'Walk Like An Egyptian'

Well this week my little 'Egyptian Walking' onion also known as a 'Tree Onion' made the long journey from Devon up north to the banks of the Mersey. It is now catching its breath in the greenhouse. As I am not sure whether it has come from being under cover or from the great outdoors, I am erring on the side of caution and will gently reintroduce it to the elements. In case you are wondering about the name the plant sets forth air born bulbils, each one which having the capacity to root and produce another plant ~ hence the walking. Along with it arrived a Japanese wineberry, some shallots and seed potatoes with the most romantic name of BF15. Now if one picked potatoes by name only this surely would remain on the shelf. However it is meant to be a tasty morsel - its parents being Belle de Fontenay and Flava . All these goodies will be making their way to the allotment sooner or later. We paddled our way down there this morning but it is much to wet to do anything other than observe the progress of the new fencing.

The cuttings which have overwintered in the greenhouse seem to have put on a spurt of growth in the last fortnight and are ready repotting. Some of the penstemon cuttings look a bit leggy and in need of pinching out. A task for the forthcoming week.

It still seems as if we are very much in between the seasons here. Some of the snowdrops are now going over and giving way to irises, little daffs and hellebores. I was pleased to see this hellebore open for the very first time earlier this week ~

It is one of the hellebores I bought via Ebay a couple of years ago as a plug plant. It's perhaps more spotty than I would prefer but considering it cost relatively little in hellebore terms, I am more than happy with it. Weather wise though apart from a beautiful mild day on Thursday, which I had the misfortune to observe from a train window, it is still more like winter than spring. There has been a good deal of rain and wind this week but it has been possible though at times to get out and do. Tomorrow there will be the grand ceremony of the switching on of the heated propagator and then all systems go!

The title of this post was inspired by the most catchy ditty of the same name by 'The Bangles', which I will be singing regularly to my onion to encourage it to grow, go forth and walk.

P.S. For Mey who commented on my last post wanting to contact me by email I am unable to reply to you directly. You can contact me at thegreentapestry@googlemail.com
Look forward to hearing from you.

Joy v. Happiness

 Last month at book club, one of the members shared an article that she'd read recently that said we should all strive to experience 15 minutes of joy each day of our lives.   It prompted a huge discussion that carried  over into this month and this continues to be something I'm trying to figure out for myself. 

One of our club members is happy - all the time, and I do mean all the time.  I've seen her put to the test recently in her workplace and even under very negative circumstances she "shifted gears" so to speak.  She remained very happy but at the same time announced that the changes had given her new direction and a new focus.  I too consider myself a very happy person almost all the time.  It's rare that I cry though I can recall one time in my life that I've been really depressed.  There have been events that have made me sad, like the death of my sister-in-law and my dad, but generally I'm happy.   The discussions in our book club became interesting when two very happy people tried to figure out the difference between joy and happiness.  

I've always viewed happiness as a state of being.  I choose happiness and enjoy surrounding myself with things, people and events that make me happy.   When I was growing up my grandpa used to remind me "happy is the girl with a song in her heart" and because of his constant reminder I've continued to hum to myself my entire life, even when my life wasn't happy.  

To me, joy is a much stronger, deeper emotion.  Joy has a much higher threshold and is longer lasting.  It comes from a spiritual or heavenly place.  Having grown up hearing the phrase, "tears of joy" I think of joy as being something very deep within us filled with maximum emotion.   When I hear my granddaughters enjoying life and giggling at nothing at all, that is joy.  The mere sight of a rainbow, my children or my grandgirls brings me pure joy.

My happy friend/book club members sees happiness and joy as much the same - both spiritually based.  I'm very interested to hear your thoughts on the topic.

Life…

… Is busy these days…

you?

“One learns first of all in beach living the art of shedding;

how little one can get along with,

not how much."

~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Ahhh. I needed that.

Images: Me and Bo, and Parati Brasil...oh to be there now.

Flight of Fancy

F IS FOR?

FOLKLORE AND FOXGLOVES!

There is a wealth of fascinating folklore associated with many of our favourite flowers. Some of these fables are fanciful whilst others are factual ~ all are great fun to read.

Each year I look forward to the fabulous markings of digitalis purpurea or the foxglove to use its most well known common name. The generic name derives from the Latin digitabulum 'a thimble' ~ a reference to the shape of the flowers, whilst purpurea alludes to their purple colour. It is thought that the common name is from 'fox's glove' but another version is that the name is a corruption of 'folksglove' i.e. the glove of the good folk or fairies who occupy woody dells alongside the flowers. Foxgloves have a number of other names including 'Our Lady's gloves', 'fairy fingers', 'fox fingers' and in Wales 'elf fingers'. Its more sinister names include 'Deadmen's Bells, 'Bloody Fingers' and 'Witches Gloves' which remind us of the plants highly toxic properties.

The foxglove is apparently unlucky if sighted in the house or on a ship and those who hear the 'Deadmens Bells' ring will not be for this world for much longer.

If you fancy reading more on this subject 'Discovering The Folklore of Plants' by Margaret Baker is full of fantastic information.

Why don't you fly over now to ABC Wednesday for further information and frivolity featuring the letter F ?

African Hornbill - A shot from the past!

One from a few years back that I thought would be worth reposting.

Nikon F801s, Tamron 100-300 zoom, Fuji Superia 200.

Would this qualify as "Low Key"?

For Your Delight And Delectation

It was back in the depths of February last year when Jodi over at Bloomingwriter encouraged other members of the Blotanical blogging community to extend a welcome to new bloggers and hopefully build up their visitors.  At the time I thought that this was a brilliant idea and intended to do something positive to highlight new blogs that I came across. Unfortunately my good intentions did not get off the ground but here we are ~ another year and a chance to put the theory into practice. So here are my two selections for February reading ~ both of which I discovered relatively recently.  If you have not already come across them I urge you to visit as soon as you can.

Scott gardens in Portland, Oregon, in the U.S.A. His blog Rhone Street Gardens contains some glorious photography e.g. a unique perspective on snow here, inspired planting combinations especially for late summer/ early autumn colour and recently he has been putting together some fascinating posts on a year in the life of a number of plants. 

Over on this side of the pond is the equally enjoyable Plantaliscious. Janet writes with great love about the plants in her garden and of propagation. She has just got an allotment and is looking forward to her first growing season there, which she will be sharing with other bloggers. Visits to Janet's blog though are doing more than just making my plant wish list grow ~ I think that they may well make my waist line grow as Janet's other passion in life is baking bread. She kindly shares her recipes and techniques on her blog. After reading her posts I have got the bread making urge again ~ perhaps when my bread looks quite as good as hers I will share a photo with you ~ that is if it lasts long enough to photograph.

Waterfall at the National Botanical Gardens - Pretoria, South Africa last pic... for now.

The hardest part with long exposure waterfall shots like this is keeping the highlights from blowing out. It came out ok... ish.

Dance of the Fairies

A couple of years ago a tornado blew through downtown Atlanta damaging buildings in the city and nearby in-town neighborhoods.  A good friend living in one of those neighborhoods helped put together a fundraiser to help raise money for uninsured homeowners.  It was a great event that included a silent auction and I was lucky enough to win a painting.  Honestly from the moment I saw it I was in love with it.   I loved it even more when I read the artist's notes about the painting.  

Hundreds of colorful prisms flowed through the banisters of the Fresh Air Home's second story balcony. The prisms cascaded downward to the grand foyer and greeted the "Lost Children" with magical warmth as we entered through the home's front doors. Naturally bonded by silent fears we listened pensively to the housemothers as they explained the rules, and the consequences which most certainly would bewail us if broken. Moving effortlessly within the dancing rainbows, the fairies whispered words of encouragement: "Leave behind the fears within your confused little minds and the battered scars left upon your little bodies; you will be safe within the halls of your magical summer home."  -    Deborah Elizabeth Empting                                                                                                                   

A footnote following this passage explains that this is an excerpt from a novel the artist is writing.  She further explains that she transitioned in and out of 36 families while growing up in Tybee Island and Savannah, Georgia.   Now when I see the painting, I see pink and all the other beautiful things that a child tries to imagine when growing up in a painful world. 

May we all see the world with fresh eyes everyday celebrating pink and all the other beautiful colors in it. 

Joining Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday.

touch of the tropics…

My favorite tropical designer...

Made Wijaya

has a line of lighting

that always blows me away… see here

I would love a few of these hanging in our small sub-tropical jungle...

As seen at the perfectly delicious Bumi Hotel in Indonesia

Tropical dreams.

carry on.

all images from: PT.wijaya

Waterfall at the National Botanical Gardens - Pretoria, South Africa part two.

'Come Fly With Me'

E IS FOR

ESCAPISM! 
~ which I will be indulging in today by visiting gardens all over the globe. Today is Garden Bloggers' Day which is hosted on the fifteenth of each month over at May Dreams Gardens. There will be extraordinary examples of all sorts of plants and enthusiasm and expertise are the order of the day. No doubt engulfing February ennui will evaporate as I explore and my plant wish list will just expand and EXPAND!

Here the weather is far from exciting. As wet stuff falls from the ether photographic events are proving most elusive ~ close examination of exactly what is blooming in my outer environment is evading me. I know though that as a result of the extremely cold early winter, that there is definitely less in flower than on either the same date last February or the February before. Here though is one that I took earlier ~ yesterday to be exact of some exceptionally elegant snowdrops ~

Now why not endeavor to explore the letter E over at ABC Wednesday?

The top photograph was taken last summer at the International Garden Festival at Chaumont - sur - Loire, in France.

Waterfall at the National Botanical Gardens - Pretoria, South Africa

Every time I do a shoot here I give the falls another go in the hope that I get that elusive perfect photo. (Please note that perfection is unattainable) ;-)

From our corner of the world…

To yours…

Happy Valentines Day!

Be mine?

We Don't Do Valentine's Day

My husband and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day.  We never have.  It just wasn't a custom for him growing up so it was never a part of our relationship.  There are so many other occasions we celebrate throughout the year that I've never given it a second thought.   Normally I make a special cookie that I've made every Valentine's Day since we got married but I'm getting a little construction done in the house so I couldn't even bake cookies this year.  

Courtesy of ValentineCelebrations

 As I've been looking at all the decorations on other blogs I couldn't help but think about Valentine's Day growing up.  Every year not only did we have to make a special valentine for everyone in our class, we also had to decorate a valentine box.  Did you have to make a valentine box?   My mom was a working mom in the 50s and 60s and with 4 kids there was rarely "make it" time but when I was in second grade she helped me make the most beautiful valentine box ever!  It even won the class award for the best valentine box!   Oh I wish I had pictures of the shoebox that had been covered in white meat paper (thank you Piggly Wiggly).  Then my mom cut strips of red tulle that she gathered on the machine and we glued them around the edge of the box to make a skirt.  

It was magnificent.  

Wishing you all a wonderful Valentine's Day full of love and surprises. 

Who couldn't love the Nikon 50mm f1.8D "Nifty Fifty"?

For the price I don't think there is a lens to beat this one anywhere on the planet! (Canon's "nifty fifty" is a hair's breadth away from being it's equal with only it's plastic mount letting it down.)

Nikon D90, Nikon 50mm f1.8, natural light, f2.8, 1/320s.

'Follow The Yellow Brick Road'

Events outside the garden and lottie are taking up much of my time at the moment so no time for a diary post last weekend. I have been away for almost a week and on returning home I had a good wonder round the garden yesterday. Although it is still early in the year so much had happened in a short spell, no doubt prompted by a spell of warmer weather. The snowdrop clumps in the garden are now at their best, although the 'national collection of snowdrops' is in a sad state. I wrote about their frail state here. Since then there has been further wailing and gnashing teeth of as many of the survivors are not showing any signs of flowers this year. Oh what a to do. I can only hope that they revive but now face another twelve months to find out. More hellebores have opened and I am waiting for some to show their true colours for the first time this year. Iris 'Katharine Hodgkin' have opened and crocuses have croaked. All this colour out of nowhere in the space of a few days. It is too wet to be outside taking photos today so here is one of this exquisitely marked  iris that I took at my one and only visit to an RHS London winter show back in January 2006. Such show visits are a great way to dispel the winter blues but week day train fares from London make it too much of an expensive proposition these days.

I have not had a chance to visit the allotment but my trusted deputy himself has been down for a reccie. The work with the new fencing continues. Himself spoke to the contractors as some top soil is needed and they have agreed to drop some off onto the plot in the next week. Then I must get down to some work myself to get things into shape ready for the first inspection of the year in early April.

New to my bookshelves this week is the new edition of 'The Yellow Book,' the purchase of which always gives me a delicious tingle as it makes me think that spring is really on the horizon. I imagine that many of you are familiar with 'The Yellow Book' but just in case any introduction is needed, the book lists and describes  all the gardens in England and Wales, which open to visitors to raise funds for charity under the National Gardens Scheme. Although the information that the book contains is available online, I still get a lot of pleasure from dipping into pages full of descriptions of gardens both great and small. I have already penciled in a snowdrop garden to visit soon and an allotment site in June. Later on in the year I plan to cross the border over to North Wales, to be inspired by some colourful late summer planting here in Karen's, 'An Artists Garden's real life garden.

And if you have some leftover paint…

And a stencil…

Go to town!

Way cheaper than an actual bag. I believe.

Chain link fence should protect it

from being stolen.

...Right?

found: here

U looking at ME?

Ellie with attitude. Soft box someplace to camera left fitted with a 500w Elinchrom.

Why Do You Blog? Take the Survey!

Earlier this week someone asked me why I blog.  The question has really had me doing some thinking and I thought it might be fun to ask blog readers the same question.  If you have a few moments, please click here to take a quick survey.   I'm looking forward to compiling the responses and sharing them here on Jojo's Joys.  

'The Alternative Kitchen Garden'

I came across mention of this book some time ago, either via my internet or kitchen garden magazine reading and made a mental note to look out for it on my bookshop travels. As usual though the shelves of local book shops yielded only the works of television gardening personalities or those of famous horticulturalists. This is one of my favourite gripes as it often makes it impossible to have a peek inside books by authors outside the mainstream and to decide whether to buy. It makes me think how difficult it must be for new gardening authors to get their titles on the shelves of Waterstones and the like. By one of those quirky chances of fate, I read on the UK Veg Forum that Emma was offering bloggers the chance to review her book. I contacted Emma through her blog and was delighted to be offered a copy to review.

If you are looking for a serious comprehensive 'how to' tome this is not the book for you,although having said that there are still lots of useful growing hints, advice and information within its pages. There are though plenty of other titles which cover the whens and how tos of edible growing in greater depth. Emma's book comes across to me as a very personal cornucopia of thoughts and observations on an eclectic range of topics. She touches upon a number of subjects under each letter of the alphabet and writes engagingly on various crops, terms, living creatures, techniques, processes, organisations and places. The book is is made up of independent but linking bite sized snippets which you can read at your own leisure. There are two fundamental rules underlying' The Alternative Kitchen Garden' these being "be kind to the environment and have some fun in your garden", both of which resonate with me.

There is not only much useful information for the just starting out kitchen gardener but also food for thought for somebody like me who now has a few years of allotment growing behind them. I had often wondered what the bead like structures on the end of my French bean roots were when I pulled them out at the end of the season - well now I know why they appear and what their purpose in life is! I have come across new to me crops such as the jelly melon which I am tempted to grow in the future. At the back of the book there is an extensive directory of blogs, podcasts, recommended reading, suppliers, gardens and organisations some of which are unfamiliar and have been noted for further exploration.

 My only minor quibble was that there were a number of unfilled pages throughout the book, which could potentially have contained more of Emma's thoughts on certain subjects. What I especially liked about the book is that it is written by somebody who obviously enjoys growing and experimenting. All the observations are first hand and a sense of humour pops up throughout. On the subject of  hens Emma writes " If you really want to make your chickens jump for joy, then open a tin of (sugar and salt free) sweetcorn. It's not an everyday food (it goes straight to the thighs!)but it is the perfect chicken treat".

Emma has recently posted on her blog that she has a new book due to be published in June this year,entitled 'The Allotment Pocket Bible', which I am really looking forward to reading perhaps as I take a break for refreshments at the lottie this summer.

Death and Decay are part of the natural order of things.

Another Great Class at Viking Cooking School

It was a marathon class but so much fun!   The class is called The One-Day French Culinary Basics that includes the preparation of:

Savory Cheese Soufflé
Béchamel Sauce

Seafood Crêpes

Bouquet Garni

Beef Bourguignon

Classic French Bread

Plain Short Pastry

Tarte Tatin

Last weekend was particularly beautiful so it was especially hard to go through with an indoor activity but once the class got started there was no time to think about any place besides the kitchen. 

My cooking teammates were Emily and Steve, a dad and daughter who enjoy cooking together and they were so much fun to work with.  

Since taking the class, I've made french loaves once and my husband's made them twice!  Nothing beats a delicious crusty loaf of bread, fresh from the oven.  

 I loved preparing the beef bourguignon, seafood crepes (I love crepes!), 

 and the tarte tartin 

but my favorite was the cheese souffle.  

It was so beautiful to see the beautiful puffed souffles coming out of the oven.  

After a day of cooking,  we all sat down to enjoy a wonderful meal.  Of course I got home and my husband asked, "so, what's for dinner?"  

IF your name was Otto…AND you were a kid…

You could live here...cool light, eh?

Or conversely if your name was Marie Olsson Nylander and you lived in Sweden

You could live...here

Yes please.

In a house by the sea... you are renovating with your husband and 3 kids.

Today….you can call me Marie.

What?? A girl can dream…no?

Carry on.

See more here