The Calm after the Storm
September 17, 2012
Home at last, back in the calm of my newly decorated bedroom! Long story for another time, energy lines, changing bed around, dark blue !!
The last couple of weeks have been away installing a project in the Derbyshire Hills, extremely hectic, exhausting but in the end quite exhilarating when you look around and see the vision I have been holding for such a long time come to fruition
Such a beautiful area Derbyshire, this last weekend relaxed a little at the Riverside Hotel in Ashford in the Water, such a picturesque village, with its little stone bridge, church and cottages.
My work, courtesy of Yao photography
Ashford in the Water
first of the season
August 17, 2012
Who would believe, such an awful summer and only a couple of weeks ago, although fig tree laden, they were as hard as rock
Then today, as I passed by I saw ONE that had started to turn purple, this variety does not turn fully dark and purple, but it green and violet. Anyhow,squeezed it gently and to my amazement its plump flesh was lusciously soft to the touch. Plucked from the tree I savoured it to have after my dinner, as I drew the fig in near to my mouth its sweet heady perfume filled my nostrils, and as my teeth sunk deep into the flesh, an explosion of succulent sweetness touched my taste buds, its deep pinky purple flesh flashing scarlet in my hand, what a delight, and to think I have loads more to follow. Mr Sun please keep shining !!
I just had a look to see if I recorded anything about my figs last year. Low and behold I posted on the exact same day !! only at that time there was a whole bowl full !
http://carolgearing.com/2011/08/17/solitude/
Langar memories
August 15, 2012
Wish I was still there ! many happy memories
A really tasty salad
August 11, 2012
This is a recipe I saw on Punchfork, brilliant site. here is a the link to COOKIE and KATE who posted the recipe
Coconut Quinoa and Kale with Tropical Pesto + Notes on Belize – Cookie and Kate.
| Coconut Quinoa and Kale with Tropical Pesto |
a walk in the woods
December 12, 2011
Amazing what a walk in the woods can reveal, a triumphal arch, a gothic window, wildwood tracery in a stain glass window……………….
Solitude
August 17, 2011
“I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.” ~Henry David Thoreau
What would I be without it………… These days I cannot find my way through the day if I dont find time for space to be alone, to potter around, meditate, walk in the park, write my journal and have that feeling of total silence. My early morning sojourns over the common across the road from me are bliss, sitting on my favourite bench, feeling the growing warmth on my back as the sun rises behind me, the birdsong, the breeze on my skin.
Pottering about before my work day started I picked a bowl of figs from the most abundant tree I have seen in long while, lucky for me its long branches have made there way over to my side of the fence ! Its lusccious fruits hung down swollen with the ripe sweetness, and as I bit into the soft moistness its honeyed flesh I felt real gratitude for this tree going about its business in complete solitude.
The Benefits of Solitude
The best art is created in solitude, for good reason: it’s only when we are alone that we can reach into ourselves and find truth, beauty, soul. Some of the most famous philosophers took daily walks, and it was on these walks that they found their deepest thoughts.
Just a few of the benefits
- time for thought
- in being alone, we get to know ourselves
- we face our demons, and deal with them
- space to create
- space to unwind, and find peace
- time to reflect on what we’ve done, and learn from it
- isolation from the influences of other helps us to find our own voice
- quiet helps us to appreciate the smaller things that get lost in the roar
There are many more benefits, but that’s to get you started. The real benefits of solitude cannot be expressed through words, but must be found in doing.
veggie
July 26, 2011
trying to maintain a vegetarian diet without getting bored and having to eat bowls of beans has been a bit of a challenge of late. Being a carnivore most of my life. one day I just awoke with the need to stop, something was telling me that my energy was too dense, that I needed to feel lighter, and so I just stopped munching the flesh. I wasnt’t that I was a huge meat eater, but I think it was more out of habit and the need to eat protien. Why this need suddenly dissipated is a mystery, but I do feel better for it for sure. The only thing being, is that pulses and grains leave me feeling little bloated, so have to be a little more creative in the food making stakes…………….. tonight efforts centred around kirsty’s homegrown veg, fresh from her garden, some rice, nut kind of loaf mix formed into burger shapes with red peppers, spring onions and flat leaf parsley. they were tasty but a bit mushy, but the rosemary roasted potatoes went down a treat.
Eggs and cheese I am reducing too, I was beginning to OD on these, every breakfast in fact, omlettes, scrambled, poached and fried ! not anymore, porridge oats cooked with water until thick and creamy, scoop into bowl with a spoonful of cream on top !! Thanks Andreas Moritz for letting me know a little cream and butter are ok !! I purchased and carried out a liver flush from his now famous book.
tangled thoughts
December 8, 2010
Not been a good week so far, my head is reeling with so many thoughts, they are all tangled together………… work stuff, designing, grief, deadlines, children, hospital, ex husband, sadness, they are all in there pulsating and swirling around, my head feels like its going to explode. Quiet my mind, sit with the thoughts and accept them……………. one by one just let them go, let them pass through and accept what is………….. I am trying
This image I drew somewhile ago seems to conjour up this feeling.
Pencil sketch digitally layered
vertical gardening
September 20, 2010
my kind of plants, sedums perfect for vertical planting, this is defintely the way to go, let soften all our concrete jungles.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/plant_recipes/vertical_garden.shtml
grown with love
July 27, 2010
Wow, look at these veg, fresh straight from my daughter’s garden. Courgettes, a yellow gold round one not sure of the variety but it looks so bright, baby round carrots, three varieties of beetroot, some kind of kale and wonderful rainbow chard with bright red-pink stalks. Just had to take a photo before I started cooking my dinner.
Rainbow veg with herb butter and egg noodles…….. quick and easy and oh so delicous
Cooked the baby beetroot, skinned and sliced in half
steamed the baby carrots and left whole
sliced up the chard and some kale across in strips
diced the courgettes
chopped up a couple of tomatoes
put the egg noodles in some just boiled water to warm through
sauteed the kale and chard stalks and put in bottom of dish
metled som butter and put in chpped freshsage, thyme and rosemary, then added courgette and tossed slightly till softened
Then add carrots, beetroot and chopped tomatoes.
drain noodles and put on top of kale and chard
Top with rainbow veg, I add a squeeze of lemon, but suppose parmesan would be nice
delicous, fresh and nutrituous.
thank you Kirsty, I know they were grown with love !!
Our green and pleasant land
July 4, 2010
Spent a glorious day walking in the sunshine along Beachy Head. I dont understand when it comes to summer that people rush off to far flung lands when we have spectacular landsscapes to enjoy like this, It was warm, the sea so calm, sitting on a bench looking out to sea, I could hear bees and crickets making their “summery sounds” , who could ask for anything more…………. Ended up with dinner at THE TIGER INN, click on this link for maps of walks
on my way to work
June 11, 2010
How I love it when I walk to work, sometimes I am in a rush and drive down in my car, but when I make the effort to walk I always thoroughly enjoy it,
Today was especially nice, everywhere was fresh and green after the nights downpour, the birds were singing ( hear my video clip, i phone takes v clips portrait as default, why cant I turn it landscape? Oh well at least you can hear the birds singing)
Looking all around me, the greenness was overwhelmingly cheery, the elderflowers are just beginning to bloom, how I love that very distinctive flavour, it tastes green to me, that wonderfull, gooseberry sharpeness, elederflowr cordial so summery and a delightful drink with a handful of basil leaves, all chilled with ice cubes in a huge glass jug. Summer in a glass……..
The lime flowers too just beginning to unfurl and nesteled at the base of a fallen tree (leftover from the great storm of 1987) a small crop of wild alpine strawberries, some already beginning to form.
How wonderful it is to have this all around me, I am so fortunate to be able to walk amongst nature like this. I perhaps need to remind myself of this when I daydream of livng elswehere, why would I want to, the town is a stones throw away, the common just across the road, the flat large and spacious. Why do I think of moving? because I dont have a garden or or somewhere to sit out and have a coffee and read a book. Yes I can walk across to the common with a deckchair, but its not the same. I am decorating with the view of perhaps renting or selling later in the year, who knows If I will? Selling all my furniture, sorting through books and all my belongings so that I can feel freer, more streamline and start to find pieces that really mean something to me. Most of the items came from my business as in interior designer, things left over, etc etc. I want to create a space that lives and breathes me, simple, creative, functional, easy and comfortable, and above all a space where my creative outpourings can be displayed.
Happiness, a special gift, from a special friend
May 22, 2010
What gratitude I have for my dear friend SP who gave me a plant pot recently and told me “to water it and you will have a lovely surprise”. After a week of careful nurturing and watching and waiting, a huge green been shape thing forced its way up through the soil. Then miraculously in three days this very stong shoot revealed a word that made me feel very warm and smiley. What a wonderful friend, who went to all this trouble…..
It always amazes me, the miracle of life, as it springs forth………………
Tree spirit 2
May 8, 2010
amazing what appears from nature, these image of the exposed tree roots were taken by the side of the river at Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire, the sheep image taken in shropshire.
I always wondered where the trains were going?
April 30, 2010
this is actually a mixed media painting by Julian Schnabell of the man himself, Dennis Hopper, love him or hate him he is an icon of the 60′s and he is about to have a retrospective exhibition of his photography and paintings at MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in July. Conceived only a couple of months ago by the new museum director Jeffrey Deich and curated by Julian Schnabell, they both admit the speed in which this has come together is in part due to the fact that Dennis Hopper has been diagnosed with terminal Prostrate Cancer and before it became to incapacitating he wanted Dennis to be able to choose the pieces he most wanted to exhibit.
In a recent interview he opened it with ““I decided recently, that I am just a middle class farm boy from Dodge City, Kansas…I just always wondered where the trains were going.” coming from a man who is now 73 it made me smile………… far from the motorcycle man in Easy Rider, that I have to admit seeing when It first came out in the 60′s…….
