Adventure 47: Friends, Foragey Types and Countrymen, lend me your ears...

Friends, foraging types and countrymen, lend me your ears...

Its been a mad, hectic start in my new job. Absolutely smashing school, with great girls - but I've found zero time to do anything for myself (save reading the occasional novel) let alone indulge my favourite foraging hobby. I've been trying hard to work out recently what has been missing in my life. Things are going well: I've got a nice job, lovely husband, cute but needy cat - but its the hobby I miss. Going for walks to clear my head, looking up recipes on the i pad whilst watching TV in the evenings, reading round the subject and making a mess (and hopefully some nice things too, in our kitchen)....

So, I've made a belated new year's resolution: to make the time. Because, frankly, you only live once, and what's the point of not enjoying the things you love? As one very experienced colleague and friend from my first school I worked at (nearly four years ago now - blimey) said: You work to live, not live to work. And frankly, she was right.

So, Western Weeds is back. The sun is not shining as such, but it is a fine day here in Devon despite the gales that have been causing rail chaos down this neck of the woods. And before I head out to see what I can find this afternoon, I thought I would launch Western Weeds 2.0 with a big hello to you all and to give you a brief update on what I've been up to since I last posted six months ago.


1) I've been spoiled with some rather awesome foragey gifts over Christmas and my birthday. 

Firstly, over Christmas I received this rather gorgeous collection of stuff from my parents (sorry, I mean Father Christmas... lol). Some gorgeous Kilner jars and bottles for making stuff up in and a couple of books: one on foraging (not much new in there, but an interesting section on greens, which is something I'd really like to expand onto) and one on natural remedies which is quite engaging. Christmas seems a long time ago now, but was all in all very enjoyable catching up with my family including my two grandfathers. I even taught one what a selfie was - he seemed vaguely impressed...

Had a very enjoyable afternoon with my parents and Levi wandering around the Botanical Gardens at Kew (http://www.kew.org/), looking at all the plants, many of which I enjoyed back last summer whilst in Zanzibar.

My second awesome foraging gift was a joint effort from a couple of friends of ours - Owain and Helen for my birthday back in January.

I was honestly so touched by their thoughtfulness - I got a foraging bag, gloves, clippers and some little bags to put stuff in - and if you're reading this guys, it is one of the BEST set of presents I've ever got. We had a wonderful day out on Dartmoor, near Ivybridge. It was a bitterly cold day (we even got a little bit sleeted on) but the views were fantastic and we enjoyed an excellent pint by a fire in one of the local pubs (http://www.dukeofcornwallpub.co.uk/).

2) I've done a few trips since I last posted:

In October we went Looe in Cornwall: cold and foggy, but with some nice cliff walks to Polperro and some nice warm pubs.

In February we did a short city break to Berlin. Fantastic place: lots of great breweries (we particularly recommend Brauhaus Georgbraeu and Pfefferbraeu), Currywurst and great sites like the Brandenburg Gate and the Fernsehturm.

My parents came to visit me a month ago and we did some nice walking on the moors near Postbridge and walked up Leather Tor which boasts some stunning views and made friends with some Dartmoor Ponies.

And most recently (it sort of gave me the idea of getting back to doing Western Weeds) we've just come back from a couple of days in Dartmoor, walking from Okehampton to Tavistock as part of the West Devon Way. The weather was quite rainy, but it is so beautiful round there - moody skies, endless moor, rocky tors, Lydford Gorge, castles, etc. We both really recommend the following pubs on the route, namely The Castle Inn and The Whitchurch Inn for ambiance, food and beer.

We spotted lots of wild garlic on our travels (my lord, is it that time of year again!) and so I thought, the blog needs to come back to soothe this niggling foraging itch that I have now that Spring is finally here.

3)  Sloe Gin

I have been finishing my first batch of sloe gin (from late September) and starting up a second (cos its so scrumptious, you need to stagger these things you know, otherwise you will be sobbing mid summer, crying "why is there no frigging gin left?" THANK GOD you can freeze the little buggers (and this saves you having to spent hours with a needle pricking them to make the sloe gin work its magic... sloe gin recipe here)

And whilst I was cleaning through the cupboards I found my pickled helicopter tree things from two years ago. They're still fine - the vinegar has preserved them - but they're a bit chewy - not sure I'll repeat that particular foraging experiment (otherwise, surely everyone would be making them... )

4) My little herb garden

And finally, lamenting the lack of a garden I recently decided to set up a window herb garden in my kitchen. I rescued some bedraggled looking orgeano and rosemary from Wilkos (50p each a bargain) and have been trying to grow from scratch parsely, sage and chives.

And I've also become somewhat interested in gardening folklore having picked up a couple of interesting looking books. In particular I have found Margaret Baker's book very interesting as it discusses growing things according to the moon cycles and other such archaic practices.

So that's it folks - off to London tomorrow (quite excited) but the blog is definitely back. Won't updating it as much as I used to (so much marking, so little time) - but with exam season upon us, some good long walks, communing with nature and some kitchen magic will be surely welcome.