Nettle Juice!!!!!

There are fresh young nettles shooting out all over the place.

I have juiced them for the first time. Read more on my wild green blog.

www.wildgreencuisine.blogspot.com

Uk Trip

We are off to the UK for 10 days tomorrow. There are lots of people for me to show off my darling daughter to!

I like to see my friends but would really much rather stay here at home. The weather is great and I just want to get on with the garden. I still have time to plant more fruit trees and bushes and then I can start with greening up the ground with all ediable plants. Should be fun. See you soon.

Mouse Mischief

About 2 weeks ago I put some washing on. The machine seemed to be working but finished quicker than I expected. I went to open the door but it was still sealed and full of water. I tried various settings on the dial to get it to empty out but nothing worked. I turned the machine off and thought I'd wait till Griff got home. Later on I was standing in the kitchen preparing dinner, Arwen was in her little car seat looking on and I suddenly heard the machine door and a woosh of water. Gwils had opened the door, turning it off had unlocked the door! I got it shut so not quite all the water came out. There was Arwen in the middle of the puddle looking like she was sailing a boat. I ran for my wet and dry vac to get the water. We have a very old tiled floor which is lain on compacted earth so great for absorbing water!

Griff checked the pump and filter and found a euro coin so we thought it might have been that, but no it still wouldn't empty. We got quite a technique of emptying part of the water into a flexy bucket and sucking the rest with the hoover! We decided it must be the pump and ordered one for 30 euros on the internet. It arrived and still didn't work. So either there was a blockage somewhere or we needed a new machine. Griff removed the drain pipe from the pump and blew up it, sure enough it was blocked. Our machines drain pipe joins to another then goes out side into fatter tubing and into the garden, great for watering in the summer. We seperated the two pipes and there it was a big lump of fluff, or so we thought, on closer inspection it was a mouse. It had come up the pipes and got stuck at the join where it narrowed. We removed the mouse and everything worked fine. Good job we didn't buy a new machine.

Today I put a wash on and the same thing happened and low and behold another mouse up the tube. Are they on some suicide mission?

2 Mes

Somedays I get really confused as to who I am. I feel like there are two of me. There is me who is relaxed and cool, at one with myself and the rest of the world, I get excited about healthy food and exercise and just love life. Then there is the me who wants to eat chips, roast meat and cream, who wants coca-cola and wine, is irritable and grumpy and shouts a lot.

I guess it is part of a process, once I was just the second person, before I discovered healthy eating and exercise and listening to the inner voice of intuition. Now I am getting closer to being the real me but the old me still hangs around frustrating me and the people around me. I don't seem to know how to say goodbye, it was nice knowing you and you have taught me lots of lessons but now it is time to pack up your bags and leave. Sometimes I really feel like I am letting go but part of me jumps in and brings the bad habits back.

Change isn't easy, not for me anyway.

Wheat Grass

In the absence of wild greens at the momment due to snow I have been juicing wheat grass. Wheat grass juice was a creation of Ann Wigmore. It contains 92 different minerals, beta carotene, vitamins B, C, E, H and K. It has 19 amino acids, lots of enzymes and is 70% chlorophyll. It is extremely good for. Taste wise its a bit strange but I think its worth it for all the good it is supposed to be doing. I use a manual juicer it works extremely well and I am very happy with the result. Once I start juicing wild greens too then I might upgrade to something like this. Champion juicer . Wheat grass and other juices can also be added to smoothies or diluted in water to make them more palatable.

Wild Green Cuisine

This is the name of my new blog and upcoming website. I'm am fascinated by all the greens and wild foods we can eat and how good they are for us.

My belief is that if we covered all the worlds cultivated lands with first fruit or nut trees then fruit shrubs or perenial tall greens and followed by greens on ground level then we would have enough food for all to live a healthy life. In the absence of interested farmers then all people with gardens could start on this and feed themselves.

www.wildgreencuisine.blogspot.com

 

 

Shopping with kids

Sometimes I love shopping with my smiley children, I see the looks of peoples faces when they are smiled at and I'm so glad I took my kids with me. Other times I am amazed by the gloom, a toddler smiles and is full of the joys of spring (summer, autumn or winter) and people say 'oh they're happy now, but just wait they'll see what life is really like!' It makes me so sad that these people just can't see it!

Day 3 raw. Whoopee!!!

Well I've managed 2 days of raw so far and am starting the third well. I've been eating fruit and loads of green salads, I've had a little raw ham and cheese to help with cravings. The cravings aren't  too bad as I am ready for this. Lots of carrot juice and rejuvelac too. I cheated with a baked potato last night as I had done them for the kids and after their salads they didn't want them, it seemed a shame to waste them! I really didn't need it though it was just piggery.

I have just read Green for Life and Wild Fermentation. Both books are very inspiring and I have tried a green smoothie, not bad, and have my first batch of saurkraute started in the kitchen.

On Monday I felt great, I now feel a little tired but am not worried about that, I'll get through!

 

Growing Grass

Why is Mummy growing grass on the windowsill when there is so much in the garden? Florence's comment about my wheatgrass! I have bought a manual juicer so plan to try it out. I'm not really sure how much I'll need for a few drops of juice but I'm going to try it in the next couple of days. Then when spring comes I'll be trying wild greens in there. Its not suprising I worry about people thinking I'm mad is it?

HAPPY RAW YEAR

To you!

Thats my aim anyway, but I'm struggling, I'm craving bread like mad and keep giving in. I have loads of things in the freezer that have to be eaten too. I have made up a plan which leaves once or twice a week to use up some of the stuff in there but I'm still finding it hard. Its like having 2 personalities. One is heavy, dull and eats badly and the other is bright and sparky and light. The problem comes when the bright sparky person manages to get out due to good diet and exercise and I look at myself and say who the hell are you? I don't know you, with all this energy you're going to have to do much more, people will think you are strange, no more treats, just being odd for the rest of your life. Then I give in and go back to my previous habits. Why do we do this? I know I am not alone, What are we afraid of?

Home made Christmas tree

The kids like to have a Christmas tree, I think they look pretty but don't like seeing all those trees chopped down each year. The land would be better planted with fruit or nut trees or just trees that stay there and look pretty all year round.

I thought about buying an artificial tree, but thats brings up the problem of plastics etc so I decided we'd make a tree. I had planned to use wood but then chose to try one out in cardboard first and it was so good we decided to keep it.

Griff has bought me a chestnut tree to plant in the garden so this year we have two Christmas trees one live one that will go on to feed us in years to come, yummy roast chestnuts and another from a recycled cardboard box and secondhand decorations and some decorations made by the kids. We'll be making paperchains this weekend.

Dry or Wipe ?

I recently read about the amount of paper that is used to wipe our bums with. Its an enormous amount. Then I read about it here http://nakedfoodcafe.blogspot.com/2007/11/doing-paperwork.html

We have an outside dry toilet and at one point used old newspaper but it wasn't really absorbant enough so we started buying proper paper. We try and use as little as possible and encourage the children to do the same. They are pretty good but sometimes the appeal of the cardboard tube becomes too much and down the loo goes the paper!

I was sent this picture yesterday and I just had to post it. Is this the solution? :)

8 skipping ropes

My house is full of so much stuff, I can't believe how much. I am not a tidy person and have become a hoarder. I like to recycle and reuse things so everything is kept, just in case! I have started on the kids room which is a tip. Flo has 8 skipping ropes and she can't even skip :)

Do I just tidy the mess or do I get rid of it. Today I listened to so tapes I'd copied off of the radio and they are definatly going in the bin, one even had me singing on it, yuck yuck yuck. I cut that one so noone could get it out and listen to it, it was awful.

Sometimes I'd just like to throw everything away and start from scratch. So much of the stuff is stuff we have been given and whilst it is so often usefull and the kids are dressed mostly like that it is still too much but I don't like to say no and so the cycle goes on and on. I cleared my desk yesterday and it is so much nicer sitting here now than it was. 

Intuition and Bananas

To make use of your own intuition you have to trust it, COMPLETELY!

I was reminded of this on my friend Connies blog. Its something you have to do during childbirth. Odd things happen when giving birth and you just have to trust that they are right for you or to know clearly when they are not and to act on it. I can do it then but its not easy the rest of the time, which voice is intuition, which comes from my mind and is based on learnt behaviour and which is just down right addiction (this is the easiest to spot, the cravings for bread and wine are a big give away!)?At the start of my pregnancy my inner voice kept telling me to eat fruit, my mind kept saying 'Why? I don't like fruit.' I chose to listen and found myself not only enjoying fruit but eating more raw food than I ever had. It went wrong when I stopped listening and followed what was expected of me when in England and I didn't get back to it. Its getting better now but I have to listen to my intuition about what to eat NOW, not in the morning when I'll start my new diet, but NOW when I feel like carrot juice or nettles.

In the summer Connie started a new blog called Banana Island and along with her family she followed a mono fruit diet for a while. I was envious of their commitment and found that it seemed like such a good idea. I don't think I'll do that as my intuition is screaming green and wild foods to me. Not just nettles but the great selection of wild green stuff that grows around me. I will listen to my intuition and I will do it and get fit and well and happier than imaginable, I just have to trust.

Thank you Connie for your blogs and the inspiration that they give.

http://nakedfoodcafe.blogspot.com/

http://bananaislandgetaway.blogspot.com/

5 weeks, ALREADY?!

Wow, I can't believe Arwen is already 5 weeks old, time has really flown. I am typing this with her asleep in the baby carrier. She spends most of her time in someones arms and sleeps in with us at night. Some people have said ''oh, you don't want to get them used to being carried around and picked up when they cry'' my answer to that is that I would rather my newborn learnt that when she needs me that I am there as opposed to learning that she'll be ignored. People also ask if she is good. Is a newborn really good or bad? They have needs thats all and its up to us their parents to make sure they are met.

Mum stayed for just over a week, the kids loved it. I find it hard as she wants to talk all the time and I don't. I'm a solitary person and to be in anothers company all the time is hard. Okay so I have 4 kids but thats not the same and I still need my space.

For Halloween I invited some friends for dinner so the kids could dress up. For a couple of years halloween seemed to get more popular in France but this year nothing, no decorations or costumes in the shops, nothing. We decorated the house and painted the kids faces so they had fun.

I swam for the first time since before Arwen was born on Sunday. I managed a kilometre which is what I was doing before but it is easier to swim at the end of pregnancy than getting back into it a few weeks later! I have been for a couple of runs with Eben and can just about manage a run with a nearly 5 year old! I really want to get running again. Next October I plan to run a marathon, not give birth!

I am still drinking my nettles (occasionally) and have drunk carrot juice again this morning. I have even started some clover and mustard seed sprouts which is the first time since January. Yeh to getting back to raw!!!!!

Placenta Smoothies

When I first read about these my thought was YUCK. But when Arwen was born I was showing Flo the placenta and decided to try a small piece. It should stop post partum hemorrhage and it was suprising fine to eat, not meat like or chewy just warm really. The rest went in the fridge with the intention of burying it in the garden but the more I thought about it the more I thought it would be more sensible to consume it for all the vitamins, minerals and hormones it contains. Some people cook it but I couldn't do that, others dehydrate it and make capsules with it but smoothies seemed the easiest way to go and the rawest. I cut the placenta into inch cubes and froze most of it. It was odd cutting up a part of me but then I thought about cutting up dead meat and I can do that and this wasn't even something that had been killed it had just finished its job.
I have nearly finished all the pieces. I just blend one with water and half a banana or a pear and it just tastes of the fruit that is in it. I guess that is what has been helping me to continue to feel so well. Arwen is a lovely baby, she suckles and sleeps and loves to be in my arms much of the time. School holidays start on Friday so we will all be together everyday and my Mum is coming too so that should be quite an experience!

A lovely Sunday

What a lovely day we've had. Griff took the 3 eldest kids to the swimming pool this morning and I stayed at home with Arwen and cooked Sunday lunch, I love raw food but still have a thing about Sunday lunch. They got back and we all ate together with Arwen at the table too in her Daddy's arms. My complete family together, lovely. After lunch most of us slept a while then we went out for a walk round the wood behind our house. Griff and Flo ran, Eben zoomed off alone and us slow ones pootled behind and kicked through the chestnut leaves on the ground. The sunshine was brilliant and it was warm. We've since had supper together and the kids are in bed and I'll be going soon, Griff is watching the last quarter final of the rugby world cup over at a neighbours.

In all our day has been perfect and so different from what it could have been had I decided on Friday to go to the hospital to give birth. It would have been spent in an overheated room with people popping in all day, the kids would have gone up the walls when visiting etc.

Homebirth is definatly the way to go.

PINK PINK PINK !

We are so delighted, we have a little girl. She is called Arwen Elenor and was born at home yesterday evening. Labour was short but hard, I still feel ecstatic now but am glad to have my family complete and not have to do that again. Birthing at home with just the family is so much nicer than being in a hospital. Its hard work for Griff though running round after us being parent, cook, midwife, cleaner etc. The children are delighted with the baby, Gwilym is a little unsure which is to be expected so everyone is paying him that little extra bit of attention. We'd have been really pleased with a boy or a girl, but it being a girl really is the icing on the cake.

Here she is.

Cutting cords of attachment

I've just been reading about a book on cutting cords of attachment. It is written by Rose Rosetree who has also written good books on empathy and aura reading. The book is more about spiritual attachments than physical but is relevant to me at the momment knowing that sometime in the next two weeks I'll be severing the bond that attaches me so closely to this baby I am carrying, the spiritual bond will be stronger than ever but the physical one has to go. I also need to break my link with the Internet at times. I have so many things I want to write about but as the computor is attached by cable to the net at all times I tend to surf rather than write. I need to detach the cable and move away for a while and get typing. Addictions are attachments I wonder if the techniques in the book work. At the momment I feel that giving up an addiction is a matter of choice. Its making the choice that is difficult. Sometimes we think we want to give something up but deep down we don't, perhaps that deep down thing is the cord of attachment. I'll have to order the book to find out! 

Nesting and Waddling

I'll be 36 weeks pregnant tomorrow. I reached the momment were time seems to be standing still. Birth is so close yet so far, I am so looking forward to it but at the same time I don't want it to happen just yet as I love feeling the baby move and the practise contractions. I'm drinking lots of raspberry leaf tea, its nice just to pick them straight from the bush and to nibble of a few raspberrys at the same time. I am still eating loads of fruit but too much cooked stuff. I am knocking out quick meals most of the time and relying to much on staples such as rice and potatoes. Florence and Eben are back at school and eat there at lunchtime. Each evening we have a big salad. Eben seems to have turned into a rabbit and loves his greens at the momment. I need to find a better balance. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the idea of raw that instead of cooking a vegetable I end up leaving it in the fridge until it rots were as if I'd cooked it we'd at least get some good out of it.
I've prepared all the things I need for the baby and have even been down on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor which is very unlike me, definately nesting instinct! I went for an ultra sound scan at 33 weeks and all looks fine, I was very pleased with myself for saying I didn't want to know the sex of the baby, Griff hoped to see but he or she just showed their back so we are both still in the dark. I'm going back to see the midwife on the 17th September then plan to leave it at that. We are still planning on having this baby at home, just us, but the hospital knows about us should I decide to go in.
The swimming pool has been closed for a week and will be for another which is a bummer, the only option left to me now is walking and I'm not doing that very well anymore as I waddle! Never mind I'm doing lots and lots of reading and lounging on the sofa as sitting isn't very comfy either. I read today the theory that nature makes the last month of pregnancy uncomfortable on purpose so that we look forward to birthing, maybe thats true.