Bilberry Sunday: The Feast of First Fruits

Today is the Sunday traditionally celebrated in Ireland and elsewhere as the Feast of First Fruits. It is a festival dedicated by the God Lugh to the honour of his foster mother Tailtiu who died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be cultivated. I may have channeled that energy today as I worked from 7 to 7 pretty much non stop with doing dishes, feeding cats, cutting down small tree in front garden, photographing fabulous flower tree, cleaning bathroom, doing a laundry load, showering and washing hair, boiling milk for yoghurt, buying fruit at farm shop, buying compost and two small plants, watering allotment, creating new raised bed, planting onions, picking courgettes, onions, spinach and blackcurrants, back home in front garden creating a lettuce raised bed, weeding front garden, planting two small plants, potting up and feeding blueberry, watering and feeding courgettes and tomatoes, eating veggie soup.

Regarding the flower tree, a passing walker said they thought it was a Hibiscus, but had never seen a blue one before. This colour might be because the soil is very acidic due to conifers being there for years before I cut them back, (the acid/alkaline Ph determines whether hydrangeas are blue or pink). Also, the 84 year old lady next door said she did not remembering it flowering before though. I cut it back very much some time ago, maybe that made it flower? The BBC says that "Hard spring pruning isn't difficult and promotes a mass of stunning, large flowers."

The Wisdom of the Apple Tree

Our folk memory and country lore is rich with reference to the virtues and wisdom of the apple tree. This beautiful tree provides abundant food which can be stored for winter use, and has many uses both in the kitchen, as a herbal remedy and as a remedy acting on our subtle energies. Apples have a long history of being used for divination, especially to foretell the future in matters of love and prosperity. The methods of divination are varied and include such things as counting the apple pips; burning the pips (after naming each one with a young man's name and watching which ones explode in the fire) ; pressing the named pips with the finger to see which sticks the longest; apple bobbing; throwing the peel over the left shoulder to see it forms the initial of an individual when it lands; and putting an apple under your pillow to dream of your sweetheart. All of these games and folk customs are survivals of much older ceremonies in honour of the Apple. Many of these customs are particularly performed at Samhain, the time of the year when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest, a doorway between the seen world of matter and the unseen world of spirit. If you wish to work with the energy of the Apple tree, you can aid the process by focusing on Apple trees and working with apple wood, eating more apples, drinking apple juice and the occasional glass of cider. Dry apple peel and drink it as a tea. Try cultivating Apple trees from the pips for some very special trees which you are closely linked with. Sit with Apple trees as often as possible, get to know their vibration, make friends with them. (From the Wisdom of the Apple Tree).

Saving Water: it's over 95 degrees

Here's the back garden set-up for siphoning off the bath water onto the garden:

Vegetables Harvested Today

The allotment is looking good, if a little dry. Today we harvested lots of mange toutes, also chard and beet spinach of various sizes, onions, radish, spring onions, parsley, rosemary, edible marigolds, and baby courgettes and carrots. This will form the basis of several meals when combined with home made beansprouts and yoghurt, plus store-bought potatoes, tofu, grains:

• Veggie soup of various types
  
• Baby green leaf, radish, marigold salad
• Spinach and potato subji
• Roasted potatoes with rosemary
• Tofu and veg wraps
• Quinoia and mange toutes stir fry

Capel Manor - dramatic rock fence

This fence made of rocky shards presents a stunning way to edge a path, I have no idea where they got the rock from though!

Capel Manor - raised beds

Capel Manor has some interesting variations on the usual wooden sides for raised beds. It has some with bricks (but I note they are concreted in, presumably to stop slugs setting up home underneath). Also there are high-sided steel containers which would be great for the elderly or disabled as no bending is required.

Capel Manor - straw bale cob walls

Here is a cob hut and wall, using straw bale building techniques. Note the creative designs carved into the walls.

Capel Manor - unusual hedge ideas

Here are pics from Capel Manor, one showing how by placing a steel tube into a privet hedge, you can create a window through it. The other showing their big hedge, which has been grown to allow paths through it (presumably this takes quite some time to achieve!)

Capel Manor College - open day pics

The next few posts show some pictures from the recent open day at the renowned Capel Manor College, which offers courses at four London locations on horticulture, garden design, floristry, horse studies, arboriculture (how to become an expert "tree surgeon"). The wide range of courses are both full time and part time. Some are more suitable for young people (e. g. apprenticeships). While others will appeal more to more mature people (like short summer courses at the Regent's Park centre, near London Zoo). As the college is a charity the course are inexpensive or free for UK and EU residents, and they even pay students £30 per week if they are young, not too wealthy, and starting out in further education.