Here you will find my various writings themed around green living in the 21st Century.
WILD FOOD AND RECIPES - NATURE AND ENERGY - ECOLOGY AND HOLISM - STORIES AND POEMS
WILD FOOD AND RECIPES
Hazelnut Delight : It felt like the first touch of autumn today and my mind turned to getting in some wood for the winter. On the way up the hill I noticed there were many windfall hazel nuts on the ground and picked up a few to take home for later as my teeth aren’t up to cracking them any more. In fact I crammed so many into my elasticated trousers that they kept falling off on the way down the hill with the firewood. It seems to be a good year for ‘Cob nuts’ and many of them had delicious kernels just ripe enough to inspire a bit of research and several cooking sessions..read more
Apple a Day : There are thousands of varieties of apples, from small, sweet and crisp to large fluffy and sour. Herbalists have long used apples in the treatment of digestive disorders...read more
Blackberry Feast : A bumper crop this year and I picked a lot in a couple of hours with the thought of making wild blackberry and apple crumble. The humble blackberry is a powerhouse of positive chemicals – lashings of vitamin C when fresh, fibre, folate, bioflavonoids and useful carbohydrates. They also contain the aspirin-like salicylates, which can trigger allergic reactions or even hyperactivity in some people. Blackberry has astringent, antifungal, antiseptic and tonic properties and the leaves of this most useful plant also reveal a load of useful constituents used for diarrhoea, mouth inflammation, skin ulcers and wounds...read more
Chocolate Love : In a sporadic outburst of decadence I joined the Chocolate Tasting Club. Every month for nine months, a box of 'the-most-fantastic-chocolates-in-the-world' would drop through the letterbox I reshaped to accept this delicious indulgence...read more
Earthnuts: The custom of grubbing for Earthnuts, or Pignuts is as ancient as mankind itself. Although these tasty tubers are beloved of pigs (hence the name) they are a most unusual and rewarding woodland snack and there was a time when they were a popular nibble for country children on their way to and from school...read more
Food Sex: In this age of Viagra it hardly seems worth mentioning the awesome power of food in provoking and promoting enjoyable sex, but both food and sex share one important attribute in common; they are activities that employ all of the senses. No wonder one activity is often the precursor of the other. Explore recipe ideas here for an Epicurean ‘erotic meal’, one that can stimulate both the capacity and the desire for sexual activity. Let food seduce you! ..read more
French Paradox: The French, in terms of diet and disease, are a statistical enigma. They relish high fat food, consume alcohol regularly and often smoke - the very picture of the World Health Organisation’s ‘risk group’. High protein, meat based meals include duck, goose and pork - even cooked in fat as a preference! Butter, cream, pork fat and wine are regular ingredients...read more
H. Pylori: There is a tiny bacterium residing in the gut lining of about two-thirds of all adults on the planet, called Helicobacter Pylori. Research strongly suggests that this bacterium may be central to the cause of 80% of all stomach cancers – yet this dangerous invader is mostly left untreated until it creates serious problems...read more
Halloween and Pumpkins: Halloween celebrates the last day of the year in the ancient Celtic Calendar, the end of a year in the times of the old gods, followed by Samhain - New Years Day. Pumpkin is a versatile food with many traditional, warming recipes ideal for this time of year...read more
Healing Food: There are many healing foods available. Nutritional studies into natural healing compounds in fresh food reveal an entire pharmacopoeia just waiting for us. It’s worth learning some of these terms for the nutraceutical and botanical aspects of healing foods. Discover which foods contain these so that you can identify and get the foods that will benefit your own unique physiology and healing situation...read more
Natures Cold Remedies: During the winter it can be hard to escape that shivery feeling that happens when you get too cold. A good immediate remedy for this is to wrap yourself up in a douvet and stick a hairdryer up it, (making sure the air flow is not restricted) until you feel warmed up...read more
Nature's First Aid Kit: Global pharmaceutical companies control our diets and medicines and governments are bringing in legislation to ban many dietary supplements. What better time to get back to the earth and turn out your medicine cabinets in favour of Mother Nature's healing foods? This is a great time to source our own foodstuffs wherever possible? The following article is an extract from 'Secrets of the Green Kitchen ' by Simon Mitchell..read more
Nettle Soup: Weather-wise it was the first day of spring in Cornwall, with warm sun and a brisk wind from the west. Many Lesser Celandine had flowered that morning and I was the first to see them, Primroses too and just a sign of Earthnut leaves coming up. I set off in search of fresh nettles. I have a regular spot for this at the lower edge of a field that gets the sun but is protected from the north and east by woodland. It’s a good spot and I found that a colony of moles had set-up camp there since I last visited...read more
Recycle your Christmas tree : This is a useful and fun woodwork project you can make if you choose your Christmas tree carefully!..read more
Red Fruit Jam: The taste of Summer, bursting with flavour and anti-oxidant effects. Tayberries are a Raspberry / Blackberry cross that combines the best of both. Big, succulent fruits that crop early. Blackberries were eaten even in Stone Age times, pips from the fruit were found in the stomach remains of a Neolithic man preserved in clay in Essex...read more
Riverford Organic Veg: I have had my veg. box from Riverford for over ten years now. Fresh, locally grown, seasonal, organic veg. arrive (at least 10 sorts), with a fruit bag (3 varieties) for £14.50. It’s like Christmas every time, carefully unpacking the fortnightly box and storing away the food that will become me in 2 weeks time. It is truly delicious, both in taste and ideology. There’s nothing I like more with my veg. than a bit of eco-politics and the newsletter that arrives with the box sometimes provides this. Guy Watson is the founder of Riverford Organic Vegetables, who now have over 30,000 customers in the south of UK in a unique franchise distribution system. He has kindly allowed me to reproduce this newsletter from my veg. box. as a guest article...read more
Rosemary Flower Candies: Leave your tic-tacs at home. This medicinal plant provides delicious mouth fresheners to integrate into a balanced healing diet. When a herb or plant has the designation 'officinalis' it means it has been recognised to have medicinal qualities. 'Rosemarinus', so called because of marine connections (colour of sea - grows by sea eg Mediterranean) is possibly the best example of a herb that we commonly grow that has extensive folklore and many attributed medicinal values...read more
Rowan Jelly and Runestaffs: Sharp and sour but sweet and succulent all at the same time, this traditional accompanyment to cold meat is bursting with flavour, and folklore!..read more
Watercress soup: Wild Watercress soup is a delicious and nutritious recipe with the leaves available in spring and early summer. Watercress is rich in Vitamins A and C, iron, iodine and phosphorus. It can be used in the treatment of...read more
Wild Medicine and Tansy: Chrysanthemum Vulgare is a common perennial in the British Isles and the name Tansy is said to be derived from the Greek 'athansia', meaning 'immortal'. Reasons suggested for this include the fact that the dried flower lasts forever or that it has a medicinal quality contributing to long life. Looking back to Greek literature, Tansy was given by the Gods to Ganymede to make him immortal. In the language of flowers the gift of Tansy means 'Rejected address' - " I am not interested in you". Its strange taste, not unlike the smell of 'mothballs' might have something to do with this...read more
Wildfood party: Dinner Party Recipes for wild food lovers! This coming year, plan ahead for a special dinner party made from wild food collected from the countryside and from ‘local’ suppliers. It is often difficult to find ‘bulk’ wild food, enough even for a small party. By collecting over the summer and freezing a few elements (soups and fruits), a varied and multi-course, easy to find and make, and fun wild food dinner party can be had without romping over the local habitats too much. Bon appetit! ..read more
Wishing Box: Boxing Day refers to the custom of giving Christmas boxes - presents to the people who have helped us through the old year. In 2005 it fell on a full moon. What better opportunity do you need to make a ‘wishing box’ - a charmed box to make your wishes come true?..read more
Yarrow Tea: Yarrow leaves make an amazing wild herbal tea that can help with colds and flu, and also help you see in pure colour...read more
NATURE AND ENERGY
Alternative Energy: Alternative power sources are now a realistic option at home. Some people even generate more power than they need and sell it back to the ‘grid’. Generating your own electricity at home is called ‘microgeneration’ and is fast becoming a great investment in the face of rising energy costs. Once you start looking for free energy you will see it everywhere...read more
Ancient Ways: The Saints' Way in Cornwall is a story written into the land. This ancient route existed long before it was used by saints, taking advantage of the unique shape of Cornwall and its rivers. Evidence (especially Pictish Art forms) suggest that Phoenicians, Egyptians and Greeks journeyed to west coasts of Britain even before the Iron Age, in search of Keltic wisdom and trade. They would hit Cornwall and Southern Ireland first. Some sources even nominate Cornwall for the site of the ‘Golden Fleece’, a story made famous by Jason and the Argonauts...read more
Body Imaging Systems: Work with electrical fields that surround animals and plants suggests the presence of an energy body. Studies using Kirlian photography show energy fields surrounding physical objects although there is still some debate as to what these actually are. One famous Kirlian experiment is the 'Phantom Leaf Effect'. In this experiment the leaf is cut or torn and the top part removed. The Kirlian photographs taken reveal it still to be there as an etheric body, perhaps a 'holographic energy template' for the leaf, although there is much discussion as to what this effect actually is...read more
Curious Font: Carvings remain of ancient stories in Britain. Here's one that tells a story of how the forces of Christianity rewrote history in Lostwithiel, Cornwall. As with church windows, the bas-reliefs on this unique font tell a story from different times and very different values. These are ancient archetypes carved in wild rock. If you enjoyed Dan Brown's excellent novel 'The Da Vinci Code' you will enjoy decoding this pre-medieval artifact with Simon Mitchell...read more
Dragon Line: The Sun and the Serpent by Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst is a book about the Dragon ley line. It is one to which I regularly return. The whole concept of an earth ringed by meridians, veins in a matrix of power, is not just an anthropomorphic projection based on Chinese medicine. Many magnetic images of the earth show similar veins of energy beyond our normal perception. Does the earth, like our own meridian system, harbour an energy matrix? In their book Hamish and Paul trace the line right across the UK - order it from Amazon: The Sun and The Serpent ..read more
The Michael and Mary Ley Line: In the same way that a human body has chakras and a ‘meridian system’ interfacing the physical and energy aspects of being, our planet has a matrix of energy. Our planet is awash with energy, from the 1000’s of lightening storms happening all over its surface at any given time to the majesty of the Northern Lights. From the solar winds covering the planet in radiation to the many wavelengths streaming in from deep space...read more
Eat Good Food and Play: I asked my 13 year old son ‘What is the purpose of your existence?’. In a trice he replied ‘To eat good food and play!”. Grabbing the last of his organic apple slices he dashed out of the door to do just that. But it got me thinking as I washed up - what if he’s right ! How could one manage this as an adult ?..read more
Fowey River Boat Trip: Its not often that the conditions on the Fowey river are perfect for canoeing. But this solstice eve the tide and the weather were ideal. The river opened to me and I became one with the water, the wind, the fish, the birds and the trees. Even heaven couldn't be better than this. Join Simon Mitchell in his canoe trip on the River Fowey, from Penpoll Creek to Lostwithiel, a river journey of about 4 miles...read more
Free Colour Light Therapy: When the sun in the Northern hemisphere is low on the horizon, its angle gives us an opportunity to play with raw colour. This colour therapy self-treatment came to me as a work displacement activity and I welcomed it. If you have some old CD's you can recycle them and treat yourself to a pure colour bath directly onto your eyeballs...read more
Lerryn to Lostwithiel: Simon Mitchell is 'Nature Boy'. Join him on one of his favourite journies through spectacular Cornish valley countryside in springtime. This is a walk (or bike ride) along the River Fowey between the ancient Cornish settlements of Lerryn, St.Winnow and Lostwithiel...read more
Northern Stars: Orion: The winter night skies are alive with ancient stories. Hunters, dogs and horses, giants and a female warrior inhabit Orion in this guest article from Claire Nahmad...read more
Old Gods: Winter Solstice: Once again the Earth turns around the sun and we come to the shortest day, conspiratorially hidden right next to Christmas - on Dec 21st. The Longest Night is an opportunity to make 'Deamon Fire' - find out how...read more
Politics of Energy: Who owns your energy? In the normal course of things our political systems have come to tax us for a percentage of the energy we spend in work - through using money. The more successful we are in ‘work’ - relating to the economy - the more energy the government of the day can take. Added to this system are local taxes, invisible taxes, stealth taxes, property taxes and so on...read more
Save Energy in the Kitchen: Our modern kitchens are expensive in energy terms, cookers, microwaves, and kettles, washing and washing up machines, tumble dryers, fridges, deep freezers and fryers and a plethora of gadgets to make our lives easier and consume power. Only now are we starting to realise the real cost of such labour saving devices. Nobody wants to go back to hand washing in a bucket in the outhouse but there are easy energy saving alternatives!..read more
Save Energy on Heating: How we heat our homes is a major contributor to global warming. Often we overheat our homes and walk round in T-shirts in the middle of winter and then wonder why we are so prone to colds! The ideal temperature is between 18 to 21 degrees Celsius (65 to 70 Fahrenheit). Simply turning the heating down a bit and wearing more clothing is a simple and easy way to save a lot of money and it doesn’t encourage germs and viruses. But there are many other things we can do to reduce gas, electricity or oil costs in our homes...read more
Save Energy on Lighting: It’s estimated that between 15% and 25% of domestic electricity bills are made up of lighting energy charges. With a few simple actions it is possible to halve your lighting costs without sitting in the dark or becoming a candle fanatic. A responsible use of household gadgets will also reap savings that cumulate over years into a considerable amount of money...read more
Solfeggio Humming: Most musical instruments can be used for their healing qualities and the same applies to the human voice. Just by humming or singing you are setting off frequencies and vibrations inside your body that can shift perception and alter physiology. I found this out during one of my work avoidance breaks...read more
The Cruel Lords of Nature: The Cruel Lords of Nature - guest article from Guy Dauncey: Around 10,000 years ago, after Earth had emerged from 90,000 years of the last ice age, when mammoths roamed and northern humans shivered in caves, the people who lived in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia, in modern day Iraq, invented agriculture...read more
Treatment Room: I open the arched doorway and enter the walled garden. As usual the plants contain their own inner lights, reaching up to the sky they glow in luminous green. The deep black soil glints with touches of silica light as I walk the path across the garden. The scents of lavendar, rosemary, marjoram, jasmine and a thousand others hang in in the air, buzzing my nose like hardworking bees making trails between the rich flowers. Here in the garden is every plant, but I'm not working here today...read more
Healing Meditation : I was walking down from Bob’s Enchanted Croft to Penpoll Creek, to check my kayak was alright, when this lady called Pam jumped out of the hedge and invited me to a party on her land to celebrate her husband’s, David’s birthday. Before I knew where I was, I was involved in an Earth and World Healing Meditation in their cabin, which I reprint here with David Stringer’s permission because it was rather fun...read more
ECOLOGY AND HOLISM
Avoid Modern Disease: Thirty things you can do to avoid modern disease...read more
Chemical Consumerism: Rachel Carson wrote a book in the 1960’s called ‘Silent Spring’, describing how the use of pesticides in our food production was not only destroying wild bird populations but was also a root cause for a whole host of human malaise, including cancer. Today we are told that our diet should contain at least five sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables without any reference to the quality of this food or its authenticity. But really this is not enough to promote health and research shows why...read more
Clarkson v. Porritt : A media argument has developed between TV’s ‘Top Gear’ presenter Jeremy Clarkson and Jonathon Porritt, former Director of ‘Friends of the Earth’ now head of the Government’s UK Sustainable Developments Commission. As someone deeply committed to ecology, but also enjoying life, I find myself in an interesting position with regards to this...read more
Dew Ponds : A cute book I picked up in a second-hand bookshop contains a collection of scraps and oddments about the many strange but interesting objects encountered on ramblings and wanderings in the British Countryside. In a time of water shortages and hosepipe bans, Dew Ponds could be a practical way to ensure a localised supply of water for gardening or livestock as this article by E. Mansell describes. On the chalk downs of Southern England from Sussex to the Marlborough and Wiltshire Hills are certain ponds to which the country folk attribute almost magical powers...read more
Beyond Maslow : Abraham Maslow’s model of human needs, showing a ‘motivating hierarchy’ has been a strong influence in several sectors of our culture since the 1950’s. It is used in advertising to predict and manipulate needs and motivations, in health and social services as a sort of scale of personal well-being and in cultural and business studies as a reference to personal development in relation to employment. But a close look reveals that this particularly Western cultural model is missing important elements for those who believe life on earth has a purpose...read more
Buckminster Fuller: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." ~ Buckminster Fuller . Buckminster Fuller is one of my favourite inventors, a designer of geodesics and the famous ‘retreat pod’ and other living systems. The above quote is of an age that was a lot more innocent than today, but certainly gives any designer ‘pause for thought’...read more
Diet and Cancer: Attitudes to the link between diet and cancer are changing fast. The World Cancer Research Fund was founded specifically to fund and sponsor education and research into the diet-cancer link. There is mounting evidence that the high fat intake in a typical Western diet, along with the low intake of nutritious foods such as vegetables, fruits and wholegrains, may be responsible for up to 35% of cancers...read more
Don't Get Cancer: One antidote to cancer is information. In general our responses to cancer are converging, but very slowly.
Presently all cancer authorities are agreed on only one thing: cancer cannot take hold in a healthy immune system...read more
Earth Future: Futurists speculate about the fate of our earth and as a fan of science, science fiction and ecology it's fun for me to project some of our present planetary scenarios forwards. This article extrapolates the theories of James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia Hypothesis and Thomas Berry, an ecologist and writer...read more
Eco Philosophy: Henryk Skolimowski was Philosopher in Residence at Dartington Hall in Devon. He provides a startling model of two opposed value systems that demonstrate the gap between materialist and eco-philosophies. See here why Green Growth will never be achievable with present economic thinking...read more
Economics verses Earth: Green Growth is the latest buzz word from the Tory Party who are the last people I would want in charge of a Green Agenda. Can economics in their present form be reconciled with sustainability when it seems the laws of human economics are in conflict with the laws of the Earth and nature? Where do you draw the line? Guest article by Donella Meadows, author of Pulitzer Prize-nominated weekly column, ‘The Global Citizen’...read more
Get Creativity: Creativity is central to the management of our individual lives, but in modern times few people are able to access this as a resource. Alan Watts writes in The Wisdom of Insecurity: "We have allowed brain thinking to develop and dominate our lives out of all proportion to 'instinctual wisdom'; which we are allowing to slump into atrophy. As a consequence we are at war within ourselves..."read more
Hegemony in Education: Our educational system is presently lost. Governments have long lost sight of what education actually is and it is mainly replaced within formal ‘education’ by systems of indoctrination. Just how has this come about?..read more
Live 8 - Will it Work?: The original Live Aid was one of the most important events in my life. Millions of people came together from all over the planet to put an end to poverty in Africa. It was one of the most positive, life affirming actions ever created by people of my generation. It created hope. It opened my heart...read more
Philosophy and cancer treatment: 1000 years ago in Europe pre-Christian tribes originally had a Goddess culture - a matriarchy where the earth and nature and their cycles and secrets were revered. In pre-industrial societies illness was not seen as a 'random assault from outside' but as a deeply significant life event integral to the sufferer's whole being - spiritual, moral, physical and life course - past, present and future. Dis-ease was interpreted as packed with moral, spiritual and religious messages as one of the many ways through which 'God revealed his will to mankind'. Other philosophies of medicine such as Ayurvedic or Tibetan think similarly, in these, dis-ease has a karmic aspect...read more
Paradigms of Disease: A paradigm is a sort of cultural, consensual pattern of thought or model of something. For example the 'current consensus in scientific medicine'. Paradigms change, like the impact of Galileo's work on disproving the flat-earth theory or Copernicus's heresy that the Earth moves round the Sun. These new ideas met a great deal of resistance from orthodox philosophy but eventually gave rise to a changed perception of the world we live in...read more
Sustainable Earth: There are many ways we can take responsibility for a sustainable and life enhancing environment. By living lightly we protect the delicate ecosystems on which our lives depend, we save energy and contribute to biodiversity. Your action is needed now to increase the sustainability of natural resources. Consider investing your time and energy in ethical methods for a positive future...read more
The Cancer Industry: Many volunteers world-wide commit themselves to raising funds for cancer research and cancer charities. Many hundreds of thousands more work in the industry as carers, or researching, prescribing, diagnosing and manufacturing drugs. Huge companies spend fortunes on cancer research. After so long and so many billions spent what exactly has cancer research revealed?..read more
The End of Education? : Prince Charles is right on the ball concerning his comments on education. The development of human potential is a crucial issue on 21st century Earth. I attended a conference on the role of the Learning Skills Council (LSC, responsible for the Further Education of 16yrs+ adults) in the voluntary sector and then emailed a senior member of the LSC to enquire whether or not ‘the development of human potential’ was part of their educational remit...read more
Vibrational Medicine: Vibrational medicine attempts to treat people with various forms of pure energy. The influence of alternative medical systems such as Chinese, Ayervedic or Tibetan medicine have led in part to the development of machines that can 'image energy'. Heat energy imagers are an accepted part of our technology. We readily accept imaging heat, even though we can't see it, because heat is something we can sense through touch. With the 'energy body' it is not so straightforward. Very few of us have experienced this for ourselves and there is apparently no sensory backup to tell us it is there...read more
STORIES AND POEMS
Apple Man: The spiky bushes we came to were low on the ground, the apples hanging inside a screen of twigs. One of the bushes was far bigger than the others...read more
Catching the Mandragora: One night Nevli the Herbalist shook me awake. It was just after a new moon and the light of days was short. We took unlit torches through the cold woods to a site not far from Castledore, at the head of a stream. It was a crisp but calm night, and the ultramarine sky was lit with the tiny lights of watching spirits. By the time I caught up with him, Nevli had selected a young birch sapling near to the Mandragora...read more
Farm Concerts: Since the demise of foxhunting and ‘hunting with dogs’ in the countryside, there are thousands of dispossessed toffs wandering around with nothing to do. To compensate we offer here the new shape of country activities - impromptu farm concerts...read more
Hay Bale Surfing : Since the demise of foxhunting and 'hunting with dogs' in the countryside, there are thousands of dispossessed toffs wandering around with nothing to do. To compensate we offer here the new shape of extreme and dangerous landsports - Bale surfing...read more
Positive Poems: Free ebook of positive poems from simonthescribe ...read more
Soothe an ailing child : Charm to soothe an ailing child...read more
THE LILY: Episode 1: This land is my memories. For two thousand years this valley has been mine alone.
I know every rock, every stream and every tree. I know the forces that shape this land and the people who inhabit it. This land is me...read more
The Magic Book: Have you ever fallen asleep while reading a book - but gone on reading while in dream mode ? This unusual experience led to 'The Magic Book’, a visualisation exercise for people who like the written word...read more
The Song of the Robin: When Nature provides you with just what you are looking for – this is ‘synchronicity’ in action. I was completing an illustrated version of one of my ebooks ‘The Adventure of Arthur’ (which you can download for free at the end of this article) and was short of some good pictures of a Robin – who is a sort of ‘guide’ in this story – called ‘Follow the Robin’. I had used a scanned Christmas card ‘at a pinch’ for this image and – well it just sort of spoiled the ebook. With this in the back of my mind I set off on a walk with my camera...read more
Christmas Carols: Every year for the past 25 years, the Cornish town of Lostwithiel has hosted what may be the last non-commercial carol singing event in the country. A turn-out of more than 200 people is not unusual for this event which is quite a substantial amount of people for a small Cornish town. Your link to a free PDF booklet of Christmas Carols...read more
The existential tortoise : Winston the tortoise paused. He thought; “Today would be a good day to go the whole five yards”. As he waited to start Winston enjoyed the stillness and peace of non-movement, because he liked being still and going nowhere. Sometimes the whole hurly-burly world seemed too much for him and he would simply withdraw his head into his shell for a while, and think about it...read more
