photography | My Food Odyssey

Sep 9

Gathering Hay Bales | www.myfoododyssey.com

Inspiration

Yesterday, as I sat in my conservatory quietly reading & wondering if I would ever feel energetic again, I spotted my elderly neighbours in a nearby field hauling their hay bales in for winter storage. He was using a small cart, but she was using just a sheet, dragging two bales behind her at a time. They repeated this exercise over & over until the whole field was clear. Inspiration comes in many guises & I thought if they can muster the strength to get out & do what needs to be done, then so can I. Read more

Aug 31

And so she woke up | www.myfoododyssey.com

29 Comments

Running to Stand Still

There was a time when my life was dedicated to music. Every spare minute was spent writing songs, singing, playing guitar and listening to music, either recorded or live. I went to at least one live gig a week, often more. I rubbed shoulders with an eclectic bunch of troubadours, some of whom have gone on to become international stars. Music pulsed through my veins. Lyrics framed my philosophies & my thinking. Read more

Aug 20

Cabbage Caterpillars | www.myfoododyssey.com

31 Comments

Things that Tried to Thwart me

Ants, birds, biting insects, blackfly, cabbage caterpillars, cats, cows, crickets, dogs, frost, heat, moles, moss, pea maggots, rain, weeds. Since the start of the growing season a catalogue of hindrances has tried to come between me and my vegetables. The latest to appear are caterpillars on my brassicas – my beautiful cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts. Read more

Aug 14

Green Cabbage Head | www.myfoododyssey.com

23 Comments

Beneath My Feet

What a joy it is, a vegetable grower’s delight. Take some seeds, put them in the earth, tend to them, nurture them; watch empty spaces become dots of green, watch tiny leaves unfurl and grow, watch flowers, heads, roots and fruits emerge. It’s August and my bones are tired from weeding and watering, but the beauty of the ground beneath my feet makes it all worthwhile. Read more

Jul 29

Great Green Bush-Cricket | www.myfoododyssey.com

6 Comments

Jiminy Cricket

Nature is amazing. Sometime it feels like nature is working against you, like when it rains all summer long and your tomatoes don’t ripen. Other times, though, she does you a favour. Read more

Jul 20

Winter Sunset, Lithuania | www.myfoododyssey.com

9 Comments

Breaking the Rules

I’ve never been good at sticking to the rules. Maybe I have a rebellious streak or maybe I simply have a logical mind and just can’t bring myself to slavishly follow rules I find to be arbitrary. And a lot of them seem to be arbitrary! Read more

Jul 9

View from Taronga Zoo, Sydney| www.myfoododyssey.com

15 Comments

Alive & Kicking

Well, I made it. Sydney and back in two weeks. In the past when I’ve travelled to Australia I’ve gone for at least 4 weeks to allow for recovery from the long flight. This time, however, I was squeezing the trip between weedings in the garden and couldn’t afford to take longer than two weeks Read more

Jun 12

Sydney Fish Market | www.myfoododyssey.com

30 Comments

Sister Golden Hair

The question people most often ask me about living in Lithuania is whether or not I miss Ireland. My answer is always the same – it’s not so much Ireland that I miss, but my family and friends. There are other things I miss occasionally, like the music and craic in a good Irish pub or living near the sea and the abundance of fish & seafood that the sea provides. But mostly it’s my friends and family that I miss. Read more

Jun 5

14 Comments

On the Way

I love a good road trip. I love wide, open spaces and diverse scenery. I would far sooner be in a car travelling through stunning countryside than on a city tour, no matter how beautiful the architecture. Some of the most surprising and spectacular sights are between places of interest rather than in them. These are some of my favourite “on the way” shots from our European road trip two summers ago. Taken in Rioja, Spain, within a 15 minute period, they demonstrate the enormous variety of landscapes in the region. Think we might be due another visit. Read more

Jun 3

25 Comments

New Cock on the Block: Introducing Casanova

When you keep hens for eggs you learn to read your eggs for information on the well-being of your flock. You begin to notice variations in the colour, shape and thickness of the shell, the consistency of the white and the yellowness of the yolk. Shortly after the fall of Beelzebub I noticed something very strange about my eggs – something that should no longer be possible. Most of them were fertilised. Read more

May 24

Dandelion Seed Head | www.myfoododyssey.com

13 Comments

Nothing Gold Can Stay

It feels like only a few days ago that my garden was awash with golden dandelions. All of a sudden the golden flowers are gone, only to be replaced with white seed heads. These incredibly intricate seed orbs have always been a fascination to me. When we were kids we used to blow them apart to tell the time – whatever number of blows it took to take all the seeds off the stem was inferred to be the current time. It never worked, of course, but that didn’t stop us from blowing flower after flower, in effect helping nature to spread the seeds and thus ensuring more dandelions the following year. Beautiful and effective. Read more

May 21

Bee in Apple Blossom | www.myfoododyssey.com

6 Comments

Of Bees & Apple Blossoms

Bees amaze me. The amount of work they do is incredible. I keep some chilli plants in my sun room. I recently read that when keeping fruiting plants indoors where there are no bees you need to cross-pollinate the flowers yourself by gently sticking the tip of your finger into each flower in turn. The process takes a bit of time, but my plants are small and I only have a few of them, so it really doesn’t take too long. Then I look at our apple trees, completely covered in blooms. I can’t imagine how long it would take if I had to cross-pollinate all those individual flowers myself. Thank goodness for the bees, who tireless make their way from bloom to bloom, ensuring my tree is heavy with delicious apples later in the season. Seeing the bees enveloping the stamen with their tiny legs, clinging on as they extract the nectar for honey, is really quite fascinating. Read more

May 19

Ground Elder Pesto | www.myfoododyssey.com

24 Comments

Ground Elder Pesto [Recipe]

Ground elder is growing profusely in our garden at the moment. It is quite an invasive plant and can be very hard to get rid of once it takes hold. I only recently discovered that the leaves are edible. They taste a little like parsley but with the bite and consistency of spinach. Rather than bemoan the fact that my garden was full of weeds I decided to get inventive and use this natural bounty to make some tasty meals. Read more

May 15

18 Comments

Forces of Nature

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One man’s weed is another man’s wildflower. Dandelions are in full bloom at this time of year. To me, they are beautiful – a sea of gold as far as the eye can see. All parts of the plant are edible – leaves, petals, seeds and even the roots. They are an all-in-one superfood and they’re free, yet we’re mowing them down at a rate of knots. Quite apart from their beauty and their use as food, dandelions are incredibly important to plant life in general. They are a key source of food for bees in early spring when they are just coming out of hibernation. Bees are essential to growing food and vegetables as they cross-pollinate flowers, enabling fruits and vegetables to develop. To me, perfectly manicured lawns devoid of daisies and dandelions are lifeless and insipid. I prefer my garden to be wild and free. Give me a host of golden dandelions any day. Read more

May 1

15 Comments

Man in Motion

Whatever about me being a big kid, Arūnas is an even bigger one. He doesn’t do stationary – he likes to be on the move. Despite the motion blur you can still see the determination on his face to get higher and higher. It’s all part of his boyish charm, I guess. Luckily the swing was well cemented down – otherwise there probably would have been an injury. Read more