I love Springwatch! It’s a real favourite in our house, though is it just me or does it seem to hit our screens later and later each year? Anyway no matter, I love the drama of the nature stories that unfold over the series. The fledglings, the quirky creatures, the ideas to inspire you to get outside into nature, the useful info highlighting the challenges facing our natural world and what steps we can take to protect and preserve. This series I’ve particularly loved the feature on Kate Bradbury turning her garden into a haven for wildlife. It’s made me really question our garden and what we can do to improve it for wildlife. Lately I’ve spent a lot of time studying our back garden and I’ve been able to observe the variety of wildlife already using our patch. We’ve got the obvious birds Robin, Blackbird, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Long-tailed Tit. However we’ve also seen Wren, Jay, Goldfinch, Woodpecker, Nuthatch and this week for the 1st time ever a Thrush! Not too shabby hey?! Plus we also spotted fledgling blue tits hopping around the garden – too cute to resist taking a few pics!
Any news of new material from the Brewis brothers (aka Field Music) is met with great excitement in our house. So it was with great joy that I woke on Thursday morning to hear that David Brewis has released a brand new album with his School of Language project. Called ’45’ it’s a concept album about the 45th US president (yes the orange one who won’t be named here) Seriously funky basslines combined with the usual thought-provoking and witty lyrics – I think it’s safe to say this will be on heavy rotation in our house over the coming months. It’s out now to stream via your platform of choice and the physical version is coming on 26th July (yellow vinyl people… just saying).
I’ve been really getting into podcasts lately and the Deliciously Ella podcast is fantastic. Whether you follow a plant-based lifestyle or not, we can all learn something from the ideas explored in these episodes. Covering a wide variety of topics from Food Waste, Mental Health, Gut Health, Sustainable Fashion, Stress and many more. These episodes are really thought-provoking whilst also offering practical advice. I always come away from listening feeling really positive and empowered to make simple changes however small.
- Gardening
I’ve been able to spend more time in the garden lately and I’m beginning to see real signs of progress. My current mantra is ‘Progress not Perfection’ as I have a tendency to get despondent when things aren’t completed immediately. So I’m forcing myself to challenge this viewpoint – give myself a break and celebrate the small victories. So this week I’m pleased to celebrate planting my courgettes outside (grown from seed) and completing and filling my new veg trug with lettuce plants (kindly donated by my friends at Little Menherion).
I don’t know about you but I definitely find myself craving more fresh, light and simple meals at this time of year. So I was excited to try out this recipe from Olive magazine. It uses ready rolled puff pastry which makes it really easy to make. The recipe uses asparagus and peas but obviously you can alter it to use whatever spring veg is in season (I used baby courgettes). The ricotta adds a real creaminess and the dressing is so delicious and zingy that it really enhances the freshness of the veg. I served the tart with buttery jersey royal potatoes tossed with chives and a simple salad.
Sitting in the Kitchen Sink 