Mother's Garden

Fossils, mistletoe and great warriors

mothersgarden.es@gmail.com (Martin Kirby) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:29:33 +0000

The cold has bitten deep in January, but December was deliciously mild and the memory warms us. On Boxing Day, unable to amble beside the whispering pines and stout marram grass on Norfolk’s Holkham beach (Christmas always spells distance for us) we took off for a neighbouring village in these hauntingly beautiful Catalan mountains, following [...]

Dear Meryl, I have a Moon Daisy for you

mothersgarden.es@gmail.com (Martin Kirby) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:22:26 +0000

I am releasing a seed of hope on to the ceaseless airs of the internet. What chance is there I can get a message to an outstanding actress via one of you? Well, you never know unless you strive. If you don’t ask you will never have an answer. Read on. With vivid imaginings of the wetland [...]

Christmas thoughts from The Garden

mothersgarden.es@gmail.com (Martin Kirby) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:51:04 +0000

The wood burner crackles with life after damp mornings of downpour or mist, but still no hard frost as, overall, the weeks and days running up to Christmas have been in contrast to the economic storm embroiling the continent. I continue to track Jupiter at night and ponder on Voyager, the space probe that is now [...]

Rush for New Harvest Unfiltered Olive Oil

mothersgarden.es@gmail.com (Martin Kirby) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:19:10 +0000

Our annual NEW HARVEST UNFILTERED olive oil shipment has now landed in England for Christmas feasts – and 90 per cent has already been sold! Every year demand for the freshest, finest olive oil grows as, thankfully, more and more people appreciate that freshness is as equally important as provenance and a guarantee that the olive [...]

Handprints, relics, whispers and wonderings

mothersgarden.es@gmail.com (Martin Kirby) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:23:18 +0000

There are places where time concertinas, when history thumps you in the chest. Marçà-Giné’s ledge, a 60-seconds eagle glide from Mother’s Garden, is one such cradle of whispers. A vast lump of limestone, as big as a bus, rests, tilting slightly, at the rear of this human eyrie, beneath the summit of the little Miloquera mountain. [...]

Sing Away holiday at Mother’s Garden

mothersgarden.es@gmail.com (Martin Kirby) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:54:10 +0000

We are excited to announce that in April 2012 we will be holding a week-long singing holiday here at Mother’s Garden, organised in collaboration with singing teacher Teresa Verney of Sing For Joy. Teresa will teach a wide range of simple songs she will show participants how to explore ways of using the voice to express [...]

Chasing mice around the circle of life

mothersgarden.es@gmail.com (Martin Kirby) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:12:20 +0000

The circle of the Mother’s Garden seasons is a kaleidoscope of charms. I should have been telling of the stirrings of autumn a month ago, of that bluster and keenness that shakes the farm from summer stupor, but the cloudless calm lingered over Iberia to the end of October and the heat only waned by gentle [...]

Carrot cake with that Mother’s Garden difference

mothersgarden.es@gmail.com (Martin Kirby) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 09:27:54 +0000

Carrot cake with walnuts – so so yummy. This nutty variation has been enjoyed repeatedly in recent weeks with our hard-earned Mother’s Garden afternoon tea, and made for us by two tremendous farm helpers Natalie Kinsley and Andrei Solomka from Norfolk, England. Among the many farm tasks we are collecting walnuts now and so it makes [...]

Great spirit of Don Quixote rides again

mothersgarden.es@gmail.com (Martin Kirby) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:35:19 +0000

The low sky bears a tufty beard of grey, and several people remark on a vast rip in the cloud that runs as straight as a lance. I am sitting on a wall outside the theatre, looking up in search of characters as my imagination canters to the horizon. How strange that, on that September Sunday [...]

Summer softness and lessons learned

mothersgarden.es@gmail.com (Martin Kirby) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:32:00 +0000

September 12. The children returned to Latin school this week after three months of ease, and we try to re-adjust. Not easy. Summer peace and heat linger. It is still 80+ degrees in the shade, almost still enough to hear the beat of the crimson dragonflies’ wings. Two weeks ago the echoes of fading fiestas had [...]