Stop and Smell the Roses...

I'm taking your advice and taking it easy... 

relaxing...

being happy...

enjoying Autumn (with a scarf on)...

and foraging in the garden...

there are no more blackberries left now!

Growing Green Fingers...

To offset my ranting over the last few days, I will show you some vegetable wonders of the world... We have had so much rain in the last few weeks, I haven't had to water the garden, so I haven't really been taking time to look at what's been going on. The mornings of sitting out in the sun drinking my coffee have gone and the paddling pool has been put away. 

Has summer gone so soon?

Before we set off on our weekends away, there was nothing but a few flowers on the french beans. Now miraculously we have 6 inches of superfine legumes to be proud of...

The peppers are popping up quite nicely, but the slugs and baby snails have had a field day...

We've had the last of the lettuce now, but the cherry tomatoes are still giving us some sweet little gifts of juiciness...

We haven't had much of a harvest in our first attempt at growing vegetables, mainly because of the lack of space in the yard and because I haven't been able to afford to buy or find any larger pots or compost to repot the things that need more nourishment. I guess if we could compost our waste somehow it would make a huge difference to what we could grow.

I haven't used any kind of plant food because I don't want to get into buying organic food in plastic bottles that won't be available in India. When the time comes I will research homemade organic plant feeds in more depth.

The experiments in sowing and growing have been great fun and very challenging. The satisfaction I have felt seeing and eating something I made happen is unbelievably addictive.

I knew from the start that things would go wrong and I have been happy to learn from my mistakes.

What I have learnt:

• Always use clean soil, to avoid diseases such as 'damping off'. At the very beginning I used some pebbles from the garden to help with drainage in my pots... big mistake! The seedlings and soil went mouldy and developed a green 'dew drop' disease over the surface.
  
• Watering should be done from below to avoid 'drowning' the seeds before they germinate.
• Water regularly to avoid 'bolting' of seedlings. If the tray gets too dry the seedlings will bolt up and grow too quickly.
• Carrots need to be thinned out when they are quite small, otherwise the leaves get too tangled to easily be pulled.
• Slugs love my strawberries!

What we have grown:

• Baby leaf lettuce - lots of it.
• Rocket - lots more.
• Courgettes - very small ones due to small pots, but very tasty too. About 10 in total.
• Tomatoes - cherry, we've eaten about 20 so far.
• French beans - about 20 on the plant, I may use them tonight.
• Peas - haven't done so well because they were in the same pot as the beans, which have won the battle.
• Peppers - the pots are too small so I'm not expecting much.
• Potatoes - an experiment with a few Tesco Value chits! Watered by the bathroom sink, that needs a proper drainage pipe. I planted 6 in a recycling box, too many in a small space, they grew too tall and fell over before they flowered. I had a look and found lots of potatoes but they had a white speckled disease. I just wanted to see how they grew really.
• Cucumber - still growing, but the same pot issue, they are looking a bit small and wobbly.
• Spring onions - from sets, lovely in our salads.
• Coriander - loads of it.

So all in all I'm very happy with the dabbling in 'Green fingered magic' ... The most important thing I have learned is that preparation is the key to success. The heart of any garden is in the soil. Good soil means healthy plants. When we buy some land I will probably spend the first year just building up a good supply of compost and making some raised beds to ensure the nutrients are properly distributed. I'm also going to look into irrigation systems involving greywater. 

I'm excited about learning more of crop rotation, companion planting and moon planting. So if any of you have ideas, links or posts about these, I'd love to hear from you.

One of my favourite garden blogs in India (in fact it's the only one I've found!) is India Garden. She doesn't grow vegetables but her photos are always so inspiring. 

I can't wait to get started now!

Strawberry Fields Forever...

At long last we got to pick our own strawberries! Everyday the angel stands next to the flowers and looks into the sage. This being where I have tried to hide the strawberries from the nasty slugs, who had stolen the first juicy ripe ones! She tries to sneakily take them when they are still white and she does the same with the green tomatoes...

I know the land in the hills of Kerala is perfect for growing strawberries. It's a similar climate to England, without out the grey clouds and drizzle! A place I've dreamt of going to is Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra. Renouned for their strawberries, Mahabaleshwar is a hillstation of similar climate to Vagamon or Munnar. So I have high hopes of growing a field (or patch!) of strawberries in the future.

So I would like some advice for expert strawberry growers (more than 3 strawberries counts!) about how to keep the nasty pesty things of my fruit... organically of course. 

This is an excerpt from the site where I found this great photo of a 

"Strawberrywallah"

"That is exactly what Mahabaleshwar is all about in the Indian summer! A place to escape the torrid heat that grips Mumbai, a place to romance strawberries and mulberries, a place to cool off in the thunderous hailstorms thatshower the hot tin roofs and plunge the temperatures for lovers to revel in!

Mahabaleshwar has something for all young and old, trekker and stroller, shopper and foodie or maybe someone who just loves to laze around. Therefore, you will find families, backpackers, moony honeymooners, all doing their own thing and generally having a good time."

***

I'm loving it already!

A-Z of Homemaking...

Inspired by Lizzie's Homeworld and My Life Makeover Journey ...

A ~Aprons--y/n If y, what does your fav. look like?
No! 

I'm not afraid to get dirty and I don't even own any 'nice' clothes, in fact all my clothes fit into a Waitrose posh jute shopping bag. Except the jeans and underwear, I live (and I'll probably die!) in jeans. They are perfect for every occasion, hot or cold and they don't look bad when they're dirty either! Hmmm... I'm changing the question to Jeans y/n? Can I live without them? 

No!

B ~ Baking--Favorite thing to bake?
Well I've only just got back into baking since my cheffing days, see this for proof! So I guess I'll say simple loaf cakes... The Angel likes to help...

C ~ Clothes line?
Most definitely, fresh air is free!

D ~ Donuts--Have you ever made them?
No, I'm not really into sugary things... give me chocolate cake instead

E ~ Everyday--One homemaking thing you do everyday?
Wash up, wash up, wash up, I spend my life washing up!

A very unusual sight for me...

F ~ Freezer--Do you have a separate deep freeze?
No, I don't have a house to put it in. I won't have one in India because power cuts are too common.

G ~ Garbage Disposer?
I think this questionnaire started in the US! Sometime in the 80's they came to the UK for posh people with bidets in the bathroom. 

H ~ Handbook--What is your favourite homemaking resource?
Definitely the internet, you can know anything at any time.

I ~ Ironing--Love it or Hate it? Or hate it but love the results?
Hate it but love the results... I bought an iron for £5 when we moved in, I've never used it yet. In India we get our washing done by the Dhobi and they give it back ironed to perfection, it's wonderful and cheap! I do however love handwashing clothes outside next to the well in the sun.

J ~ Junk Drawer--y/n? Where is it?
Oh yes, a nasty one in the kitchen full of hammers and string and horrible things. Baskets of stuff are my trademark, for bits and bobs.

K ~ Kitchen--color and decorating scheme.
This is my dream...

L ~ Love--what is your favorite part of homemaking?
The satisfaction at the end, whether washing up, cleaning, laundry or cooking. That I have done it myself for my family.

M ~ Mop--y/n?
Hardly ever... One thing about working in a kitchen with mainly males is you tend to wipe everything off the surface onto the floor, then the cleaner comes along at the end of the day with the huge industrial cleaning machine and it's spotless for you to mess up the next day... the habit has stuck with me.  But I do hoover nearly every day and mop if I'm having an obsessive compulsive day once in a blue moon.

N ~ Nylons, machine or hand wash?
You what?! I think they mean tights and I wear them if I'm cold and fancy wearing my denim skirt and brown boots. Chucked in with the rest of the washing. No special treatment from me.

O ~ Oven--do you use the window or open the oven to check?
That's a bit silly because I don't have a window, I guess I'd open the door.

P ~ Pizza--What do you put on yours?
Vegetables, peppers, sweetcorn, mushrooms, onions, olives, chilis, and goats cheese and fresh rocket on top... dribble!

Q ~ Quiet--What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
Sit down and stay quiet so I don't wake her up! Usually I'm on the internet...

R ~ Recipe Card Box--y/n? What does it look like?
My mum has one from the 70's in a cupboard somewhere, waste of time really they never get used. I use the internet and a couple of nice books.

Style of house--What style is your house?
In my head it looks a bit like this...

T ~ Tablecloths or Placemats?
That's funny I was just thinking about that this morning!

We have some horrible Argos placemats that have got wet around the edges and bubbled. Only because our table belongs to the landlord, if I had a table it would be natural, wooden and waxed.  I love old tables that show memories of family dinners and friends for coffee, letters written and paintings painted... in other words covered in knocks and scratches and stains! We saved one table from my husbands restaurant and 4 wrought iron chairs he designed and had made. It's a reminder of those days, the friends and the happy times we spent around it. I painted the chairs brown and recovered them. It's now in storage in Kerala... waiting!

In the restaurant...

At home...

U ~ Under the kitchen sink--organized or toxic wasteland?
Wow, it's a disgrace, not my fault, I just can't get it to scrub up nicely.  It's mouldy and musty, full of odd bits like boxes of tiles and I just throw things in on top! Becoming less toxic as I move towards natural cleaning products... see scrubbers!

V ~ Vacuum--How many times per week?
Hoover... nearly every day, always covered in dropped food. It was new (cream) when we moved in, I'll have to hire a carpet cleaner when we leave!

W ~ Wash--How many loads of laundry do you do per week?
1 or 2, my husband has a uniform and I'm not a clean freak for clothes or linen.

X's--Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off?
List?! Cross off?! If I remember it I may do it or I may not, it depends how I feel.

Y ~ Yard--y/n? Who does what?
Yes we have a 'yard', and I do everything in it. I drink coffee, grow vegetables, hang washing, play and paddle in the pool. My husband is in charge of putting out the rubbish which he sometimes/often forgets to do. We have a very large wheeliebin and only use one bin bag a week, everything else gets recycled.

ZZZ's--what is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed?
Turn off lights, check taps aren't dripping, check doors are locked, glass of water for bed.

Peas Forever with Love...

We have had a lovely few days...

Evangel planted this pea a few weeks ago, she loves to go out into the yard and see how much it has grown since the day before...

I bought this T-shirt for a pound, it's way too big but I love it so much... Peace Forever with Love... or in Angel's eye's it's Peas Forever with Love!

@ home...

After coming home from "home"

I've felt really relaxed about the present and the future and I've had a genuine smile on my face,

I think I've even laughed quite a lot!

Our Plans...

We have decided to go back to India now for 11 weeks, from November to January, so I'm very excited about it all.  My best friend Rachel, who I don't get to see much and her daughter Lily, who is Evangel's best friend (from the photo in the pool in Home Matters Most), are also thinking about coming with us.  Rachel is a single mum and very unhappy at work, so she thinks a break would be good for the both of them.  I think it will be an amazing trip to take together and I am praying that everything goes to plan.

Saying that, myself and Rachel are the most useless people there are with regards to planning, punctuality and organisation!! 

C is planning on handing in his notice as soon as he gets his visa in September, so we are hoping to leave at the start of November, perfect timing for the weather in India and perfect timing to miss all the "hoo haa" of Christmas! I'm a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas... 

We are hoping that we might find ourselves a nice piece of land around Vagamon. C's brother is there at the moment checking it out. We await news...

In the "Yard"...

I have once again been stunned by the beauty of nature, this is one of my cucumber plants... need I say more!?

Little Yellow Flower Part II...

Wild strawberry plant given to me by my Mum a few months ago, the berries are about the size of a fingernail, very sweet and juicy.  Evangel has loved them since she was tiny and awaits eagerly for the next ones to grow.

The strawberry plant I planted has now sent out it's tentacles and set up satellite babies, all around there is new life (and new future fruit!)...

An old weed my Mum told me to pull up has now creeped up over the wall and flowered into this wonderful deep purple... Some so called weeds are still so pretty...

Busy visitors...

@ the park...

The explorer...

Picking Daisies in the wind...

Abbey Park has been our "Garden" since we came to Leicester.  We spend quite a few evenings there. It's huge and beautiful and divided into different sections so you can never get bored of going time and time again.  

There's a pets corner with rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, ducks, peacocks, goats and birds, children's play areas, a boating lake, a mini train, a river, a vegetable garden, all set within a beautifully landscaped Abbey grounds.

We are so lucky to have this amazing place right in the centre of the city...

and finally..

They call me 'The Obliterator' at home, because I'm very bossy when it comes to de-cluttering my Mothers house. I managed to relax for a few days and with the help of some deep breathing I was able to control the innate desire to 'cleanse' her of junk.  I did however, to compensate for this, have to bring home a box of groceries from her ever growing supply of wholesale food supplies and once again reassess my priorities, needs and don't needs in the flat.    

* I have emptied over the last few weeks, 3 large wooden storage boxes of supplies, which included rice, tea, coffee, tins, sugar etc and stopped buying ridiculous amounts of 'back ups' that I don't need because the nearest shop is only 2 minutes walk away and I AM NOT MY MOTHER!

(Don't worry Nikki, I don't think you're my Mother, you have a valid reason keeping your emergency stores, my Mum would however be very proud of you!  I will start on my emergency food storage once I have a long term place to store it. Oh and BTW, if ever there is a food shortage or impending need for chemical cleaning products, please feel free to muster at my Mums house, there should be enough to feed a small gathering of us 'unprepared ones' for a few months!)

* The boxes are now in our storage cupboard (with no doors) instead of the ugly cardboard boxes I was 'making do' with. 

* I have somehow managed to gather 2 bin bags of bits and pieces from throughout the flat and taken them down to the local charity shop.

* I have taken a bag of Angels hand me downs from Lily she has grown out of, back to Rachel.

* We have eaten all our fresh food and the fridge is bare, in preparation for our last few months here which will be weekly planned... Ha Ha, I hear myself say!  I'm going to give it my best shot, I won't shop weekly because I've decided I hate supermarket shopping with a passion.  I'm going to use the local shops, at a cost, but in the long run I should save money because I won't be tempted by the silly supermarket 'buy one get one' mentality.  

* We have given up the weekly organic veg box because I was disappointed every Thursday with the poor quality veg we were getting. I'm sure half of it ended up in the bin.  We just can't afford organic these days and I can only dream of the days of self sufficiency more...

Grow Your Own

 Jugalbandi's

"Grow Your Own Food Event" 

hosted by Andrea's recipes

This events round up can be found here

and my recipe is there...

Mushroom, Courgette and Baby Corn Sabji @ Indian Earth

Emma used her courgettes (zucchini) in a delicious stir fry. She says - “I decided to ‘harvest’ a couple of courgettes and put them to good use in a vegetable bhaji. The recipe is ‘off the top of our heads’, but the idea came from a Punjabi Dhaba in Bombay, where they make the best ever sabji.”

Simple Things...

We spent the afternoon yesterday on our friends boat. Their mooring is just outside of  Birmingham in a beautiful spot. What a life, so simple, so free.

They've built the boat themselves, Carl is a carpenter and has finished the interior himself. This has obviously meant the initial outlay for the boat has cost them a lot less to do. One year later they are talking about selling up and starting it all over again... with a profit of £20,000!

It's wonderful to have friends who have the same outlook on life as you, I found it a breathe of fresh air to cruise down the canal, talking about what plants along the hedgerow are edible, growing vegetables on the roof, buying a small plot of land on the edge of a lake in Andalucia and setting up in a yurt.

We thought about buying a boat too last year, if we were planning on staying in the UK then it would be a definite option.  But for us it would take a substantial amount of our capital to make it happen and we need to buy our land in India first. That's the priority at the moment, a place we can finally call 'our home'.

We hope to be able to afford at least four acres of agricultural land in a quiet location somewhere in the hills of Kerala.  Build a small house as eco as possible and live as self sufficiently as we can.   

We can't go now because of the bureaucracy of immigration, but that's another story altogether...

So here in Leicester whilst we struggle to survive on one mere salary, I am doing my best to practice this life on a very small scale.

In a way it's hard to envision a life without all this commotion and chaos around me, a home and a garden that is all ours, planned how we want it, with all the things we need and none of the things we don't.  

A simple life where we can live and learn, love and grow, together.

My only little piece of paradise at the moment is our yard. It's not big, not beautiful, but it's the only place I can find peace, alone, potter around amongst my vegetables, watch the beauty grow before my eyes.  

Little things I didn't know before are more precious to me than 'shopping on a saturday', a flowering pepper (capsicum) that I've never seen before...

My perfectly formed little green tomatoes hiding in the shade, better than any episode of 'Eastenders'...

A tiny little flower has opened on a forgotten leaf of rocket, cream and deep claret, more amazing than any pretty dress I've ever seen...

A strawberry poking out of the leaves, still white but giving you a little dream of what you will have for dessert in a few more days, better than any genetically modified, tart and tasteless, plastic boxed cousins sitting in Sainsbury's...

How stunned I was to find that cucumbers and peas and beans (and probably a fair few of the other vegetables) have a mind of their own, they are very clever indeed. They hang on to their canes with just a few twirls here and a couple of twists there, they know where they are going and how to get there, and all without any need for a Satnav!  

While I marvel at the wonders of nature, I can free my mind for a while from the chaotic scrambling of lists and things to do, that seem to constantly flutter around my head.  

Talking of fluttering the butterflies are back, we've spotted a few out there in the sunshine

... too quick to click!

My Spring has Sprung at Last...

I'm feeling a bit happier now, the sun has come out and my mood has lifted.  I was feeling a little low for a while... the whole 'Impending Doom' thing had spiraled.  

But the sun came to stay with me for a few days, I got my gardening gloves on and I pulled a few weeds, swept the yard, bought the table out and made it all look lovely again. 

Now I smile when I wake up in the mornings, make coffee and sit out in the sun.  In the evenings, we sit out for a while, talk and plan our future.

The dream has a focus.  I'm learning new things. For once it doesn't look so bad after all.

It's amazing how much 'inner peace' you can find in a garden.