Back in the swim

First of all let me apologise for not blogging since last year. I used to swim regularly and could transfer independently. Then lockdown happened. The pool closed and 6 weeks later I was in hospital, unable to move with severe back pain. They got me back on my feet with physio and painkillers but I … Continue reading →

Flowers in the fields

On Thursday July 1 the BBC’s radio 4 programme, Inside Science, had a piece on it which caught my attention. It was about some research that the University of Florida were doing on growing water melons. They managed to decrease their use of insecticides by sowing strips of clover and other wild flowers between the … Continue reading →

The Good Food Revolution 4) Rebecca Hosking and regenerative farming

Rebecca runs a Devonshire farm with her dad. See her website for more details and lovely pictures https://www.rebeccahosking.co.uk/wolf-tree-farm/ HPG, or holistic planned grazing, began in South Africa by farmer Ian Mitchell Innes. He believes that the more you align and work with nature, the less you have to work and the less money you have … Continue reading →

The Good Food Revolution 3) Stephen Ritz’s Green Bronx Machine

Stephen Ritz is an extraordinary educator. He teaches children in the Bronx, a deprived area of New York City. He began his project around 2000. It puts growing, eating and selling vegetables at the heart of the curriculum. School attendance has been raised from 40 to 93% due to the kids’ increased motivation. He’s made … Continue reading →

My Christmas Books

Christmas is coming and in these troubled times of travel restrictions you might be tempted to give a gift to a loved one where they can travel to far flung places in their minds. My most recent book, Stranger than Fiction, True Stories from around the World , does just that. It’ll take you on … Continue reading →

Sunflowers

I’ve just had another stay in hospital with acute back pain. Home now and have finally got round to posting this picture of our tallest sunflower. My daughter planted many different varieties but this is the highest, at least 2.5 metres, with our cat, Alex, and my grandson’s dinosaur to give an idea of the … Continue reading →

The Good Food Revolution. 2) Bakeries, the Chorleywood Bread Process and the Real Bread Campaign.

Following on from my last blog about The Food Programme, one of the first and most controversial things that the U.K’s government of 2022 brought in was to ban the Chorleywood Bread Process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process This process produces unhealthy bread with artificial additives which aren’t even on the label. See this link for more information: https://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/pappy_birthday/ … Continue reading →

The Good Food Revolution. 1) Sitopia by Carolyn Steel

I recently listened to The Food Programme on BBC radio 4. It blew my mind! A lot of its content I was already aware of, especially through all my time as a WWOOFer, (WWOOF= worldwide workers on organic farms) but the way it was presented immediately caught my attention. It began by saying that the … Continue reading →

Garden produce

This has been a wonderfully productive year in the garden, what with our unseasonably warm spring, followed by a lot of summer rain. In the picture you can see a trug of plums and a cucumber, one of potatoes and carrots and one with deliciously sweet cherry tomatoes, French beans, courgettes, leaf beet, blackberries and … Continue reading →

Japanese Maple

The Japanese Maple, or Acer palmatum, was one of my mum’s favourite plants. There’s a full description in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_palmatum. In our garden there are 3 different varieties and I remember Mum whenever I look at them. They’re a fine sight in the evening sunshine as you can see in the picture. My daughter’s growing cucumbers and … Continue reading →