- Had such a great, interesting weekend that today seems uber crap in comparison. Will have to strive for mediocre weekends in the future. #
- I have a lot of hate for HSBC's business internet banking atm. Can log in fine but then the site refuses load at certain times of day. Grr. #
- @SlowFoodWY @johnleach and I (and our doggie Lily) do very much fancy that! Our cheque will be in the post this afternoon :) in reply to SlowFoodWY #
- @davidsmalley a lot of people use it as a commuting route & i've never had any problems. Seen people having sex? yes, but no problems. :) in reply to davidsmalley #
- Finally in our new office! Desks a bit big really (4x the size of the table we were working off in Armley!) but great to have a base at last #
- Saw lots of spider mites in the field while walking the dog, now super itchy. Thanks spider mites. Thidermites. #
- @sarahjarvis we've got up to XXL in the unisex fit, would that be big enough for you two? ;) in reply to sarahjarvis #
- I've blogged about our chicken killing & sausage making from this weekend – http://bit.ly/chickenmdk & http://bit.ly/sausageomnom #
- @Caius there are a few fabric stands in the market – lower end. Usually another in the outside market too. All usually have some offcuts. in reply to Caius #
- @Caius Failing that, there is a haberdashery behind the organic shop opposite the corn exch, loads of fabric downstairs. Market cheaper tho. in reply to Caius #
- Has opted out of the NHS's Summary Care Record scheme – http://www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk/options #
- @tim_waters #euphemism or #notaeuphemism? in reply to tim_waters #
- RT @recycle_this: General Election 2010 (#ge2010): Environmental Policies across the parties http://bit.ly/c3cIo9 #
- @urbanwide Katherine's Joe has been trying out nursery too today. He's his first proper long stay on Tues. They're getting old these boys! in reply to urbanwide #
- I hope @jeremyjarvis and @sarahjarvis got everything into their new house before the rain started… #
- @tim_waters mmm, free protein. in reply to tim_waters #
Authorlouisa
1. It’s still early for Armley and the woods are our own again. I tell Lily about the adventures the cats got up to when they lived here. It feels like a million years ago now. I thought I’d never been able to let it go but it’s been surprisingly easy.
2. The dusky pink blanket on the rich blue sofa. The stove’s orange window. The lilac flowers on her shoe.
3. After a week of fighting it, I eventually give into my growing exhaustion and all over aches. I spend the whole late afternoon/evening reading. Amongst other things, I read John Christopher’s ‘The Death of Grass’ from cover to cover. Like John Wyndham, the UK location makes it feel startlingly real and at one point, I turn to John to report that Leeds has been destroyed by an atomic bomb. “Well then,” he says, “I guess we should stay away from the bottom of the garden.”
1. Knowing it’s going to rain, I head straight out into the sunny garden after breakfast. The washing is dry and my gardening tasks are accomplished by the time the clouds gather at 1pm. We carry the seedlings back from their sunbathing spot to their warm nursery in the porch.
2. We spot the tshirt – John’s company’s logo – a split second before we recognise the person wearing it. We’re invited in for tea, share our cakes and are mesmerised by the little one’s impish grin.
3. We have more tea and cake at J&S’s new house. Lily runs around the garden, looking in through every door and window.
1. Lily and Katherine compete over who is more excited to see the other.
2. The rain tweaks the colour levels, allowing the pink blossom to peek through the curtain of greens.
3. We expect the usual lacklustre raita but find a cool smooth garlicky mayo instead.
1. Everyday something changes so every day the walk is different. Today, we taste wood-sorrel and investigate mole hills.
2. Finding this quote in the comments of a fluff article about women with depression: “the sadness that runs under the skin of things, like blood, beginning as a trickle and ending up as a haemorrhage, staining everything.” Wow. (The last paragraph of the otherwise meh article also hit home too.)
3. The 18 newly-filled plant pots can fit perfectly arranged 3×6 on the tray for carrying, and as equally perfectly 2×9 on the water-catching tray in the porch. Deliciously neat.
I spotted a little patch of wood-sorrel in the woods while out walking the dog the other day – at first I thought it was clover but then I noticed the flowers were very different and a quick swizz in my wild flowers book positively identified it was wood-sorrel.
People have apparently eaten wood-sorrel for thousands of years – as both a food and for medicinal purposes. As there only seemed to be a small patch of it, we didn’t want to take too much – enough for a full salad or whatever – but tried a few leaves each.
At first, it didn’t seem to have any flavour at all but it quickly built up. I’d make the mistake of having something strong flavoured (a lemon-flavoured Nufofen Meltlet) before I left the house so I didn’t get an accurate picture of it but it was a little bitter, quite green* with a slightly spicy/peppery after taste. John said he thought there was a hint of lemoniness – not the whole time but just when he first bit into the leaf. Other people have described it as sour and I thought this might fit with John’s lemoniness but he said that wasn’t the case – it was nice lemon without the offputting sour. Apparently the dried leaves of common wood-sorrel can make a lemony-tasting tea so John isn’t lying – I’ll have to try it again when I’ve not got fake lemon in my mouth already.
* Between ourselves, John & I often describe things as tasting “green” – for example, salad is sometimes too green tasting and the wild garlic pesto we made a few years ago using older/post-flower wild garlic leaves was far too green – but we’ve never been able to accurately describe what “green” is, other than it being a bit bitter. Anyway, reading about wood-sorrel & the Oxalis genus, I’ve ended up reading a lot about oxalic acid too and I wonder if this is what our “green” is. Oxalic acid is found in a lot of green leafy edibles from lettuce to spinach & broccoli but is toxic to humans if they eat too much of it – it’s highly concentrated in rhubarb leaves and is what makes them poisonous to us – but is said to be “generally of little or no consequence” to people with a normal balanced diet & regular kidney function. Oxalic acid apparently tastes a little sour, which isn’t a million miles from our “bit bitter” description.
© 2025 Louisa Parry