The French have a saying: ‘Une hirondelle ne fais pas le printemps’, which translates as one swallow does not make the spring. In other words: seeing one swallow does not mean that the weather is going to be good. It goes along with another saying about not taking off your […]
Globe artichoke, ‘Cynara scolymus’, is a classic bitter herb, as well as a delicious food. The leaves are the part most frequently used medicinally for lipid control, of which the key types are triglycerides (fats/oils), phospholipids, and sterols (cholesterol). It is also used for liver-bile support and digestion. The immature […]
We got ourselves a completely new commission this month, babysitting our grandson in Budapest, all expenses paid. It was an offer impossible to refuse, especially as we’d never been to Hungary before It’s been a new experience, exploring an unknown city with a four-year-old who does find the city remarkable, […]
I was recently shown a photograph of something from a local beach that I hadn’t noticed before. It resembled a giant honeycomb growing over a mussel-covered rock. The thing was a colony of Sabellaria alveolata, the honeycomb worm. The individual worms are only about four centimetres long, but each builds a […]