snow and blossom! a day at the permaculture plot in stanmer, i’m only ever a sporadic visitor, but whenever life is a little bit at a lull, a day working outside in nature, well mostly supping tea and nattering, is always a good idea! tho the pic doesn’t really do it justice there was about an hour of fluffy stuff… a jumbled up, out of kilter british spring… a bit of snow won’t cause much harm, but freezing overnights more problematic for autumns harvest aw i have a fleeting moment of wishing to be a zen monk… but they’re much better at rocking a bobble hat, writing poems… or mbe should be a viking? who knows! snow upon plum blossoms ephemera mingles with euphoria wind swirl gyre downwards from the heavens this eternal moment, poised, topples into poignancy that sort of stuff!
lunchtime nettle pesto.. continuing on from last weeks post generous handfulls of nettle tips, wild garlic from stanmer park (it’s out already!) 1 lemon, a pinch of pepper, bountiful mixed seeds, olive oil… these foraged from lidl whisk and pulverise to perfection… slobber over gnocchi… guzzle. yum have you ever seen a more delicious dick n’dom BOGIES green!? it just has to be good for you!! takes 5 minutes to prepare and then you can waffle on about it for at least a week food on social media always a performative act didn’t follow a recipe, all ‘intuitive’ quantities, guided by the spirit of the nettle… well, too lazy to be bothered to google it you might blanch the nettles to eradicate any danger of stung tongue?… but mine was fine with mere whisking the nettle flavour is sort of slightly soggy woolen socks… tastier than that sounds! don’t, DON’T whatever you do make nettle soup… made that once, just yuk, fed it to the kids (possibly greta too), they’re usually hugely tolerant of my experimenting, but even they didn’t much like that aw wild garlic pesto reminds me of the epic LEJOG cycle gang! meandering again… ha, tumbleweed on here anyway yawn… can’t seem to wake up post lunch, fun weekend, up to see mum yesterday, whilst saturday after a sunset beach loiter went along to mobius loop… such a brilliant fun festie band! a cauldron of cacao, lots of faces, old and new, wild boogie oh and they played a couple of much more folkie tunes too… really enjoyed teh one below!
Nicki: Richard Basgallop great night … love this song thanks for posting the link .. Particulary Loved this one that the other group She sang too ..its so beautiful
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Ooh that’s lovely, thanks for posting, beautiful harmonies!
In keeping with the synchronous, warm and soulful, nature of the eve, also enjoyed dancing with them (down the front always the place to be!), then chatting to them after. Groovy good to see ya too! Xx
So looking forward to summer festies! X
Sheila: smart funny guy!
Alex: Ooo DELISH! Whereabouts in stanmer did you find it? X
Wild garlic was up the top and way way way (one more way for luck!) back.. they’ll be plenty more of it about in a few weeks!
Was a treat to bump into you and bf… sunset just after was lush… we should totes hang kat more often xx
Alex: Richard Basgallop yes lovely to introduce you guys and see you 🌅
Hang kat? Autokorrect has stopped even trying to make sense. Sigh xx
Cheers! Nettle Juice with a dash of Cleavers and a soupcon of Dandelion belated equinox blessings to one and all… the nettle sacred to Aries, and this the fiery start to the astrological year… may it be a good un first harvest, all from the back garden… before a bit of a spring tidy up… natch spring tonic, the early arriving nettle would have been greatly appreciated in times of yore Lent is always a time of fasting… one of the obvious reasons being that theres nowt much left to eat by now! … tho not quite the ‘hungry gap’ … my annual appreciation of the humble nettle post… this year i’m plucking them, just the tip, the top few leaves, with my bare fingers the peril adds to the fun! plus the stimulant effect of being mildly stung, fizz fingers is supposed to be beneficial… hope so!
Esther: I plan on making homous with my foraged nettles, will take my marigolds for picking though I’m not so brave as you!
Ooh that sounds yum… You’ve inspired me to give it a go x
Ha! Marigolds may well be wise, my phone’s fingerprint recognition now doesn’t work with my still tingling digit! X
charlotte: Thats a “very green” drink ! xx
hulk juice! xx … oh did ya hear me and mum bumped into vicky in tescos leatherhead. small world xx
julie: Recipe? Or is that just juiced nettles?
Recipie?! whats that! it’s a handful of nettles, some cleavers (goose grass, or, you’ll be glad to hear it’s colloquial name is, ‘sticky willy’) and some dandelion leavesall are different shades of green and flavours… nettles are, to my wayward palate, quite ‘nutty’, the cleavers taste like grass abnd dandelions bitter and astringent…if how it tastes is important? just nettles are grand x
When I read a letter from a friend or even but a squib of a social media post, I do so in the authors voice… It conjures a palpable sense of presence… Occasional goosebumps, usually comforting, like I can feel them beside of me This is normal, we all do it, yeah? Social media and the voices in our head. Discuss I really enjoy this sensation, summoning the voice, the soul, of someone I haven’t physically spoken to in years empathy? Mirror neurons? Mind miracle. ahh the Rainbow in our heads! Muttered soto voce. Karmic imprint? We and the world are one, of the same stuff, we flow through each other (To be read in my voice… Or if ya want as a challenge, ha, if your empathy is agile enough… In my voice yodeled through a snorkel) …….
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Postscript: I have no trousers! I must pick mum up in an hour or so. Eeek. Up in Surrey, went for a walk in the glorious woods… a nap, in the sunshine, beneath a hazel tree, catkin dangleage, quicksilver. tree of dreams, sacred to mercury Woke up pondering the above … Meandered day dreamily down the hill… Puddles galore… Got stuck… Heave ho squelch, followed by a comedy flounder. Splosh… Swamp thing, mud befuddled. Drenched… Had to drive home with troosers around my ankles and hop, quick step to the house Mai Pen Rai And Happy Paddy’s Day… Not a slither of green blood meself, but kids half so! X
gotta be curious about Petr Kropotkin!? listened to a ‘in our time’ about him last night (link below)… a fascinating character! reminded me that he had a plaque in kemp town I’d often cycle past (near steves old street?) the little i knew of him before would have been gleaned from ‘Anarchism for Beginners’ a comic book guide perused back at uni… still somewhere in the loft I should imagine! a polymath he’d give a lecture on Anarchism one day, the next would be Science and Anthropology, followed by Russian Literature! his theories on mutual aid did much to counteract the nonsense of social darwinism… or, possibly, the subsequent rancid bile of Ayn Rand i’d say the main heirs of his thought, and anarchism generally, are the Green Movement… self organising, human sized, land based communities, who cooperate with other communities in a non hierarchical manner… whats not to like! tho many of the straight edge punks i used to know would claim him as one of theirs, but, ha, they’d dispute most things the best novel I’ve read trying to imagine an anarchist society, ‘the dispossesed’ by the genius ursula k le guin… written back in the seventies… check it out would i read a book by kropotkin? not blooming likely… yawn, i’m far too busy pfaffing on social media… tho i think i’ll read conrads ‘secret agent’ again, such a fascinating mileu i love ‘in our time’, bitesize, 1 hour of 3 academics pondering, guided by melvin, perfect for anyone intellectually omnivorous!
iain: Steve mentioned this plaque in a separate conversation a few months back. I did a module in anarchism at uni and Kropotkin was in there of course. When you think about mutual aid it’s so obvious but driven over by the right in zealous need to put the individual at front and centre of all advances. I will take up your book suggestion.
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Ooh a whole module on anarchism sounds lush… Sadly as a chemistry student the only interesting lectures I went too were gatecrashing Freud talks in the psychology dept… The lecturer did seem a bit bewildered as to who I was… Crackpot Kropotkin mbe
Just noticed what a wonderfully schlocky cover ‘the dispossessed’ has! You’d be cross (‘the disappointed’) if you were looking for an erotic space romp?! I read tons of sci fi as a teenager, obvs much of it is dross, but at it’s best, and Ursula k le guin is certainly that, some profoundly different ways of looking at the world x
home. om shanti om. exstasis. ajna daff-ff-odil, ff-ing fff-freezing! a beautiful morning, the river ouse outside the window perfectly calm… the moment when the flood of fresh water downstream is matched by the incoming tide. pivot ebb balances flow… cusp. this sense of poise. there is serenity even during spring, this season of both burgeoning possibility and hectic bustle. equinox full hurtle, solstice stasis. our moon blooming towards full euphoria and stupour… tranquility and transience, all arise from each other, a pendulum swing the complex interaction of cycles, a force which which conjures the universe, feel it flowing through ourselves duality… polarity… step back, ‘transcend’… everything must change, is changing. the forever flux even as i stumble to a puzzled mumble halt, as if doctor who were dabbling and gabbling with ganja, ha it’s a joy to try to voice the obvious… go on give it a go for yourself! singing along to krishna das as i type, breath of the heart, baba hanuman, luscious and full. deep resonant earthy tones, matching the hoover wheeze drone of the harmonium… bagpipes! hoovers! harmoniums! oh the life giving drone of prana ……………..
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been back a week or so now, such an amazing adventure! a fortunate fellow. being back has been kinda fun too. once you endure the bamboozlement and exhaustion of jet lag family! a few friends… ecstatic dance, singing, moshing down the front at franz ferdinand, kirtan, country strolls, bashing about on the bike, sorting the house, yawning at code, pondering dosh, all da usual xx
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i do love a selfie! you may have noticed… crown chakra pineapple… i mean whose ever purchased a pineapple and not tried it on their head? x
I’m not so brave as you!
