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Gables vegetable curry

Using half a butternut squash and a small tromboncino, three assorted chilli peppers, a couple of onions, a good helping of tomatoes and some diced potatoes plus cumin and turmeric and Jerusalem spice

Cooked slowly for an hour or two

To be eaten later with rice and accompanied with home made chutney
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A flash of red amongst the gloom

Most of the trees have shed their leaves, the sky is grey and the ploughed up fields are brown and muddy

Above my head the throaty, noise of a helicopter. I almost feel like ducking.

Then I remind myself that I am, fortunately, not living in a war zone. The news from Ukraine is grim with news reports on the one o’clock radio news almost too hard to bear. Worse to live in the reality. Beautiful cities destroyed and thousands of beautiful lives destroyed too. War is hell. I carry on walking across the footpath and all around are green shoots pushing up through the earth. Then, as I pass my friend’s house I stop to admire the Firethorn bushes

There is beauty amongst the gloom and I will continue to see the bright colours under grey skies
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Autumn – tidy up time

J has been pruning the willows down by the pond. The goats and the sheep love willow. In bygone years willow used to be grown as cattle and sheep fodder. This is still practised in New Zealand. Aspirin was originally made from willow bark and willow bark was used medicinally by ancient civilisations

Click below