On money, belonging and the world we hope to make “Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.” — Anna Lappé I first came across these words around 2010, and they have stayed with me through thick and thin, influencing countless decisions
I often have a song in my head and since yesterday it has been ‘Stormy Weather’ because of the incoming storm Boelo. The song brings back a very strong memory of the time I organised for Scotland’s street orchestra to play in the cafe area of Western Isles Hospital,
I’ve been writing about plants in my physic garden as well as the wider garden and grounds here but I’ve realised that each plant has its own set of requirements for each season. And each season is different. There’s so much to learn. At the moment, I’
This week, I received a message from a woman I know in America. It was a lovely, personal message, telling me how much she valued what I was doing. I was very touched by it. Afterwards, I found myself wondering what, exactly, I am doing. It’s a reasonable question,
I made hawthorn ketchup yesterday, which is not a sentence I ever expected to write. Hawthorn is one of those plants that is so familiar that it is easy to stop seeing it. It is a hedge, thorny, white blossomed in May and small, elongated red berries in autumn. It
While attending to the no dig veggy beds, Dave muttered something about ‘all these weeds!’ and I suddenly had a moment of curiosity about the masses of tiny white flowers with fern-like leaves. Two of the wonderful women from Gamrie Gardens were picking gooseberries with me one day late
While waiting to see what might pop up in my garden over the first year, I noticed a terracotta pot with a broken rim, tossed over the pot as though it had created its own game of hoop-la. There didn’t seem to be anything in the pot in
The word Sage originates from the Latin word salvus, meaning safety or healing. Maybe this was because it had a strong reputation as having healing properties? A grey-green, shrubby plant with furry leaves and a pungent, herbal smell, it enjoys well drained soil and sunshine and grows to approximately
Pheasant berry or Himalayan Honeysuckle is Leycesteria formosa, in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, and is native across the Himalayas into southwestern China. Some say it’s worth tasting the berries before cooking with them as each plant seems to vary a little in flavour and some plants produce quite bitter
Hello! Thank you for coming along, have a seat and a drink and enjoy some comforting chat from Aberdeenshire. The free shop is open at the weekends, Friday to Sunday and filled with the abundance of the garden. Our neighbours and passers-by have helped us to rescue gooseberries, kale,
I first grew borage at Brownhill Cottage as an experiment. I wanted to see how well it would grow in the Scottish climate and to explore how much of the plant could be useful. The spectacular blue flowers decorated dishes and found their way into floral salads, while I cooked
I didn’t intend to grow peas. I thought they might be quite challenging to grow in Aberdeenshire with its wild winds and unpredictable weather patterns. It seemed a shame to waste the peas I’d spent days tending as sprouting seeds, though, when I had to travel. I hurriedly