christmas :: in the garden

arrived...

ohhhh! The cake! It has purple icing! It's sugar free, dairy free and nut free - whoo-hoo! And Raw. And choc full of superfoods. Yum. My dh risked life and limb to go and pick it up. Well kinda. Snow, slidy roads are no bother to my dh... delivery man rang to say he was turning back to the depot about four miles from us and my face fell a bit and my dh said 'no bother' (his standard Scottish response) and off he went. Only when he'd gone I thought OMG, don't die on the roads collecting a frickin cake. It might be a good cake but probably not worth dying for. He was back in minutes though and the cake certainly looks lovely. What a hero.



He and the boys are off on a secret shopping mission right now which I think might involve a game of Mancala and some coconut water.



Snow arrived yesterday too. The hens with their tiny brains couldn't remember it from last year and were skittish but soon got the hang of pecking through snow. The Beauty's little baby brain couldn't remember the snow either which was pretty wonderful, she and I have just about the same amounts of enthusiasm for such things - crackers, chocolate, snow, birds.... just as it should be :)



Felix's snowman - 'Tommy'



Christmas Eve Crackers (with a dusting of snow)




Soak flax seeds in bowl of water overnight so it all becomes a gloopy expanded blob of flax-water. And in a good sprinkle of gojiberries and mix. Pour onto lined sheets and dehydrate (for me this took about 16 hours). Mix coconut butter/oil with some agave and raw cacao powder, chlorella and mesquite. Stir until thick and spread on the dried crackers. Sprinkle a dusting of grated raw cacao butter and bee pollen on top and you're ready to tuck in...

sometimes

the world is just so beautiful.....

solstice tart

I made these sparkly sunshine tarts for the solstice. They are so so yummy. A generous slice was just now my breakfast (but probably was more nutritious than a regular breakfast so that's ok :) )

Hemp seeds (200g), goji berries (100g), a bit of goji soak water (30 ml), lucuma powder (100g), flax seeds (100g), pink salt (pinch), Brazilian ginseng (generous pinch), yacon syrup (drizzle and taste) all whizzed up to a spreadable soft mush. Spread in two hand sized rounds on a lined baking sheet and left in the bottom AGA with the door ajar all night until dry but still moist (I just don't have a dehydrator). Then I made the the chocolate gloop..... virgin coconut oil/butter melted with some agave and raw cacao powder, smooth and creamy and thickens as you stir. I added a dainty sprinkle of chlorella powder too for added richness and algae-goodness. Spread on top of each tart nice and thickly, drool a bit and then sprinkle on the bright sunny rays of summer and the reminder of warmth - bee pollen!

Good breakfast or what? Esmé thought so.... And (hyper drum roll) guess what? Cake person that I am, I am ecstatic with excitement because I have ordered a raw Quantum chocolate cake, this one from rawliving for my birthday. How fantastic does it sound? I don't think I have ever ever even bought a cake before.... far far too decadent. This feels very strange and exciting. I'll post here about how it tastes, my sister and I have wanted to try one for ages (we have similar diets and tastes and have both been oggling these on the website for a while). Also for my 30th Birthday I will be having the 25-hydroxy-d blood test. Yeah I am super weird, I will be very very interested to see what my blood vitamin D levels are as it's such a HUGE thing and I'll finally know how much to supplement with (or if I need too) I suspect I will, as it's thought auto immune issues often arise from a lack of the sunshine vitamin (or at least can be exacerbated by low levels and often susceptible individuals have poor receptor sites and so need more).

So, two fine treats indeed!

Happy Solstice from me and the bathing Beauty!

a christmas branch

I snipped a hazel branch and hung up our ceramic shapes from a long ago pottery class. Our Winter nature shelf/windowsill has been a jumble of Autumn leftovers and I cleared it today finally. In a burst of energy I also washed the window, ahem, it made me wonder how long ago the last time was.... or if I should do the others anytime soon... refreshing a window like this, especially one we see every meal time feels so good and clean and vibrant. Plus I do like remembering that silly pottery class where my dh and I had such high hopes of throwing our own pots, mugs, plates jugs and ended up cutting little shapes, in the style of true beginners (no waltzing in and out with new kitchen ware for us). Instead we have these tiny fired and glazed decorations. Carefully wrapped in a ribbon tied box from last year - they're too heavy to actually hang on our Christmas tree.





In the evening it still looks pretty:



I have been taking suma/Brazilian ginseng in my daily raw chocolates and feel so zingy. I wonder if the raw chocolates make me a bit hyper sometimes? I feel so filled with energy after eating them. I guess that's the whole point of good food though right? You eat and the food gives you energy! I am too used to that tiredness from dragging digestion..... which is gone now. I am down to only a bit of fish a few times a week, no other animal sources and I thought I'd feel hungry but no way, I seriously don't, just eating more of other stuff. Still having my green vegetable juices each day, maybe a pint or so if the littlies don't steal it all - they like it too. Two weeks now and I think my skin looks plumper and less dry, I feel pretty good on them. No grains still, but lots of dehydrated flax seed/onion crackers. Oh! And I made a guacamole type of spread/dip. In fact avocado's seem to feature highly in my diet, one a day at least. I love them best sliced and sprinkled with salt and pepper. But this is good too: blended with minced garlic, a bunch of parsley, salt pepper and lemon juice. Sometimes I don't bother with the parsley, only when the veg lady brings some do I get it. Another food I am so loving is Hempini. My very treasured jar gets a little licking and dipping each day... so delicious! Honestly worth every penny. If you want a food treat this is fab, it's sort of sticky and creamy and so so rich and delicious.



Reading some new books (ok they're for Christmas but my dh hasn't seen them yet so I'm having a quick sneaky peak then I'll hand them over to go under the tree) Raw Magic, Waking the Warrior Goddess (which has some wonderful preventative nutritional and healing info for all women) Spontaneous Healing, a very good read also, by the famous Dr Weil who is very positive about those on a empowering healing path towards better health and has some great inspirational stories. I find the nutritional info not as informative, like how he neglects to mention the powerful nutritional qualities of virgin coconut oil in his fats section..... and also a thyroid book my friend co-wrote. I don't think I have thyroid issues but this book is just full of good info for those supporting themselves on a healing path through auto immune issues. Big thumbs up from me, seven months ago when I had that auto immune flare up it was articles from this guy that had me cutting out grains sugar and following an anti inflammatory diet. It lead me to lots more reading. This book just came out so I am interested to see how it compares to the articles of his I already read.

In the house the basket of train track that has not seen the light of day for months and months has been played with ALL DAY by all three of the children in this house. I love it when that happens :)

princess and pea

I made this for my nieces' birthday, she will be five the day after I turn 30 (OMG) between Christmas and New Year. Her Mama mentioned she liked this book and so off I went. I looked at the Haba one (man it's pricey) and decided to make a bendy dolly with clothes and various bits of bedding, a green needle felted pea (yeah, it's bigger than the princess's head, I guess she'll be feeling it under her duvet) a princess hat and of course an old beloved copy of the Ladybird book from my vast collection (cough, cough), I can spare it....



Esmé thought it was for her. And modelled it in it's special bag (like the fabric?!) for a long time.





This means I am now free to get on with my knitting. I love getting things finished, this princess and pea set has been hanging over my head for the longest time, and making me feel heavy with it's virtual, non existent (that was the problem) weight. So it's done and now I can hope to finish Esmé cardigan before Christmas. I feel so much lighter, phew. It's wonderful to finish something. Crazy since no one expected or asked me to make it, it was all a big constraint of my own making - it was all in my head, but oh so real. Weird and interesting that I do that.



I saw a huge splodge of jam (blood?) on the kitchen floor this morning and set about scrubbing it off (task and a half since the heat from the AGA had dried it on). Problem was it looked like I had only washed one little spot, it really did and the rest of the tiles gleamed dully and mournfully at me, begging also to be cleaned, I obliged, and as doing so noticed for the millionth time (it felt) that my dh had trodden chicken shit in yet again. I ask many times for him to easily use the other door sparing me the shit on the floor (the chickens have a yuck habit of hanging around by the kitchen door in hope of scraps) and yet I must just sound like a nagging drone because he obviously doesn't hear me (or ever wash the floor). And so my thoughts turn to divorce (in that crazy way they do when one is on their hands and knees cleaning up someone else's shit). But then I wonder, who will chop wood? How will I afford supplements (or even food come to that), or even where will I live? These superficial thoughts turn me back to the present moment and suddenly I don't mind scrubbing what is really only a tiny bit of chicken shit, from the floor. In fact look! A whole clean floor, and Esmé didn't wreck the house whilst I was busy (true blue bonus)! The world is a sunnier place.

And I am very ridiculous because I actually do love this man who I share my life with. Without the wood chopping or supplements, living in a damp cave he'd make me happy. So what's a bit of chicken shit between friends?



Totally irrelevant, the boys looked like what non home educators think we look like all of the time, so I took a picture, just to prove.....? Er, we occasionally do? I dunno, it was unusual in any case.





Today Esmé liked her baskets, crayons and looking at the chickens.