News from the Centre

^{An illustrated diary of rural life in the Centre of France}

Debbie (my web admin guru) and her family have settled in France and the whole family follow the seasons as part of normal daily life, whilst growing their own fruit, vegetables and herbs, often sowing and planting in accordance with the phases of the moon. They also have a strong interest in following a gentle pagan lifestyle, acknowledging and celebrating the festivals throughout the year.  Together with Debbie I am compiling a brand new online course, to be structured in 3 year long courses about Living The Pagan Way. (More details about that soon).

Read about what's happening each month in the garden and local landscape. Learn about the local festivities, that all too often fall on pagan festival days, illustrating that ancient traditions die hard. There will be tips about growing and preserving vegetables and herbs, as well as a few recipes created by the ladies of the house, from the foods that are grown in the garden or bought at the local markets.

I hope you will enjoy these pages. Debbie will be happy to answer any emails about their life in France, just use my normal email address as Debbie is the one responsible for forwarding all emails back and forth to me.

In the picture above, Anne and John seem to be planting stones, surely they won't get a crop this year? See the bottom of the page to see if their stone took root....

Cassandra

March 2008

Well, the wonderful weather of February lulled us into a very false sense of security - as March came in like a lion and is set to go out like one, maybe with a little less of a roar though. Here's hoping April will bring with it some warmth and sunshine.

This weather has set us back a bit in the garden, where we had made such good progress in February. However, yesterday we had a mild, dare I say even warm morning (followed later by a drenching) but it allowed me to make some progress on the pentacle herb garden. We now have one complete "point" which we managed to get a few "purple" plants put in before it rained. I also made a start on the second point, hopefully that will be finished in a day or two, ready for the "green" herbs.

The Spirit sector is to have herbs such as thyme, chives, purple sorrel and in the curved sections each side the colours will be a blend of the neighbouring point. For instance between Spirit and Air there will be a mixture of purple and yellow plants.

The whole area will be put down to gravel with the exceptions of the Points which are edged with oak.

The circle around the edge will probably be defined by planting thymes. The pentacle will be able to be walked, touching and smelling the herbs and flowers and when you can get to the centre there will be an altar-plinth that will also hold a scrying bowl as well as a labyrinth tablet. We aim to use things that are around the garden already, or anything we can find locally and recycle.

Spring came knocking...

Last week I was woken by someone tapping at my porch door (which is made of glass). It was 8.30am on a Sunday morning. Strange, I thought.  It couldn't possibly be a visitor, not this time of the day. I was guessing it was the brown chicken - who is partial to cornflakes in the morning. I crept out of bed and looked through the window, but there was no-one there human or hen. Then I heard the rap-tap-tap again. It was coming from the kitchen window. I crept in there to find a pair of magpies taking it in turn to knock! It's the first time I have seen them this close to the house and they are now building a nest in the tree at the bottom of the back garden. I am going to assume this was a sign of good fortune. (Let's hope the other nesting birds don't get any problems from them).

Update on the seedlings.....

Everything is growing well and I am running out of space in the porch, so now bedroom and living room windowsills are being utilised. The Sucrine du Berry (pumpkin) is looking wonderful and I have re-potted some of the tomato plants.

The first lot of broad beans are up ready to transplant in the garden (when it dries out enough) and best of all - my new potatoes in buckets are on track for the 23rd April! The plan is to have some ready for a St Georges Day feast.

For those of you that have never grown, or had the opportunity to taste home-grown new potatoes I recommend you try this, even if only one plant. If you though shop-bought new potatoes were nice, then you will think you have gone to heaven when you try home-grown ones. There is simply nothing like them.

Get a seed potato of an early variety (they are ready to plant from now till end of May). Allow it to sit on a windowsill till it has some small growing shoots. Get a large bucket, or other suitable container - it needs to be at least 12-18* deep. Drill a few holes in the bottom for drainage (you'll need a tray underneath the bucket to catch excess water). Place some gravel, small stones or broken crockery in the bottom then add a couple of inches of good compost. Place your seed potato in the centre and cover with another couple of inches of compost.

Place your bucket near a window, in a conservatory, somewhere light and reasonably warm (frost free). It can be put on a balcony or doorstep, providing there is no risk of frost - just bring it in at night if there is.

When the shoots appear, top up with compost to just above them. Keep doing this as the weeks go by till you get to the top of the bucket. Then let the plant grow.

Every time you water, add a week solution of fertiliser (any kind of plant food will do). Depending on the variety of potato, they can be ready in as little as 60 days. You turn the bucket out carefully. Remove all nice sized potatoes (golf ball and bigger) and then re-pot the plant if it has some tiny ones left on it, and continue to nurture for a couple of weeks, then take a second crop.

Cook and eat immediately after harvesting for the maximum effect. Delicious, just serve with a knob of butter.

You can sow a new potato any when up until the end of May.

Bon appétit !

Debbie, 'till next time 31.03.2009

February 2008

What a fabulous month we have had - at least 3 weeks of sunshine. We have eaten outside most days this month apart from this last week, which has turned cloudy.

This year we are growing all our plants from seed, rather than buying young plants. For the price of one plant we can buy a whole packet of seeds, which will produce anything from 6 to 600 plants, depending on the variety.

I am doing an experiment this year - planting and gardening by the moon (using a moon almanac), versus planting and gardening when you feel like it. I will photograph and record the results.

I have planted a number of seeds earlier than normal this year as well - mainly due to the promising weather. I am hoping to be able to have a bumper harvest of tomatoes and pumpkin - two of my favourite. The "Sucrine du Berry" is being grown from seed saved from a pumpkin bought at the Tranzault Pumpkin Fair held last year. It has such a superb flavour and it is a heritage variety that originates from this part of France, the ancient province of "Le Berry". Seeds can be purchased online and it should grow well in the UK especially the south.

Also we will be growing a few new varieties for us including the "Radis Noir d'hiver" (Winter Black Radish) - which we tried for the first time just a month ago, having purchased one from the local market. What a remarkable vegetable. It is harvested during the winter months and provides valuable Vitamin C as well as good dietary fibre. You can eat it raw in salads or crudites; deep or shallow fry thin slices to make tasty crisps, or cook it as part of a stir fry.

Spring has shown up very early this year. I hope it is a good sign, after the awful weather last year. In mid-February the willow came into leaf alongside the dog-wood. I saw a ladybird and several Brimstone butterflies. And the cowslips have flowered before the end of the month. This is all so early.

The Grus (Common Crane) have started flying north again after a winter in the south. We are on the diagonal flight-path across France that the Grus take each year. The first sighting this year was early, 23rd February (a good sign). About 30 landed two fields away from us. They were basking in the morning sun when I crept out to photograph them. When the Grus are flying, the calls they make to each other are the most magical and eerie sound I have ever heard from the sky. I get enthralled every time I hear them - it is especially spooky at night, as they also seem to fly lower and the sound is so close it seems they are just above your head. They are increasing in numbers day by day. In a few weeks the last of them will have ventured north and then we are officially in summer (so my neighbour would have you believe!). And then, around October time, you hear them again, flying south - that's when you realise the summer is over and it is time to clear up the garden and stock up for winter - let's hope they will be late this year!

Debbie, 'till next time 29.02.2009

January 2008

Hello and welcome to France, very close to the exact centre, and about as far away from a city as you can get.

January in this part of France can be very very cold, but this year we have enjoyed a remarkable sunny month. We have been on a picnic, had a BBQ and have eaten our lunch outside several times. This is making the winter months so much shorter. Some winters have been very grey, but this winter has had many days of blue skies and sunshine. Maybe it is to make up for the appalling summer last year!

We are seeing definite signs of Spring already in the garden. Our Imbolc festival will hopefully encourage it to continue without hitch (the hitch is normally about 3 weeks of snow at this time of year!).

We have begun planning the new herb garden, in the form of a pentacle inside a circle. This is going to enable us to have 11 sections for planting, with a path making the shape.

We aim to plant each herb in relation to the elements that they are close to, and maybe introduce planting with planetary associations.

This will take a little research before we start, but we aim to make a magical place to walk through, touching, smelling and tasting the herbs, and maybe at the centre we will place a labyrinth altar stone for quite meditation and contemplation and for use in rituals.

We have chosen an area of the garden that is close to the house, so that collecting the herbs for cooking will be easy.

It does incorporate a few small trees, which will become integral to the design. It will be a place to pause and maybe touch the bark. It creates a little shade but there is still plenty of light for the herbs. We will also be able to hang some chimes, if we are lucky will be in with the Wind /Air area! All we have done so far is mark out the shape with string. Providing the ground doesn't freeze up, we hope to start digging it and laying the paths soon, ready for planting in the early Spring. It has a 7m radius.

We (dad that is) has been busy trimming the hedges, so we have plenty of material for the Imbolc fire this evening.

We are planning to walk the boundaries for Imbolc, but as 3 times would be a fair old walk, we are just going to do the orchard, which is also home to the vegetable garden and the chicken house, so I think this will be fairly appropriate.

We are hoping to have an abundant year from the vegetable plot, and the four chickens are already in full lay, which I think is quite early - but as they spend all day wondering the grounds like fluffed up ladies of leisure having a jolly old time raking up the flower beds, I take it as a sign the are very content! The eggs yolks are the richest colour yellow and they taste fantastic, and all with no artificial colours or preservatives!

The purple sprouting broccoli is just starting to flower, so that will keep us through the remainder of the winter supplied with good nutrition from the garden, along with the salsify and the cabbages. But we are all looking forward to getting the garden dug over and some seeds sown. We have the 2008 Moon Phase Almanac to hand and will be sowing a few seeds indoors very soon.

Next month I will report on any new signs of spring growth or activity, and maybe a bit of progress on the herb garden.

Happy festivities to all and may spring be just around the corner, and may it be a warm and sunny one.

Oh, and just to finish off - look at this - Are birds also moving into the 21st century? - Here is a nest from last year found today during the hedge-trimming, which has been beautifully bound with....... what is that? Blue bailer twine!

Debbie, 'till next time 31.01.2009

PS. Yes the stone did take root....

The stones mark north, south, east, west as well as Summer Solstice sunrise and sunset and Winter Solstice sunrise and sunset. We tried for 2 years to get it to work, but the shadows were never in the same place twice for the same time, so we started again with something simpler!

All pictures are taken on site and can be viewed at a larger scale if you click on them.

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THE PAGAN GARDENERS hosts of the Cassandra Eason Courses in France share with you month by month a taste of life in the slow lane, living as naturally as possible and following the seasons.

MARCH 2008

FEBRUARY 2008

JANUARY 2008

You may also like to read Cassandra's page on SACRED GARDENING