You all know by now how much i like surprises – in any form they choose to come!
To my surprise, yesterday while back from the farmers market and in between going for tea i had decided to take a de-tour in the car. I often like to trick my sub-conscious and make myself look with more awareness. We all know how habits can form and make us go on auto-pilot. I’m very aware of this so like to find ways in catching myself out and do things differently!
As i turned the corner of a street i haven’t been on for years and years i saw this. Thank god, i had my camera with me:)
Now, camley street natural park i have not been to for over 15 years i think! I know, shocking, especially since i used to live in camden town. This is what their site says: Two unique acres of wild green space right in the heart of london, this innovative and internationally acclaimed reserve on the banks of the regent’s canal is a place for both people and wildlife
Yesterday, they hosted the london orchard project. Have a read on their website, it’s really inspiring. Here below is amber, who joined in april 2012 as project manager for creating new orchards programme.
Just to clarify. I know i have ‘chutzpah‘ and i am known to park anywhere, but even i wouldn’t have just parked my vespa in the middle of these grounds while a festival is going on!:)
As it was apple day to celebrate london’s harvest, one of the main attractions was seeing how apple juice and cider is made and getting to try it all.
So, first off you clean the apples thoroughly….
Then you can put them through this pulp making machine (you don’t have to)
… you could just do this… the kids loved crushing the apples and it was a real joy to observe.
Finally you take really fine pulp and put it through this apple crusher and squeeze out the juice. The result: gorgeous, fresh tasting apple juice. To make cider, you put the squeezed out juice in a barrel and let it ferment for up to 6-12 months, i think! Hey, presto!
Here below there was a ‘longest peel competition’. Really!!
Name the new Apple competition and try the different varieties of apples on offer. The one i tried really tasted like a pear.
On the subject of apples, for those of you who haven’t yet come across the simple things magazine, i hope you will check out their website, get a copy or treat yourself to the iPad version if living outside the uk. In their launch issue thad a fabulous article on ‘a day out picking apples’ with lots of recipes and advise on preserving apples as seen in this spread of that issue.
Lunch was apple pizza and traditional pizza while listening to live music.
Pond-dipping.
This was great for kids. the pond was full of duck weed and i loved all the wildness of plants and flowers.
It’s a beautiful spot and i tried to explore all of it given the short time i had!
There was some storytelling and orchard folklore.
……. and some art dotted about the place.
What struck me most was how many parents let their kids roam around without supervision. So different to city and urban life where you cannot relax for a minute as a parent with child in tow. It was a heaven for children and most of the time you could find them climbing the logs.
Now, it would be quite rude of me to leave you without throwing in some patterns and wonderful grains of these wooden logs.
Now that i’ve re-discovered it, no doubt i will go back to camley street natural park. It’s local, beautiful and the perfect spot for a mindfulness break, a lunch break or just a stroll in nature. Best bit, it’s just next to st.pancreas station.
How are you all? Many of you have children. Do you get a change to visit natural parks? Do tell. Happy monday. See you thursday!