Apple and Radish

Homegrown and Handmade things that are as good for you as they are for Mother Earth.

A New Kind of Radical Extremist

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Greetings Precious One!

Last week’s attacks on Paris were shocking and tragic. As is the dire situation for our brothers and sisters in Syria. My heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones in the attacks. Also to all the refugees in the world who want basic things we take for granted every day. Like a safe place where their children will not be gunned down.

We made the conscious decision years ago to not watch the news. This was to protect our family’s peace and mental health. The news, as it is reported these days, should come with an MA rating. It is always negative. Always shocking. And usually not an accurate depiction of life on this planet.

News companies sell fear, loathing and outrage. Never joy, harmony or hope. Is it any wonder so many of us suffer from anxiety or depression. We probably all have some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after seeing what is happening in the world.

Even so, some things do find their way into our consciousness. The important and big things.

Over the years there have been those who are outraged by our choice of not tuning into the news regularly. They consider us irresponsible.

“How do you know what is going on in the world?

What they mean is, if you are not soaking up every morsel of negativity available, then you don’t really care or you have your head in the sand.

It’s not that we don’t care. We care deeply about our planet and the people on it. And I cannot watch the news (murders, violent gangs, rape, environmental degradation, ISIS, a whole country of people trying to find a safe place for their children to live, starvation, drought, suicide, disease) without wanting to lie down and weep my heart out for ever.

I feel like we’re expected to be informed and be happy. There is an oxymoron for you.

I want to be a powerful force for good in the world but I can’t do that when I am crippled by fear and toxic negativity. Therefore as a rule, I choose not to watch the news.

That does not mean I don’t care or don’t know about the suffering of others. In fact it is the opposite. Adding more fear or righteousness to the pot isn’t going to uplift others or solve any problems.

Only choosing love will.

A Course in Miracles says that we only ever have one choice to make. We can choose fear or we can choose love. In every moment.

Sometimes we forget that.

I do.

Sometimes I choose fear before I realise I had the choice.

Often it’s really hard to choose love. That’s because we think we are supposed to look at something or someone truly horrifying, violent or depressing and be all saintlike and loving.

No that is not it. Some things are truly horrifying, violent, ugly and depressing like the Syrian civil war. You don’t have to love those things or those perpetrators. But don’t wage war or hatred against them either.

What you can do is find the aspects of people or situations that are uplifting, hopeful, beautiful, and honourable, touching, strengthening, loving, helpful, or inspiring and LOVE those things. Even when there is not that many of them. Even when they are buried in painful, tragic and heart wrenching circumstances.

Find something good and noble to love and appreciate.

When bad stuff is happening in the world (like now), we each have an opportunity to rise up and create the world we would like to live in.

Instead of going down the rabbit hole of fear, pain and hatred, look for the best in people and in the world. And if you can’t find it, be it! And if you can’t be it – imagine it!

This is the only way forward. We’ve tried everything else. And those things don’t seem to be working out so good.

It’s time to be a new kind of radical extremist. A Love Extremist.

Meet people where they are, Do what you can, with what you have, with where you are. The time for hatred is over.

Seek out stories of people helping each other. Like this. And This.  This always happens in times of struggle. The human race is basically very nice and good. We all want to live happily ever after. (Even the ones doing hurtful things are doing it because they think, then, they will live happily ever after in their own weird way.)

Take action that empowers and uplifts you. Donate, give your time, write letters, plant trees, hug someone.

Love each other. Stop the spread of hate and fear with you. From this minute. Don’t go on about terrorists or the neighbours. Be extra kind to your kids and shop keepers. Love your husband fiercely. Smile warmly at strangers and give way in traffic.  Make something beautiful and leave it on someone’s doorstep.

Hold the vision of a peaceful, creative, co-operative, healthy and fun world where people are kind, celebrate differences and nurture the planet. Act like you are already living in it. Because it is coming.

YOU ARE SIMPLY THE

You are a powerful love generator. Never forget that. The Rebel Army of Love is conscripting and you have been officially called up for service. Tick tock!

Let’s roll up our sleeves and do the next right thing to make this world a better place.

 

 

 

Rainbow Chicken Salad

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This chicken salad recipe is scrumptious and comforting yet you can feel virtuous knowing you are eating something utterly healthy as well. I love salads that are complete meals in themselves with a good serving of protein. This is one of those.

The vegetable garden is brimming with food so I’m always looking for new ways to use it up. I am so pleased to say that we are now 100% self sufficient in vegetables, berries, citrus and eggs. We buy meat and dairy products. We did think about milking the cow again but…..nahhh…we do enough already. We did it once and it was fun for a while. But it’s a big commitment. I like to have the freedom to go away on adventures or even sleep in occasionally. Completely decadent I know, but you cannot do that when you have a dairy cow with a full udder waiting for you.

Becoming completely self sufficient as one family is a tall order. And really quite a difficult and lonely task. I prefer to support other farms and businesses and so we buy milk as locally as possible – from a dairy farm on the next mountain over – and focus on growing our own luscious organic produce. Because that’s what we love to do.

That way everyone is happy – and isn’t that what we are all trying so hard to be?

 

This would also make a yummy sandwhich filling. We haven’t had a chance to try it on sandwiches because Ian and I scoffed the lot for lunch today. Maybe I’ll make some more tomorrow.

 

How To Make Perfect Compost

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Hello Beautiful!

As the weather warms up there is more and more to do in the garden. The warm summer like days combined with the regular thunder storms and rain means the grass is growing at an alarming rate. I swear I can sit with a cup of tea and watch it grow. And this is a good thing because when that grass is mowed I take the clippings and combine them with dried leaves and other stuff to make gorgeous rich and organic compost.

One of my favourite garden jobs is to make compost. I can’t really say why I find it so satisfying. Turning garden waste into a valuable garden resource that nourishes and improves the soil feels deeply good and virtuous somehow.

The difference in the health and vigour of my plants after adding compost is astounding. It is the most helpful resource for your garden. It is also great for the environment because it uses up waste products that might otherwise end up in land fill or garbage dumps. It also sequesters carbon from the atmosphere – thereby helping to reduce greenhouse gases.

I have several compost ‘bins’ because we make and use a lot of compost. One is in the corner of the chicken house. I have simply used an old piece of scrap corrugated iron wedged into the corner with bricks. We pile all the compost ingredients behind it. It is convenient because I can rake up the chicken manure and the scraps the chickens don’t eat as well as straw and grass clippings.

When the compost is ready, I take away the iron and easily shovel out the compost into a wheel barrow to take to the garden.

The other bin is in the corner of the vegetable garden. It is also a simple square of corrugated iron open on one side for easy access.

You can use a plastic bins with lids, tumbling composters or just make a pile on the ground with no walls at all. It all depends on how much space you have and how tidy you like your garden to be! Personally, I quite like the rambling, slightly overgrown yet highly productive garden look. If you can, it’s great to have two or even three compost bins. One that is your working bin (meaning you are adding to it currently), one that is full and in the process of composting down and one that is fully composted and ready to use.

To make compost (without it becoming a smelly mess) you need the right balance of ingredients.

There are really only two kinds of ingredients:

Brown (carbon containing, dry. Example – dry leaves, dry grass clippings, hay, straw, sawdust etc.)

Green (nitrogen containing, wet.) Example – fresh grass clippings, fresh manure, green leaves, food scraps, weeds, fresh garden waste.

The ratio of green to brown is very important because it causes a chemical reaction and heat which helps to kill weed seeds, diseases and insects and breaks the compost pile down quickly.

Too much green and the pile will become smelly and slimy. Too much brown and the pile will be too cold and slow to break down.

The ratio is 2:1 (green to brown) by volume. For example:

  • 2 spadefuls of grass clippings to one spadeful of shredded dry leaves or straw.
  • Or two spadefuls of food scraps to one spadeful of dry grass clippings.

Autumn is a great time to make compost because there are usually a lot of dry leaves around. Spring and summer are also excellent composting times because the grass and weeds are growing and can be utilised in the compost.

So get out there and create some garden love – AKA compost!

 

A Do-Nothing Day?

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Hello Beautiful!

 

I did something radical the other day.

 

It was quite huge for me. Something I have not done in a long, long time. It was scary at first. I didn’t want to do it, but I faced my fear and did it anyway. I am so glad I did because I felt amazing afterwards.

 

I’m sure you are busting to know what this life changing thing is….

 

 

Are you ready?…..

 

 

I did………..

 

 

 

Nothing!

 

 

That’s right. I did absolutely nothing for a whole day. When I say nothing, I mean nothing productive. I didn’t try to ‘get things done’.

 

I rested. I slept. I read. I wandered about in the garden with a glass of kombucha just looking at the flowers and bees and butterflies…

 

I’ll admit. It was hard at first. My inner critic gave me a real hard time.

 

‘There is so much to do”

“You’re not getting anything done”

‘What about those weeds? What about the washing? What about your next blog post? What about those emails?’

 

With four children, an online business, a big organic garden and a busy household, I am not accustomed to being intentionally unproductive.

 

I was freaking out…….to start with…..and then I got into the flow surprisingly quickly.

 

I know it sounds fun but it didn’t start out that way.  It started because, from the beginning of the day, I was so so tired. Bone tired. I felt like I was moving through cement. Maybe I’d had a few too many late nights. Perhaps my eating was a out of whack. I probably hadn’t been doing enough exercise. I was definitely pre-menstrual.

 

Usually I’ll push through. Do what I think I have to do anyway. Maybe have some coffee. Keep going. And most times I do feel better in a little while. Usually I get my mojo back after an hour (or a day) or two.

 

But this day was different. A radical new thought popped into my head ‘What if I didn’t fight this fatigue?”

 

‘What if I listened to my body and let myself rest?”

 

“What if I just let it be OK that I am weary, instead of trying to push it away?’

 

and then the doozy…. ‘What if I did nothing today??” 

 

What if I gave myself permission to do nice, relaxing things just because I felt like it? Would the world come to a grinding halt? Would my house be surrounded by black helicopters and uniformed soldiers demanding me to come out with my hands up?

 

Probably not.

 

I am both relieved and slightly miffed that the world carried on just fine without me for 24 hours.

 

Hmmph. Is it possible that I am not as essential to keeping the Earth spinning on its axis as I presumed? Could it be that my stress and tension is not adding anything useful to humanity? This is crazy talk I know…it’s like finding out the world is not flat for the first time….but hear me out…..I may be on to something.

 

I discovered that, not only did the world carry on just fine without me being busy, busy that day, but also, I was completely rejuvenated, refreshed and more productive the following days. Weird, hey? Who would have thought?

 

My groundbreaking theory is this: A day of rest improves your physical and mental health and leads to increased happiness and productivity.  

Portrait of beautiful young woman enjoying summer in a field.

I am now so convinced of the validity of this theory that Ian and I are scheduling in regular Do-Nothing days. This is the list of permissable activities on our Do-Nothing Days:

 

  • Sleeping.
  • Cloud watching.
  • Butterfly spotting.
  • Lying in the hammock.
  • Reading for pleasure.
  • Playing with the kids in the treehouse.
  • Eating pre-prepared yummy treats. (minimal cooking or washing up)
  • Nature walks.
  • Sleeping.
  • Relaxing crafts such as knitting, crochet, paper mache, drawing, painting.
  • Movie watching.
  • Card games.
  • Board games.
  • Star gazing.
  • Tea drinking.
  • Swimming.
  • Chocolate eating.
  • Picking flowers.
  • Sleeping.
  • Conversation.
  • Fruit salad eating.
  • Journal writing.
  • Story telling.
  • Green smoothie mocktail drinking.
  • Reading out loud.
  • Listening to music
  • Playing music.
  • Sleeping.
  • Love making.

 

Not necessarily all of them and not necessarily in that order.

 

The only agenda is pleasure. All day.

 

Do what makes your heart sing for an entire day (or at least half a day). Once a week (recommended), once a fortnight or once a month.

 

Even if your family or husband can’t or won’t join you, you can still do this on your own. Choose a day and block out your schedule like it’s a super important and hard-to-get appointment. Schedule yourself a pleasure filled Do-Nothing Day.

 

Stay in your room if you must. It is not illegal. Spend 15 minutes straightening and making it lovely just for your own enjoyment and comfort. Play your favorite music, prepare a pot of your favourite tea and some delicious snacks, snuggle up with a good book or whatever takes your fancy. And Do Nothing.

 

You don’t just deserve it – it is essential to your wellbeing. Fill up your own cup and you will achieve much more on the other Do-Lots-Of-Stuff Days.