold winter months.

Visit the recipe page for a not too spicy pumpkin soup recipe.

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The Nasturtium Fairy

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The Song of The Nasturtium Fairy

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Nasturtium the jolly,
O ho, O ho!
He holds up his brolly
Just so, just so!
(A shelter from showers,
A shade from the sun;)
‘Mid flame-coloured flowers
He grins at the fun.
Up fences he scrambles,
Sing hey, sing hey!
All summer he rambles
So gay, so gay –
Till the night-frost strikes chilly,
And Autumn leaves fall,
And he’s gone, willy-nilly,
Umbrella and all.

From ‘A Flower Fairy alphabet’ by Cicely Mary Barker

Poppies in November

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Poppies in November

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It’s time for bonfire night but I’m still picking sweet peas, the nasturtiums are going strong – and the poppies are still in full flower, brightening up the garden on these musty, misty mornings.  It’s just as well we had an Indian summer as the runner beans were planted so late, due to a very cold and wet May, that I doubted we would be picking any beans at all.  So maybe the seasons are moving – and we should plan summer holidays in September next year?

Whatever, I have really enjoyed picking sweet peas right through October.  I put some in the lounge where I sit in the evenings but also some on the window ledge near the sink – where I seem to spend an awful lot of my time.  I do really enjoy cooking vegetables I have grown myself – they taste much better and they are so much fresher – but it is more time consuming than preparing clean, bug-free supermarket varieties.

The rabbits are also enjoying the long season as they get a nasturtium leaf (and sometimes a flower) every day.  As the Nasturtium Flower Fairy says, as soon as the frosts come, the nasturtiums are “… gone willy-nilly, umbrellas and all”.

nasturtiums in October

Nasturtiums in November

The Song of The Nasturtium Fairy is from ‘A Flower Fairy alphabet’ by Cicely Mary Barker

 

Wittenham Cider

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Samhain – All Hallows Eve – time to make Wittenham Cider – many years ago my aunt gave me this recipe – it’s from a very old newspaper cutting._DSC0086s

Wittenham Cider

3 1b apples
12 pints water
2 lb granulated sugar
3 lemons
empty pop bottles

You will need 2 large clean buckets – one to make the cider in and another to strain the cider into. Approximately 3 lb of apples – any sort – a mixture is best and windfalls are fine. Wash them and chop or mince them up (including peel core and pips) and put them in the bucket.

Pour on 12 pints of cold, unboiled, water. (The original recipe is so old it says 6 quarts of water.)

Leave for a week, stirring night and morning.

Strain through a stocking held over a sieve or colander into the second bucket.

Stir in 2 lb of granulated sugar and the grated rind and juice of three lemons.

Strain again and bottle. Plastic pop bottles will do fine.

It should be drinkable within a week.

If not drinking straight away you will need to release the tops of the bottles regularly so they don’t explode – or you can use old port bottles with corks.

The Nuthatch

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Nuthatches like sunflower seeds as well as peanuts.

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Our neighbour works wonders with bits of old iron and he made this very innovative bird feeder which all the birds love and the cat hasn’t found out how to get onto yet.  We get visits from a pair of nuthatches, they usually pick up a peanut and fly off to eat it but this one stayed long enough to be photographed.

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I have also seen nuthatches eating melon seeds but they prefer peanuts.  The hens like melon seeds too.

New Zealand White Rabbits

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This is Cowslips latest litter, 5 weeks old.

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Baby rabbits must be some of the most adorable babies – once they have all their fur and their eyes are open.  They are born blind and deaf and pink-skinned but by 3 weeks old they are miniature versions of their mum hopping about their pen.

By 5 weeks old, the babies always scramble for a bit of their mum’s green food – this time of year it’s Shepherd’s Purse, rocket, spinach, dandelions, clover and the occasional nasturtium leaf (they love nasturtiums but they are quite strong so one leaf a day is enough).

Balloon Flights over Shropshire

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Sailing across Shropshire on a sultry September evening.

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Hot air balloons are surreal and it’s lovely to watch them drifting over the Shropshire fields but they are so silent they can be right above you without you knowing. We used to have a Jack Russell terrier who would bark like mad when he saw a balloon but he’s gone now so I have no warning. Totally engrossed in weeding the vegetable patch the other evening, it really made me jump – creeping silently across the sky and then the burner suddenly roaring just above my head!