Slow Living Month 5 - May

Winter has set in with the cold temperatures and wild storms. I am always in two minds about the rain…I love it for my garden, our rivers and streams but it is inconvenient unless bundled up inside next to a warm fire. But all seasons have the good and bad things. Another good thing about winter is warm comfort food – pies, soups, stews. Nom. 

Here is the summary of our month via Christine at Slow Living Essentials

Nourish

Superb roast pork shoulder - made 5 meals!

I wrote about our current eating style here. Enjoying pasture reared chicken, lamb and pork roasts and then having two or three meals made from the leftovers is a real winner for me.

We are enjoying “spring” onions and broccoli from the garden and we have loads of lettuce still that no one really wants to eat when its cold, but we do. We also have herbs – thyme, rosemary, basil (coming to an end), parsley and coriander – to use to flavor our meals. 

Prepare

Nothing to prepare at the moment, but we are enjoying the pickles and jams we prepared in summer. I have just harvested the last of the green tomatoes and plan to make a green tomato relish very soon.

Reduce

A long overdue job was tackled by my husband and a friend, which pleased me no end. They sorted out our backyard workshop area. There was piles of wooden stakes, gardening equipment, machinery and more cluttering up this area. Desmond who was working with Superman rigged up a wood holder from existing wood that we had. Now the wood that we use for all sorts of things found a permanent holding place until we are ready to use it.

Green

We very soon needed the wood as Sam who works in my garden on Fridays saw that the edging around our fig tree and around our pond had rotted. He used some of the wood we had to make a lovely new edging.

Grow

We sowed the following seeds in newspaper pots: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, onions and spinach. Unfortunately some snails or slugs got to most of them before I could plant them and I have 1/3 left. We will have to try again.

Potatoes were planted out and broad beans and peas sown into beds. Last year I planted three beds of broad beans and my children were not happy campers when they appeared on their plates night after night, so this time it’s just one bed now and another later in winter. I will do another bed of peas and potatoes then too once we have eaten our way through what is waiting for harvesting.

Create

I always feel a bit down in this space. I used to love to knit back in 2009 but honestly it does not rank highly, neither does sewing or anything artsy. I do have an appointment with a scrapbook as each year that one of my children turn 13 I give them a Creative Memories scrapbook covering their 13 years when we do their blessing. So this has to start happening NOW as I have less than a year to complete it.

I love looking at how my children have grown and matured and remember with deep weepy fondness those baby years.

Discover

Can’t believe I am writing “nothing” here as I am sure I must have discovered something….mmmh!

Enhance

Buster - sunning it up on his window seat

Our ongoing project is working with Marie who lives with the Franskraal Ferals and this month we were doubly blessed to be able to pay for 100kg of dry food via donations and we received a donation of 2.6 tonnes of canned pilchards for them. Yes, you did read TONNES! It is so wonderful to be on the receiving end of this as I have always been one to give to worthwhile charities and help the poor in their need. It's great to see others care as much.

Enjoy ~ 10 things that I have enjoyed in no particular order:

~Connecting with long “lost” friends on Facebook

~Seeing my children’s business take on a new market & growth

~Kitty cuddles

~My son’s growing cooking skills

~Buster, the rescued feral, becoming more of a house cat

~Hot brownies from the oven

~Walks with friends in the forest and rekindling friendships

~Warm cuddly chats with my children

~Sunday swimming at the gym with my Superman and the odd brunch out thereafter.

~Booking my plane ticket to the UK for my two daughters and I to visit my beloved Sister. So happy!

 How was your month?