A Better View 🌄

Fortune_Smiles

One down...

We had a miserable wet walk with FDawg in the meadow this morning.  The ground had just begun the process of drying out this week and is now as soggy as ever after this morning's rain.  We consoled ourselves by starting to identify the species we have.  We're not experts so there's a chance we'll get things wrong but, if we make a start, we can always correct things later.

So - first species identified is Meadow Foxtail.  It's a perenial tufted grass which gets its name from its long, cylindrical flower heads that look like fox tails.  It's one of the first grass species to flower, usually April to June, so early March is... well, a bit early.  Maybe that's a sign of the mild winter we've had.   It prefers moist, fertile soils so it might be a sign that our soil fertility needs to be reduced.  That should happen if we continue to cut and collect to remove clippings.  Meadow Foxtail is of great benefit to bees, insects and birds and a food source for the caterpillars of the Essex Skipper Butterfly  It's a common grass and doesn't mind shade so can be found along hedgerows and verges too.

Mr F is grumpy today.  He's fed up with the rain (aren't we all) but also did too much yesterday and has painful ribs again 🙄  Despite this, he's decided to move more things from the study to the Annexe 🙄  I am letting him get on with it.

I've no cooking to do today as we've soup and risotto leftover from yesterday.  I might get my sewing machine out and make a couple of rabbit toys for Fortunate Baby and my new nephew who is also on his way.  That will help me get back into the swing of things before continuing with the dress I started before Christmas.  There is more rugby on this afternoon so I'll go and do some low impact aerobics whilst Mr F is watching that.

Hope the sky doesn't rain on you too much today.

Fortune x

savingholmes

Rabbit crafts sound fun 

Fortune_Smiles

Foraging 🌿

Mr F and I went for another soggy walk around the meadow with FDawg yesterday morning 🌧  We found Common Sorrel this time.  It reminded me that many of our wild flowers are edible.  Sorrel leaves can be used in salads, pudding, soups and stews.  They have a sharp, lemony flavour.

I did an hour of low-impact aerobics but had to be a bit careful of my shoulder as it was sore after yoga at the weekend.

We had Cheesy Roast Cauliflower Pasta for lunch with a foraged salad inspired by our Sorrel find - Dandelion and Common Sorrel leaves from the meadow supplemented with Spinach and Red-veined Sorrel from the veg patch and Forsythia flowers from the garden.  Supper was Goat's Cheese, Pear & Walnut Tartines to use up a sulky pear.

Money was spent.  I signed up to a subscription for FDawg's joint supplements - one month free, two months at half price and all remaining orders at 30% off.  Also ordered wildflower seeds and Yellow Rattle seeds and plants.  Yellow Rattle is semi-parasitic, feeding off the roots of nearby grasses.  It helps to turn improved grassland back to meadow.  The seeds need a prolonged period of cold weather to germinate so it's too late to sow them now.  However, they only last a year and sell out quickly so I bought some to sow after the late summer mow.  The plants are much more expensive to buy but are our only option if we want to put some in this year.  The wildflower seeds are specifically for our soil type and we'll scatter them on any bare ground we see and cross our fingers that something survives in amongst all the course grass we currently have.

I went along to the WI meeting last night.  The speaker was good and I won the raffle - a huge box of biscuits 🍪🍪🍪  Not a bad return on my £1 😆  I popped into our local pub on the way there.  It has been closed for refurbishment but is re-opening this week.  The launch event is by invitation only so I dropped in to pick some up.  There'll be a free glass of prosecco and nibbles, entry into a competition to win dinner for 4 and live music.  Mr F is home so we're going to make it a date night ❤

Mr F is on a conference call all day today so my job is to keep quiet and serve refreshments at regular intervals  I have some paperwork to do and some dusting - that should be quiet enough 😆

Happy Tuesday peeps.

Fortune x

rtandon27

What a gorgeous salad!

For the last few years, I've been digging up young dandelions from our backyard, to consume as salad and dry to brew as tea.  So far this year I've not found a single one!  We do however have a large patch of tiny violets which I've heard are edible, but I'm not sure in what capacity other than candied.

Fortune_Smiles

rtandon27 said:

What a gorgeous salad!

For the last few years, I've been digging up young dandelions from our backyard, to consume as salad and dry to brew as tea.  So far this year I've not found a single one!  We do however have a large patch of tiny violets which I've heard are edible, but I'm not sure in what capacity other than candied.

We are not short of dandelions here RT 🙄  Violets - how lovely 🌺  You can use the flowers in salads or to flavour puddings, vinegars and syrups.  Lot of recipes on the interweb.

Fortune x

redofromstart

I've always wanted to try making candied violets with my creeping violet. Or to make violet creams.  

I've never been brave enough to try wild salads. The last week or so on our walks we have seen a lot of wild garlic starting so it should be a good year (in the soggy midlands at least)

Fortune_Smiles

redofromstart said:

I've always wanted to try making candied violets with my creeping violet. Or to make violet creams.  

I've never been brave enough to try wild salads. The last week or so on our walks we have seen a lot of wild garlic starting so it should be a good year (in the soggy midlands at least)

Some plants are really easy to identify, others easily confused.  I used to buy wildflower plants from a specialist nursery so I could become familiar with them and be confident identifying them in the wild before eating them.  Mr F and I have also been on a couple of foraging walks with an expert.

Wild garlic makes excellent cheese scones Redo - take a little collection bag with you on your next walk.  You won't need much, a litle goes a long way.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

A full day's work 😲

Mr F has worked a 9 hour day today 😲  He's not used to it anymore - he's exhausted 😆  It's all money in the bank though and he's only got two other full-ish days to do this month.

I contacted Boiler Man to agree some suggested changes he made when he popped round a few days ago.  His idea is to move the boiler round so it opens in a different direction.  This would free up lots of wall space which we could use for cabinets and a sink.  He needs to send us a new contract and information about some groundwork costs and then I can press go.

I also read through a revised contract from Window Man.  I had some questions about the previous contract and we've made some changes as a result.  I'll sign tomorrow and pay the deposit.

The Yellow Rattle and wildflowers seeds arrived today.  We'll start scattering the wildflower seeds around on our walks through the meadow and keep the Yellow Rattle for seeding later in the year.

I ordered some sunflower seeds for the birds as we're running low and some silicone cream/yoghurt pot covers.  We've been looking for a pot cover solution ever since tops started disappearing from the cartons in the shops and these particular ones seem to do the trick.

Lunch was Creamy Mushroom Soup.  I omitted the croutons and served it with some buttered spelt, lemon and poppyseed bread I'd made a week or so ago in the breadmaker and kept in the freezer.  Supper was Celeriac & Lentil Coconut Curry with brown basmati and wild rice.

On my meadow walk this morning I discovered the usual suspects - Common Nettle, Broadleaved Dock, Creeping Buttercup - all signs we have moist fertile ground which is not good for most wildflowers 🙄  There's also a lot of Cuckoo Pint along the bottom of the hedgerows.  It must like this wet weather.  All parts of the plant are toxic to humans but its berries are loved by woodland birds.  I noticed a lot of Yellow Dung Flies emerging from the grass.  Maybe they know better weather is coming 🤔  Wouldn't that be lovely 😂

Happy Tuesday folks.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Lovely to hear of your meadow foraging 😊 We are behind you at the minute! Not much going on out there yet, but I'll check again at the weekend. I did sow yellow rattle but not til about 2nd Jan - recommendations are December at the latest. We've had a couple of periods of cold, but possibly not enough to germinate. There was some in there anyway so I'm hoping that will have spread too. It does seem to pop up in random unexpected places for us, never the same place each year! 

I have amassed quite a collection of meadow related books over the years we've had ours. I'll dig them out at the weekend and take a picture and decide if I'd recommend any of them 😂 I've found the most useful thing for ID has been one of those wipe clean fold out guides 😂 We have one for flowers, one for grasses, and it's the thing I use most often for ID (although I confess I'm still not great - getting better though!)

I've not eaten much from ours, although we do have a LOT of sorrel (and bizarrely a good stash of raspberries in one corner 😂)

savingholmes

The salad looked lovely with the flowers. Well done on the foraging and learning about meadows. Sounds fun and interesting. How lovely on your WI win.