Longing for Greens ....

the days are recognizably getting longer, there is no doubt. It's a great relief, as in December I m usually under pressure, if I don't start feeding the animals at around  4.00 pm. The night just comes over you and within minutes all is swallowed up by great darkness. Now, at the very end of January it seems to happen in slow motion. The daylight seems to fight for every minute and especially on a bright day, you can feel this 'cocks step', the old neighbors used to talk about, when the days started to stretch themselves.

As the winter was relatively mild, there is still a good bit of growth going on. 

Watching the goats on their tour over the bog, they feed mostly on Bramble leaves and rough heather, but they also pick on the stingy gorse, with its budding yellow blossoms or peel of, selective as they are, some bark from cut down willow or haw-thorn. But they also wander along the river and pick the new fresh grass, which is now appearing, as the water levels gone down a little bit. 

Going for my daily walk between the hedges, I am already able to pick some dandelions leafs or the narrow leafed plantain, which some of it I cut into small pieces hiding it in salads or soups. Well I usually divide it in two fair shares, as Moses our tortoise is just out of hibernation. He loves both herbs, but especially dandelions. 

Moses and Snoopy sharing the basking lamp .... but not the dandelion leafs

Yesterday I went around the garden, picking up the last 'leftovers' from the 2014 garden year, like a huge parsnip, some stumps of carrots, a medium sized celeriac bulb, cabbage leaves from a winter broccoli, and curly kale, a leek and new shoots of parsley. Together with some potatoes and sweet potatoes it made a wonderful soup.

some ingredients of a January garden soup

As the beds are still way to wet and so is the tunnel, I only have sorted my seeds so far. But to get something growing, I put down some trays around the house with sprouting cress, mustard and wheat-grass. All of this can be cut and used as well in salads and soups. My parents used to do a lot of gardening. My Dad would have had a kind of hotbed in the garden and the first thing he would have put out was cress, radishes, lettuce and spinach. It's a kind of tradition so.

sprouting mustard 

cress seeds laid out on a moist tissue

cress after about 5 days

wheat-grass can be cut for salads and soups

Spring is just around the corner, as is St, Bridget's Day ( 1.st of February ), the official start of the Celtic Springtime. I m eagerly waiting .... and so are Kitty and Ollie....

Roll on spring