Fooling Nature

The weather seems to have played a strange trick on the seasons this year. It's as though the plants and animals are not quite sure what has happened. The birds seemed to think that Spring had arrived this September, getting up early to chirp loudly every time the rain eased off. The elderflower made the same mistakes, still springing up thick and fully flowered along the railways until well into the start of this undeserved autumn.

But the good news is, my chilli plants don't seem to have noticed the difference as I have kept them snugly inside. They have grown more prolifically than we first imagined and now the first chillis are making their way out into the world. I have no idea how big they will get, I'm just hoping I get to eat them before the aphids do. Here are a couple of the plants in the minature greenhouse Sal bought. It's awesome:

The next project is Christmas tree seeds. They have been germinating in the fridge but need planting now if we are to have seedlings by Christmas. I keep thinking about one day having a home-grown Christmas tree in the front room... All this wind and rain has made me feel prematurely festive and nostaligic.

Having the plants around the house and living so close to the independent shops in Slaithwaite has made me want to try even harder to become more sustainable in my shopping choices. Today, I popped to the shop for some tuna but they had none. The lady suggested I tried their sustainably caught smoked mackerel instead, which I had never tried in my life. So I said yes, and a delicious lunch followed. It reminded me that you don't always have to get exactly what you fancy.

Sometimes something new can be good for you.

More updates soon, I am contemplating compiling a list of winter veggies that you all can help me decide what to make with over the next few months. I see a lot of soup on the horizon...

A x

Movement and growth

Hello my lovely friend,
I am so sorry I have been absent. I have not abandoned my mission! It is pretty much a part of life these days. But there has been a big development...

I've moved to Slaithwaite!

Yes, Slaithwaite, home of the Green Valley Grocer, my favourite shop. I know that if I had never started this mission, and had never come out to Slaithwaite to see what the shop was like, I wouldn't be living here, happy in my little flat, a ten second walk from a beautiful selection of independent shops. This goes to show that you never know where things will take you when start. I can do pratically all my shopping now without having to visit a chain store of any kind. It's amazing.

In other news, I have started growing again. My greenhouse was stolen the day we got here to sell the metal as scrap which rather put a damper on things but luckily the herbs I had been growing were having a couple of days inside so they are now happily growing like weeds on my windowsill. Yesterday I planted several chilli plants. I had successfully killed some earlier in the year so I am giving it a bash, despite the slightly late planting date. I am hopeful that I will have some chillis at the end of the summer.

Sal has purchase a big window box and filled it with flowers, and we have ferns and ivy growing in the house so I feel surrounded by green and very happy. Yesterday I took a walk in the sun along the canal and thought how lovely it is to live outside of towns.

Lastly, I am thinking of starting to try and make some pennies from my cakes. I love baking and am thinking it would be wonderful to be able to offer a cake baking service to people where I can assure them their cakes are free-range, organic, and made with supermarket-free produce. I hope that there will be a lot of people out there who would appreciate knowing that their cakes are happy ones :) I will let you know how I get on.

More news soon, I am back on the writing now I have so much more to say,
Ash x