Slow Sunday, autumn, when the boat came home & a recipe

Sweet chilli for soggy days

Absolutely chucking it down, leaves falling off the trees onto the ground, trees half leaf covered and ground, sodden. Copper and yellow leaves patched across the tarmac. Cars and buses sloshing; me, splashing my way home.

Once in lights lit, music playing, food cooking; I loll. On a great big floor cushion with legs resting up the sofa and, read. And, think and, makes some plans, then, read some more.

Today, has turned out to be an autumn Sunday.

High up in the sky the seagulls circle and swoop, lower down magpies chatak, flying in and out of the trees along our street and all my neighbours, snug inside, resting up, perhaps getting ready for Monday morning.

The red fox

Once upon a time there lived a red furred fox who I met. He lived on our allotment site and stole the apples, but for some reason he never stole Ted’s chickens. Unlike Roald Dahl’s mr fox, he never tunnelled his way in and Ted got to enjoy a good supply of fresh eggs. I noticed on the new allotment site another fox. This one the shade of soft ginger, very thin, carrying an apple in it’s mouth. I never new, growing up, that foxes liked apples.

Joy dots

Ginger foxes

Splodgy days

Autumn colours

Humanity

Warm smiles

Cosy lights

Music

Roasted red peppers

Shredded beef stew

Feeling nourished

Being

Recipe

Sweet beef chilli

I made this chilli with minced beef but next time I will make it with slow cooked shredded stewing beef, because I just ate one out and it was much better! The sweetness for this one came from maple syrup. I browned the minced beef, sautéd onions and spices and courgette, added a tin of tomatoes and some stock then simmered for about 30 minutes then seasoned with salt and maple syrup. I can improve on this recipe, and I will.

Eating meat is very controversial nowadays. I haven’t always eaten meat. I was vegetarian for about 18 years, and then when married we were vegan and I can honestly say it was the worst thing I could have done to my vata constitution.

I was vegan for both of my pregnancies, and absolutely wrecked. Then 15 years of digestive issues that got progressively worse and caused other symptoms.

Once I healed with Ayurveda I realised I had to eat meat again to nourish this malnourished body. The Ayurvedic advice was to eat 4 ounces of red meat each day for 2 weeks then to incorporate red meat and other fish/animal protein on a regular basis. It completely turned my life around in every way, and I wished I’d understood this in my younger years. I now support young people who are travelling a similar pathway, to help them turn things around sooner rather than later.

The vegan approach can work well for kapha types, but vata types will usually struggle, it will impact their nervous system. It’s why I started going deaf in my 30’s for no reason Western medicine could understand.

You can read about the 3 main body types that Ayurveda refers to here.

And, if you would like to carry out an Ayurvedic autumn cleanse it’s the same as the spring one which you can read about here.

And if you would like some Ayurvedic tips for moving through the autumn season you can find them here.

I hope this is useful.

When the boat came home

When the boat sailed into the harbour the stars were out and the sun was disappearing below the horizon. Some people left that boat for the shore. For warm fires and smiles, for laughter and happy times. Others stayed on board finding happiness in other ways, as they listened to stories by candlelight and felt the ebb and flow of the boat moving on the water. Cosied up in warm sleeping bags as, ever so gradually, and ever so welcomly, they found themselves warm and cosy in heart and mind. The stars twinkled throughout the sky and the people, fell asleep, just as the last candle went out, to dream of warm happy cosy times.

Wishing you a lovely cosy night with happy dreams.

Warmest wishes,

Lucy x