Posted: March 15th, 2012 | Author: Kathryn | Filed under: garden | Tags: bulb, crocus, flower, saffron | No Comments »
Towards the end of Summer last year I bought some bulbs. The man at the garden store assured me that these bulbs were saffron or safran in French. I planted them and waited so patiently for them to show some growth but October passed and then November passed and I thought for sure that I’d been misinformed. They finally popped up their purple heads about 12 days ago and opened four days ago and as expected the three vibrant saffron threads were missing. Such a shame. I’ve been looming over them for five months, so expectant. This year I am going to try again with bulbs purchased from a French producer and hope that I have better luck.
Posted: September 15th, 2011 | Author: Kathryn | Filed under: garden | Tags: aire sur la lys, flower pot, pas de calais, street flowers | 1 Comment »
The village of Aire-sur-la-Lys is where we do our grocery shopping, use the post office, get a kebab, those sorts of things. Like most French villages around France the local commune does a wonderful job of placing flowers around the place and effortlessly maintaining them through the growing season. Usually the pots that are permanently placed along the streets are rectangular or square but in Aire sur la Lys, they have installed very high pots of flowers above the footpath. They last significantly longer than the street level planters because they don’t get attacked by playful children and they get a great deal more light up high. Some of these pots have been mounted, hanging from the facade of buildings and they look really wonderful, beautiful balls of flowers that bring loads of colour to the street.
Posted: September 9th, 2011 | Author: Kathryn | Filed under: garden | Tags: basil, mache, nasturtium, purple basil, rocket, roquette, salad | No Comments »
I love eating flowers. Some months ago that would have seemed quite strange to me but nonetheless, I have become a flower eater. I made this salad to accompany fish a few afternoons ago and thought that I would share it. It has a few handfuls of mache; a few handfuls of rocket; purple basil, as much as you can spare and about the same quantity of nasturtium flowers to basil leaves. Wash and drip dry all of the ingredients, throw them together and drizzle with olive oil. I find when picking the nasturtium flowers that it is best to leave about 10 – 15 cm of the stem left on the flower so that you can put them in a vase of water until you are ready to add them to the salad. I also pinch the stem off as close to the flower as possible when I’m ready to use them. You can eat the entire flower, and they are quite delicious. They have a subtle flavour with a slight velvety texture when they reach your tongue. It’s quick, glorious and real show stopper when it lands on the table.
Posted: September 9th, 2011 | Author: Kathryn | Filed under: garden | Tags: sunflower, sunspot | No Comments »
My sunflowers have finally tipped their heads which signals the end of Summer and the slow decent in to Winter. Seeing that they looked so solemn today in the wind and the rain, I thought I’d post these pics to hold on to their glory for just a tinsy bit longer. Have a great weekend everybody!
