Firstly, friends of ours are now running a self catering ‘gite’ in the South of France for vegetarians and vegans – it all looks so beautiful: Le Mimosa (link deactivated as no longer running)

Next this fab compilation of recipes, been leafing through it hungrily this morning Has a bit about veganism, then soups, mains, desserts, savoury snacks, side dishes and sauces, cakes and cookies. Here’s Jill’s bit about it:

The books are free to animal sanctuaries to help them to fundraise. They come in boxes of 50 (!) but obviously can be ordered in less or more quantities. They cost £2 each -plus postage/courier - to animal helping groups (again, to fundraise) and for individual sales (presents etc) they cost £6 each from me (includes P&P). This money is then used to help pay for the free postage/courier to sanctuaries. (think is all sold out now)

Went to a really good workshop run by REAP recently – we all learned a lot. Was very interesting to see how they calculate carbon emmisions etc. Everyone more inspired to switch things off ;) I especially loved the brainstorming bit with all the kids – what great ideas they do have

Related posts:

Found a gorgeous shop in Portree on holiday – Skye Batiks. They give you tea/coffee when you go in and are generally very friendly and welcoming. Puffin and Celtic Cross in background:

It’s actually hot today (bear in mind I have lived here a long time and have a possibly skewed idea of hot). Brilliant sunshine. Took some foot photos at the beach – there were lots more, but I’ve spared you ;) Love the colour of the water and rocks below - never seen the tide so far out there before.

and a close up of my lovely boots from Ethical Wares – 4 years, many hills climbed and still going strong

came home and made veg and barley soup

Related posts:

Basic vanilla sponge recipe like this one (minus the choc chips and pecans mentioned there obviously). Blend a punnet of rasps (keep some back for decoration) with a carton of Granovita’s Creamovita (this is really thick like whipping cream) and some icing sugar – fill and cover cake with this It’s VERY VERY good!

Related posts:

Just finished reading ‘Look Me in the Eye – my life with aspergers’ by John Elder Robison. It is a totally fascinating read on several levels. He has had an interesting life, developing amplifiers and special effects for Kiss and Pink Floyd in the past, moving on to the toy industry then eventually starting his own business restoring fine European automobliles. His childhood was harrowing, growing up with a mother with severe mental health issues and a father who became an alcoholic. His younger brother has also written his memoirs of these times in the rather better known Running With Scissors, which I am keen to read now.

Obviously I find John’s views and ideas about aspergers absorbing. I agree so much with what he says about why some kids with asd become very badly behaved or even violent – the way other people treat them leads to a lot of frustration building up. As a child he played some really bizarre tricks on people – incredibly well thought out and clever but quite disturbing too. He hated school, never fitted in and left at 15. It’s at this part of the book that we begin to see him shine. He channels his own talents and expertise into finding work and a life for himself. Never boastful, it seems as if he doesn’t realise just quite how well he has done. It’s rare and special when someone achieves work that they love and makes a good living that way. Thinking of various aspies I’ve known/know, I wonder if they are actually better at managing this than the rest? The ability to think your own way and not take on peer group ideas is strong… hmm… just my own thoughts there.

I loved the latter section of the book where John talks about his relationships in a beautifully logical, slightly bemused way. His love for his son is wonderful and I found it most humerous how he talks about this and everyone he loves. So a fab book all round, much aspergian wisdom dispensed within :D The author’s site is also very good.

Related posts:

Lynda came to stay amid snow flurries and endowed us with gifts, some of which got eaten/drunk before I thought to take a pic… but it’s a nice seasonal one anyway

Related posts:

Fab cheap beanburgers recipe submitted by Jane (ages ago – so disorganised!) up on the frugal site here

I got all arty with the breakfast smoothie, which was very good by the way. For four people – punnet of rasps, handful of cashews, 2 medjool dates, tablespoon of raw cacao nibs, 1 avocado, red grape juice and water to cover:

Related posts:

…lots of gardening been going on, between torrential rain showers. Weve planted up propragaters with various planned things: kale, brocolli (early sprouting), celery and tomatoes;  toms I intend growing on in the front porch. I won’t detail them but I may have nightmares about the strange plants the kids chose and that are now growing in their rooms!! I have a new little polytunnel thing and am experimenting with earlier growing of salad leaves in there at the moment. Hopefully gales will not steal it away across the fields.

On a related note: the British Potato Council ’s free potatoes for schools growing kits are available to home educators too… though I think it’s too late to register for this year but you can get your name down for next (for primary age kids). A lady called Carolyn Redmond confirmed that it’s open for HEs and people have been putting that in the promotional code bit

Been looking through the BBC education news section… the song ‘Mad World’ seem to run as incidental music in my head there sometimes. But I thought this was a great idea, have always felt that homework was a such a waste of time, with the exception of reading (though given the standard of the reading scheme books my kids got from school that was quite useless too. The books we had at home taught them to read and love literature). Then this issue of obese children, I don’t really see how schools can counteract the eating habits learned and enabled at home. The article does detail some interesting stuff going on, involving parents too though. I recall an incident with the free fruit for P1 and 2 kids at school. Parents had to sign their permission for the children to have the fruit and one parent refused, saying her child did not like fruit or veg and wasn’t to have any. Now the child in question tasted someone elses grapes and then came asking for some – we were not allowed to give them. We turned a blind eye to her taking a pack for herself – how daft is that? Same child only ever had sweets in her packed lunch and was quite overweight

So, a little blog, finding a new way ahead. Will unfold itself naturally in time I’m sure… feels strange not mentioning some stuff now deliberately (like I ever remembered and wrote it all anyway :rolls: ). So ending up with a couple of photos:

a favourite game

The sun has come out so we are off on our bikes before the next rain… going on different runs now out on tarmacked roads. What a treat after the rough going of the wood tracks, where you can ride over something akin to a bear trap and be flung into a bush with no warning. Were coming back much less bruised

Related posts:

Bit of a drama yesterday afternoon. We found a baby seal on the beach, lying on it’s side and twitching quite badly. Seemed to be in distress. A lot of human and canine footprints all around it in the sand (I was suspecting foul play). Phoned the sspca on the mobile and they told us they always wait 24 hours with seals to see what happens. Apparantly they do tend to lie on their sides – it’s called ‘banana-ing’ but they didn’t like the sound of the twitching. It was agreed that we would come back down this morning to see if it had moved or what the situation was. It was beginning to get dark so we just gave the seal some reiki and wished it well. It sat up then and shuffled around a bit – big brown eyes like a dog, but then it lay down and seemed to go to sleep. Daniel ran around the beach asking people to put their dogs on leads – think he may have been a little forceful with the request as I saw a few slightly alarmed looks and most people complied at once!

So this morning, in some trepidation, having prepared kids for worst case scenarios, we headed back down there. Charlotte spotted the place and we found the seals drag tracks leading back down to the sea. It had obviously stayed on the beach several hours by where the tracks ended at the tide line. So were all very happy

Related posts:

O Caledonia! stern and wild,

Meet nurse for a poetic child!

Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,

Land of the mountain and the flood,

Land of my sires! what mortal hand

Can e’er untie the filial band

That knits me thy rugged strand!

(The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Sir Walter Scott)

After dancing (easier routine today) and Italian we launched into a Burn’s/Scotland appreciation day. Studied Tam O Shanter and listened to Malcolm Arnold’s music on this CD, which provided nice backing for our supper too.  Davie read A Red Red rose, (also listened to song version), I read To A Mouse and the kids chose favoured bits from Tam. I went first and was followed by what I took to be a stunned, possibly horrified silence. Charlotte reassured me – “no mum, were just in awe”

Dug out my Granny’s crystal decanter, which has lived in cupboards for years – how silly…

Cranachan recipe can be found here and you can buy vegan haggis here

This was the only Scottish thing we could find for a tablecloth. Sadly both Scottish flags have become rather racist symbols in Scotland now, a sort of ‘go back home, English people’ thing – we do not share these sentiments and use it in it’s traditional, Scotland-loving sense

and we finished with Auld Lang Syne on the treble recorder

Related posts:

Got up early this morning and made bread dough – it rose as everyone else got up and some housework got done. Then we made it into calzones and focaccia.

Left them to rise as we did our dancing – really hard workout today, the female teacher does not break the steps down as well as the man… Into the oven with the breads as we spoke Italiano – adding in some of these BBC dialogues as it fits with our course, quite good.

Then…ah, they were gorgeous

After our daily soujourn with Miss Garnet in Venice we played around with balance in the woods

Kids have joined an email group for home ed teens… they had fun reading through previous messages and setting it all up…

Burns night tomorrow – I couldn’t remember doing a proper Burns thing since starting HE… why not, thinks me? Blog is so useful for looking back at stuff like this – of course last year it was the day before we moved so we were hardly going to go boiling haggis and mashing neeps… I see now that we were at Brodie Castle the year before that and had Balmoral pie… full macoy tomorrow I think

Related posts: