Devon rhyme n' season
Spring making a tentative entry in the form of ever-burgeoning blossoms gracing the blossom tree in Rebecca's garden. From sweating in my Muck Boots to clutching my hottie for dear life, it seems climatological minds are yet to be made up. A stupendous start to my first WOOFing experience- sharing days filled with designing and creating Rebecca's food-haven-to-be of a garden, afternoons of strolls along Tavistock's deep-bedded river and hanging out with her bright button of a daughter Matilda (aged three and three quarters). Shared meals flavoured with the foraged delights of early spring- we've gathered pennywort from craggy walls, sorrel from verges, wild garlic from riverbanks and sticky willy from dark corners (oo-er). The dandelion roots recovered from hefty turf-removal action are less of a sure thing- we roasted copious amounts and our delight at chowing the nutrient-rich beneficence of the soil within our sight faded to slightly furrowed brows as we struggled to polish off the bitter lot. But good effort. Rebecca's a star for raw kitchen wizardry, whizzing up delicious and passage-cleansing pestos and sauces. Rattling off the Latin names we've been memorizing, we smother seed-packed slabs of homemade bread with emerald piles of Taraxacum officinale and Allium ursinum and feel thoroughly deserving off the fodder to fuel the muscles being put through their paces by spade wielding. Rebecca has recently moved to the area and is raring to put her permaculture knowledge to the test. We'd met at the Permaculture Festival, one of my first forays into this arena, and teamed up during a Non-Violent Communication workshop debating the conflict between wanting to break bread with family dears and not wanting to put their Iceland chicken legs into our ethically-pious bods. Piety is probably the wrong word to use here, but I find myself exploring a lot what it means to have strong views and to communicate them without isolating or excluding others. I digress, a dangerous thang. Rebecca wants to grow as much food as possible as part of her efforts to be a resilient citizen: raising happy hens, no-dig veg beds, pee-saving, worm-encouraging and mini-forest gardening, with fruit bushes planned as a beginning layer. After an admittedly wholesome stay at home, it feels good to be somewhere new, spending days active and learning daily. On the mind: nuclear power, 'woo' and the search for facts as well as meaning, carbon footprint guilt at impending trip to India- much as the earth building course will be fascinating, I know I don't need to go so far for my educational kicks...boat-buying, a cultural history of alarm clocks to write one day. In the news: Workfare, Syria, Putin's re-election...