recent discoveries

I have recently discovered that:

• "reader" is my favourite one-handed typing word.
• sharing magazines with others is a clever type of recycling.
• the laundry dries more quickly in the guest bedroom than in the living room (due to the morning sun)--and it's out of the way there, too.
• pruning and washing the leaves on my indoor tree has revitalised it. (And I bet the same is true for people.)
• falling asleep on the couch for a nap with a book in hand is one version of luxury.
• persistence in rearranging my classroom furniture has finally led to a more open, spacious feeling. It's still the same number of desks and children, but they finally feel as though they fit.
• lesson planning is sometimes just "activity sequencing".

What have you discovered recently? Please share your pithy wisdom in the comments.

germinating

One small success! I planted twelve courgette seeds in this egg carton and all twelve have germinated! I need to keep them inside until they have five or six leaves then they get a few nights outside before finally being planted.

Last weekend I also planted carrot and beetroot seeds outside. My salad box has started growing and there are radish leaves up. (I hope I will also get some radishes this year.) Stand by for more news! I am hoping that I will grow a green thumb this year as well.

growing

I'm going to have another crack at gardening this spring. Our back yard is split into two sections: the right half is ours and the left side is our neighbours. We have a small paved area and a little section of raised beds. I was only minimally successful growing in containers last year but I am determined to have another try.

Last weekend Helen, and later Pari, came over and gave me the kind of advice I needed to hear, "Just go for it. Rip out the things you don't want and plant something else." Helen and I got down on our knees and pulled up all the overgrown things that were crowding out our small back garden and we chopped back a couple of trees (or large shrubs?) that hang over into our garden. We bagged up all the garden waste and then planted a few potatoes that had been sprouting in the pantry.

Today I was out at the shops and found out that our local pound shop sells garden items! I started to pick out a few things and got chatting to a couple of nice ladies who were also perusing the items. One said, "I buy the flowers here every year and they always come up beautifully!" Another said, "Oh, dear, you must buy freesias, because they smell the best." So I started picking up loads of things, as you can see! I got some fruit bushes: redcurrant, gooseberry, tayberry, blueberry; and a shrub called escallonia, which has lovely red flowers on the box, and I bought freesia and iris bulbs as well as lily of the valley, columbine, stone crop (small pink flowers), and lupins.


Well! Hopefully some or even all of these will grow in my little patch of dirt and also in the containers. I still want to get lots of vegetables as well.... I'm not sure if I have space for all of this! But I figure some of it might die and some of it might grow.

soup

I pulled up all the rocket left in my growing tub yesterday. It was getting a bit woody and too peppery to eat raw. So I was excited to use it all up in a soup recipe from my new favourite cookbook, GI Meals Made Easy.


The soup also uses finely chopped onion, courgette, new potatoes, and garlic, shown here from right to left. After some sauteing and sweating, and stock added, the soup is blended with the wonderful invention of the handheld immersion blender. Ant did this part because I am notoriously messy with the blender.


The addition of some goat's cheese topped off the lovely light green soup.

Rocket and Goat's Cheese Soup

1 T olive oil
10 g butter
1 leek, sliced
1 medium or large courgette, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 new potatoes, diced
600 ml vegetable stock
100 g rocket
75g firm goat's cheese

Heat the oil and butter and saute the leek, courgette, garlic, and potato over high heat for 1-2 minutes. Then reduce heat, cover, and allow to sweat for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add rocket and simmer for 5 minutes. Blend the soup.
Crumble in goat's cheese when serving.

first fruits

Well, today was an exciting day on which the fruits, er, vegetables, of my labour were tasted. I took the first snips of mixed salad leaves from the box I planted for our lamb burgers tonight. I have used Sonya's lamb burger recipe three times recently since she shared it with me. I was looking for a way to get into lamb, since it is so popular here and I have little experience with it.



Minted Lamb Burgers

0.5 kg lamb mince
1/2 cup crumbled (low fat) feta cheese
sliced green onions
2 tablespoons dried mint
1 teaspoon cumin or other spices (eg. garam malasa)
1 egg

Shape into six or eight burgers. Serve with mixed salad leaves, crumbled feta, and red onion marinated in balsamic vinegar. Yum, yum.

culture

My uncle Walt was visiting this last day and a half--how nice to see him! He is one of my mother's brothers and I don't get to see many of my Mum's family very frequently. He arrived yesterday morning and after a brief nap we headed into London for a walking tour of the south bank, passing the Tate Modern and walking over the Millennium footbridge. From the footbridge there are stunning views of the city with St Paul's Cathedral straight ahead. We had our lunch sitting on the steps of the cathedral--it was a lovely day, sunny and warm. We watched with interest as a newly-wed couple came over with their photographer (maybe we are in their photos?)! Other people around us were quite interested as well.


The church was holding a service and so we nipped in and had a seat, looking around at the ceilings, walls, mosaics, and carvings.


We walked along the Thames and chatted about my grandparents, whom I didn't know very well before they died. I learned more about how they met, what their dreams were and what they regretted. We also talked about Walt's and my dreams and about his upcoming trip to Congo to do an educational mission.

In other news, the recent nice weather means my salad is actually growing well! I am so excited that I have not failed (yet) with my garden adventures. My box of salad is planted in three quarters. The bottom right section ist he most prolific at the moment--it's mixed salad leaves. Above that is spinach, and in the top left I am (trying) to grow rocket (or arugula to some).


And nearby I have this round pot of radishes. (Dad, should I thin them out a bit?)

sprouts

I am trying to grow a few things this spring. When I signed up for the Food Up Front project, the form asked if I had any gardening experience. I answered, "I have killed a few houseplants." Here are the tomato seedlings I have on my windowsill. They are still very small but they are growing.


And I "planted" some cress seeds in a tray with some moist paper towel. The sprouts are growing, too, but they are still just specks in this photo.

very nice weather

The lovely summery day today made my cycle into work for a revision session quite enjoyable. Afterwards Sarah came over for lunch and then we went out for her to practice with her new clip pedals. She went up and down the street for about twenty minutes and then we headed over to the park. It seems she is a much faster learner than me and she has all but mastered the shoes and pedals today. We plan on Monday (which is a bank holiday) to go for a longer ride to Kingston.

My salad leaf seeds that I planted a couple of weeks ago are now tiny sprouts. A few radish sprouts are also poking up through the soil of the pot.

Our friends Mot and Ness have begun their cycling adventure today, flying out to Sardinia tonight for a six month-ish sojourn around the Mediterranean. (You may have seen a picture of them ignoring me eating a giant mushroom recently.) I hope they have a great journey! Also, you have left a pair of your cycling glasses here and may need to get a new pair before I see you again.

Ant and Justin are out watching Iron Man at the cinema tonight so I have blitzed the flat (washing up, laundry, hoovering, tidying around, mopping floors, cleaning the bathroom). What is it about spring weather that makes us want to clean?

veg and the environment

Today in my surfing I was reading this very interesting page about what sort of "green" pledge you might consider making. Some of the ideas are not new, but there are some really interesting tips. And I linked to a project about growing your own vegetables. I wrote them a message asking about joining the scheme (pictured below), in which they provide a growing box and seeds to grow salad greens in your front garden. And I would love to join Able and Cole's organic veg box scheme. At the moment it's the cost that makes me hold off, but maybe it's not really that much more expensive. One day I will research it properly. (I have now switched to organic milk, apples, potatoes, and peanut butter when shopping at Sainsburys.)