Slow Living

It is always lovely to look back and reflect on what you have done over the previous weeks or months, taking stock, observing changes and celebrating achievements.  Even better if you can join together and see hat others have been doing too in their part of the world, blogging is a wonderful way of making the world a smaller place.  Christine over a Slow Living Essentials started this wonderful reflection and has now passed the baton onto Linda at Greenhaven for the monthly linkup  here are mine for November...

...nourish we have moved into root season, most of what we eat over the coming months is root vegetables.  I am loving this at the moment but I know by early Spring I will be yearning for the lightness of some Spring veg which is always slow in coming.  For now we are enjoying the delights of Colcannon and Root Veg and Blue Cheese Bake amongst others.

...prepare I have made a lot of soup this month eating some but much of it ending up in the freezer to be used over the coming months for extras at lunch when we fancy soup as well as whatever else we are having.  I have also made a huge batch of rolls, instant lunch!

...reduce we celebrated a birthday this month which always means more stuff coming into the house. It is at birthdays and Christmas that I usually have a big clear out.  So this month I have been finding bits and pieces from all over the house that we make no use of anymore.  I regularly clear out the children's clothes with the changes of the season anyway this was about books, toys and similar.  I had a huge bag of books and games to take to the charity shop, it was so heavy I am surprised I managed to carry it!  The spaces they left have soon been filled by the piles of things without homes!

...green despite my making considerable use of it I have realised that I have never posted about bicarb of soda or as some call it baking soda.  Since finding that I could not tolerate Limonene on my skin, an ingredient in all the household cleaners and toiletries in my house I have been using this as a replacement.  It has become my shampoo, my surface cleaner on all surfaces including floors, a carpet deodoriser, to make deodorant and toothpaste, a dishwasher powder and a washing powder for clothes!

...grow you would be forgiven for thinking that not a lot was growing in my garden at the moment given the cool temperatures at this time of year but I have been amazed to find that some lettuce plants that I sewed late in the summer are still going strong.  We are having regular frosts but still these plants are fine.  They are not growing but they are big enough that I can pick leaves each week for my lunch!  This month has been about tidying up in the garden, weeding and dead heading.  My compost bin is very grateful for the extra food!  I have sown garlic and spring bulbs in readiness for next year.  I have also got round to doing a job I have been meaning to do for about five years, dividing my rhubarb plant.  You can only do it in the dormant period of the plant which is about now, end of Autumn/beginning of Winter.  It is usually so horrible weather wise at that time of year, either we are covered in snow or it is wet and grey, but it is now done, I am hoping that I have not killed the plant of completely time will tell.......

...create it has been another busy month on the creative front, making presents mostly.  I have sewn up a bag for my mum to carry her music out and about in, I noticed she was using a sturdy paper bag when I last visited.  I have also sewn five fabric bowls from this lovely book they are really quick to make up!  I have also made another cape a birthday present for a friend of my youngest.  My needles have been busy too making hats, one for me, and one you can read about below, and rows on a cardigan for me, a vest and a scarf as a present.  I also managed to finish of a cardigan that has been waiting for buttons and ends weaving in, it is lovely and warm, perfect of the cooler weather we now have.

...discover I love to cook, always from scratch.  I posted about my recipe books and how I use them earlier this month.  I have come across a few books recently on the web that are about the wonderful food of the Middle East, of Lebanon, Iran, Syria to name but a few and I discovered one in the library that I have been reading this month.  It is the best kind of book about food, one with recipes interwoven with life, in this case that of the author Anissa Helou.  The recipes make me want to head straight into the kitchen and start chopping.

...enhance I knitted a hat this month, nothing special in that I suppose but it was knitted for a lady I have never met nor am I likely too.  A fellow blogger put out a request for knitted hats for a friend of hers who was about to start chemotherapy, the hats were to keep her head warm in the cold of winter as the chemo usually results in hair loss.  The hat was knitted and sent to the US with my best wishes for her recovery.

...enjoy the highlight this month has been celebrating the birth of my eldest.  He turned ten which felt like a significant age to reach, I am sure I will say that when he reaches other ages in the next few years too!  In some ways it doesn't feel as if I have been a parent for ten years, but in others well.........!  We didn't have a party because that is not my eldest's style we had three days of fun.  First with a day out birdwatching, the middle day his actual birthday we spent at forest school and the last day he had a friend over for an afternoon play and tea.