Month: November 2012

Garlic

(this post off the growing together newhaven blog)


Inspired by planting bulbs on the first day of the winter wonderland course
I thought I’d try a few at home, of course your supposed to raise bulbs from those supplied by seed centres as they’d be free from diseases
but i had a few organic ones left over from the supermarket which were beginning to sprout, so ever the optimist thought I’d just plant them and see what happens
Theres no proper beds in my small back garden, so i thought i’d try them in containers
I went for using old strawberry punnets from the summer, it rather irks me that they nearly always end up as landfill
the main drawback with this being that there might be insufficent soil for them to grow to their full size, but best just to try and see
this size container worked ok for my lettuce seeds over the summer

ok rather a dull picture, but i’ll update it if anything happens to sprout!

planting garlic bulbs
garlic is grown from bulbs, break the bulbs up into individual cloves
plant the right way up! the leaves sprout from the top

Plant in mid to late autumn
Planting distance: 7.5 – 10 cm (3-4 in)
Planting depth: 5 cm (2in)
Distance between rows: 30 cm (12 in)
Harvesting: Mid – late summer

Garlic (Allium sativum) has been used for thousands of years for medicinal purposes. Sanskrit records show its medicinal use about 5,000 years ago, and it has been used for at least 3,000 years in Chinese medicine. The Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans used garlic for healing purposes. In 1858, Pasteur noted garlic’s antibacterial activity.
Currently, garlic is used for reducing cholesterol levels and cardiovascular risk, as well as for its antineoplastic and antimicrobial properties. good for cleaning the blood!

Garlic was placed by the ancient Greeks on the piles of stones at cross-roads, as a supper for Hecate — a goddess of the wilderness and childbirth, or for protection from demons. The garlic was supposed to confuse the evil spirits and cause them to lose their way.


and vampires!

Plus the rather obvious point that its delicious and is hard to imagine cooking a meal without lobbing in at least a few cloves

november

my nose is cold (healthy if i were a dog!). my socks are DAMP. love is only for others… a waltz to the co op.. thought as a tight knit barricade against the world, brushing aside the rude intimacy of sensation. early morning gloam, this the late november dish water bilge light…. and verily death stalks the trees, leaves that once were all a silken shimmy, those that remain, tattered, brown, with a dry death rasp, husk of a rattle, aagggh… lies of course, the leaves are soggy and look like their made of polyester. mulch of thoughts. mulch. thought. mulch. march along the concrete. ah but song! outward looking, open, embracing, the loose woven billow of a tune. croak along ‘my old man said follow the van and don’t dilly dally on the wa-a-ay’

pomegranate

pomegranate! very much the order of the day, especially as it seems to have taken me the entire afternoon to guzzle one
its the fiddly custard pith (taking the)… in fact i cannae decide if i loathe the painstakingly slow picking, prodding and rummaging or if thats the bit i enjoy the most! (flaunt your contradictions)
but such a delicious, gorgeous abundance of scarlet jewells, yum!
of course its the season for them as mythologically closely associated with persephone and her yearly sojourn in the underworld, so usually would expect the high priestess card, but also a symbol of the empress (is pomegranate the original fruit from the garden of eden?), so a strong feisty empress card (pic by m meleen)

comments

Iron and Wine – Resurrection Fern (Live)

Monday at 18:33 · Like · Remove Preview

Richard Basgallop … and my song of teh day, been on repeat whilst programming, oh just realised its called resurrection fern, fits the persephone theme.. a lovely wallow! x

Richard Basgallop ‘And we’ll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Our tender bellies are wound around in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and its resurrection fern’

Kirstine i like the fact that they take so long to eat and ofc its the symbol of granada always a special place in my heart.

Richard Basgallop really! thanks. makes sense, a place very much in my heart too x

Kirstine didnt u notice all the drain covers had pics of pomegranates on them lol

Richard Basgallop ha! no. i was too busy looking befuddled at the stars… reminds me that when i got there, walking on the marble flag stones by the cathedral (off to boccy bobs no doubt) my trainers, sneakers would always squeak! eek eek. but then after a month they bizarrely stopped, as tho the squeak chemicals had all run out, that or i finally belonged?

Fuchsia Hey hey, if you want a quick way to get at those little gems… cut fruit in half, hold cut side down over a bowl & tap/hit the outside with a spoon or other such implement (i find the blunt side of a thick knife works nicely) & wallah!! xx

Kirstine and then eat them one by one slowly :p

Richard Basgallop ha. thanks. i like your style, cruel and brusque, turn them inside out, like a glove, till they ping into the bowl… then k, plunge your head in and sl-u-rp hoover them up! yum
righteyho off to peel a grape next

eclipse

(from a few days ago)

ooh eclipse in oz (g’day cairns!)… reminds me of the one i stumbled upon by chance in bagan, myanmar.
2 old pics by simon who kindly dashed about giving out cut up x-ray paper to protect the eyes of the locals
i was perched atop one of the ancient temples all on my own, majestic, powerful, profound stuff!
for this one apparently we’re best off with rituals in watery subterranean places (sea life center?!)
i’ve had a mega busy week, doing loads of interesting amazing things, but also struggling with some of both my own and other peoples darkness (possibly the same thing?!)
not really for facebook tho, which usually best when kept frothy and fluffy!
but wishing you all peace, insight, a gentle opening to the forces which engulf us… and of course love x

Tomato

garnered the last of the tomato harvest, not bad to keep going till all souls day, deep within this season of decrepitude (yep november), harvest may be a tad grandiose for plucking the remaining, four mildewed looking specimens.. and the last lettuce is decidedly iceberg
the magnificent writhe of life! ok, you have to sustain the correct benevolent conditions, earth, this much sunshine, that much water… but the depth and integrity of living soil, plant a seed and see what is coaxed, is conjured forth from the mud, a miracle of the mundane, literally, that of the world
same soil, but a kaleidoscopic diversity, plant basil for flagrant aroma… tomato, the rotund pushed out plumpness of its sheen.. courgette, the veined swagger of its orange flower
always, we can only greet, with flung about amazement, this the summoning forth, (teleology??),
the beauty, the pure becoming of what must be
and for us? pricked with a speck of light, the seed soul buried deep within?

Halloween

went for a walk in friston forest, stomp thru mud, the trees in their dun autumn raiment ‘down amongst the dead men. feathers in their head men, pow wow’… popped by the church hidden deep within the woods, to admire the jacobean monument, piety with a flounce of ruffs, the inevitable memento mori skull, but perched high up on top, a carving of a rather gleeful looking spotty dog.
on leaving S noticed a butterfly trapped, struggling to free itself from a cobweb, high, high up on the church wall, so there we were (me aware of the slightly heavy handed symbolism), standing outside an ancient flint church, lobbing sticks skywards, not the full force hurtle of trying to knock a bushel of raw conkers down, but with the intention of precision, of gentleness
eventually… one hundred and eighty… the butterfly was freed, it flopped, wafting down, a tortoiseshell, i held it in my hands, on the outside camouflaged as a drab leaf, it opened its wings, brazen orange, vibrantly patterned… and flew away. Happy Halloween

susan seddon boulet

Richard Basgallop long winded as ever, but gonna dance in a church in a graveyard tonight. whOooOo, very scooby doo! met a huge toad this morning, have gathered all the witches familiars! …. thinking rather obviously (and thankfully abstractly) about death, not only will one day we die, but everybody we love, everything we know, will pass into darkness… beyond even the promise of spring, of the souls rebirth, or the endless beautiful re-patterning of form… and yes, this is the way it must be

Tweetle Beetle

tweetle beetle battle! had a tongue twister race with my daughter, yestereve, gallumphing through sections of fox in socks. full spate, moon hurtle, i won by a mile (not that i’m competitive, no siree!) but verily i am the bradley wiggins of gibberish, the lance armstrong of free style contortion gabbling! err um yes! gorgeous sunshine hurrah!

Sound Of Silence

ooh just realised i didn’t leave the house at all yesterday! which would have been a common occurence on a sunday, back in the days (nay years!) of dubious debauchery
but instead i got up early and err umm pottered in a staid, mundane and mostly pleasant manner. hurrah for maturity! hurrah for complacency!
spruce myself up with some harmonious teenage angst… indeed it is very much winter… ‘hello darkness my old friend’
right before i get on with stuff, best test my mettle against the vaster world outside – B&Q … B aaaggh Q? off to buy a key for the Radiator, to bleed the bleeding Radiators… whats it like out there? x

garfunkel before his hair exploded!

Amma 2012

back from a lovely few days in london, the unlikely, but fab, juxtaposition of time spent in ally pally with amma …then straight off to meet Finn and his fellow city toilers in canary wharfe. proud of our son… wheras with amma, its usually for me, a gentle, opening, powerful energy, of course it bought up many things (pos not for a facebook status), but primarily love, bliss, nowt but a huge beaming Thank You! x

Richard Basgallop hmm just tried turning on the heating for the first time this year, but don’t seem to want to happen, probably i’ve just forgotten some immensely important switch? scratches head…oh well, otherwise i’ll just have to beam radiance all night… wooly hat and thermal long john vibes x
27 October at 20:40 · Like

Jo I love Amma!
27 October at 20:58 · Like

Leah How was your experience with Amma?
27 October at 22:05 · Like

Emma Ahhhh, beautiful lady. Hope she gave you a BIG cuddle!