With the gardening on hold during the recent cold weather I have turned to baking some comfort food.
Mal's Edinburgh Allotment
Vegetable and Fruit Growing on an Allotment in Edinburgh
Monday, 12 April 2021
Vatrushka Take 2
Thursday, 1 April 2021
Cold Night - Hot Cross Buns
Sunday, 21 March 2021
Bumblebee Food
Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Spring Arrivals
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Mahonia aquifolium - Oregon Grape |
Following the appearance of the colstfoot and lesser celandine featured in my earlier post, I have been alert to other new flower arrivals along the canal bank. You don't have to look too hard to spot this - one of the first to flower in the hedgerow. And once I have spotted that I know to expect this too:
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Salix caprea - Goat Willow |
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Prunus cerasifera - Cherry-Plum |
Monday, 15 March 2021
Bee & Bee
Monday, 8 March 2021
Early Emerging Stars
Yesterday I came across these two, the first wildflowers of the year.
Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna), also known as pilewort. William Wordsworth's favourite wildflower, he devoted three poems to it and even chose it to be depicted on his gravestone. (Sadly the stonemason's template was for the similarly named but unrelated Greater Celandine - Chelidonium majus. To this day the imposter persists.The second new arrival is the flower of Coltsfoot. Tussilago farfara. In this case the flowering stalk emerges from unseen rhizomes before the leaves. It is the shape of the leaves that give it it's common name. The latin name comes from its reputation for easing coughs. Tussis = cough.
Both have a foothold on the grassy bank of the Union Canal that links Edinburgh to Falkirk.
Thursday, 4 March 2021
Vatrushka
These oven baked Russian doughnuts are rather fun.