May 2008

The garden a month on as the flowers begin to come into bloom.



Bluebells emerging at last (I didn't know this is what they were all this time - I have been mowing them for the past two years).







The lovely scented lilac:



Garlic, onion and chives:





Newly planted box hedge in the front garden:

Provision

No food in the house this evening—only bread, yogurt and onions—but we won't go to bed hungry.

These are stinging nettles:



No, they're not weeds. We planted them on purpose. There is method in our madness.

This is freshly harvested spinach:



And freshly harvested nettles (you have to wear gloves to collect these):



This is spinach frying up with onions:



This is nettle soup:



A bowl of nettle soup and a piece of bread:



A plate of spinach and a dollop of yogurt:



It fills a hole until we get the shopping in.

The bounties of our Lord.

When news comes to you...

It is interesting what you discover while checking sources. 

I am sure you will remember that at the height of the furore over the publication of cartoons in Jyllands Posten it was alleged that Danish theologian Professor Tim Jensen had advised its editors that, ‘It will offend Muslims and only cause pointless provocation.’

According to his own narrative, it appears that this warning never actually took place: 

http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/RINVol9No1/another%20melancholy%20dane.htm

"A transcript (which I later obtain) reveals that, amidst what was in fact a long discussion of pictorial representations in Islam, I was at no point asked to comment on the published cartoons. Indeed, it is evident that I don’t know that the cartoons have been published. On the contrary, I seem to be under the impression that J-P is merely planning to publish some innocent drawings of Muhammad."

Yet again confirmation of what we already know: when news reaches you, verify it!