January in Review

January 30, 2012 in Den, Fun Stuff, Healthy Eating, Making & Baking, Nature, Organic Gardening, Team News, book review | No comments

A new year, a new format…

Growing Green

Lean pickings from the garden this month:

  • Small handfuls of purple sprouting broccoli
  • Brussel sprouts (enough only for a meal or 2)
  • Leeks (if nothing else, they had nice white shafts!)
  • Rocket

Our winter veg was weedy & meagre.  My hunch is that the young plants didn’t get enough food & water & shade.  The broccoli has made loads of leaf but not formed substanial enough heads, if at all.  Any ideas why?

I look at these & sigh, thinking I should abandon brassica growing.  Then I take the fresh greens home, toss them in a pan of boiling water, marvel at the colour.  And then the taste - oh my.  And wonder how I can ever give up trying…

On the bright side, it looks like sorrel, chard & silverbeet have survived being transplanted.

I’ve sowed sunflower seeds in pots and the first round of herbs this year: coriander, basil & garlic chives.  I’m also trying to germinate tobacco plant seeds (below, under damp newspaper) and some Oriental spicy leaf mix.  I’ve had a bunch of random seeds (saved from various bushes, plants & fruit) knocking about for a while now, so I’ve stuck them all in pots and we’ll wait and see what, if anything, comes up.  I’m also trying again with a perennial flower mix from the UK.   It’s very whimsical of me, but I’d love to see our gardens dotted about with foxgloves et al.

Baking & Making

We returned from Dobrota with a bag of sour oranges.   The crazy winds in early January freed them from the ‘hard to pick’ places on the tree and sent them scattering about, so we scooped them up and thought… marmalade.  They were perfect for preserving and I finally made a yummy spread that really tasted as tangy as it should be (with the sour edge that proper marmalade should have) rather than orange jam.  Here’s a taster:

I made my first lemon marmalade, which is so tangy and sour it’s too hardcore for Steve.  But a zesty addition to cereal bars…

After the excesses of the festive season, it was time to fully embrace the Harcombe regime again. I’m still struggling with my sugar addiction and looking for healthy snacks to satisfy the craving and fill me up, so this turned up at the right time: a recipe for vegan cereal bars. It’s a brilliant recipe, really quick & easy & by taking out the nuts and adding more seeds (I used poppy) and dried fruit (raisins were all I had), I avoid mixing my carbs & fats.

I’ve since made a second batch with sunflower seeds, dried apricots & cranberries, less cinammon and the addition of ground clove & a dollop of lemon marmalade.  I also toasted the oats first in my second baking.  The 2 batches were significantly different, so by adjusting the variety of fruit & seed and spice I can keep from getting bored of these healthy treats.

I’ve been having a hard time figuring out what to eat for lunch on my new eating regime.  Salads are quick and easy but frankly, when it’s freezing cold weather and I’ve been labouring hard with a spade in the garden, I feel the need for something more substantial.  Soups are warming but it’s a faff making them and all the local soups are full of nasties (e numbers, msg, dried pasta).

I’ve found some fabulous rice cakes in local supermarkets that are tasty and healthy and cheap. But what to put on them?  No cheese, mashed egg, ham, tuna or peanut butter allowed because they are all in the ‘fat’ category & can’t be mixed with carbs.  Marmite’s fine but really not the same without the layer of butter & after a while it gets pretty boring.

I googled about for recipes for which I had all the ingredients and which didn’t combine fats & carbs and found this vegan pate recipe.  It’s so quick to make, and apart from the lentils (I used red but I guess green would be fine too), everything’s raw.  I cut back on the amount of seeds in my version of the recipe as their fat content is almost as high as their carb content.  I didn’t have courgette or celery so I used half a red pepper and half a green one, an onion and a couple of carrots.  I used less oil than the recipe suggested too – just a splash.  It’s really tasty and a good texture & consistency too.  The great thing is that I reckon with a bit of tweaking on the herbs, spices and veg used I can keep this pate ‘fresh’ for months.  Go out & make it NOW!

Reading

‘The Knitting Circle’ by Ann Hood is a great read.  I have thoroughly enjoyed snuggling up and losing myself in the lives, loves and assorted knitted garmets of the brave folk in the Knitting Circle.  The central character, Mary, is struggling to function and make sense of her life after the loss of her daughter and she journeys through her pain as the strong, supportive folk around her share their tales of life & loss… and knit.  The dull clanking of needles knitting & purling provides a soothing undertone to the book – as the story unfolds, so do the skeins of yarn.  The description of the wool itself makes me want to hold a ball in my hand and fondle it:  it’s seems so good to hold and simple and often brightly coloured, whilst the stories are complex, dark & untouchable somehow.

There’s a lot of pain in this book and I more than once had a lump in my throat and a tear at my eye.  Grief & loss are difficult things to handle, but Ms Hood writes with sensitivity and care.  Although the experiences of suffering are dramatic, they are eased onto the page, respectfully, without drama.  There’s a point during the book which describes Mary’s process of living without Stella.  She drags herself through each day and those days turn into weeks and I had an awakening, a real sense of the reality of living without someone you love.  It’s mostly not about the big breakdowns and the floods of tears, it’s about waking up with the same dull ache in your gut and going through the motions of existing, bereft of joy or hope.

I have lost people I love, a dear friend, a dear nephew… but my life wasn’t entwined with theirs on a day to day basis.  I have cried & ached but I haven’t had to wake up every day with the loss so present and I begin to understand the pain of others.  This understanding was particularly poignant since the person who gave me the book is journeying through her own shattering grief.

We’re also reading “Dog Problems” by David Weston & Ruth Ross.  The ‘Training Miss Daisy’ caper has begun…

Work

We’re finally back to work after the extended yuletide break.  I excavated all the irrigation pipes from the raised beds and transplanted any remaining herbs and veg.  Steve dug the beds over and is half way through re-laying the pipes, which were surprisingly not badly clogged or damaged.


I have emptied the tyre wall of all the herbs and strawberries and re-potted or relocated them.  I’ve created some new planting areas between the sleeper wall and the palm fence where the strawberries now live, nestled in some richer soil (the clay clag around their roots revealed when I dug them up made me wince) and in a place where they will be shaded by trees and tall flowers.  The full on sun seemed too much for them last summer.  The making of these beds required many bucketfuls of soil dug from up top and barrowed down.

More of this soil, mixed with compost & leaf mould has been used to improve the tyre wall and the bo-flo-grove growing areas.  The sage, lavender and mint rescued from the tyre wall have been planted either in pots or around the grease trap.  The latter area, directly outside the shared building will be my kitchen garden this year -  a profusion of herbs I hope!

Other jobs at the camp have been tidying and patching up the site after the wild January winds snapped wire fastenings on the palm fence, stripped a few palms off the mesh and popped a couple of caps off the stench pipes from the compost toilets.  Seriously, how did the wind get under these plastic caps and force them off, cracking one of the caps in the process?  Crazy weather!  Replacing the caps required Stevo to climb the roof and inch his way up to the apex.  It was nerve wracking for us both.

And other things Steve’s been working on: a new property website and a proposal for a planting job.

I have scored a few days work running workshops in mid/ late February so I have some grown up research and thinking to do as I mentally prepare myself to don my professional persona again.

Play

We danced our way into 2012 in Muo, amongst friends.  There was good grub, mnogo (much) bubbly, fireworks from a distance, dancing, wigs, dogs galore and cross-dressing delights!

January 1st  the view from the house looked like this:

A couple of weeks later, we were invited to share Fiona’s birthday celebrations with her and it was a wonderful evening.  We drank bubbly until we bubbled; had a food fight with raspberry pavlova, sang “Twelve Days of Christmas” (with full & enthusiastic actions!) and danced like total maniacs.

We had our first picnic on the campsite mid January when Marie & Jan, came to visit with a backpack full of goodies.  Note the sunglasses on my head in the pic below… that’s how sunny it’s been!

Nature Watch

This month we’ve seen a nice selection of birds: a Blackcap; a Kingfisher; a Firecrest; a Corn Bunting (probably); along with the usual big fat Blackbirds, Robins & Redstarts.  Quite a bit of vermin too: a Black Squirrel, mice and Mr Ratty.


And a big, black, shaggy coated, wild boar.  Sadly he wasn’t in his natural habitat roaming free, foraging & snuffling (ok, I’m romanticising now) but tied to the roof of a car with an orange in his mouth.  Hunted dead.  Bastards.

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Reflections & projections…

January 24, 2012 in Campsite Improvements, Den, Filo Sofi | No comments

It’s that time again, when the old year rolls into a new one and amidst all the drunkeness & hype, there’s time to pause & take stock.

Looking back on the year that was, I find myself smiling a lot.  We came a long way in 2011 and made some happy memories.  The arrival of a small puppy rocked our world a little but now, a year old, Miss Marmite is fully part of the gang.

We achieved so much with the helping hands of willing volunteers and friends and transformed the campsite with gravelled paths, bright white paint, shaded gazebos and grounds filled with colour & scent.  Children came & conquered.  Friendships were formed & forged.  Lives were changed a little and sometimes a lot.  Our fledging business got a little more grown up and so did we.

Late last year, we finally got around to poring over the records we’d kept last season and doing the sums.  We had 120 paying visitors on the campsite, an increase of 100% on 2010.  Our guests came from 24 countries and the naturist/ clothed split was roughly 50/50.  We made some money – more than 2010 but not enough to comfortably live on for a whole year.

With no interference from cows & goats, the garden flourished, despite the frazzling heat.  And the scores on the doors were:

  • 61 kilos of tomatoes
  • 26 kilos of onions
  • 12 kilos of courgettes
  • 10 kilos of carrots
  • 5 kilos each of pumpkin, marrow & beans & salad greens
  • 50 chillies
  • 5 melons

So, what lies ahead for 2012?

Well, February brings a few days work for me in the UK.  We had vowed not to spend a penny on campsite improvements this coming year, because there wasn’t any to spare, but the income from my consultancy job will enable us to do a few small things.

The priority is to improve the kitchen.  We very much hope to be cooking for larger numbers this year and I will need extra work surfaces and an additional large gas burner to make life easier.  Our improvements will put the shared space out of action as a seating area, so we’re planning to revamp and tart up the basement to have a dry, comfortable area to dash under cover if rains stops play.

We’re going to cover a couple of the raised beds with shade netting this year to improve the chances of success on the veg front.  And we’ll plant the fence beside the workshop to start to grow a natural screen.  And then all our focus will be on rebuilding or topping off stone walls – we need to secure and tidy up our terraces and create new levels so we can start to even up the ground (having one’s chair at a jaunty angle gets a little wearing!).

We’re hoping to have a new home on site this summer, our caravan, which will give us a comfy space to retreat to and release more room for tents.

In the immediate future, we’ll be focusing on training Daisy.  We want guests to love her, not to be scared or annoyed by her.  We’ve got a big task ahead to empty all 5 baths in our greywater system and reconstruct with layers of gravel, decent quality soil and plants and relay the irrigation pipes in the raised beds.  And, as our visitors repeatedly told us last year, we need to make signs, directing people to the campsite once they come off the main road.

People around me are resolving to do things and mostly it’s about stopping doing things.  They’re going to: stop eating chocolate, stop smoking, stop getting blind drunk, whatever.   I’m not one to make resolutions.  And honestly there’s not much I want to resolve to change.  I’ve already given up cigarettes and caffeine.  I eat natural, healthy foods in a healthy way.  I’m no Jennifer Aniston but I’m comfortable in my own skin (well, truthfully I’m not comfortable with the wrinkles but they are beyond a new year’s resolution).

I’m incredibly lucky and I don’t want to push it, however my dream is for more for 2012.  More guests, tents, nationalities, volunteers, kids and dogs; more veg, fruit, flowers, herbs, shrubs & trees; more eco projects attempted; more meals cooked; more beers drunk; more campfires lit; more music; more singing & dancing; more laughs, more games, more hugs.

I dare not predict this.  It’s not a projection.  It’s not a resolution. It’s just a hope.

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December in Review

January 10, 2012 in Den, Environmentally Friendly, Filo Sofi, Frugal Living, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Team News | 1 comment

What’s fresh?

From the store:

  • Kale
  • White cabbage
  • Rastan
  • Blitva

From the garden:

  • Green leaves (rocket, nasturtium leaves, parsley, dill, mint & young leaves of pak choi & silverbeet) – just enough for salad.
  • Strawberries
  • Small handfuls of purple sprouting broccoli

Sowing & Planting

There’s no activity in the garden right now.  We haven’t got the all-year round gardening thang sorted yet.  We will have to dig up the raised beds very soon to uncover, clean & reposition the irrigation pipes so the few remaining plants (brassicas & leeks) will have to be pulled soon.  We can probably plant veg that enjoys the wintry days in the new beds created by our beloved Spanish wwoofers in the summer, in the bo-flo-grove, but the issue with that whole area is irrigation.  It’s a time-consuming mission watering up there & until we get this sorted we won’t invest much green love.

But I do have a plant success story of sorts.  I have been trying to grow passion flowers for our friend Michelle for about 2 years now!  My cuttings keep getting frazzled, eaten or drowned.  Against all advice, I took more cuttings in early Autumn and this month I finally have 2 strong & vigorous passion flower plantlets, just in time to be Christmas gifts.

Baking & Making

With all the preserves cooked & jarred, this month’s work was putting together small Christmas hampers for friends.  Labels were made from old Christmas cards and jars were adorned with recycled wrapping paper.

Reading

The cover of the Flamingo proof of Anthony Doerr’s ‘The Shell Collector’ that I’ve been reading boasts the quote: ‘A show-stopping debut, as close to faultless as any writer could wish for’.  I find it hard to argue with that.

The short story from which this slim, yet weighty collection gets its name is a beautifully crafted tale.  Simply told but with complex layers: the shell collector’s blindness in which he sees more than anyone; those that are sighted cannot see; things (shells, life?) are uncovered & then hidden; found & lost again.  Something about the style is achingly sad.  It left me in awe of the dangers lurking in the sand and the sea and of Doerr’s knowledge.  What came first, I wonder, his passion for shells… or was it the idea that begat the insight?

‘The Hunter’s Wife’ is a powerful tale.  Eerie, strange and dark. I felt chilled and mournful the whole way through it.  ‘So Many Chances’ has a different feel, with it’s focus on young adults and somehow therefore, hope.  And the ending is triumphant, if not exactly happy.  ‘For a Long Time This Was Griselda’s Story’ is brilliant.  Deeply unsatisfying & unsettling – but brilliantly so.  The juxtaposition of the extraordinary & the ordinary is uncomfortably compelling.  I was astonished to find I sympathised with both Griselda and Rosemary and thought they were both so right & wrong at the same time.  ‘July Fourth’ is a breath of light-heartedness, poking fun at Americans.

‘The Caretaker’ is a dark, blood-stained tale that ranges from the horrors of Liberia to America & back.  There’s so much death & suffering & the disturbing images follow me around.  The innocence of youth lights up the end of the story and some simple lines about Joseph & Belle eating a melon together really get to me.

‘A Tangle by the River Rapid’ is a mere splash of a tale but still manages to surprise.  And ‘Mkondo’ ends the collection in a rush of aliveness.  The images he conjures of Ward wooing Naima are enchanting – running for his love!

You think about all this and then you remember that this is the first collection for this young writer.  Jeeps, I can’t barely wait to read him as he grows.  This is astonishing work Anthony Doerr!  Bravo.

“The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” is a tidily put together tale by Kim Edwards.

It was an easy & enjoyable read  but the ‘absolutely mesmerizing premise’ that the cover boasts about is strangely dissastifying.  For me, some of the key events are just not quite believeable.  I can’t put my finger on what’s wrong exactly but something doesn’t add up.  The author wants us to believe that a doctor could act so shockingly and that a nurse would be so brave & so reckless, before we’ve really come to know these characters and can see such potential and people in the book change greatly as it develops that it feels surreal.  Despite this, there are some well written passages in the book: Norah dealing with the loss of her daughter; Paul as a troubled teenager; the stories that David’s photos told.

Jeanette Winterson’s “Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit” is a completely different basket of fruit.  It’s describes as “a few days ride into the bizarre outposts of religious excess and human obsession” and a love story too, which captures the themes brilliantly.  It is funny and sad and something about Ms Winterson’s style (no nonsense & delivered straight, in a world of nonsense & crookedness) is deeply affecting.  The few lines that she writes about the key character’s real mum turning up made me want to howl with pain.  This book was written over 30 years ago and I can only imagine what a stir it created way back then – lesbians and blasphemers!  Whatever next!  Fantastic, raptuous read – apart from the odd side tale that interweaves occasionally and which I sometimes struggled to ‘grok’.

What’s the vibe?

Warm. All the hard work earlier this year (insulating the entire house & roof and installing a wood-fired chimney) has paid off.  Topla 3 is finally living up to it’s name: it’s warm & stays warm.  This is in no small part due to the immense amount of sun we’ve had for December.  The glass has been heating up the whole house beautifully as temperatures inside the house rise to 24 degrees C at times…

But chilled too. December had a nice relaxed pace to it and we successfully juggled being sociable with hibernating as a family.  We hung out with a lot of good people and had some extraordinarily good times.  Sometimes it feels like we’re dashing about trying to fit everyone in, but this month’s interactions were pretty laid back, as people and scenes flowed in & around our cosy world.  We floated about in a haze of woolly jumpers and thick socks, being snuggly.  And as the month wore on the winter bingeing ramped up with goodies & treats galore.  We ate, drank & smoked too much but revelled in the freedom we had from reality in the name of the festive season.

And very loved. Events this month have reminded us of how lucky we are.  The Christmas cards, the presents, the generosity of friends new & old, the cuddles, the kind words, the chink of a champagne glass as we toast to happiness – these are a few of the many ways we know we are cherished.  It’s heartwarming & humbling.

It has to be said that for most of December we’ve been in denial of the ‘real’ world, happy to pull the wool over our own eyes and bury our heads in Christmas pud.  It’s been a proper holiday in that sense – no responsibilities other than keeping us all warm, fed & watered.  It’s the time of year when we traditionally stress about making it through the next few months until the pennies start to flow again but we put all that worrying on hold for a bit so as not to sour the dregs of 2011.  Hopes have been raised & dashed about getting well-paid work in the UK so I’m saying no more about it until the fat lady’s stopped singing but in the meantime, cash has been trickling in from Father Christmas and other unlikely sources.  And the arrival of a very promising enquiry in our inbox just after Christmas for a 10-day tent hire helped us hope that all will be well.

Listening to

‘Blowback’ by Tricky – a chocolately vibe.  ‘Odessy’ by Fischerspooner – very lightly trancey. ‘Global Culture’ by Aphid Moon – feet-tapping stuff that made me crave for rave.

Marie & Jan, an inspirational German couple we met this month, gave us a homemade CD of Quadro Neuvo’s “Tango Bitter Sweet” – it’s heady stuff, very mesmerising…

Fun Stuff

It’s been a bumper month for fun times with fun folk.  Early in December, girlies congregated for a pottery afternoon in Dobrota, where we played with clay under the chatter and laughs.  And afterwards, four of us (in the “No Kids, Only Dogs” Club) enjoyed a night of bubbles & giggles.

Mel & Blanty visited for some home-cooked veggie food and an evening full of music & story-telling as we got to know these new friends better.

Carrie’s popped over for some pre-Christmas busy-ness on her amazing project.  Her house is looking awesome and we got loads of stuff done and managed to squeeze in a great evening at Fi & Dave’s where Matt joined us for an epic Tac-Tic session.  The booze and munchies flowed and much merriment was made.

Matt was home alone in Monte due to Amy & the girls being in the UK preparing for the birth of their 3rd child, so we enjoyed some drunken Bridge sessions and a wicked Thai Curry.

Danny’s party has become a December tradition and this year I was one of the last to bed and the drunkest… AGAIN.  Hover over the photos for more…

A week later after recovering from hangovers, packing Matt & Nik off to the UK, winterising the campsite (water & solar PV turned off), getting a turkey from the local butcher sorted at the last minute, picking up Christmas parcels from the post office and packing up ours & Daisy’s stuff and all the Xmas extras, we moved into 123 Dobrota on the outskirts of Kotor to keep Maxi company.  Daisy was delighted to have a new pal and, bar the odd snap at her silliness, Max was very obliging.

We & the turkey joined Jen, Nathan, Katie & Tim at Michelle & David’s house in Muo on Christmas Eve to prepare for the following day’s feast.  The only bird we could get at short notice was 11 kilos (plenty for the mere 6 meat eaters amongst us!) and Nathan went to work on it, stuffing and seasoning, whilst veg were peeled and chopped.  We sensibly left early to avoid an impromptu session and banging hangovers on the big day and Steve & I rushed back to our Christmas jigsaw:

Christmas Day dawned damply so the planned dog walk (an attempt to get all 5 of our canine companions to get along and run off some steam so we could get drunk with impunity) was cancelled.  That left several hours to wake up gently, make Skype calls to loved ones, do the 11 o’clock toast (with Vintage Port – what else!) and open the few pressies and cards that had made it to Monte.  We headed over to Muo for 2pm and got on the bubbly.  Here’s  Jen, me & Katie with our unspeakably generous and gorgeous hostess in her outrageous Christmas costume before the food & drink orgy:

We sat down to dinner at about 4pm and OMG, was it worth waiting for!  The turkey was cooked to perfection and was absolutely bursting with flavour.  Here’s a picture to get you salivating:

After dinner it was time for Secret Santa and pressie swaps. We were spoilt rotten by good friends.   Even the dogs were spoilt with treats from Mother & Father Christmas (Michelle & David), especially Mollie who got a brand new outfit for Xmas!

And the evening gently disintergrated from there…  There were many highlights in this amazing day:

Not least Nathan agreeing to wear the other Santa costume Michelle had bought:

And boys vs girls heated game of Articulate!:

A really rousing rendition of Twelve Days of Christmas, much to the bemusement of Tati, who had joined us when we were all too drunk & hyper to make much sense.  No-one took pictures because we were all too focused on getting the words and the actions right.

And some seriously competitive Table Football games:

There are so many stories untold in photos never shot, whilst we busied ourselves with bubbles & chocolate: of wigs & dogs, dancing & singing, hugs & nonsense.  It was a lovely, lovely day right up until it ended sometime in the wee hours of Boxing Day.

As well as bags of presents, leftover turkey and chocolate, I left Muo with a snotty cold.  It was a good excuse (as if I needed one) to snuggle up warm in Dobrota and do as little as possible.  We watched films, stuffed ourselves with Xmas treats like Stollen and Mince Pies (thank goodness for the “feed a cold” adage) and finished the jigsaw, with one piece missing (we’re still not sure if Daisy ate it!):

Tim Time

Can’t think of a single story to share with you & as I’m keen to get this posted (already 10 days into 2012!), I’m moving on…

One Green Thing

Recycling paper bags that the local supermarkets put our dried nuts & fruit in, as chip degreasers.  Put chips in bag, sprinkle with salt, shake.  Sorted.

Weather Report

Overall December has been warm & dry.  But there have been a fair few days of crazy weather and as the month has worn on, the days have become chillier, the nights positively Bbbbrrrr and the chance of wind & rain increasingly high.  There were a couple of mentally windy days & nights with gusts of up to 70 mph, which blew the big metal gate to our parking area at Topla way back (and this is a gate that takes 2 hands to manoeuvre and slides back on runners) and blew the windows open in the house.  It’s days like that we think “Thank God we don’t live on a boat” & rush off to check in with the Monty B crew.

But, I have no doubt that our December was sunnier and full of more stunning days than the ones we left behind in the UK and we still get a kick out of that and remember how lucky we are.

November in Review

December 11, 2011 in Campsite Improvements, Den, Environmentally Friendly, Frugal Living, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Nature, Organic Gardening, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Team News | No comments

What’s fresh?

From the store:

  • Lettuce
  • Beetroot
  • Rastan
  • Blitva
  • Aubergine
  • Tikvice
  • Spuds

From the garden:

The first thing to say is that we returned to a garden that was still intact.  No cows had invaded and no goats had raped & pillaged.  The heavily donated to, friends-soaked fence really was working.

  • Green leaves (rocket, nasturtium leaves, parsley, dill, mint & young leaves of pak choi & silverbeet) – less, but still enough for salad.
  • Tomatoes – we picked them all this month, kilos of them, ready or not
  • Chillies
  • Runner beans – the last of the crop, such as it was & many had been on the plant too long so were very stringy
  • Melon

This was our garden harvest on November 7th:

And a first for 2011… purple sprouting broccoli.  Only a handful so far, but enough for a decent accompaniment to a meal.

And remarkably… strawberries!  The warm autumn weather here has been akin to early English summer and produced the sweetest berries of the season.  A handful only.  But delicious.

In the bo-flo-grove, the tyre wall and main gardens, everything was flowering it’s head off when returned from our time away.  I guess a little rain helped and the temperatures are just perfect – warm enough to encourage the petals to open to the sun, but not so hot to frazzle everything …

The alyssum, which had been unremarkable all summer, truly blossomed in the perfect conditions and guess what popped up in amongst the pale purple…?  Biddens!  The elusive flowers that mum-in-law had sent us seeds of, assuring they would grow whatever the weather finally made a showing.  So, here’s a picture for you, Pam:

Sowing & Planting

The only sowing I’ve been doing is helping Mother Nature along by dispersing the dried seed heads of cosmos, alyssum, zinnia & marigolds, hoping for ‘free’ flowers next Spring.

Baking & Making

With a proliferation of tomatoes, green tomatoes, chillies & herbs, November has been a bumper month for cooking up a storm.

Chilli jam is a favourite spread of loved ones around here so, as I’m thinking ahead to Christmas pressies and trying to use up lots of cherry tomatoes and chillies, this was a no brainer.  It looks amazing bubbling in the pan:

Autumn & winter sarnies for the boys wouldn’t be the same without some Green Tomato Chutney.  This year, with so many tomatoes to use up, I did 2 big batches – 1 the traditional recipe, sweet & fruity and the other batch I chucked a load of Indian spices in to see if I could create something similar to my kiwi chutney with the green toms.  It kinda worked, although I personally think the end result was a touch too bitter, but no-one else is complaining.

I skinned several kilos of ripe tomatoes and cooked them up with fresh herbs, onion & garlic and put the whole lot through the blender to make some seriously delicious real tomato sauce – good for a base for just about anything: curries, pizza, casserole…

And because I waddled back from the UK trip feeling bloated and over-done, I had a mammoth soup making session and lived off homemade soup for a week.  My green bean soup (inspired by mum-in-law, although I didn’t get her recipe so I just made it up) was a triumph but a faff as I had to strain the blended mix because the beans were too stringy.  So the end result is thinner than I would like (I’m a chunky soup chick really) but super tasty and the best colour green.  I must remember to take a photo when I get my next pot out of the freezer!

Beetroot was in season when we got back – cheap & plentiful and I remembered a friend raving about a soup she’d made with beetroot, onions & lemongrass.  Since I have a couple of lemongrass plants that need regular cutting so the stems don’t get too woody, I harvested a load and whipped up some soup, adding chilli for that extra zing!  It was delicious & looks divine - especially with a swirl of yoghurt:

Indian cooking is great for using up fresh tomatoes & chillies so I decided to cook a meal for special friends.  When there’s 6 of us, it’s worth making a day of it and whipping up a few different dishes and lots of my fave recipes require chopped tomato, not mention the Indian salsa to accompany the homemade Pooris.  It was a delicious feast, if I do say so myself…

And finally, I harvested all the basil and made a jar of fresh pesto sauce.

Reading

After a few nights struggling with Hermann Hesse’s ‘The Bead Game’, I’ve abandoned it as an intellectual challenge too far at the moment.  It had too tough a style for a bedtime read, so it’s been shelved for now.

In a bout of reading that seem to be inspired by how vibrant the book covers were (!), I embarked on the lovely experience of discovering the hypnotic prose of Banana Yoshitmoto:

I’ve passed this gem to a mate already or else I’d be furiously typing up a handful of favourite excerpts.  Her writing is simple, beautifully expressive & evocative yet strangely diminuitive,  as if mirroring the very people of Japan.   Subtle, understated but with deep moments, Ms Yoshimoto’s words weave an unusual magic around the usual suspects: love & death.  Kitchen is a slim volume of 2 novellas.  The book takes it’s title from the first and  Moonlight Shadow is the second story.  The characters are not especially well developed, yet I fet an intimacy with them quite quickly.  Thoroughly enjoyable & one to recommend.

And one from artfully crafted book of short stories, to another…  Currently reading Anthony Doerr’s ‘The Shell Collector’, so full review next month.

What’s the vibe?

Up & down, both emotionally & physically…

It was great to be amongst much-missed loved ones on our UK trip.  The fact that I can’t call it a trip ‘home’ tells me I’m not ready or able to think about it that way.  Despite that, it was a wrench to leave & it felt like I left half my heart behind.  It was also hard to leave the possibilities behind – a return to Monte meant a return to scraping a living for sure.  It’s undeniably tough in the UK right now but I reckon I could land a job using my noddle for more money in a week than we’d spend in Monte in a month, so it’s tempting…  And then there’s the lure of curiosity (“what could I make happen if I really tried?) and wanting to reassure myself that my talent is latent, not elapsed.  Fingers crossed that some of the “maybes” become “dead certs” as far as consulting opportunities go next year.

Emotional & physical vibes have been especially intertwined this month.  A fortnight of eating & drinking our way around England & Wales saw us rolling home as proper Billy Bloaters!  I’d put on approx half a stone a week and felt like crap after forbidden food overload (bread, cakes, biscuits not to mention the alcohol).  We weighed our bags for the airport on Anita’s scales and they were bob on 23 kgs.  When we got to departures and they weighed a kilo over and had to have a special orange luggage label with the label ‘Heavy’, I freaked.  “You don’t understand” I pleaded with the nice woman at Bags Drop Off, “This means I’m a kilo heavier than I thought too!”  So it was time for drastic action back in Monte.  I’ve been detoxing from caffeine, refined sugar, wheat and alcohol for most of November and feeling pretty rough.  It’s hard to feel positive when struggling with headaches, constipation & fatigue (all normal when changing ways of eating).

I’m through the worst of it now and am back to normal weight and enjoying Daisy walks in the late autumn sun, but my heart is still a little heavy.  I’m missing special events like the birth of Jess & Nick’s daughter,  the adorable Molly Sue:

And whilst I don’t miss the commercialism and excess of the festive season in the UK, it is a time when family & friends are missed even more.  Over here, the reality of tough months ahead financially hits home and reminds us how fragile our life & luck is.  And after the intensity of the summer with few moments to call my own and the constant conveyor belt of tasks (clean, water garden, cook…) it felt strange to stand still.  The recent weeks of travelling here & abroad have almost over-stimulated my senses: the sight of jaw-droppingly impressive mountain-scapes; the sound of laughter & many mouths moving to catch up on the years; the smell of chip fat, burnt sugar & exploded fireworks on November 5th and the touch of a loved one… And now the next few months stretch ahead, mostly empty & featureless. Very luxurious, all that time to wallow in, but a little unnerving.

On the up side, it feels good to be back in the land of simple, frugal living and away from the excesses of the disposable, convenience-led society.  I was shocked at the money spent on stuff that could be made, grown, borrowed, got through free-cycle etc.  I was expecting a UK gripped by the bloodless fingers of austerity.  Instead we found that people were paying more for things that were quick, easy & green.  All credit for many UK’ers for hanging onto their eco values but they are paying through the nose for organic, natural products.  Internet shopping makes the process quicker & easier, but not cheaper so there’s more money gone.  People are managing to put healthy food into their bodies but not much else.  And its a mission.  Finding real bacon in the UK wasn’t easy – I’m talking about something that doesn’t have added sugar, preservatives or other crap and hasn’t been pumped with water.  Spoilt Pig is a good brand but it can’t be purchased everywhere.

What a relief to be eating real food, seasonal & mostly locally grown, where real bacon (well, ok, pancetta) is readily available and before we buy things we ask: do we really need this?; can it be made or mended not bought?; can I borrow one from a friend?; can I exchange a jar of homemade chutney to get it?  I know we can find other ways because we are the lucky ones, we have time.  This precious commodity is what everyone’s running out of across the Channel.  So I start to feel really good about the months ahead, however frugally we have to live to survive them.  They are a gift and I will savour them & not squander them.

And whilst I’m on the up vibe, I remember there are good people around us and plenty of distractions if we need them.  We’re motivating ourselves to chase pieces of work all over the place and marketing our business with gusto, looking for different ways to make 2012 as successful as possible.

Listening to

A fellow blogger’s iPod obessions...

Fun Stuff

1st November found us in Wales as our UK tour continued…

We had a lovely time with Steve’s parents and the rain held off for us to enjoy their garden and the incredible wildlife within it:

As usual Pam had been baking for our homecoming & spoilt us rotten with delicious food.  We had a yummy roast dinner (with Welsh lamb, of course) and enjoyed a relaxed evening swapping news.   The next day we travelled on to Steve’s sister’s place.  After nearly 2 years, it was a happy & welcome reunion.  Steve’s neice Ruby is now scarily grown up and communication with her is mostly through a laptop :-)

Dawn was looking happy & healthy, with a proudly-pimped caravan and life full of fun.  She cooked us a dee-lish chicken curry (which still feels weird, after all those years of vegetarianism):

And we enjoyed a chilled evening together and a brisk walk the next day, where we met the amazing artist behind this website (please, please, let me be able to afford just one pair of these beauties in my lifetime) & found some nice mushrooms.

From West Wales, we travelled across country (taking the scenic route to enjoy the English countryside at it’s very autumnal best) to Herts, our old stomping ground, for a happy reunion with dear friends Matt & Charlotte & their lovely family.  As usual Matthew cooked us a wonderful meal (a Heston Blumenthal-style steak) and we washed it down with good wine.

The next day we travelled east to my sister Chris’ house in Essex for a small family gathering.  Chris & my bro-in-law Dave, had been through a rough old time since last we met so it was great to see them looking healthy and to give them big, big hugs.  Mum & Dad arrived soon after we did and we enjoyed a lovely day together – a big lunch cooked by my lovely sis, lots of nattering…

My eldest sister Sue & her hubby Frank turned up in the evening bearing cake and we had a jolly old time, swapping stories & sharing photos.

Mission accomplished, with family & as many friends as we could squeeze in this trip visited & hugged, we headed back to Bucks to catch up with the Mill House Farm gang.  For the first time in 5 years, we were in the UK for Fireworks Night so we all headed off to the Aylesbury Rugby Club display.  This is a great picture of the boys waiting for the sky-painting to begin…

To be honest, Steve was a little under-whelmed with the display – but he’s got high standards, this trained Firer of mine.  I loved the bangs and whizzes and pops & crackles and any colour in the sky is fun for me.  Plus I enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere of being in a crowd of English folk, with a Bonfire, Fun Fair and classic English Chip Vans churning out grease & hot tea:

Let’s hear it for immersing your head in pink sugary stickiness & trying to win a goldfish:

It was a nice little jaunt into the “English at Leisure” but the novelty soon wears off and it was nice to go back to base for a proper cup of tea.

The next day we flew Monte-bound for a happy reunion with Daisy Marmite, who despite having been well looked after by Amy, Nik and Carrie, was awfully glad to see us.  But she didn’t get our undivided attention for long… A happy reunion with our first wwoofers & now friends, Nina & Stefan, turned into them worriedly making a quick exit back to the UK because of family illness.  So Mollie & Louis, who they had been dog-sitting for mutual mates, Katie & Tim, were left in our care for 10 days…  It was a crowded time at Topla with 3 dogs & 3 adults competing for space.  To make matters worse Louis & Mollie were minus their bed as it got left behind in the chaos of the moment, so squatted in Daisy’s instead.  Ms Marmite’s nose was distinctly put out but she got her own back by harassing them, constantly pawing & yowling at them to play.

It was mostly easy having them around since we were at the campsite most days, working away and the dogs had each other to keep entertained.  Dog walks were definitely more fun.  Here they all are, posing with Steve on the newly tiled & grouted steps to the basement (Beautiful job, Mr B-J!):

Other highlights of this happily socially over-loaded month:

  • A Indian feast at our place, to celebrate Steve & I being together for 21 years and Matt being on the planet another year.  I got into one of my (in)famous cocktail shaking sesh’s and created a Pink Tickler – a luridly coloured beastie which tasted like Benylin.  Got us all well & truly hammered though & we laughed our lungs out.
  • An evening of fun with local friends, beginning with a Tac-Tic session at our place with Blazo and ending in Pozoriste, surrounded by good friends & bar full of shots
  • A morning’s sail on Cagaj, with Tony, Laura, Amber & Schooner – tacking up and down the channel in the sun and fairly whizzing along when we occasionally got the wind.  It was relaxed and enjoyable, not to mention a great learning experience.

  • An afternoon of interesting (for Montenegro) cuisine with friends at the country’s First Philippino Luncheon. We ate raw shredded peppers, mango & papaya wrapped in lettuce leaves and dipped in a spiced-up soy sauce and squid cooked in coconut cream amongst other delights & it was still warm enough (at the end of November) to sit outside…

Tim Time

Only in Montenegro can you be driving along the min road and do a double take as you pass a Lada Niva strewn with 3 or 4 freshly killed wild boar, blood streaking down its paintwork…

One Green Thing

One green word & many green things:  patience is a green virtue that inspired leaf mould collecting (an hour of tedious raking & shovelling at the church above the village below the campsite); pesto sauce (carefully removing all the half decent leaves from the straggling Basil plants); and compost (diligently chopping up all the  flower & veg plants as I pulled them from the garden to ensure they rot down faster to bring well-rotted compost on sooner).

Weather Report

November has been unbelievably warm & dry.  It still feels like late September, with temperatures into the mid 20’s.  I have actually sunbathed on our top terrace for a few hours here & there.  Gorgeous weather for pottering around outside and for walking the dog & admiring the hillsides aflame with autumnal colour.  But the ground is parched.

We had a little rain at the end of the month but we need so much more  – we need those streams & springs to run & gush again

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