Country living should be seasonal!

What distinguishes country living from urban living? Especially country living in the city?

One thing is the seasons. Eating seasonally, dressing seasonally, seasonal celebrations, events, public and family rituals.

I get "Country Living" magazine most months and today, 28 August, have just got the October issue!

Still wearing summer clothes and doing summer things and I am reading a magazine full of stuff about autumn!

Another puncture!

Went to go blackberrying today and found my front tyre flat. So went on my folding bike instead.

This is my third puncture in about 5 weeks (not as bad as 3 in 15 days which I had soon after I got the bike). It is in my front tyre again, so I am thankful for small mercies!

Tomatoes - tasteless raw, falvour when cooked

I had my first tomato on Thursday and it tasted of nothing.

I was not surprised, as the tag on them when I brought them at Homebase made no mention of taste - always a bad sign. Only variety available so I got them.

I put them in with pasta (and runner and french beans, courgettes, and bayleaves from the garden) and there was some flavour, especially in the stock.

Missing, presumed fallen and eaten by wildlife, my plum!

My one and only plum was on the tree on Thursday, but not there, and no sign of it beneath the tree, today (Sunday)!

Presume it must have fallen off and some wildlife - mice? fox? bird? - ate it.

Herbs to chase away the coughing

I have now been coughing for 3 weeks, with a cold a few days before that. There are occasional coughing fits when it seems I'll never stop coughing and my eyes water so much it looks as if I have been crying! But when I go for a walk, cycle or kayak, then I only cough occasionally.

As it was still not getting better I thought I ought to have it checked out and went to my herbalist on Thursday.

She has given me some liquid to take in warm water 4 times a day before food (but I'm not to take the last one too close to bedtime). It is an expectorant and antimicrobial containing:goldenrod, mallow root, elecampane root, thyme, wild indigo and hyssop.

She also recommended putting honey on cut-up onions and leaving for 12 hours then having the honey. I am having a spoonful 2 or 3 times a day. Oniony honey is surprisingly nice!

Also herb tea. She mentioned several and fennel is the tea I had, but I've only had it once. I am not a tea drinker and find waiting for tea to cool down a faff - and sometimes forget it and only remember when it's gone cold!

Also a steam bath (bowl of hot water with a towel over my head). Just hot water would be good but she recommended some herbs to add. Lavender from my garden was the only one I had that so I gave it a go earlier. Though my nose doesn't feel blocked up (but my ears do!) I couldn't smell a thing and it doesn't seem to have had much effect.

So I'll stick to the medicine and the onion honey.

Big, juicy blackberries

I've been leaning over the fence this week and picking a handful of blackberries from a bramble in my neighbour's overgrown garden. I've had these with my cereal for breakfast.

After kayaking today I did a detour up past the riding stables and under the railway bridge and filled my soya dessert container with large, juicy blackberries. This recent rain has done its stuff!

So I've made a crumble and have had the first helping hot. Lovely!

I saw a kestrel over Marsh Lane Fields on my way to kayaking this morning.

Eggs and egg box in the garden

A fox once left an egg half buried in my old compost heap.

A neighbour had a fox bury an egg in her window box and couldn't work out how it balanced to achieve this.

Yesterday I found a ripped egg box and broken egg shells in the garden. Presumably someone threw out the egg box with the eggs. The fox took the box with the eggs and got it (which would have meant some leaping) into my garden to eat the spoils. I hope it enjoyed them and didn't get stomach problems due to bad eggs.

Zero Waste Home

After reading an article about the book I bought a copy of "Zero Waste Home: The ultimate guide to simplifying your life by reducing your waste" by Bea Johnson.

Although I know some things I don't expect to give up until they no longer exist or I can't afford them (eg paper tissues and paper kitchen roll) and the book is American so some things would not be the same over here, I was hoping for some inspiration to reduce my consumption.

Unfortunately not. Particularly as I don't have the store where I can take bottles and refill in bulk (and I don't have a car to transport everything even if I did).

She has recycling, which a lot of "greens" have their main contribution to the environment, as fourth out of five. And I think her order of priorities and the importance she places on not getting stuff in the first place correct.

Bea's list:
1. Refuse (what we do not need)
2.Reduce (what we do not need and cannot refuse)
3. Reuse (what we consume and cannot refuse or reduce)
4. Recycle (what we cannot refuse, reduce, or reuse)
5. Rot (compost the rest)

But I will try harder in reducing what comes into the house and increase the stuff  get rid of.

I've got a plum! And a baby frog!

Today, lying in my hammock I spotted a plum on one of my two potted plum trees.

Last spring I had one tree covered in blossom and the other with not one flower, so no chance of cross fertilisation.

This year both trees were in full flower just as the late frosts hit. The blossom seemed to survive but I thought there had been no insects to pollinate the flowers. But there was one!

I usually only eat plums cooked (by someone else) but this one will have to be eaten raw. I hope I will recognise the right moment for the ceremonial picking!

And yesterday morning beside the pond was a little frog. I didn't see any frog spawn but there must have been some.

So a runny nose and a cough that won't go away don't seem so bad when I have a plum and a frog,