Gardening Organically & Cooking

Beautiful day here in S. E. England, so I took advantage of it. I sowed winter lettuce in a trough in the greenhouse, and also sowed land cress, mizuna and rocket in trays. I use home made compost and add liquid manure to it i.e. chicken manure steeped in water. A couple of days ago I boiled rosehips and cooking apples until they were soft. I then left the mixture to strain through a jelly bag. I didn't have time to make the jelly so I put the liquid in the fridge. Today, I m...ade the jelly. Phew, it's always difficult to judge when the fruit has set. I also made macaroni cheese and cooked potato, carrots and runner beans from the garden for lunch. For desert I had stewed Bramley Apples - the apples from the garden. Then, with a little time left over I made scones to have with butter and homemade jam before I give my daughter a hand with her children this evening. All in all a very satisfying morning.

Writing and Rainy Days

I enjoy organic gardening as much as I enjoy writing historical fiction. Unless the weather is really bad I usually manage to do something or other in the garden. However, when it pours with rain and I don't want to dash in and out of the greenhouse, it's good to stay indoors writing or tidying up my office. On other occasions I tidy up the entire house.

Organic Gardening

As well as growing herbs, fruit and vegetables I also grow ornamentals, sometimes interspersed with the latter. I'm aiming for an English style cottage garden. Today I planted primulas and pansies in the rose bed to give winter colour, and I re-potted my blueberries in fresh ericaceous compost. Another mild day but the weather is about to change. Nevertheless I hope to get a lot more done before the first frosts.

Writing and Gardening

A friend wrote in her newsletter that Stephen King said novelists should finish a new book in 3 months. Ouch, it's taken me much longer to write each of mine. Anyway, this morning I wrote Chapter 27 of my new novel, Monday's Child (the sequel to Sunday's Child) set in the Regency era, and began the next chapter. Approximately 7,000 words to write before I finish the book, revise and edit it before I submit it. Phew!

I spent the rest of the morning working in the greenhouse and the garden. I picked tomatoes, cucumbers, runner beans and radishes, planted out lettuces weeded and tidied up. It's a sunny day, the sky is blue and the bees were busy collecting nectar from the lavender and other flowers.

Now I'm tapping away on the laptop with my feet up. Later on I'll probably pop out in the garden to do a bit more.

Busy Morning, Writing, Gardening, Cooking

I enjoyed myself this morning working on 'writerly matters', mostly applying scribbled notes in my shorthand notepad, looking for places to let people know about my historical novels.

At ten o'clock I went into the garden where I planted out purple sprouting broccoli, which I shall enjoy next year. I did some weeding, picked runner beans to prepare for the freezer, apples, pears and tomatoes.

Next I pulled up the last of the white radishes, aka mooli aka daikon. I made spiced mung with thinly sliced mooli in it and ate it with brown rice at lunch time.

Organic Garden in Autumn

September 3rd, autumn is here in S. East England although the weather is mild the leaves are beginning to change colour.

As a vegetarian (I don't eat meat, fish or eggs) my ambition is to be as self-sufficient as possible throughout the year. At the moment, my curly kale and black kale, cabbages, chard, New Zealand spinach and lots of herbs are flourishing in my organic garden and will last until spring. Under cover there are cherry tomatoes and three other varieties ripening including a delicious grafted one called Indigo Rose, as well as cucumbers. And there are other vegetables such as carrots, lettuce, white radish aka mooli aka daikon, small radishes and much more.

This morning I planted out spring greens, aka collards, and covered them with netting to keep off the pigeons, which would strip the leaves bare. I will also plant out purple sprouting broccoli to enjoy in the spring. In the meantime I shall grow winter salads in the greenhouse and move the tender herbs into it.

The Good and The Bad

One Year On

This time last year I was mourning the death of my mother at the age of one hundred. Although the last years of her life were impaired by macular vision and hearing loss, she remained mentally alert. When asked how she was, Mum always replied she was amongst life’s lucky ones because she had a lovely flat in a retirement home, good health compared to many others and sufficient money as well as a loving family. ‘Some people of my age,’ she said, ‘have no one and others have families who scarcely keep in touch.’

Mum’s last birthday was on Boxing Day, 2012. She enjoyed her party and took pleasure in her card from the Queen. On the night of the 28th she left her body in her sleep.

I still miss her very much but am not selfish enough to wish she had lived on suffering from ill health.

My nine year old grandson write this moving tribute to her, which the teacher did not dare to read to the class for fear she would cry.

Death

Why do people have to die?
Why can’t they stay with us forever?

When Mum and Dad told me Great Grandma had died
It felt as though all the happiness had been sucked out of the world by a giant black hole.
My heart had completely deflated.
No one can describe death.

If me and my dad and all the people who came for my great grandma could build a ladder to get her down
We really truly would.
Nobody can describe death.

In the church at the funeral, sadness on everyone’s faces,
My heart was in my boots,
It was like despair had taken over.
It was like the world was black.
Tears filled my eyes as people said all the kind things my great grandma had done.
I fought hard to keep them back.
But hearing all the good things she had done my heart filled like a champion weight lifter pushing it up.
Nobody can describe death.

Death creates a big black hole in you but you can fill it up with happy memories of the person that died.
But still…Nobody can describe death.







When he read it to me over the phone, tears welled up in my eyes, but I restrained my grief, remembering a quotation from the translation of The Bhagavad-Gita As It Is by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. “As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death.

This year I have achieved so much that my mother would have been pleased with. Three of my novels will be published in 2012. I have had two articles, first Baroness Orczy, and then The Scarlet Pimpernel, and a third, Samuel Pepys, will also be published in 2012 by Vintage Press.

I’m fortunate to be able to have children and grandchildren who I love dearly, to write historical fiction and articles and to garden organically. As Mum advised me, I’m counting my blessings.

My garden’s been very productive this year. From the time the rhubarb was ready to eat to now, when I have herbs and vegetables – Swiss chard, New Zealand Spinach, parsnips, turnips, red and green kale, brussel sprouts, – in the garden - carrots, marrows and pumpkins stored in the garden shed, and home grown veggies and fruit in the freezer, I have been at least 60% self-sufficient. The only disaster was the fate of 40 kilos of home grown potatoes stored in Hessian sacks in the garden shed which mice nibbled. They even nibbled the sacks!

Hopefully, 2012 will be happy for all of us, and I wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year in which all your dreams come true.

Rosemary Morris
Historical Novelist

New releases from MuseItUp.
Tangled Love 27th January 2012.

Sunday’s Child June, 2012.
False Pretences, October 2012