27/09/2009

Solar Oven


I didn’t make it to the Festival of Life yesterday. I think the above picture shows the solar oven vantage point from my garden instead...

There’s nothing like an Indian Summer. Whilst you’re soaking up the rays (using good sense and moderation of course!) consider the power of the one and only Solar Oven: ‘Sunshine speeds up the circulation, helps the lymphatic system and actually stimulates the heart. And the brain becomes more alert. The rays of the sun build Vitamin D in the skin, which must be present if calcium and phosphorous are to be utilized in the circulation of the blood’. All you have to do is lie there ...

From Ann Wigmore’s Be Your Own Doctor.

10/09/2009

Colour therapy #1


I spent yesterday afternoon de-stalking elderberries (catch ‘em before the birds do ...) and gazing, meditating really, on their fantastic glossy colour. Ann Wigmore in Be Your Own Doctor writes so well about colour(s). ‘... I have seen colour have a marked effect upon the mentality not only of the wearer, but also upon those with whom the wearer comes in contact ... This is the age of colour in clothes and surroundings. The trend will help to lift humanity to the better things of life ... Purple gives relief from ... over-emotional disorders. Due to its hypnotic effect, one finds restful and relaxed sleep ... Indigo and violet are considered to be more spiritual than other colours ... When we eat any kind of food, we are actually eating colour from the sun. The chemicals and minerals are there because of the action of the colour in the sun’s rays. Of course, the minerals have to be in the soil and air or the colours could not make the plant grow. The guiding principle in diet should be to eat the finer kinds of foods as much as possible, in preference to the coarser foods, and to seek those foods that contain most of the cosmic solar energy’.

A word of warning: Elderberries are NOT berries to eat raw, as they contain traces of cyanide which cooking dispels. In sensitive people (and children), even the ripest, cooked berries could be a problem, so proceed with due care and caution.

Tenuous link (a purple background!) but doesn't it look like a yummy menu ...?

Oh, and for the record I did sleep very well last night ...

05/09/2009

Temporary Lapse ...





Forgive me. I profess to be about organics, crafting, home-spun and the ilk and then something comes along and hits me between the eyes. It happened with the Stella McCartney a/w collection for Adidas last year and it’s happened again for a/w 2009. Please allow for my temporary annual lapse...

All photographs © Stella McCartney for Adidas 2009.