Cloud Appreciation Society

Cloud Appreciation Society Manifesto

WE BELIEVE that clouds are unjustly maligned
and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them.

We think that they are Nature’s poetry, 
and the most egalitarian of her displays, since 
everyone can have a fantastic view of them.

We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it. 
Life would be dull if we had to look up at 
cloudless monotony day after day.

We seek to remind people that clouds are expressions of the 
atmosphere’s moods, and can be read like those of 
a person’s countenance.

Clouds are so commonplace that their beauty is often overlooked. 
They are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul. 
Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save 
on psychoanalysis bills.

And so we say to all who’ll listen:
Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and live life with your head in the clouds!

These photos were taken on my walk from London Bridge to work this morning, I haven't used any special effects or filters, the natural range of colours today was spectacular! 

I was looking at the sun rise and cloud formations on my train journey into London Bridge, I didn't "catch" the cloud I'd been admiring but got this shot instead. 

Pink haze cloud over Princes Street

Jet Stream London Wall

Rain Clouds gathering over the Gherkin this morning

Perth Tales....A verge collection, a new (old) coffee table and a HUGE spider

April 2011

When we were living in Perth a few years ago, we used to take a trip around our neighbourhood every few months before the verge collection and see if there were any bits being left out that we could use in our little (already oddly) furnished rental. We collected all sorts of handy items, from a pale pink leather recliner chair (well worn but very comfortable) to crockery (which we soaked in bleach and boiling water before using) and we rescued a lovely coffee table that had been left in the sun too long and had gone almost completely white. 

The photo below isn't very clear, but that's M standing by the verge where we found the table, just in front of the biggest spider web I have ever seen. 

The web stretched between the two lemon trees, with multiple layers of web and a trail of dead wasps behind the spider

I spotted the table from across the road and ran straight over to take a look. I'd just bent down and was leaning in to take a closer look at the state of the table top, when M said, very calmly and quietly, "Claire, don't stand up, but there is a huge spider over your head...." My skin was already crawling as I twisted around carefully to see where the beastie was and because I was so close, I couldn't actually see the web at first, just the spider dangling about 2 feet away from my head! I gasped as quietly as possible and pretzeled myself backwards so fast to get out from under the spider, then did a little dance while wringing my hands in the middle of the road...half convinced the spider had somehow gotten onto me.

The Spider, with a convenient dead wasp to show scale

We're pretty sure she's a Golden Orb Spider - which as it turns out, aren't deadly. The effects of a bite are nausea and dizziness and thankfully, they're usually reluctant to bite humans

Close up of some of the spider web, we didn't touch it of course, but it looked really strong and quite tough

So after all the excitement of nearly getting eaten by a spider...ahem...we carefully took a look at the table and realised it was actually a really nice solid piece of furniture, slide it out from under the web and carried it home. Then we returned later that afternoon to photograph the fabulous - just don't let it touch me - spider

Work in progress in our back yard - M had already started to sand the table and the grain was starting to come through  the white sun bleached varnish

Finished sanding, now for the varnish

M spent about three evenings sanding the table (I sanded some of the legs and the sides) and once we'd sanded all the white varnish away and the grain was clearly showing, it was time to re varnish it. That took another two evenings and a few coats of varnish so it would be properly protected. I loved how much the table changed over the space of a week from a white, sun damaged piece of indeterminate wood, to a beautiful, detailed - albeit still indeterminate - coffee table.

Detail on the legs of the table - I loved how a natural ying and yang shape emerged through the grain 

Close up of the table top - this had been almost completely white from all the old varnish and resin baking in the sun

The finished table

If you're not familiar with verge collections; they used to happen every 4 months or so while we were living in Perth. We'd get a notice from the local council advising of the date and people would start to leave their old furniture, white goods, bikes and general oddments on the verge - the grassy patch in front of the house - in the week before the collection and we - as well as other groups of optimistic upcyclers - would wander around and collect any bits and pieces that looked reusable or interesting. Our little town house was already furnished, but sparsely, with an odd mix of tables, chairs and side units and we added our loot to what we realised must have been previous tenants spoils from verge collections past.

There was something similar in Barcelona when I lived there a few years ago and it was always a thrill to find a handy side table or in my flatmate's case, a fabulous dark wood wardrobe with beautiful carved doors that had to be carried, dragged and pulled up five flights of narrow stairs to get to our apartment on the top floor. And was it worth it? Definitely!

Work in progress - Garden Update

It’s been a busy few weeks and we're starting to get the garden ready for spring planting; M made some raised beds a week or so ago from some (found) timbers - i.e. we raided the neighbours skip and rescued some old shelves and bits of wood - which he made into two raised beds, and he also wove a beautiful support frame - for tomatoes and beans - from some bamboo we had left over from last year. 

Before

After

I have quite an ambitious list of vegetables to seed this year, but we’re really excited about getting some staples from this year’s crop. We plan on growing potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, tomatoes as well as courgette, beetroot, lettuce, sweet peppers, strawberries, raspberries, peas and beans. I’ve started mapping out my seedling planting plan, and so far, I've seeded onions – in seed trays on the windowsill in the kitchen –sweet orange peppers, lettuce and I planted garlic cloves - from organic (already sprouted, handy!) garlic from our local greengrocer - and I have a couple of potatoes “chitting” on the windowsill in the kitchen, all looking good so far!

Small glasshouse, which has now been dismantled to add more space, alongside new raised bed - old Cheyenne bush pumpkin patch

Basic garden plan - still working out where everything is going to go!

garlic, lettuce and onions

Dual purpose (up-cycled) shelf - great for hanging saucepans and very handy for stating off sweet orange pepper seeds

Up-cycled/rescued shelves - remade into a raised box for strawberries/herbs

Unfortunately, as the kitty has been making good use of the garden beds over the winter, we will have to dig out the top layer of soil, replace it with topsoil, dig in some well rotted manure and compost and then immediately cover the beds with netting to stop her digging it up again *sigh

It’s been such a mild winter so far (and I hope I haven’t just jinxed it!) but I can’t wait for Spring to get sprung, I’m ready for some seedlings and blossoms now!

Chunky Pumpkin and Orange Marmalade

I decided it was time to make use of my Galeuse d'eysines pumpkin. It had successfully stored in our (cold) hallway for about four months, but I fancied some pumpkin soup and really wanted to try to preserve the rest - or at least some - of the pumpkin and make it last a bit longer.

I found this delicious recipe on Nigella.com and altered it ever so slightly

Ingredients
2 kgs pumpkin
4 oranges (sweet & juicy)
1 lime (juiced)
1.5 kg sugar
2 cm fresh root ginger - shredded
Gelatine

Cut the pumpkin into large chunks (remove the seeds) and simmer in water for about 20 minutes until soft 

As my kitchen scales only goes up to 5kg, I had to wait until I'd managed to halve the pumpkin before I could weigh it... it came in at a fine weight of 7.5kg

Peel the oranges and remove the white parts from the skin – it will take at least half an hour to scrape all (well, most of...) the pith from the skin, much longer than I had anticipated! Chop the peel into small shreds

In a separate pot, mix ½ glass (I used a pint glass) of water with two spoons of sugar and cook the orange peels in it, until they are soft, this will take about 15-20 minutes. Cut the peeled oranges into pieces

When the pumpkin is soft, removed the skin and mix/smush the pumpkin – do not puree! I peeled the pumpkin into a large bowl, then roughly sliced it into chunks with a sharp knife.

Cook the pumpkin chunks, oranges, orange peels and lime juice for 20 minutes

Add the shredded ginger, rest of the sugar and some gelatine (I used one leaf) and let slowly boil for another 20 minutes. Pot into sterilized jam jars.

I initially thought 1.5 kg of sugar was far too much for this recipe, so I just used 1 kg, but after the marmalade had cooled, I realised it hadn't set properly and was quite...tangy. So I emptied all the jars back into the saucepans, reheated the marmalade back to a simmer and added the remaining ½ kg of sugar and another gelatine leaf and that seems to have done the trick! The pumpkin has stayed a bright orange colour and has turned almost translucent through cooking. The marmalade is still quite tangy - especially compared to the shop bought marmalade - which tasted sickly sweet after I’d sampled my homemade batch - and it has a lovely strong orange flavour and aroma and I think the chunks of pumpkin and orange work really well together.

New restrictive EU Seed Law - join the campaign to stop it!!!

The Real Seed Catalogue are supporting a campaign to stop a terrible law that is currently under review, which if it's implemented, will hugely restrict the varieties of vegetables that be sold to small farmers and home gardeners.

I have paraphrased slightly and full webpage can be found here, but in a nutshell, Real Seeds have been working very closely with NGO’s and independent seed companies across the EU as well as DEFRA – UK Government regulator of the seed industry – to protect the UK seed industry and to make sure UK gardeners have access to whatever plants they wish to grow.

DEFRA and various NGO’s and independent seed houses are asking for total exemption from the law for home gardeners and small growers. 

I have already written to my local MEP - Ms Marina Yannakoudakis - asking her to support the abolishment of this brutal and restrictive law. An excerpt of my (fairly impassioned) letter is below:

"Please do not discount the needs of individual unique gardeners over multinational corporations who are quite openly pushing to monopolize the fruit and vegetable growing market. Is there anything more sickening than the sad fact, the majority of fruit and vegetables bought in supermarkets has been so modified that the seeds are essentially useless and unable to germinate? 

If this law goes ahead, it will be a complete travesty for our generation and all generations after ours. Climate change and the destruction of our natural eco habitats are already perilously close to the point of no return, who knows what will happen in ten, twenty or fifty years....please don’t let the loss of our individuality as home gardeners and our basic rights to be able to grow our own fresh fruit and vegetables be added to the many man made disasters this generation already has to deal with.

We are all unique as human beings and we deserve the right to be able to choose which fruit and vegetables to plant, tend, and harvest ourselves – and not be dependent on corporations who are acting with profit in mind, not people. Please do not allow this law to go ahead, I implore you as one human to another, do not forget your sense of right from wrong, please think of your own heritage, perhaps your grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunt had their own garden that was their pride and joy as mine is to me.

I have attached a photo of the very first pumpkin I ever grew...please do not deny future generations the same exciting opportunity" 

Really at this stage, I feel like my blog is a bit like leaves in the wind, I throw some ideas and thoughts out there, but as I don't generally receive feedback, I'm not even sure if people read my updates... which is an odd kind of comfort, I can chat about whatever I like, with little consequence. However, if this post brings even just one more persons attention to this new EU Seed Law, I will consider it a success. 

Thank you and happy seeding....

Phoenix Park - Dublin

The Phoenix Park 

I took this photo in December 2012, I love the hazy morning light and the way the deer are emerging from the mist and glow of the sunrise. This beautiful park is only about ten minutes from my parents house, but I only get to visit it once maybe twice a year, usually around December.

Bare trees in the Furry Glen

These two photos were taken in December 2013, on a bitingly cold day where it "looked like snow" but no snowflakes actually fell. In the second photo you can just about see a grey squirrel in the trees, this little guy was one of the only signs of life in the park on that particular cold and still day.

I just love that this fabulous park - while almost in central Dublin - is so vast that it is undisturbed by traffic noise or signs of pollution. You could quite easily believe you are in the wilderness with just the wind in the trees and the occasional bird song adding to the natural sounds of silence.

Photographs of the Garden.... June to October 2013

Heirloom seedlings I started in April in the top flat

We had to remove weeds and weeds and literally metres of roots from the staghorn sumac from the soil before we started any kind of planting

Bamboo cane supports for peas

Small area I marked out for onions and carrots - this ended up being smothered by the tomatoes, galeuse d'eysines pumpkin and butternut squash

Staghorn suckers - these sprouted along every single root in the garden, the trees had been cut just before we moved in, and as it turns out, the trees respond to a "trauma" by sprouting vigorously along all root lines.... 

Minnesota Midget - this had really small yellow flowers, but didn't get nearly enough sun as they ended up hidden behind the tomatoes and courgette, so unfortunately, we didn't get any melons

The tomatoes take off

Crookneck Summer Squash

Courgette - we got about three nice sized courgettes from this plant, which was perfect, we had so many summer squash to use up!

Cheyenne bush pumpkin

Cleo investigates, while I try to measure the growth of the galeuse d'esyines pumpkin

Hidden under the wide leaves - growing crookneck summer squash. I'd no idea these would do so well and ended up giving a lot of them away to friends and work colleagues, and still had plenty left over for ourselves...

.

Pumpkin and squash patch - the galeuse d'eysines is taking over the patio in the back left of the photo

More Crookneck Summer squash

The bright yellow flowers on the squash and pumpkins attracted lots of bees, it was lovely to be able to hear the buzzing from the backdoor and we plan on planting a lot more bee friendly plants and flowers in 2014

Some of the harvest, heirloom tomatoes and crookneck summer squash

Galeuse d'eysines - this weighed about 7lb when it was finished growing

Mix of Gardeners Delight - cherry vine tomato, Millefleur - yellow vine tomato and Jen's Tangerine - cherry vine tomato 

Little butternut squash, which I discovered after I pulled the plant from the tangle of tomatoes, strawberries and nasturtiums

Almost ripe - Cheyenne bush pumpkin

Bush pumpkin and galeuse d'eysines curing in the glass house

I got all of my heirloom seeds from The Real Seed Catalogue