TARRAGON & THYME

Do you know I gain the most satisfaction and peace by being out in nature, being productive and absorbing the natural energies around me.  It is when I re-charge and make peace with myself. I also gain the same satisfaction grounding my fingers in soil, nurturing plants and growing food.  Both activities are to me highly soothing.  I am a country girl living in a City by necessity rather than choice.  As the saying goes, you can take the girl out of the country, but you can never take the country out of the girl.  The dream for me is to retire to the quiet away from the unbearable and substantial noise of modern City living to the countryside and return to my grass roots and a simpler way of life.  One day!  This afternoon I have spent a lovely couple of hours Blackberrying again.  Getting stung and scratched to high heaven as I went for the big ones right at the top and at the back of a cage of brambles, some of them are absolutely massive. ...

 is going on here at the moment.  I have lost the last couple of days waiting on someone contacting me and that just has not happened and a letter of complaint has been lodged.  Will try and sort that out at the beginning of the week.  These things are sent to try us, however as a result of that it has stalled some other things that have been going on in the background.  I am very tired again - these days I do not seem to sleep as well as I used to - I think some of that is down to the dog and her midnight adventures.  That is part and parcel of owning an elderly animal bless her.  She is not too steady on her feet either which does not help.  They give so much love it is only fair to give them the love and reassurance that they need as they get frailer.  My view in any event.   I have in-between everything else therefore taken advantage of doing nothing by catching up and watching posts on blogs and You Tube.  I have also been...

Complete burn out and I have had to take a few days for myself.  It has been too hot for little old me and as a result my Mojo has gone on vacation.  Hope it is somewhere exotic but not too hot.  At the time I am writing this, we have had a windy day, and it is now raining.  Good solid rain the sort that will do the earth good. I think there has been the odd rumble of thunder as well.  Hopefully this will clear the humidity and heat up.  Never satisfied, I need to be in a temperate climate though as too hot does me in as does too much cold and yet I love the differing seasons and all they have to offer.  We are slowly slipping into Autumn Today has been a paperwork day.   Not by choice, but it needed doing and as I am trying to face things head on at the moment (when all I want to do is run), I am sticking with it and trying to get things moving.  The paperwork was for an appointment, but that has been put back until tomorrow, not by me ...

 Have stayed in the house most of the day.  I did have plans to get on a bit but it is unbearable.  At the moment and we are doing our best to keep the Dog and the Cat as cool as we can as well as ourselves. Missy has been bathed in warm water to help cool her down.  It always seems to soothe her when we are experiencing heat and cools her down. Tomorrow is meant to be quite a few degrees cooler at 26 rather than today's predicted 33!  Too darn hot in any event. Hopefully will be able to get some stuff done a little later on.  Thank goodness I watered up last night.  Will do the same again later. Washing was got out early although I still have more to do.  All nice and dry though naturally.  Washing up all done.  Will tidy the kitchen first thing tomorrow before going into the bedroom. Am not cooking tonight, G arranged a small takeaway.  Not that I am really hungry at the moment as we had quite a big breakfast in any event. ...

 It has been a do nothing day for me after the efforts of the last week.  Will be doing some more preserving during the week, but with it having been extremely warm again today I have chosen to just "chill" metaphorically speaking.  It has made a change.  It will be back to the grind tomorrow when I plan on tackling the Pantry and getting 23 jars squeezed in there somehow or another. However that will be a post for another day.  It will also be a strip out the kitchen day to get everything back where it needs to be and a good washing out before I start again.  If I get the chance I may well do some baking. On the other hand, it may be too hot in which case it could be a bedroom day concentrating on things inside the house whilst trying to keep cool.  I had already decided that I would be going back into the bedroom this week in any event.  More on that to follow at a later date. So a generally laid back day. I have watered up what few plants I do ...

The following may not appear to be a lot in some people's estimation, but I am just so grateful to add a few more precious jars to my Pantry stock.  These insignificant little jars which are full of time effort and love may not appear much at first glance, but they get you through difficult times.  They provide something extra to keep the belly full and the soul smiling in dark and grey times.  For that I am very grateful. Preserving helps you look differently at how you plan your food management.  I am looking at the moment for puddings, pies, breakfasts encompassing homemade cereal like Granola and Muesli and Porridge and also Breakfast Oats/Oat Pots.  In all honesty when I was bottling the Blackberries I was one jar short of my Kilner/Mason type jars so I  used a jam jar.  I use these in any event all the time but I do for the sake of appearance try and get a product in similar type jars for aesthetic purposes more than anything else. After the jar ...

Not the post I anticipated to file today, that one will now have to wait for tomorrow.  It is quite a long post, but cannot complete it as have had a slight hiatus in being able to complete one item due to outside interference! Tea yesterday (Thursday evening) was an absolute treat.  Langoustines - delicious and sweet.  Enjoyed what I had but could have eaten a few more.  Just served simply with bread and butter went down a treat.  They are pricey but oh what a treat 6 for £9.  Really could have eaten more - but as I say only had bread and butter with.  Real food served simply is for me one of life's true pleasures it does not need swags and bells to announce that it is something really fantastic. A lot of my week has involved preserving, however there is a separate post coming up on this shortly encompassing the preserving I have managed to achieve this week.  It is always satisfying for me to be able to pop up a few jars of this or that onto the...