Our Future Food is Growing!

So you may have noticed I haven't been around for a couple of days, I've had a bit of a gluten attack. It must have sneaked into my food somehow over the last couple of weeks. A lot of people ask me what the symptoms are, for me the main ones are horrendous stomach cramps, exhaustion and this weird brain fog. It just means I have to be even more careful for a little while to get insides properly functioning again, I am eternally thankful that I can control this just by diet though. Healthy me is definitely worth all the label reading and ingredient scrutinising. Anyway enough of that...

There seems to be so much to do at the allotment right now, I didn't want to plant a lot in early April because it was still quite cold. Now it seems like everything needs to be planted and the weeds are making a run for it. So Ed and I have plenty to keep us busy. It is a lovely feeling to watch seeds grow into little plants. I am especially pleased with my sweetcorn because I was worried the seeds were a bit old because some of them had a bit of mould on, but they seem to be really healthy little plants. Our allotment neighbour warned us that the badgers like sweetcorn so we will have to put a fence up when it grows larger. 

It is amazing to see how much everything has grown in only a couple of weeks, you can see the previous allotment post here. I also bought a cucumber plant at the weekend for £1.40 which I thought was a bargain. Mum is starting us off some runner beans and we are also getting some tomato plants off our friend tomorrow which I am super excited about. It feels like it is coming together... slowly. 

Hope your week is off to a good start.

Much Love.

xkx

Feminist Book Club - The Whole Woman.

Well Germaine wasn’t kidding when she said “The time has come to get angry again!”, The Whole Woman is 330 pages of angry! I was really excited to read this book, I hadn’t heard of it before but I thought it was definitely time to read some Greer. I was bitterly disappointed. All I found in this book was rage, topics that were talked around in circles and prejudice, not only towards men but minority groups such as transsexuals as well. So here are a few examples of the topics that annoyed me the most (it was very difficult to only choose a couple of them as well).

“No one ever asked women if they recognised sex-change males as belonging to their sex or considered whether being obliged to accept MTF transsexuals as women was at all damaging to their identity or self esteem.” 

Well if being born a female in a female’s body gives me a VIP pass into the feminist club then I am happy to lend it to MTF transsexuals, if they want to join the lady party then they are very welcome! All the atrocities that happen to women all over the world and ink was wasted on these ignorant, hateful words. I would like to state right now that MTF transsexuals have never been ‘damaging’ to my identity or self esteem thank you very much.

Then there was the chapter on Daughters, wasn’t that a jamboree of sadistic stereotypes. Based on some very dated Freudian archetypes, Germaine decided that fathers harbour all these sick, sordid feelings towards their young daughters. My favourite bit of absolute craziness was where she said:

“Daddy may respond by bouncing her on his leg. It did not need Freud to point out the similarity between this activity and sexual intercourse.”

Germaine are you actually kidding!? I remember this being done to me when I was young by lovely, caring men who I adored. There are millions of wonderful dad’s out there who would move heaven and earth for their children. My dad is one of those wonderful people, so I do not appreciate this horrible, bleak, perverted look on one of the most amazing things that can happen on this planet, the father, daughter relationship.

Now there were some interesting, informative parts of this book, but for me it was like searching for diamonds in a stinky bog of man hate. Some of her views are absolutely shameful, especially in this day and age (and I know the book is a little dated, but it isn’t THAT old).  Germaine ends the book by saying:

“The second wave of feminism, rather than having crashed on the shore, is still far out to sea,”

I just don’t accept this statement, feminism is progressing every single day, it’s all those small things that we do as well as the large. Women have come such a long way and it will continue to get better if we just keep promoting, thinking and discussing. If feminism was ‘far out to sea’, surely we wouldn’t be in a Feminist Book Club, would we?

I just don’t believe that such anger driven, hateful elitism will progress us further as women. Germaine talks like we are about to go into battle and I just feel she is trying to use patriarchal devices to try and beat the men down. I think we will continue forward at a much greater pace if men and women work together. It isn’t about being the best sex or the most important sex, it is about utilising each other’s unique abilities to create a better world for everyone to live in.

The next book to read in the Feminist Book Club is Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn, I am really looking forward to getting my hands on this book, it can't be anywhere near as difficult to read as The Whole Woman. 

Much feministic love.

xkx

More Aquatic Loveliness.

As I was free range blogging at the weekend, I could only upload a small handful of pictures from our trip to Hunstanton Sea Life Centre. So now I have proper internet I can show you the rest. It was such an awesome place to take my camera, we spent a good few hours in there enjoying watching all the random fishes.  

I can't wait to visit some more aquariums this year with my camera... and Ed of course hehe. 

Hope you are having a productive week so far.

Much love
xkx

Post Camping Blues.

I am missing camping sooo much! It was a perfect weekend and one of my favourite things was going to sleep staring at the stars out of the back window, life doesn't really get much better than that for me. I am still impressed with how cosy Doris is inside, when the bed is made up in the back it is my version of heaven! 

Hope you had a lovely bank holiday weekend and managed to soak up a bit of that much needed sun. We have another camping trip planned in a couple of weeks and I am super excited <3

Much Love
xkx

Free Range Blogging & Hunstanton Sea Life Centre.

Just a quick post today as I am on a slightly dodgy wifi connection in a field! We are having a wicked time camping away with Doris in Burnham Deepdale on the North Norfolk coast. The weather has been beautifully sunny, if not a little chilly at times. Ed and I went to the Sea Life Centre in Hunstanton today and it was sooo much fun, it is one of my favourite places to go. I have more piccies from today but this little taster is all I could manage to upload. They have a Clownfish Kingdom there now which is pretty awesome, but they seem to have got rid of the horseshoe and spider crabs which made me a bit sad because I loved them. The horseshoe crab loved to lie on its back and the staff had to put a notice up to say it was okay because a lot of people had been concerned by its horizontal flailings! 

Mr Turtle was probably my favourite creature in the whole sea life centre, he was so majestic and huge. Just look at his cute face! Hope you are having a fun filled bank holiday weekend <3

Much love

xkx

Kitchen Glamour - Refreshing Face Mojito.

I love Mojitos, they are the epitome of summer fun and frolics. So with spring in full throw and the promise of summer getting nearer I was inspired to make a mojito for my face. My pot of mint is thriving under the windowsill, I love rubbing the leaves as I walk past and smelling the fresh scent. I put about 3 healthy springs in this refresher, mint is really good for the skin, not only can it be soothing for irritated skin, but its high amounts of salicylic acid loosens up dead skin cells, which can help stop your pores from clogging. Mint also has vitamin A in it which means that it can strengthen and balance oily skin.

The other ingredients in this face refresher are 2-3 slices of cucumber, 1 tablespoon of caster sugar and the zest of an orange. I have raved about cucumber in my 3 Ways to Combat Puffy Eyes post. Cucumber is 90% water so its cooling and hydrating for your skin, the cucumber acts as the liquid ingredient of this recipe. I also zest an orange into this, this is optional but I think it adds a lovely zing to the aroma. Citrus is also amazing for the skin because of its high content of vitamin C, it can tighten pores and make your face look and feel a lot fresher, you can read more about how oranges are good for your skin here. The last ingredient I add is caster sugar, this helps to grind everything into a pulp in the pestle and mortar.

Once you have all your ingredients ready, put them into a pestle and mortar and grind away until it is a pulpy consistency. You could pop it into a food blender if you wanted. Once you have your face refresher ready you could place it into the fridge for half an hour just to chill it down or you can use it straight away. I massage the pulp around my face (over the sink to catch any drips). Once I have used all the pulp I rinse it off with some cold water and towel dry. This makes my face feel wonderfully soft, refreshed and ready to slip out for an evening of adventures. 

Hope you have a great, glamourous weekend <3

xkx

Spontaneous Date Night.

So you may have noticed that I didn't post yesterday, well Ed and I kinda, accidentally had a date night. I love it when nights like this happen, we went into town shopping for some last bits for camping in Doris, then went for a beer at Brewdog which turned into two because they have Dead Pony Club on tap as well as this awesome guest draft called Atlantic Drift. Then we decided to have a cheeky Nandos, I always have extra extra sauce because I am a bit of a spice fiend and I enjoy watching Ed struggle trying to match me with the hot sauce. Then we trundled home and chilled out. Was a super perfect evening <3

Hope you have some super cool plans looming for the Bank Holiday Weekend!

xkx