My obsession - at least one of them!

Stones from Bognor beach © Nicky Linzey 2007

It seems I'm obsessed with stones, but then I always have been. I can't resist them, so many catch my eye, their colour, their pattern, their texture. It's amazing that each beach I go to has it's own type of stone. The difference between these from Bognor and the ones I recently collected from Beesands is very noticeable, or maybe it's my choice of them. Does anyone ever go to the beach and not pick up a stone? I doubt it. I put them in my pocket and when I wear that coat months later, it's somehow comforting to put my hand in the pocket and feel the cold smooth pebble.

Home grown pleasure

A corner of my allotment

The last few meals we've eaten have been almost entirely produced by us, in that the ingredients have been grown from seed, planted, tended, weeded, watered, cropped and cooked. This gives me such pleasure as I eat - I remember the cold January day planting the onions, watering the courgettes, warding off the pigeons from my peas, pulling the carrots from the earth, uncovering the little white potatoes, the gorgeous smell of Gray's freshly baked bread straight from the oven, mmm...

A slice of life

I went out as usual this morning with My Jack Russell - it started to rain as we walked out of the door - lovely refreshing drops on my face - the trees were bursting with green. We walked through the cemetery and saw Jane and her mum talking to Shaun the gravedigger. She (7yrs old) doesn't stop talking and is very inquisitive - he's only too happy to answer her many questions about what he is doing! We saw the old man who tends his wife's grave every morning and then walks into town for an enormous fry up. We passed Sidney's grave and stopped to say hello. Cars halted to let children across the road, young people chatted to older people with concern about their health - even MJR who normally barks at anything that moves was calm.
I felt a fantastic sense of community today in an environment where sometimes it seems there is none.

Stoned

My Beesands stones in colourful mode.

Simple ideas?

I've just finished reading The Permaculture Way by Graham Bell and found it extremely interesting - although not easy to suddenly change your life to this way of living - I think any change for me will be gradual. I know that I would lose my allotment if I didn't keep it neat & tidy and free from weeds - although the idea of no weeding is very appealing - they seem to grow so quickly, if only my vegetables would do as well! One idea that has stuck in my mind though is why do parks authorities plant ornamental trees rather than fruit trees? Apparently they say people will take the fruit - isn't that the idea?

Hunter gatherer 2

We go for a walk or two every day - my Jack Russell demands it - at least that's what I say. It's nothing to do with how good I feel when I exercise in the fresh air. We were on one of my favourite walks along the coast the other day when I just happened to look down - there among the hundreds of crab skeletons was samphire growing profusely - it was so exciting. I wasn't one hundred percent sure that it was samphire as I hadn't come across it before, so we picked some, took it home, identified it, cooked it and ate it with lovely tender lamb. It has the texture and taste of asparagus but is slightly more crunchy and salty - delicious. Of course I had to go back and pick some more and some more ... in this very SECRET location!