~good grief...~


...i really want this cough/thingy/illness to go away.

i am still feeling pants (i am not sure but i think using the word pants like this is particular to england?!)
i am the same as i was at my last post, still coughing...but when i do cough i get in a cycle of non-stop coughing, then feel as if i am going to be sick and then i cannot catch my breath which scares me somewhat.
i think i might try to get a telephone consult with my gp tomorrow...we are due to go off to our campsite for our stonewylde gathering in 11 days and i really don't want to be feeling like this.

~*~*~*~*~

i have all the goodies i need to make my first batch of seitan, actually i have had it for some days but not been able to gather up the strength i need to make it.

also i think its a psychological thing.
for some reason seitan can be quite a temperamental thing to make, it does need a good knead and particular cooking to get it to be dense and chewy, not spongy (unless spongy is your thing)
but i have studied enough pages online to get it right...
never boil it!
steam and bake
or
cook slowly in a broth in the oven!

i have a particular recipe i want to try and even swampy has said it looks nice and would try it...


to me it looks yum and i have visions of a pile of yummy sandwiches in front of me while i settle down to watch a good film!

and i am kicking myself right now because i picked up some chipotle powder (its not an easy thing to buy over here and i found a tiny packet in the 'specialist' section of a shop on friday and put it right back down again...silly me.
so that will have to wait until next week.

for now i shall settle for making a 'chicken' style one with sage, thyme, garlic, onion powder which i can use for different stir fries over the week.

~*~*~*~*~

well the weather is as grim as ever~chilly, grey skies and rain, rain and more rain.
swampy told me last night that the weather forecast for last night and today was clear sky and wonderful sunshine...if only!
although my gardening consists of 'pottering' in 10-15 minute chunks i love it, especially since swampy has allowed me free range with planting.
you may remember i have said before that we have very differing ideas of gardening~actually i should say 'had' for he has really opened up with how a garden should be.

when we first moved here he would plant and leave gaps of nicely turned earth between so it looked like some public building garden and he had a thing for bedding plants so every year we had to buy more~whereas i would have just put in loads of perennials and have a wild cottage garden.

back in march when the weather was nice (so long ago!) we took my mum to a garden centre and they had a big display of bee and butterfly attracting native wild flowers.
 i bought valerian and birdsfoot trefoil and when i got home put them on the garden table...and waited...
swampy was busy working on the new interior of Pretty Pagan and so i decided it was time for some 'pottering'~i usually place plants, still in their pots, around the garden to see how it looks, checking their maximum growing spread etc. then i decided to use the sculptural gorse wood i had been bringing home and placed them in the two raised beds at the bottom of the garden in front of my nook.
i also planted up some plants swampy had bought and that were still sitting on the garden table and went around cutting back some of the old growth we left for shelter for insects etc over winter...then i waited to see what swampy would say.

i am happy to say that he was pleased with what i had done and so now i pretty much have the back garden as 'mine' while he has the front garden to work on.

so now the two raised beds have a very woodland look about them...i am hoping i have some photos of when all of my fritillaries were out...with my standing stones in one bed and old stone bird bath in the other.
we popped to lymingtom market yesterday and bought one plant each...swampy bought a dahlia (he loves them) while i bought a fern from the 'woodsia' family...i love ferns, no i adore ferns and have five planted up so far and now the woodsia ready to go in...but more about ferns later!