Among the trees… | blog of the Vegan Family House

moon during eclipse

Posted by Lucy on December 10, 2011

moon and snowy fields

moon

bloggage, food and snow

raised beds

something fell from the sky again

Posted in only pics | Tagged Scotland, snow | 8 Comments

winter

Posted by Lucy on December 6, 2011

loch

trees

frosty

a youtube mix

a balmy -5 today

Posted in only pics, woods | Tagged snow, trees, views | 5 Comments

slightly festive thoughts

Posted by Lucy on December 4, 2011

this is happening outside this morning

see that orange glow at the side? Sitting room fire reflected in window

Have just added a ‘pick of the vegan Christmas chocolate’ bit to the chocolate room. Here it is:

Hotel Chocolat’s Gianduja Bombe, the Moo Free choc Santa and
Rudolph The Reindeer from hotel chocolat again…

Also added this Pyramid Rosemary Tree to the Yule page:

rosemary tree in red pot from suttons

We have a really old (21 years) rosemary tree in a pot outside which still gives us lovely flavour and nutrients all year round

our vitamix

Was quite excited to discover our favourite food prep appliance ever, the Vitamix (page on it here with lots of blendy recipes) is now available at both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com as are Blendtecs

That was a lot of linkage, off for a long walk in the small amount of snow now

hedgehog and chocolate crispies :)

easing back in

flower power

Posted in food, garden, vegan products | Tagged festive, herbs | 4 Comments

heron in the trees

Posted by Lucy on November 27, 2011

suspected of eating frogs in the pond

photos

Chessmen and Star Wars shoes

kissing is still in fashion

Posted in garden, only pics | Tagged frogs, wildlife | 5 Comments

far over the misty mountains cold…

Posted by Lucy on November 15, 2011

but no dungeons deep or caverns old…

we start with a mince pie

up through the trees

onto the mountain face

Hill in question: Bennachie

mither tap obscured by mist

misty cairn

and yes, a moo free chocolate Santa made it up there… very impressive on his fat little legs *patronises chocolate fondly*

aww bless...

patchwork

Loudon Wood, feet and newts

Transformation

Posted in ancient stones, food, friends, vegan products, woods | Tagged mountain, Scotland, sweet, views, walk | 3 Comments

toad in the hole

Posted by Lucy on November 13, 2011

toad in the hole with onion gravy, peas and roast tatties

Turned out lovely, soft and light and delicious. Here’s what I did:

cook sausages in hot oven (chocolate cake beside optional)

once sausages are nearly cooked, pour over batter

once sausages are nearly cooked, pour over the batter

Batter made thus: mix 5 tablespoons of self raising flour with 3 tablespoons of gram (chick pea) flour, a pinch of salt and a pinch of bicarb. Beat in enough soya milk to make a creamy pouring batter. This quantity was to cover 12 sausages, adjust as needed.

back into hot oven until it looks like this (maybe 20 mins?)

Yum, yum, yum.

that's a roast potato

photos

cake and wood

Scotch Broth

Posted in food | Tagged cooking | 6 Comments

lots of pictures of a digger

Posted by Lucy on November 12, 2011

yellow and blue

I’m not actually trying to appeal to an entirely new demographic (three year old boys) but I like the contrasts here; well I like the colors, the conflicting realities of the situation are not quite so pleasing. Wind turbines are great but lovely trees being destroyed to make way for them seems an ironic destruction. Miles of track has been widened to let the much larger crane in and many very large Scots Pines have had chunks carved out of them… *primal urge to protect trees kicks in, glares at digger*

resuming pretty colors…

big digger

dig

The picture does not convey quite how large and deep that hole is – if you fall in there you’re not coming out!

hmm... would quite like a go, actually... no tree hurting obviously...

and because I love it, The JCB Song:

wild garlic

a casserole and a cookbook

mellow

Posted in music, odd, woods | Tagged big bad, Scotland, views | Comments Off

kissing is still in fashion

Posted by Lucy on November 5, 2011

title proved by gorse flowers

No matter how cold it gets there’s always one somewhere

Seasonal bits:

Frugal Christmas and Vegan Yule have been updated and weeded free of dead links and outdated information. Lebkuchen from Lidl now contain butter

Drawing attention to Rose Elliot’s Vegetarian Christmas just now (see last years blog review of it) as it is currently still available for 1p from marketplace sellers on Amazon. That will change nearer Christmas.

A new inhabitant of the wood shed, he joins the toads for winter, they will probably not be kissing…