For years I’ve looked at all the branded cereals in all the different supermarket chains and wondered why on earth does it cost so so much

!! I never ever have brought it

As I started looking into it

Look it’s so highly processed and is packed with sugars .

In fact you are supposed to take only a few grams a-day to keep the carbs and sugars to a reasonable amount .

If you have ever read the box it will tell you how may grams per person per day .

However with today huge cereal bowls most people are eating at least 2 to 3 servings in a single bowl .

So I am thankful I didn’t take up the habit of boxed cereals

I but organic oats even being organic they are still less than cereals

1kg of oats lasts a long time and makes many porridge bowls

We are a waste not house hold

On the odd occasion I have cooked to larger portion of porridge

I have let it cool down and kept the bowl in the fridge the night for the following morning’s breakfast.

It thickens up more

Cold porridge left overs would not be to nice

But heat a frying pan with a little coconut oil or olive oil take desert spoonful s of thick porridge mix and drop them into the frying pan .Then fry on both sides until brown just a few minutes to heat thought the porridge and brown the outsides .Then serve these little porridge patties with your favourite jam or honey .

A great way to save money and not to throw out your foods ever .

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As we all know the cost of food is going up ,up and up!!!

I myself am very blessed with having found land after searching for it over 6 months here in Ireland .

until I found a place !

But every day I look back on times before I was able to grow food for the family

we have had a true harvest of ongoing courgettes

There for many meals of different ways of cooking courgettes have been done

However when you garden you have to eat seasonal and because we have all been spoiled with the different foods and availability in food stores .Then we can become feed up with 3 months of courgette meals .

So sometimes we have to give in and get something different

But with the food going up,up and up I am so thankful we do not have to buy so much .most days we can find something in the garden to make a simple meal with

Today when buying milk at the store

I saw 2 packages of mushrooms reduced by 75 percent

These cost me just 50 cent for both

I came home and made up my own !

simple mushroom soup

((Mushroom soup recipe ))

500g mushrooms

One Onion

( I only had 2 tiny onions and a few spring onions from the garden !)

3 garlic cloves garden

Hand-full of chives garden

small bunch thyme garden

small bunch oregano garden

salt

pepper

500ml water

200ml milk

((How to make ))

Chop the one onion or in my case the 2 tiny onions and spring onions up.

Add to the pot and cook in olive oil

Once onions lightly brown and soften

Add chopped garlic ,chopped chives,chopped parsley,chopped oregano and chopped thyme

plus chopped mushrooms

once this is all soft add 500ml of water

cooking in the instant pot for 6 mins or a pan for longer up until it’s all soft and boiling

Then add 200ml of whole milk

boil for 1 to 2 mins

take of heat and blitz with a hand blender

between 4 to 6 bowls of soup

This year the strawberries in our polytunnel did fantastic!!

For about 3 months I was picking around 1000g a day .

strawberries are a super berries

They taste sweet in fact content no sugar and also are a great anti oxidant for our bodies

we were able to have strawberries for breakfast, mixed into salads ,for desserts with yogurt or cream,strawberries with blackcurrants in a crumble and of cause we turned them in to jams to have on toast.

sadly we also have a hillside of strawberries which didn’t do as well as the indoor ones.

Their skins were harder the taste not so nice a little bitter not so sweet and they grew smaller.

plus as they grew at ground level all the damp wet and winds effected them.

It also effected the amount of weeds which grow so fast due to the wet damp and humid climates in Ireland

3 times over the growing season the whole bed had to be weeded

In total 8 hours of weeding each!!time we did it!!!

It was terrible and very little return from the strawberries

we have decided that if time allows and if we can find some free wood or bricks

Then if we try to grow strawberries outside again we will need to make at least 3 big raised beds to keep them in

we need to reduce the weeding load due to my health and pain plus my husband finds it very hard now to kneel due to 2 knee replacement s

so we learnt by our mistake no good having a huge strawberry bed ground level in wet Ireland!!

I have made enough strawberry jam for about 24 months for our family so that is all very good

some I made with honey a little healthier than our white sugar .Does not give the body such a sugar spike or effect insulin levels as much .However I myself only eat it in yogurt as a treat once in a while as I cannot have sugar due to insulin resistance.

But my boys love it

The other half I made traditional strawberry jam with white sugar

my recipe is a very simple one !!

((Ingredients ))

1 kg of strawberries with tops removed and cut into half or smaller for a finer jam

2 cups of water

6 cups of white fine sugar

((How to make))

put the cut up strawberries into a jam pan best or a very large pan

add the water

let simmer on heat

Once strawberries a little soft gently mash with potatoe masher

Then slowly add sugar cup by cup mixing until all sugar is dissolved

Then wait for it to reach a boil

keep at a light bubbling boil for 15 to 20 min

jam will thicken on the back of your spoon or you can test the jam on a cold saucer to see if it forms a skin

have your jam jars clean and sterilised by having had them in a pressure cooker in water for 5 mins

some people also put them in a dish washer hot to sterilise but I am not sure it’s as sterilised as the pressure cooker way but either will work

At this point you can use a funnel in the jam jars and pour the hot jam into them

be careful

Then put lids on them

once cool you can date and label your jams

last year I got two marigold plants from a friend .

I decided to plant them in one of our polytunnels .This was because I knew that marigolds are a companion plant for lots of different vegetables.Also I wanted to grow some flowers for picking so I would able to enjoy them in the house . It is very often wet here I would go as far as saying that it rains at some point every day in Co Mayo ! Some days on and off for hours .

From that point of view growing a few flowers in the polytunnel to protect them from the constant rains ,damp and often high winds would allow them to develop and not run the risk of the damp killing them or high winds breaking them down.

The marigolds did very well there were not loads but just enough to brighten a little corner of the ground.

This year at the start of season I noticed tiny little green stems starting to come up in the same corner that I had grown the marigolds in the year before.They had self-sown themselves there which I didn’t mind in any way it was a positive for me .

It’s been amazing to see them grow this season 10 times as many plants have developed all by themselves just dropping their dried seed pods into the soil from the year before.

The corner of marigolds developed into at least one quarter of the polytunnel.

They kind of took over !

One the rare day the suns out the polytunnel really heats up inside .

you can smell the scent of these marigolds as the heat brings it out of them

I have had Marigolds in bloom for at least the last 5 months

Plus daily pickings of these flowers for the house or to give to friends

They have been a joy to smell on the warm days and given me plus the household brightness and cheer on those damp wet long days.

When I lived in the UK I would often visit a community garden.

It was in the south of England on chalky cliff land overlooking the sea.

This garden was full of vegetables and flowers and changed with all the seasons.

When we decided to leave the Uk I had one final visit to this lovely little garden.

It was the time of year when not many flowers were left blooming most had died by now.

In one large flower bed blowing in the wind on their tall stems were poppies with their dried flower heads.

I removed a dried flower head from its stem.

I held the dry soft brown flower head up in my hand and lightly shock it .

Hearing all the hundred tiny seeds in side rattling on its sides.

Nature,s own tiny maraca perfect for a little fairy .

perfect it also fills me with joy.

hearing its little tinkling sound as I carried on shaking it in my hand and holding it up to the sunlight to see all those different shades of brown within it.

With me a had a plastic lunchbox now empty .

So I decided to collect a few of those dried poppy heads.

On returning home later that day. I shock the poppy seeds from the dried flower heads. In 2 brown paper envelopes licked them shut and wrote poppy seeds on the front.

Over 2 years later here in my new home in Ireland I heavily sprinkled the seeds in pots and some in the garden.

Now we have self sown poppies in random places most years but we love them.

I save the flower heads here and my collection of seeds growing every year.

This year we have made some raised flower beds and I will at some point sprinkle those with the hope of more poppies jumping up within and most likely in other places also.

There at least 18 different poppies I only seem to have about 4 different ones at present but over time who knows my collection may grow.

Details

I have an instant pot so this is very good to just throw all your ingrendents in and make soup.

It’s the modern version of a pressure cooker and I use it every day.

saves money as you no longer need lots of different pans on the stove to cook all the different vegetables.

One pot does it all much better and it does save money not only is it one pot but also cooks faster.

Ingredients (by Wendy)

One large head of broccoli.

one onion

4 cloves of garlic

3 very small potatoes

one leek

dried or fresh chives chopped a hand full.

2 teaspoons of dried or fresh Oregon

2 teaspoons of dried or fresh thyme

salt and pepper to taste.

1 teaspoon of ras el hanout Moroccan spice.

Making the soup.

chop the onion and garlic small and fry in a little olive oil until light brown and soft.

chop and wash leek and add to pot .

put all the dried ingredients in as well.

wash and peel the small potatoes diced and add to the pot.

All the time stirring ingredients to lightly simmer and coat with the spices.

Then add about 500ml of water over the top of veg.

Cook in an instant pot for about 15 mins.

once cooked use a hand blender to make a smooth soup.

Details

The Brassica family.

I think this is the fourth year of growing broccoli and cauliflower.

Each year comes with the same issues.

Cabbage white butterflies seem to like the Cauliflowers and the same kind of caterpillars as broccoli. I am not sure if it’s the caterpillar of the cabbage white butterflies but they are a beautiful bright shade of green.

Plus the damp with climate and high winds of late have done them no favors whatsoever.

At some point, I will have to look into this more and see if we can gain better results in growing these two different vegetables in the future.

I like Broccoli but out of the 2 of them I in fact wish we got a lot more cauliflower growing.

we seem to be very good at growing the outer green leaves but no cauliflower develops.

If it does develop well the weather affects it or I’ve also found the earwigs like them.

To my delight, I got a cauliflower from the garden this week.

I also learned something new about them!

which I will share with you because like me you may not be aware of this either.

My cauliflower looked nothing like the store brought ones.

The white was more of a pale yellow and also had areas of pretty light pink over it.

It is due to sunlight exposure and changes in sunlight.

Makes a pigment called anthocyanin which can be either pink, purple, or yellow.

The same pigment is found in red cabbage also.

I was more than happy with my pink/creamy white cauliflower.

I also made some broccoli soup.

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I wonder how I got to this state of total unwellness.

This is not a post of self-pity! although I am sure by the time I have written it may sound very sad in places to the reader.

It has been put together with the hope that my journey of Autoimmune diseases, plus hormonal diseases.

Might just show you the reader who may well be in a similar situation you are not alone.

These diseases can often leave us in a situation where we can no longer do the things we once were capable of on a daily basis.

If you like me?

losing the capability to keep going, do daily things, and just be part of society like the people around you is tough.

Your body just cannot do it anymore it’s changed and it cannot keep up plus often pain will not make it possible either.

However, it’s not simple because the mind tells you just to do it.

Go function do the work, the house, friends, and social events.

When the vehicle your body that makes all those actions possible gives up. well, you are no longer the same person or are you?

There is of cause your mind which I believe begins to shout unkind words at you!

(THE DIALOGUE IN THE MIND.)

“Everyone else can function so you should

What’s wrong with me

just do it and get on with it is normal

If I cannot complete all the things needed I am therefore a complete failure to myself, my family, and society.”

So look at the mind’s unkind dialogue with me, and maybe you have experienced a similar hard conversation that your mind has shouted at you.

How and where did that all come from you?

Are you really that unkind to yourself?

Start to unravel it umm well those words you are shouting have been ingrained in you over your lifetime from birth until today.

Our upbringing parents’ wise words ! and society’s input and expectations sadly .when looked at are ridiculous and will do everything to bring poor health and illness to humans in the long run.

Our bodies and minds are not supposed to endure long periods or even years of ongoing stress.

But what is ongoing stress a myraid of everything we face daily not just one event.

from being placed in nursery school at a young age causing separation between child and adult has now been shown to cause long-term stress on the developing child.

Education as a whole teaches that the only aim in life is to push yourself to one goal of qualifications to have proper jobs to gain great wealth.

where only a few get to the top of the ladder. The others were worn and grounded down along the way.

The long hours worked out in society when you finally get that proper job or job.

The financial system where yes there are a few with outstanding amounts of income but for the majority. we work longer hours than the generation before us, the cost of living only raises, and keeping a roof is almost impossible for a lot of the population.

relationship struggles and pressures due to the above are inevitable it’s no surprise the divorce rate. Is higher than the generation before us where only one income was enough to run a household. A man’s salary was enough.

yes, I am a woman but feminism did us no good.

The flip side was a man’s wage was no longer enough.

In fact, if you study income you will see a man is now paid less than the generation before us.

women are needed to also work to top up the household income.

Plus today even 2 incomes are not enough so extra jobs on top of full-time jobs are taken onboard to cover the cost of living.

plus we no longer know how to stop !!

The body and mind need to stop and not have ongoing stress.

We just are not built to do what society and are upbringing have been shouting at us.

I refer you to my Heads dialogue.

In fact now with the insight of wisdom and ill health.

I can tell you that even supposedly healthy humans should not have been placing those expectations upon themselves daily for years.

If they do they will risk not meeting society’s and their own criteria and if they try to keep up they risk becoming truly unwell.

For the unwell human with this dialogue in their mind, it is a ridiculous notion that upbringing and society have fed us over time. which has done you or me no favors.

You have health issues how could you keep going like nothing is affecting you. Nothing is wrong with your system and body. when even a healthy individual would become sick trying to keep up with the mind dialogue and society’s goals and restraints over time.

so if you are unwell and have had a similar mind dialogue to me.

I send you true hugs of total understanding warmth and love.

I tell myself to forget the conditioning words from society or upbringing because that’s how those hard unkind words got inside your head in the first place.

Simply on good days when your body allows you to do a little more than the other days be thankful.

It’s hard not to look at the days you didn’t achieve so much as failed ones but you and I need to remember that’s the conditioning and it will wear you down.

An example in my life could be similar to yours. I don’t achieve making beautiful foods and lovely cakes every day for family and friends something I enjoy doing as a wife and mother.

Then guess what the days that I or you made a good cake once in a while will be more special to you. plus your family will appreciate it more.

Remember you will start to see the beauty in all the small things in this life and acts you have done and achieved. That wisdom you have learned through your journey of health is a very positive outcome as you start to view the whole society and world in a different light.

The way we are bought up, society as a whole, and its expectations of us need to change.

There is about 13 percent or more living with Autoimmune diseases now. steadily going up in numbers each year. Of people with lifelong Autoimmune diseases.

Did you know there are over 100 Autoimmune diseases?

Common ones are Thyroid diseases, Thyroid graves, Thyroid Hasimotos, Polycystic ovarian syndrome, lupus , Crohns disease but a few.

So we need truly to take a bigger look at ourselves and society’s part in this.

To understand we are not robots but humans who need breaks and gaps in life.

That no one can run on stress alone for years without breaking it will happen.

That words hurt! and impact our health so deeply.

I will write another post on the effects of words on humans over time.

We must learn to give support by that I don’t just mean the odd word, but being there for family or friends in times of stress or hardship. If we don’t want our loved ones and society to come crashing down.

So my hope is that you have that support network around you in your life.

Many of us don’t.

This needs to change.

My hope is people will learn how important this is to support and offer only words of strength, kindness, and openness to another,s situation.

Because until you walk in their shoes daily, you have no idea of what they are facing so kind words is truly best at every turn.

I send my love to you take each day as it comes and tomorrow is a new day .!

Always remember that God bless us all.

Life has been full of a lot of downs of late, which I am not going to go into at present.

However funny great thing happened today.

We drove past an old house which was being repaired and having its old roof ripped out.

There was a huge pile of wooden beams and timber laying on the ground around the building site.

My husband and I both said, oh that would make great timber to recycle and also use on the fire reduce the heating bills and recycling.

On the drive back guess what a sign had been put up at the entrance free wood.

So wonder faithful hubby makes space in our home made campervan to collect wood and bring it home.

7 trips!!!!!!! later we have a nice collection of thick timber and beams a days work but worth it for sure.

Recycling here we come!!!

Raised wooden vegetable beds to be made in polytunnel.

Garden wooden table and bench to be made.

Plus hopefully 3 or 4 builders bags worth of wood for the fire.

Reducing bills for heating.

Recycle thats the name of the game ♻️😜👍👍

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Today no rain what a relief that is, when that happens.

Its very rare here it seems.

we went for a walk so happy to see bright green grass and blue blue skies.

Yes if feel, I might be a little bonkers but its great to go thought the wood shouting blue blue and blue.

Yep that was me today if you could hear it.

No rain and blue .

Ireland looks great with bright blue skies .

so a beautiful walk was taken .

We found some lovely fossils on the path way.

small flowers on moss holding tiny little rain drops.

Lime green lichen blowing in the trees and thick carpets of the brightest green moss.

Fir trees with mist swirling around them and dripping rain drops from their needles on to the forests floor.

Birds singing all around and the sunlight flowing though the trees.

wonderful .💜

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