mamaUK

Homegrown courgettes

I'm loving homegrown right now, especially courgettes! We are growing golden and spherical courgettes along side the regular variety. Yesterday, late afternoon, Little L went out to the garden to harvest some of the first baby courgettes. She loved walking down the path carrying the colander ready to bring indoors.

Our greenhouse

I popped out to the greenhouse this morning while it was still dry outside. Stormy weather is meant to be coming in this afternoon across the UK. The wind has started to pick up already.

I took my camera with me so I could share with you what we are growing in the greenhouse this year: lettuce, courgettes, peppers, tomatoes, basil and rocket. The flowers in our garden were looking pretty too. I'll be putting tomatoes and cucumbers on my grocery shopping list this weekend so we can try the new lettuce that is ready for the girls to pick.

Alpine strawberries

I sent the girls outside to the garden to hunt for alpine strawberries. They have just come in from being blown around in the wind with a little handful of goodness each.

Finding calm - meditating in nature

Since reading Buddhism For Mothers, I've been interested in the idea of meditation as a way to bring an increased sense of clarity, calm and happiness to my life and how that can affect the way I parent my children. With the little bit of reading I had done about meditation, about setting up meditation spaces, mindfullness of breath and certain words to focus on, I felt too intimidated by the whole formal practise of meditation to even attempt it. 

This week though I seemed to experience a form of meditation almost by accident, it was completely unforced and natural. I found myself meditating in nature. The warm weather had drawn me outside to my favourite spot in the garden. It's a little wild area where flowers grow higgledy-piggledy with a little old brick path running beneath the large apple tree. I went to sit up there to see the tulips as I had noticed they were all in bloom, but almost hidden at the top of our garden. I sat on the path for a while and felt the warmth of the sun, all the time admiring the tulips glowing red as they tilted their heads towards the sunshine. By simply noticing the beauty in that moment, really noticing how the tulips looked, their intense colour, their soft, firm petals and all the while hearing the sounds of the garden, the insects moving around, birdsong, a lawn mower humming in the distance somewhere far off, I felt myself re-centre and and feel a deep sense of gratitude. As I was paying full attention to the present moment I began breathing deeper as I experienced nature surrounding me. I felt thankfulness for seeing the true beauty in spring time. The tulips in bloom may only be short lived, but their impermanence make their beauty only that much sweeter.  

Even though I found that 'still' for a short while, maybe just fifteen or twenty minutes, I felt positive, calm and happy. I'm sure it flowed into how I mothered my children for the rest of that day, with extra patience and attention.

Spring time gardening

Our first trip to the garden centre this year, all the pretty flowers and the bright sunshine put a spring in my step and made me feel happy and excited for the new gardening year. I adore spring time, so much promise and planning, getting ready to connect with the earth again, sowing, planting, feeling the soft dark soil with your finger tips.

September greenhouse

 
 
 
 
 
I checked out the greenhouse today, to see what needs to be done. There is salad still to be picked over the next few weeks. It needs to be tidied up before the winter.

If all the tomatoes don't ripen, I might make some green tomato chutney.

 

Have you got an Autumn Seasonal book you would like to share? Leave you link here for all to see on my 'Our Seasonal Book Basket' post!

digging potatoes

 

 

 

 
We're still busy in the garden, gathering and picking fruit and vegetables every day to bring indoors to the kitchen. Today we all dug for potatoes, the children squealing when they spotted them in the dirt. And then squealing again when they came across creepy crawlies in the soil.

We spent the rest of the morning and then all afternoon outside, clearing, weeding and preparing the ground ready for putting in our raised beds. I pulled up old strawberry plants which have covered the ground thickly amongst the raspberry canes for years. K loved using the full size fork to dig into the ground and loosen the roots for me. The children do have child size gardening tools, but K much preferred using the 'real' fork. Working in the garden was like play to them. It reminded me that children love to be busy with real work, with mummy or daddy close by.  

summertime in the garden

 
There is so much happening in our garden at the moment. Just look at our basil plant! Our first cherry tomatoes are ripening. I'm sure our tomatoes have been slower to ripen this year.

 
Mummy's Pea (Prew's Special) an heirloom variety supposedly discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb. The white flowers are so delicate and pretty, shining white in early evening sunlight.

picking peas

 
Look at the peas we picked from our garden! We've never grown mangetout before, but next year I think we will be growing more. They were so sweet and crisp, we were eating them straight off the plant. K loved shelling them, popping the little peas out of the pod and eating them like sweeties before eating the shell too. While she was busy picking them, she started singing:

'Five little peas
in a peapod pressed.
One grew, two grew,
And so did all the rest.
They grew and they grew
Till they could not stop.
Until one day that pod went...
POP!'

It was so good to be eating peas that evening fresh from the garden, I baked a creamy macaroni cheese to go along side them. All the plates were empty by the end of the meal, which considering Little L's tendency towards fussy eating, was great to see!

making fresh mint tea

 
(Mint growing wild in our garden)

After a busy morning in the garden, pulling down the old fruit netting in the hot sun, I was thirsty! While I was working, I bruised some mint leaves by stepping on some that were growing wild in our grass. The scent was so lovely, I wanted to make some mint tea using fresh leaves.

I grabbed a handfull of mint leaves from the garden, rinsed them well under cold water to remove any dirt and rolled them between my fingers to release the oil. I roughly tore the leaves up, placed them in my tea pot and poured boiling water over them and then left it to steep for five minutes. I then simply strained the tea and served. You can sweeten it if you like with some sugar or honey.

For iced tea, let the mint infusion cool to room temperature, pour into a jug with plenty of ice cubes and then place into the refrigerator until completely chilled.