I have to confess to being a little obsessive and competitive when it comes to my garden.
I blame the weather. Not in a complaining whinging kind of way. No that would not do. But in a matter of fact this is the way it is, how I can I beat the weather and grow what I want, kind of way.
If the climate was reasonable and delivered adequate sunny periods followed by just enough rain to refresh the plants and keep them growing I would not be at all obsessive. If the climate did not send howling winds and pounding rain or if it did not serve up snow and frosts at unseasonable times of the year I would not be obsessive. But sad to say the weather around here is totally non-interested in playing fair and sends all sorts of isobaric challenges to confound the home gardener. And so I have resorted to obsessive tactics to get the upper hand.
Like making little plastic shelters for my plants and covering the ground with sheep dags to keep the heat in. It is of course questionable how effective these measures are. If I was really honest I would have to admit they are not really effective at all. The weather usually wins and it would be cheaper to buy vegetables rather than wrestle with the elements and try and produce my own.
However, while the weather seriously influences the success of crops like beans, corn, pumpkin and tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage and yams do grow well no matter what the weather. So I can win if I am selective about which crops I grow but there is not much of a challenge in that is there? And incidentally I should add broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage and yams grow well only if the foraging chickens do not scratch them up. Yes I battle chickens too.
My ultimate coup against the weather is growing chillis and okra. Impossible, I hear you exclaim. Not so. Last year I raised four okra plants and one chilli on the window sill at work. I took them on holiday with me over Christmas and brought them back to work in mid-January. They flowered happily and produced a crop which I joyfully ate.
Admittedly it was not a bumper crop but it still counted as a victory which makes me the vanquisher I believe.
Saturday 26 November 2011
Saturday 19 November 2011
Testing one, two
I had a revelation this week I am hoping will help me deal with life better. The revelation was simply that each day a series of tests will come my way. The way I respond to the test will determine whether I pass or fail it. Staying calm, patient, polite and self-controlled equates to a pass and losing the plot, panicking, getting angry and rude is a fail.
I am sure I already knew life was full of little tests but as I was reminded of it again, I thought I had better take more notice of it this time.
It all started when things did not go to plan for some of the people who are part of my life. Safely from the sideline I watched them respond to various situations mostly with complaining and criticising. I thought to myself, in a sanctimonious sort of way, their response to what was happening to them was not helping them much.
And it occurred to me, as I watched from my comfortable chair on the sideline, life is a series of tests and challenges. The way we respond to them has the ability to either make us feel worse about the situation or help us come to a place where we find a solution. Sometimes there may be no solution but to walk through the situation. Whatever the case if we can respond calmly and not get too emotional or defensive then the situation will not threaten to swamp us and we will feel much better about ourselves. Because I think that is one of the biggest challenges of a test. I suspect the thing we have to learn to avoid in a test is the negative way it makes us feel about ourselves.When things turn to custard we often blame ourselves or end up feeling a failure or attacked or worthless. We also tend to attack others.
While I was pondering the subject of tests in other people's lives and feeling rather smug that I was not experiencing too many difficulties, things started to turn custardy for me. And I have to say it is much more fun watching other people being sifted than being sifted yourself. During a two day period at least three situations occurred that really challenged me. I noticed that even though it looked like I was passing the test on the outside, because I appeared calm and was not complaining, on the inside I was a dithering, woe-is-me mess. While my thoughts were in turmoil I was not good at relating to people and there was a greater chance I would say the wrong thing. I also noticed that that some tests were harder to pass than others and some required time and effort to pass. Tests could be as simple as responding to someone not filling up the kettle to as difficult as someone complaining about the way you completed a job.
From all my musings and philosophising about tests I have concluded that I am not that well-equipped to deal with them and need a plan to help me as they pop up in my life so I have developed a two pronged approach. Firstly I need to have my official position on tests sorted. I need to live my life with the philosophy that tests are inevitable but they are also good. I need to welcome and not avoid them. A test is an opportunity to stay calm in the midst of a crisis, an opportunity to stay self-controlled and practise patience. An opportunity to grow up some more. Secondly I needed to know what steps to take when a test appears. I decided a good response to a test would be to quickly take a deep breath and a step back from the situation and respond calmly with the thought goody-another-test-I-wonder- what-I-can-learn, before responding to the actual test itself.
It all seems a bit simplistic and naive to think that this two-pronged approach could work but I do not want to live my life being sabotaged and ambushed by things that happen to me. There seems to be something powerful and releasing about recognising life is not always easy and challenges will come my way. When a test does come, being able to identify it as such, seems to take the sting out of its tail.
I may not be able to control what happens to me but I sure can control how I will react. Responding calmly, patiently and politely is something I want to be consistently expert at and it will not happen unless I am purposeful and deliberate about it.
I am sure I already knew life was full of little tests but as I was reminded of it again, I thought I had better take more notice of it this time.
It all started when things did not go to plan for some of the people who are part of my life. Safely from the sideline I watched them respond to various situations mostly with complaining and criticising. I thought to myself, in a sanctimonious sort of way, their response to what was happening to them was not helping them much.
And it occurred to me, as I watched from my comfortable chair on the sideline, life is a series of tests and challenges. The way we respond to them has the ability to either make us feel worse about the situation or help us come to a place where we find a solution. Sometimes there may be no solution but to walk through the situation. Whatever the case if we can respond calmly and not get too emotional or defensive then the situation will not threaten to swamp us and we will feel much better about ourselves. Because I think that is one of the biggest challenges of a test. I suspect the thing we have to learn to avoid in a test is the negative way it makes us feel about ourselves.When things turn to custard we often blame ourselves or end up feeling a failure or attacked or worthless. We also tend to attack others.
While I was pondering the subject of tests in other people's lives and feeling rather smug that I was not experiencing too many difficulties, things started to turn custardy for me. And I have to say it is much more fun watching other people being sifted than being sifted yourself. During a two day period at least three situations occurred that really challenged me. I noticed that even though it looked like I was passing the test on the outside, because I appeared calm and was not complaining, on the inside I was a dithering, woe-is-me mess. While my thoughts were in turmoil I was not good at relating to people and there was a greater chance I would say the wrong thing. I also noticed that that some tests were harder to pass than others and some required time and effort to pass. Tests could be as simple as responding to someone not filling up the kettle to as difficult as someone complaining about the way you completed a job.
From all my musings and philosophising about tests I have concluded that I am not that well-equipped to deal with them and need a plan to help me as they pop up in my life so I have developed a two pronged approach. Firstly I need to have my official position on tests sorted. I need to live my life with the philosophy that tests are inevitable but they are also good. I need to welcome and not avoid them. A test is an opportunity to stay calm in the midst of a crisis, an opportunity to stay self-controlled and practise patience. An opportunity to grow up some more. Secondly I needed to know what steps to take when a test appears. I decided a good response to a test would be to quickly take a deep breath and a step back from the situation and respond calmly with the thought goody-another-test-I-wonder- what-I-can-learn, before responding to the actual test itself.
It all seems a bit simplistic and naive to think that this two-pronged approach could work but I do not want to live my life being sabotaged and ambushed by things that happen to me. There seems to be something powerful and releasing about recognising life is not always easy and challenges will come my way. When a test does come, being able to identify it as such, seems to take the sting out of its tail.
I may not be able to control what happens to me but I sure can control how I will react. Responding calmly, patiently and politely is something I want to be consistently expert at and it will not happen unless I am purposeful and deliberate about it.
Friday 11 November 2011
One of my favourite things
I must confess I have a fascination for medlar trees. It all started one night when I walked around a certain town's public gardens with a garden club and someone commented in passing "that is a medlar tree". It was March and the cream coloured medlar fruit hang down on the tree stoicly waiting to ripen.
I remembered seeing a certain tv journalist-come-cook make medlar jelly and chutney with the leftover pulp. So I started to visit the medlar tree and researched when the fruit would be ripe.
According to my research the tree has delicate white flowers and some people grow the tree just for the flowers. It is also an ornamental tree shaped like an umbrella. It is belongs to the same family as roses, quinces, apples and pears. The fruit are golf ball size but if you cut it in half there is a six chambered hexagon shape that has a pip about the same size as an orange pip in it.
Medlar fruit are rather unusual in that when they are ready to eat or cook the flesh inside the skin is pulpy and brown. It has the consistency of stewed apple. Some would call it rotted but the correct term is bletted. Bletted the flesh has an interesting flavour - lightly spicy, fruity but somehow musty. An acquired taste really. Unbletted fruit leave an astringent rather unpleasant taste on the tongue.
I approached the council watchman of the certain public gardens about taking some of the fruit. With his approval I picked some just as they were beginning to blet. I left them in a box until the whole fruit was brown and pulpy.
Then I found recipes and made jelly and chutney. Both were a resounding success but I am keeping rather quiet about it because I don't want everyone visiting my medlar tree in the certain public gardens and knicking off with my medlars.
I remembered seeing a certain tv journalist-come-cook make medlar jelly and chutney with the leftover pulp. So I started to visit the medlar tree and researched when the fruit would be ripe.
According to my research the tree has delicate white flowers and some people grow the tree just for the flowers. It is also an ornamental tree shaped like an umbrella. It is belongs to the same family as roses, quinces, apples and pears. The fruit are golf ball size but if you cut it in half there is a six chambered hexagon shape that has a pip about the same size as an orange pip in it.
 |
| The medlar flower |
Medlar fruit are rather unusual in that when they are ready to eat or cook the flesh inside the skin is pulpy and brown. It has the consistency of stewed apple. Some would call it rotted but the correct term is bletted. Bletted the flesh has an interesting flavour - lightly spicy, fruity but somehow musty. An acquired taste really. Unbletted fruit leave an astringent rather unpleasant taste on the tongue.
I approached the council watchman of the certain public gardens about taking some of the fruit. With his approval I picked some just as they were beginning to blet. I left them in a box until the whole fruit was brown and pulpy.
 |
| This is a ripe (bletted) medlar ready to eat or jellify. |
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