Pine Marten Post #20
Hello lovely person!
February frolics for you include; colourful calendula, succulent scent, broken beeches, nobbly chocolate, and making and moving.
Gardening tips for February: Sowing calendula seeds
Calendula is such a perky plant. Very easy to grow from seed, it’ll happily flower on a sunny windowsill. The flowers are edible and look very pretty scattered among green leaves when it gets to salad eating weather.
All you need is a pot with drainage holes and saucer, some multi-purpose compost (you can get teeny bags now, if you’re short of space) and some calendula seeds.
My favourite variety to grow is calendula ‘Indian Prince’ which copes admirably with my very haphazard tending. It flowers for months, then sets lots of seeds which you can collect and save for next spring. Seed sharing and swapping is a lovely thing to do with friends and neighbours too.
Fragrant musings from the library of scent: Paradisi by Jorum Studio
Bright, tangy green juice dribbles down your chin. Gentle spring light flickers around a vase of dew-sprinkled jonquils nodding gently in the soft, damp breeze from an open window. Tropical guava and homegrown pear—who’d have thought they’d make such a dreamy combination?
Nature notes for February
Magnificent beeches felled in the storm, but
tiny, tenacious blue tits poke soft and gilded grass stalks into breaks in the mossy bark—building new homes
elder buds are almost breaking, then think better of it and shrink, huddling close to polka dotted and striped stems.
Mounds of seaweed thrash the rocks and smashed shells, filling the air with a cornucopia of salty, fishy, rotty, grotty and
sublime smells.
Featured chocolate: Tony’s Chocolonely dark almond sea salt
A delicious, accidentally vegan bar from Tony’s Chocolonely. That is to say, you don’t notice the absence of milk in this variation, it just allows the fruit characteristics of the chocolate to shine more brightly.
⭐ Bright and juicy red fruit flavours.
⭐ Crisp almonds with prickly shards of sea salt.
⭐ A gorgeous combination of sweet and savoury. Tasty.
Wellbeing tip for February
Are you making or moving?
It's all a lot, isn’t it? Storms, the news, more storms. Wow though, really, the news.
How can we possibly cope with all of this?
Something I remind myself when things are tough is to make or move. By that I mean, what can I make, or how can I move myself? Simply doing something - anything - can really help to reduce that feeling of helplessness.
So, making. What could you create? The act of making something is incredibly powerful and will help to ease your mind.
You could try:
✏Doodling. Any pen or pencil will do. Simple shapes or calming words in flowing handwriting would be a great start.
🍝Cooking. Nothing fancy, unless you feel like it. But chopping vegetables for a hearty soup will help those fidgety hands and, when you eat it, nourish your body too.
🧶Crafting. Do you knit, love paper-folding or enjoy building Lego models? If you fancy trying something different, YouTube is full of brilliant videos for starting new hobbies.
Now, onto moving. What kind of movement might feel good to you right now? Do you feel like something vigorous or a gentler activity?
You could try:
🕺Vacuuming. I know, I know, it’s not exactly glamorous. But briskly shoving the hoover around for 20 minutes will burn off some of the restlessness that can come from feeling stressed.
🚶♀️Walking. One of the best ways to regain some equilibrium. Even better if you can try to use your senses while you’re out, looking for wildlife, listening to the birds and feeling the change of temperature on your face.
🤸♀️Stretching. Either seated or standing, whichever works best for you. Gently reaching up and down, then smoothly twisting around from side to side to release some tension.
Are you more of a maker or a mover when things are stressful?
On the blog and LinkedIn:
How and why to train your nose
I know, it’s still pretty gloomy, isn’t it? Have a look at these radiant perfumes for dark winter days.
Do you need a Chief Exalting Officer?
⭐ As always, all wibbly words and wonky pictures are by me, Rowan Ambrose. All products mentioned are paid for me too. Thanks for spending this time with me every month—I really appreciate you 😊
I'd love to hear about what sensory experiences bring you joy.
Feel free to reply to this email, or you can message me on Instagram or LinkedIn.