We’re almost at maximise tilt, tipping our northern hemisphere towards the sun, the days have reached their longest light. On Thursday we’ll celebrate the Summer Solstice; a hugely important day for many of us in the modern age but an ancient day that has been marked for thousands of years, gathering communities together and hoping for successful harvests. Bonfires were lit to encourage the sun’s power to help grow strong and abundant crops. I will more likely be lighting a few candles with the children, eating a ‘solstice cake’ and burning (not literally) any negative feelings. It is a day to mark in some way; a poem, a walk, a swim, anything to bring your focus back to nature and show a little appreciation for the natural world that holds us.
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For now it seems incredulous that we are officially at the peak of the light when we have had some very bizarre weather this week. I wonder if mother nature is mirroring the mood of our world when she’s unpredictable, fierce, threatening, out of character then switches to calm, serene perfection, what does it mean? I search for answers in the muggy air after the rain has stopped, I lift the sad peony head off the ground, I wind down the window to catch the hail in my palm and close my eyes against the wind whipping sand. Then I swim, I walk, I watch the sunlight paint it all back to bright summer. My week seems to have been full of embracing this beautiful (& wild) weather and eating lots of delicious food. Evidently a week well spent.
Start with strawberries. Eat as many as you can for the next month while they are at their best, be happy with the thought of future you looking back on a dreary November day glad you had your fill. Strawberries for breakfast with your granola or porridge, for second breakfast like this with ricotta, leaves, toasted rye, pumpkin seeds and basil.
Have them as an afternoon snack with fresh cream, or in a cake and thrown in salad at dinner. These sweet jewels lend themselves to a whole variety of dishes and bakes. If you can, pick one straight off the plant and simply marvel at the sweetness of the season. Last year I made this delicious cake which included another star, elderflower and also these fancy little desserts with another favourite, fig leaves.
Enjoying a new view from the garden from the tree house Dara is building. A refreshing drink required; could even be improved by some smooshed strawberries! I think this was what I’d call an adult time-out where my own frustrations were clouding my reactions towards the kiddos. So I removed myself, set my head back on straight and sat in silence for about 4 minutes before I got company. But that was enough, nature the great re-setter.
A very simple cake to celebrate delicious things; I used fig leaves to line the base of a cake tin and Irish wholemeal spelt as the sponge. Topped with fresh cream, fig leaf oil and always stunning Summerhill honey. This is my favourite kind of baking where the produce and the producers can really shine and hopefully people are encouraged to taste the season and consider the joy of true food in all its forms. A conversation starter, a planted seed.
Moments after this photo a rainbow appeared in the dark sky. This is north coast drama. On my way along the road, an impulse, a sudden desire to detour to my favourite spot, the beach of my childhood, White Park Bay. I spent ten minutes watching the bands of rain move off toward the island and listened to a dunnock singing loudly from the blackthorn.
Tomatoes just aren’t quite ready are they? These are the first I’ve bought since autumn. They haven’t had the true heat of the sun, they are a bit sad. No amount of dressing them up can hide it. You can see I tried though…remember things are not always what they seem. Despite the disappointing tomatoes they were well held by ricotta, masses of Honest Toil Olive Oil and Burren Balsamics vinegar, pumpkin seeds, loads of salt and pepper and fresh basil, with bread for mopping and slurping. This differs only very slightly from the strawberry lunch earlier; ricotta was this weeks dairy choice and I finished it last night with sauteed radish tops and garlic.
A horseradish flower, I’ve never seen it before and was delighted to see this dainty beauty in the garden and then I ate it.
One of our favourite places; Broughgammon Farm. The kids can run around the working farm and we can stop to admire the artichokes in this fab sheltered garden. After we’ve played hide and seek, the kids have managed to get mud over their wellies and we’ve cooed over the piglets we have hot chocolate and brownies and I appreciate how lucky we are as I check my phone and catch an image of children in Gaza. (Sudan, Ukraine, Lebanon…)
The Cost of Living; Arundhati Roy
To love. To be loved. To never forget
your own insignificance. To never get used
to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar
disparity of life around you. To seek joy
in the saddest places. To pursue beauty
to its lair. To never simplify what is
complicated or complicate what is simple.
To respect strength, never power. Above all,
to watch. To try and understand. To never
look away. And never, never to forget
A beautiful Palestinian Feast, made by a wonderful friend. We gathered joyfully around a kitchen table to eat this delicious meal, safe in the Glens with the children playing outside. We held the people of Gaza in our thoughts.
The absolutely ever stunning Murlough Bay.
I wish you all a very beautiful Solstice, may brightness prevail x
‘I watch the sunlight paint it all back to bright summer’ 💘🌞
Beautiful x the poem is so moving and I had a wee giggle re the horseradish flower “and then I ate it” :)