Spiders

This year we got unexceptionally many nests of little spiders in our garden. As any baby animal, even these are just so cute, all bundled up together in a ball. When something upsets their nest, they start crawling all over the place, such fun to watch.

Jane Goodall

Last Friday I was fortunate to be able to listen and meet Jane Goodall in real life. She visited the GaiaZoo in Kerkraden, the Netherlands. I had counted on listening, so when I had a change to speek a few words with her I went completely blank and just mumbled some words of appreciation. I had just bought her book Harvest for Hope, about mindful eating, which she signed with the inspiring words: "Together we can change the world."

She is such an inspiring person, at 78 she travels the world 300 days a year to make the world a better place. Not just for her beloved chimps, but for everyone. She believes we lost our wisdom, our connection with the past, today and future, our connection with the earth and the cosmos, our sense to be part of this completeness which is life. With her both her Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots and Shoots program, she seeks to bring back wisdom. The goal to foster respect and compassion for all living things, to promote understanding of all cultures and beliefs and to inspire each individual to make the world a better place for people, animals and the environment. There is bound to be a roots and shoots group near you, just check their website.

She spoke for an hour and for the whole hour there was a smile on my face. She is a great storyteller and an oasis of calm, but passionate energy. An evening to remember :)

Sweet Saturday - Rhubarb Buckle

When we move house I want to plant some rhubarb, there's a ditch at the end of the garden where it should be real happy. For now I have to buy it and that's what I did. I thought of making rhubarb crumble until I saw this coming along on pinterest: a recipe for Rhubarb buckle. I adapted it from cups and sticks to grams and added my own touch ;)

For the dough:

• 200gr self raising flour
• 50gr sugar
• 110gr butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons of cream (I used sour cream)

Mix the flour, sugar and butter until it's crumbly; mix the yolks with the cream and add to the crumbly mix. Knead the dough until it forms a ball. Flatten this to a disk of about 10-12cm and leave in the fridge for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. 

Filling:

• 5-6 stalks of rhubarb (or about 650gr once chopped)
• 100 gr sugar
• zest of 1 lemon

Chop up the rhubarb and add the sugar and lemon zest, leave it for a bit.

Topping:

• 125gr self-raising flour
• 50gr sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 90gr butter
• 80gr of ground almond

Mix all together until it resembles a bread crumbs.

Roll out the dough between parchment paper till about 0,5cm thickness, as much in the shape of the baking tray (I used one close to the size of an A4 paper) as possible. Peel away the top layer of the parchment paper and transfer the dough on the paper to the tin. Leave a rim of max 1cm. So trim away where needed and add this where needed. Divide the rhubarb over the dough. If some fluid has formed meantime, don't put all the fluid on the dough. Sprinkle the crumble mix over the rhubarb.

Put in the oven for 30 minutes, than lower temperature to 150°C and leave it to bake for another 30minutes.

Enjoy! with a bit of ice cream or cream or just as it is :)