WINTER ACTIVITIES, PLEASURES AND PERSONAL GROWTH

| gaiainaction

Hard to believe that we are already getting close to the middle of February. Winter is giving way slowly to early spring, though today you would not think so. We are experiencing a bitterly cold wind from the East and lower temperatures than is normal for this part of the country, which usually has mild winters.

This beautiful landscape, colours natural and not edited. Taken on a very recent walk close by.

But while the cold spell lasts there is plenty of planning and creativity going on inside. I made a true to scale plan of the garden so as to have a good oversight of it (and for the fun of it too). And I tested the soil on all of the 12 raised beds and found that they are poor, some beds depleted even in Phosphorus, and Nitrogen, but did a little better on Potash. So now I know what to add and where. I’m also cutting out snippets from gardening magazines that apply to our garden in particular. I do have some good gardening books but I find this somehow more personalised as I only keep what applies to my experience here.

  • Scaled plan our garden
  • Cut outs for my map
  • I use standardised tests bought in shop
  • Test information
Primroses are all the go here in the shops and we are all buying them as they herald spring and hope.
And so this year I am getting on well with clearing our garden sheds and I am finding quite a bit of wildlife while doing so. This most perfect example of Peacock butterfly I accidently disturbed but I am happy to say that it went to sleep again a bit further into the shed, I guess that it realised it was too early to go flying about. ~ Be warned about the next photo as there is a spider in it!
So these are some other friends in the garden shed, a small tortoiseshell  (Aglais urticae) also overwintering and being paid a visit by our residental Steatoda Grosso (cuboard spider). This is a slow enough moving spider and quite beautiful really. I don’t mind him and I know that I will come across him again and a few more of his family as I’ve seen them. I would not like to be bitten though, they are know not to be aggressive and I have noticed that. I obviously wear a good pair of gardening gloves while clearing the shed! I’ve also come across large house spiders (Parasteatoda tepidariorum) but they are harmless.

Here in the small market town of Skibbereen a spice and exotic vegetable shop has opened and it did not take me long to go and check out the vegetables with which I learnt to cook in both S.India and in Mauritius. The delicious meals made thereof and the pleasure of the memories got me to buy quite a selection and for a whole week those dishes were on the menu. Among them okra and bitter gourd would have been most know to me, also the chayote squash. Some of the vegetables did not make it into the cooking pan as I want to root them and I was lucky enough to see a shoot coming out of both the taro root and the chayote squash, this is an experiment. Once before I grew a large plant from a taro root but it died when I went travelling.

A selection of my first purchase

  • Taro shoot – hoping it will send out roots too
  • Chayote squash sprouting
Some of the dinners I enjoyed I improvised and did not stick to traditional Indian or Mauritian cooking, but did I use spices!

And then there is the garden! Well we have had so much rain now for many weeks that the garden is saturated and I am hoping that this present wind will dry the things out a bit. The garden looks forlorn at the moment and I am not doing much in it until the weather turns. I have lots of spring bulbs coming on though and they are a pleasure to see. (in my home-made small greenhouses to protect from heavy rains). There are still quite some vegetables ready for use, the cut and come back Kale and the leeks among them.

  • A very light dusting of snow last week
  • Leeks and young Mullein plants
  • More leeks and wild three-cornered-leeks
  • Kale
Our daffodils stay in the soil all year round, they are doubles.
  • Wild strawberry plants
  • One of my grandchildren showing me the strawberry flower

And to finish off a picture of how cosy it is inside while out there the icy wind rages, throwing lashes of hail and sleet against the window panes. The wood burner keeps us nice and warm.

I’m finding that although we are quite isolated here and especially so with the current lockdown, I am making very many interesting contacts online, being invited to interesting social media groups on culture and art and on growing in calmness, quietness and reflection. Some of these groups are in my mother tongue (Flemish) and I enjoy that very much. Making new friends and maintaining existing connections with old friends. I was also invited to become part of a meditation group. It all goes to make this lockdown time quite interesting and a place of growth for me.

I hope that all your activities and experiences are keeping you inspired too.

Much love to all.

21 thoughts on “WINTER ACTIVITIES, PLEASURES AND PERSONAL GROWTH”

    1. Yes quite beautiful Jean, sometimes a little isolated but we do have a good art centre and library, we have book clubs and literary evenings, even a good theatre group.

      Like

      Reply

  2. You’ve been quite busy, Agnes! Better that way, right?
    Your cooked dishes look delicious and I hope your plant starts are successful. All you need now is a few warm, sunny days to dry out your garden beds. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. This is a most uplifting post, Agnes. It seems that you are finding inspiration in a number of places. While we are living in a strange time, it is nice to step out of the fast world and into a quieter time where we can experience and appreciate different things.

    I like okra but have not heard of all the vegetables you found at the new store. How exciting that you have this new place to buy favourites from your time in India and Mauritius.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. What a lovely post! I hope to have such a nice garden one day, for now I will make myself a plan plantind Dahlia in pots to have a burst of colour in september….
    I love to read al about your creative moods and explorations!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hi Vanessa, thank you and I am sure that when you do have a garden then is will be very beautiful! Dahlia’s in containers are a great idea and they will give you plenty of colour and pleasure.
      Yes creative moods come and go, it’s fun and it’s so important isn’t it.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s