All posts by Stephen Barstow

Hedgehog crossing

In all the 35 years I’ve been cycling to work from Malvik to Trondheim, I’d never seen a living hedgehog (pinnsvin)…until yesterday when this little one decided to cross the road at Ranheim….it was sadly visibly limping.. :(
Ironically, 100m further up the road from where I’m standing is a much safer “pedestrian” crossing known as “Pinnsvin Crossing” (Hedgehog crossing)…. ;)
NB! Hedgehogs can’t be nocturnal here as it doesn’t get dark, so not that unusual to see them in the daytime!

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The cars had stopped!
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Limping hedgehog :(
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Pinnsvinn crossing
artsobs
I routinely report all interesting observations of birds, mammals, plants, insects etc. on our Species observation web site! Here’s the hedgehog observation being registered..

 

 

Nodding onion flower green pasta sauce

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Thank you to Charlotte and Maj-Britt for the tasty selection of Danish organic beers….
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The nodding flower pasta sauce
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Hazel, Charlotte and Maj-Britt….

To celebrate the arrival of my daughter Hazel and helpers Charlotte and Maj-Britt from Denmark, I knocked up this green pasta sauce which, from memory, contained common sow thistle, coriander, bolted lettuce, musk mallow, spring onions, nettles, chili etc…and decorated at the last minute with nodding onion flowers!

Daina discovers secret life of coffee

Daina Binde from Latvia doesn’t drink coffee but has a nose for a coffee flower…as she discovered that my coffee plant was in flower, unnoticed by me, in the depths of my living room forest garden….
I thought it hadn’t flowered for about 4-5 years, but it must have done as it also had two berries!!
More about Coffea arabica “Malvik” here: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=3996

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Chiffchaff enjoys diamond backs

I was taking a picture of my second Crambe cordifolia (heartleaf crambe / buskstrandkål) flowering for the first time in the garden from my bedroom balcony. I noticed this chiffchaff (gransanger) presumably gorging on diamond back moth larvae (kålmøll). It then moved across to a horseradish, another plant in the Brassicaceae with plenty of food. Both plants are in my book!

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Urtigers

Nettle burgers for dinner: Working in the garden all day…didn’t want to spend much time in the kitchen…needed some fast slow food. My helper Daina Binde had left an organic egg mix in the fridge when she left – not totally sure what was in it….on the balcony was a special potato growing in a large pot which had become “infested” with annual nettle (Urtica urens) (well, not really infested as I’d sown the seed :) )
I cooked the nettles quick, mixed with the egg mix, chili, siberian nodding onion, rolled oats and buckwheat flour and fried in sunflower oil….urtigers I reckon we can call them ;)

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Neil Young’s Global Ecovillage and Stavern

Apart from being a well known  singer / songwriter over the last 40 years, Neil Young is also an environmental activist and through his 2015 album “The Monsanto Years”  with its obvious anti-GMO, pro organics theme, he reached out to many. From 2015, he has invited the permaculture movement to man a stand in a tent called ‘News You Can Trust’ in his Global Ecovillage which follows his tours!  Permaculture magazine in the UK had been entrusted to organise local people to take part and I was offered two free tickets to take part.  Having never seen Young live and seeing the opportunity to promote both permaculture and my book to a new audience, I jumped at the chance. Helene Bøhler joined me on behalf of the Norwegian Permaculture Association for a memorable day in Stavern!

Here is a selection of pictures from my visit to the Stavern Festival and Stavern  :)

See also https://www.permaculture.co.uk/news/2906156387/neil-young-invites-permaculture-tour