flame and bubbles

Angel party playing The Transformation Game, a spookily accurate spiritual game devised at Findhorn. Wonderfully light humour pervades it.

Toby thoroughly enjoyed it

Freedom

playing snacking laughing

chocolate buttons, walnut and crisps

bubbles and trees

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Mither Tap against sun

but it didn’t, so we did not have to brave the mines of Moria, 3 times up and down Bennachie accomplished and quite a bit of money raised for the trees :) My legs hurt today!

at the bottom of the Mither Tap path

top of first climb up steep Mither tap path

down the Donview way

caterpillar

back up on top and heading down Rowan

These new signs help to avoid confusion, there are even paths at the bottom linking different carparks so you can go down different ways without reclimbing if you wish

no such plan for us - back up Rowan

This was the toughest climb being our third, even though it is the easiest path and most gentle slope.

resting on way up - some of the shoes did not make it (5 years old, ethical wares, much walking done)

reaching top 3rd time

steep final descent

down down down

treat picnic at bottom

rose cupcakes

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dunes

Had a wonderful afternoon with friends, sea swimming and boogie boarding – walking over dunes beforehand. Then another busy day yesterday at a home ed group viking re-enactment workshop (associated with the Dufftown Heritage Festival this weekend), also visiting Balvenie Castle and Banff Museum (which is exactly as I remember it as a child, slightly disturbing). 

had picnic by the river Deveron in Huntly

Balvenie Castle door

looking down to hall

window

club with spikes

bits and pieces

battling vikings

Saw some of the lovely t-shirts made by one of the families in the group being beautifully modelled – they have home ed, breast feeding, Pictish and Celtic designs (Charlotte has the Celtic tree one). They have bags too

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OS thing at top, Pictish walls visible

Practice triple climb of other hills! Tap O’ Noth first, then Dunnydeer twice.

a tough climb this one

up we go

then on Dunnydeer, Tap o' Noth in misty distance

down the other side of dunnydeer, before going back up and home

beautiful hill

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Peregrine Wildwatch Centre

Wonderful place this, great home ed group event there

quarry face where the nest is

red squirrel

female peregrine in tree - she was making a lot of noise!

fast

building a hide

impression of a caterpillar called Bob

best friends

a few more pics in our home education set on flickr

and a short video of the squirrels below, much topical talking in background…

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Fantine and Toby - not the best of friends but they will share a sunspot

and some ballet feet pics:

in parallel

rise

must learn to pull socks up

… gardening snowed off today… much hilarity reading P.G. Wodehouse’s Laughing Gas

 

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The only crocus to survive intensive rabbit grazing

beautiful biscuits for a ballet day with the girls...

cake too, no anorexic dancing here

poor mangled nut feeder - deer trample it to get the peanuts out!

soon there will be daffs

willow catkins and the sky

chives

parsley

 free veg seeds from the bbc here

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Dance mania continues with ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary being studied :)

Books and films amany dug out to accompany this in fine home educating fashion. The Ballet Companion is a gorgeous book, it’s been to good for me to read that things have come on with problems such as eating disorders and painful pointework (ouch pouches – love them!) being dealt with much more compassionately in general. High quality vegan ballet shoes are even available As for films… oh so many, from White Nights to A Chorus Line, loving them all, also deeply appreciative of friends sharing the enthusiasm and cost of DVD purchase… Had a nice time reading over T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats and then watching Cats and boring delighting others with tales of cast members I knew/was taught by or with… same goes for Billy Elliot… ah to be an old “when I was young — fill in with unbelievable sounding fact–” person – it’s great fun!!

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Had a lovely day with friends morphing into a very balletic afternoon which was great fun. It’s been wonderful rediscovering ballet being for enjoyment, rather than an eternal striving (not to mention starving) for perfection. Looked out the old class music etc. I have but it’s all on cassettes – technology moved on a bit fast for me there

Watched Fast Food Nation (quite good trailer there on amazon), fictional film based on the non-fiction book – strong stuff, a round of exploitation to go with the fries… good cast, making it very watchable though gradually more horrifying.

 

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We will have been married 20 years this year… which causes me to reflect how far weve come, how much the world has changed in that time and to note the two items above. They were given to us as a wedding present by friends who I used to babysit for and here they are still with us, I don’t think any other dish we own has survived that long! The Cranks Recipe Book sparked my interest at once, as I had eaten in their restaurant in London while a student, and it called to mind lovely brick walls and earthenware plates of hearty soup (they now have one restaurant in Devon). 

It really taught me to cook, being the only cookery title I had at the time (bit of a change there then) in our first flat that we loved so much. I was fairly clueless when it came to the culinary arts. I remember phoning my mum at times with questions such as ‘how do you cook a neep? I can’t even seem to cut it up’. With the book I learned to bake bread, make cakes and the wonderfully frugal crecy plate pie, prepare soups and casseroles got put in the dish It influenced me in more subtle ways too. Being the one and only it got thoroughly read and I absorbed the health oriented nature of the pages, reading for example, how much adding fresh herbs enhanced the nutritional value of the food. I remember the excitement of planting up a small herb garden and reading more deeply into these subjects. Looking at it now I notice all the cheesy recipes but you could just use any one of the many vegan cheeses available now or leave it out altogether. 

Bit different when we first went vegan - a vegan cookbook obtained from the library that shall remain nameless (mainly as I can’t remember it’s name, I think it was somewhat generic, but also I do not want to slander it as it may have had other redeeming recipes) was responsible for me making a vegan cheese out of marg and yeast extract 13 years ago – absolutely disgusting, totally foul!!

So, my cranks book, heavily marked with food, water and childrens crayons. It is now available in a swanky new asparagus covered edition but you can still pick up the original for a penny

As for the dish, it still gets used though not as much anymore. The odd apple/rhubarb crumble is popped in it. I now favour my big Le Creuset that you can cook on the hob and in the oven with – very handy for making a sheperdess/red dragon pie base in and just putting mashed tatties on top and then into the oven it goes. I am very lucky to also have two similar cast iron AGA pans/casseroles given to us by another friend who had them sitting unwanted and unused in his garage, and these are my 3 usual dinner cooking pans now.

Weve always been blessed with friendship I am currently reading Walking to Greenham sent to me by a wonderful woman and friend… a fascinating book and I find myself contemplating the larger worldwide changing of the times. What will the next 20 years bring?

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