The whole world seems to be swallowed by a wild sea as i sit here in my kitchen, listening to the wind of the storm crashing in the rocking trees, the leaves and branches rattling in the claps of ominiusly swirling hot wind, and then suddenly the quiet and the stillness. As the dark, eerie…
Author: toadstoolsfairyrings
Healing Herbs
This is a story about a healing journey. Last year was a difficult year for me. The spring was rushed and full trying to get ready for traveling, over the summer i was gone working hard abroad through a bad cold, followed by a very difficult hike over the alps. When i returned, the autumn…
Solstice Brownies (Paleo, Grain-free, Gluten-free)
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the return of the light, and what it means to wait in darkness, closed in, caught in long moments of obscurity, almost forgetting that there was anything but stagnant midnight, longing for and trying to believe in the first ray of morning. I have been trying to sleep…
A Counter Garden: Adventures With Sprouting
It was so hot and tropical this fall. Finally, the day after Halloween, the cool weather came, blowing away the heavy, damp heat. The light is different now, beaming in long, honey-colored rays through the afternoon trees. The last yellow cherry leaves are wavering at the tips of tiny branches where little birds flutter and…
Grain-free Pecan Chestnut Ginger Cookies
I started with roots this time in the garden. Flowers, herbs and roots. It’s not like me at all. I usually like to get a healthy selection of greens going, and drag my feet on the radishes, carrots, beets, parsnips, and salsify. They grow slowly and need extra soil amendments, and it usually feels daunting,…
A Halloween Story
Something really awful happened yesterday. Our cats are great ratters, and one of them (I presume) had dragged a fairly large but scrawny rat out of the barn and left it on the patio.(Not the same rat in the picture). Because of the stored animal feed, we have a constant supply of rats and squirrels…
Pumpkin Coconut Curry
It’s that time again…. The time of hauling 5-gallon buckets here or there, full of this or that, tucking in the tender starts, securing seeds in the soil, and wandering the edges of the garden gesturing and muttering to myself… I’m not just communicating with the unseen, this is actually how I plan my garden….
Chocolate Covered Wensleydale Chevre Bonbons
For most of the summer, Stinky decided he was a cow. When i got home and tried to reunite him with the rest of the goats, he was skeptical, but agreeably walked in when i held the gate open. He spent a minute sniffing everyone’s tail, and then followed me out again to be with…
Roselle Honey BBQ Sauce
This is the season of dry, whirling wind, of butterflies and ragged grass, tall plumes of dog fennel, yellow flowers, and change. Lime rock dust hangs over the country roads like fog, and in the quiet nights the almost cool wind stirs the mixing bowl clouds around the hesitating moon. In the hot afternoons, the…
Welcome Home Soup
It was a difficult journey home, and Florida greeted us with old friends – mosquitoes, fire ants, a thunderstorm, and a hurricane. We had had trouble with a misunderstanding at the airport. I thought Ethan had checked the Teenager’s bag beforehand, and we didn’t have enough money to check it when we got there and…
TRAVEL JOURNAL 22: OLD FRIENDS
The last installment of this crazy adventure was spent in Crest, a tiny medieval town with a lot of bohemian inhabitants in the Drome, very close to the homestead we stayed at in Ardèche. There is nothing in particular about the town that I stopped in for, except that a very old and dear friend…
TRAVEL JOURNAL 20: REFUGIO ELISABETTA, WHERE CAMPING IS FORBIDDEN
My guide book, which at this point had become a joke, says that after “what will have been two fairly taxing days,” this part of the hike was supposed to be relaxing. When we first started the path looked very flat and straight, and a beautiful snowy peak was directly in front of us. We…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 