I spend increasingly less time, not merely on a laptop but also on any electronic device. Long gone are the days of scrolling on social media or doom-scrolling the latest news, which was probably done out of anxiety more than anything else. Experiences are so much more liberating when one can step out of fear.
Following my daily fix of hot water and lemon, I have breakfast – usually natural bio-yoghurt with fruit, porridge or sometimes eggs. I spend time in the kitchen every day either prepping meals or tidying up and doing the daily chores. I also do admin work for myself and Dan, who is a piano tuner-technician. If Dan has left for work very early I will feed the cats before I do anything else at all, and after 30 minutes administer our in-remission-diabetic kitty Merlin his insulin shot.
I spend some time every day in our garden, where we grow our own organic fruit and vegetables. We have overwintered veggies for a couple of years now but this is the first year where we will be growing our own produce all-year-round as food prices continue to rise here in the UK, as they are everywhere else. Gardening and being outdoors is so beneficial to my general wellbeing and mental health, especially throughout autumn and winter; I suffer from SAD and am doing my utmost to deal with it by the most natural methods I can.
I play the piano and also compose ambient music (I still notate by hand, though have recently purchased Sibelius), though I haven’t written anything new for a little while now as I haven’t necessarily been in the right headspace and often need to juggle a busy life, but I usually do piano practice most days.
Two or three days a week I do crafting – jewellery-making, candle-making or sewing – for an hour or two and the items I either list in my own webstore or in my Etsy shop or put in one of my two outlets. I am also a YouTube content creator and although my channels are very small, I produce one or two videos every week for both channels and I edit Dan’s content for his channel too. He normally uploads one video a week as well as shorts.
I do enjoy getting out and about and go for a good walk a few times a week though I try to go out every day, even if it’s just a 15 or 20 minute walk into Ramsgate or Broadstairs to shop for groceries. I like to support small local businesses and buy from the greengrocer, fishmonger, butcher and baker, even if the prices are a little higher than in the supermarkets. We also have a doorstep delivery of dairy once a week and every two months we have a delivery of raw milk products from Fen Farm Dairy, who are based in Suffolk.
These are just some of the things I do in a normal day!
What, though I ask you, does your day look like? Do let me know!
My name is Catherine but I am often known as Cat. I can be cute and cuddly and have green eyes but inside beats the heart of a lioness – or a panther, especially when riled (which isn’t very often, to be fair). I also have very quiet footsteps and tend to creep up on people – though not intentionally, I have cat-like ways just like a cat!
I identify as a woman and my pronouns are she/her, but I am known as a ‘mad cat lady’ and I am purrfectly content with that label! Dan and I have three fur-babies: Merlin, the Magickal Chonk is the senior boy at 14 years of age (72 in cat years); Our Fur Arthur the tuxedo kitty is 4 years old; and Little Miss Robyn will be 4 years old in November. I sometimes think that they must be the most pampered kitties ever as they have a lovely big back garden to roam and want for nothing in either the toy or food department, and they get lots of love and fuss. They even have their own Instagram pages!
Every year in the UK, some 7 million tonnes of food and drink is thrown away, much of which is past their ‘best before’ date but would still be perfectly good to eat.
Approved Food is an online store in the UK owned by Morris & Son (Leeds) Ltd of Dodworth, South Yorkshire. With the tag line Waste less, save more, they specialise in food, drinks and a wide range of other items that are often near or past their ‘best before’ (not ‘use by’) dates by offering them at discounted prices, though they also sell many other products – for example, toiletries, pet food and household items – that are still comfortably in date but at lower prices than one might find at the supermarket. Nothing sold is past its USE BY date and they currently receive 4.66/5 in reviews.
Approved Food have over 2,000 products, many at huge discounts, including Big Brands such as Kellogg’s, Walkers and Hotel Chocolat; basic store cupboard essentials; and supermarket and department store products encompassing anything from food and alcoholic beverages to toiletries, gifts and more. Their regular customers typically save around £60 on their monthly shop compared to high street prices – a saving of over £700 per year. Stock on their website updates every day – all at heavily discounted prices – and there are often special daily promotions too.
Approved Food were featured on BBC Food Fighters in July 2011 and you can watch it here:-
In lab tests all food samples were clean and safe to eat.
However, I first discovered Approved Food in May 2023 following an article in the moneysavingexpert Martin Lewis weekly newsletter, which was offering free delivery on a first online order. The cheapest delivery is £3 via DX and upgrades are available at an extra cost, but £3 is still a saving, right?!
I personally have saved £321.63 since placing my first order based on one order every 4-6 weeks on average and tend to mostly buy cat food (which always has a USE BY between 2024 and 2026) and perhaps a few store cupboard top-ups. The website is quick and fairly easy to navigate and the daily bargains are prominently flagged up, meaning you can easily add any to your basket there right away. If a product is limited to a certain quantity per customer or if a very few of an item are remaining, then it will always say so. Products you add to your basket are reserved for an hour and if you take a while browsing and exceed this time frame then there may be items that you need to remove before proceeding to checkout, and it is at this stage when the site may occasionally become a little glitchy; with a little patience I have never had a problem proceeding to payment but generally these days my strategy is to have in my mind what I need before logging in, to avoid disappointment. Online orders received before 2pm will normally be delivered within 2-3 days by DX delivery and you will need to be at home to receive your order as they are not left at your address unattended. You will be notified by DX the day before your delivery and will be texted a two-hour slot the following morning, giving you the opportunity to change the day of your delivery if necessary to one more convenient for you.
Downsides? As with any site, a few minor niggles. Most notably, when browsing the categories or running a search the majority of items that usually first appear are crisps and candy and other sugar-laden things, and you may need to do some scrolling, but please don’t be discouraged by this. A little patience will be worth the effort and your wallet will thank you too!
As the global cost of living continues to bite, many of us find it increasingly important to have a supply of ingredients in our store cupboards that we can fall back on in case of any crisis, personal or more widespread, that may affect our ability to nourish and sustain ourselves and our loved ones (including our animals).
What would we do, for example, were there to be a sudden water contamination and our mains supply was unsuitable to drink? Are we concerned about the fluoridation of our water supply and its link to cognitive decline? What would we do were the water authority to turn off the supply in order to undertake essential mains works? This particular situation arose in our area in December last year and again in early 2023. When water is essential to our existence, I believe that having supplies of bottled water for everyday use and for emergencies is vitally important, as is maintaining a water butt or any other container outside to collect rainwater, if space allows.
If someone is suddenly coming to dinner and you don’t have an opportunity to hurry to the shops, or there is a more widespread supply problem for example, or the price of everything continues to escalate, how do you keep warm and put food on the table?
All these are questions we need to be thinking about and asking ourselves how we would deal with them and, indeed, anticipating them, not with the intention of inviting negativity to manifest itself but, in a more positive way, of being prepared for any eventuality and being in a position to provide for yourself and your household and loved ones, and perhaps being able to support your local community in some way, too, in the event of a crisis.
This is where budgeting, scratch cooking and emergency food prepping come into their own. There is a growing band of YouTubers such as myself focusing more on this area. As you may know, I have been sharing budget meals and self-sufficiency for a long while now, whether it be an inexpensive, wholesome lunch or supper, a 1940s-inspired recipe, or more recently fruit and vegetable gardening and the store cupboard. Here is one of my recent videos:-
Ocado Food Haul/Prepping the Pantry
Responding to the needs of my subscribers, I intend to focus more on budget meals and pantry prepping in the future as well as other areas of self-sustainability, such as gardening, foraging/free food, home-preserving, sprouting and fermenting, etc. One of my subscribers has asked me to feature more 1940s recipes as they feel that what we are all going through is akin to wartime living, as is the need to be ever more canny with what money we have, let alone put any aside for a rainy day which of course most of us aspire to.
Of course I will share some of my activities with you all, as well as my other content and trust that you might find it interesting and entertaining. However, if you don’t, no worries; it is a free world in my world!
I have started to participate in a couple of open collaborations with GrandmaSandy and others on YouTube, as well as seeking out other content creators who share my ideas and values and lifestyle choices. Grandma Sandy came across my @catevanscuisine channel some months ago and gave me a much-needed shout-out for which I am most grateful, and I am now paying it forward and giving a shout-out to a few of the wonderful YouTubers I subscribe to:-
September started well with beautiful warm, sunny weather right into the second week of the month, right up until we left for a week’s holiday in south-west Scotland. In fact, the temperatures were high enough that it was like being in the South of France, albeit more humid.
The herbs were doing well being in part sun-part shade, and I treated us to a new pot of garden mint from our local garden centre and which Dan potted up into a larger, terracotta pot so it has plenty of room to grow. My late mother had several mint bushes at the end of her garden and one of my favourite culinary memories growing up is of her homemade mint sauce to accompany Sunday lunch or cheap, slow cooked cuts of lamb. These days I use fresh mint leaves in a wide variety of ways including steeped in hot water as a healthful drink, raw in salads and chopped finely in vegetarian Indian and Middle Eastern recipes; mint is delicious in falafels or mixed with yoghurt as a dressing or dip.
August’s land cress had been eaten, thus I sowed some spinach seeds in the trough of my growing table at the start of the month. The seedlings are now starting to thrive as long as we manage to keep the slugs and snails off them.
The nasturtiums were only leafing but since we returned from holiday at the weekend more new flowers have appeared and more plants have started growing in the troughs. It is now the last week of September and Dan has already enjoyed some nasturtium leaves and petals in his lunchtime salads, though growth is now slowing as we head into early autumn.
2023 has been an excellent year for salad leaves in particular and we have enjoyed a wide variety of homegrown in salads and sandwiches. As well as the spinach seeds, I also sowed some more lettuce seeds in the troughs wherever there were gaps. As long as I start to cover them with fleece for frost protection they should keep growing all winter.
The kale is also flourishing and we have had some of it chopped and lightly steamed with leftovers left to ‘fester’ for a couple of days in the refrigerator with cooked potatoes and then fried as bubble and squeak, which we enjoy with fried free range eggs for breakfast or a simple supper.
Before we went on holiday, Dan picked all the beetroot and weed potatoes and we stored them in a cool place in hessian sacks. To be honest, the beetroot didn’t last long; some we ate roasted or steamed and I sliced and pickled some of the steamed ones for later on in the year, and others I gave to my piano teacher, Jake, and our cleaner friend Val, along with kale, beetroot tops (which are a good substitute for spinach and Swiss chard in recipes), potatoes and rhubarb.
In fact, since we have returned from Scotland the rhubarb has once again expanded and we may need to cut it back yet again. Our gardener Lorraine will move the rose bush in November, and will plant the one currently in a plant pot on my great-uncle’s grave. My lovely cousin Agnes gave me a fragrant yellow rose bush for my special birthday called “Golden Memories”, and Dan is going to plant it in the new designated area. All our rose bushes are traditional, sweet-smelling ones and should make a breathtaking display next summer. Recently, we have enjoyed several vases from the rose bushes that are already well-established. We may still also ask Lorraine to split the rhubarb crowns and plant ones elsewhere, perhaps at the end of the garden near the greenhouse, or perhaps we will give away what we cannot easily accommodate.
The quinces are swelling nicely on the tree, though some of the fruits have grown rotten on the bough. However, I have picked a few lovely ones already, as well as a couple of windfalls and we should have another excellent crop this year. I usually enjoy making jars of membrillo (traditional Spanish quince paste), which goes well with cheese, nut roasts and charcuterie. Sometimes I add quince pulp just as it is to a homemade nut roast and this year I am going to try adding some to marrow chutney.
The courgettes are still thriving and most have not been devoured by garden ‘pests’; in the space of a week one of the courgettes had become an enormous vegetable marrow! I cut a small piece off the marrow last night to put in our suppertime vegetable pasta bake and Dan’s salad lunch box for today, and most of it is still sitting enormously in our ‘fridge; later in the week, most of it will become chutney.
The tomatoes have cropped incredibly well this year, with no sign of the tomato blight that spoiled last year’s crop. Before our holiday, I made a tasty tomato sauce for pasta and other dishes and we had most of that last night in the pasta bake and I am having the rest to accompany my beanburger this evening, as Dan is staying overnight at his mum’s due to his work schedule. After supper, I will be making a big batch of tomato chutney, which I prepared earlier this afternoon and takes about an hour to cook on the stove.
Needless to say, we are looking forward to more tasty pickings as the month draws to a close and it will be interesting to see what October brings.
Early July started as June had ended with changeable weather. I was staying in Richmond-upon-Thames with my mother-in-law “MIL”, Verna, thus Dan was entirely in charge of the garden until he arrived to pick me up on the afternoon of 4th July. During my absence he had picked a few black raspberries that had ripened and some redcurrants, though the second batch of redcurrants we picked later on in July was a smaller one and sadly the whitecurrants amounted to nothing.
The Heritage beetroot were coming along well though their leaves were looking a little tatty but nothing a little plant food wouldn’t cure and they recovered well. By now in mid-August we have already picked a few; a few golden beet, a candy stripe, a white and a red one. A couple of them had been munched a little by slugs or snails but washed and with those bites chopped out they have been perfectly delicious chopped and lightly pickled in a drizzle of home-produced raw apple cider vinegar or grated salads, with their spinach-like leaves washed and shredded, added to salads and curries.
The “weed” potatoes have continued to flourish and earlier in July, Dan harvested some and we enjoyed these at mealtimes. Funnily enough, it looks like more of these plants are cropping up in other places in that bed so we may have a good potato harvest entirely by fluke!
The beans and peas produced a very small though delicious crop, despite being trampled on by our two adopted cats, Arthur and Miss Robyn Guinevere. Our senior boy, Merlin, appears to be more enlightened and leaves our crops alone though enjoys a wander or two in the garden and a rest on the patio most days; he was always more of a house cat in his nature.
Later in June of our elderly neighbours who lives further along the street had given us a courgette plant and some tomato plants and they had bedded in really well. We are growing a wide variety of tomatoes this year, from plum to salad varieties to cherry tomatoes perfect in salads or for snacking. Once I had returned from Richmond I stopped by for a chat and she invited me in to see her garden. She has a big birthday later this year yet shows no sign of discarding her green fingers, and her ability to be sustainable and grow all she needs is impressive. She has some really inventive methods of growing fruit and vegetables and not one area of her garden is an empty space but is well-utilized. I believe gardening helps to keep her positive and young at heart and she even has carefully thought-out areas for her beloved cat Monty to enjoy.
The blueberry plant is still young and there will be no crop this year, but it is thriving among the pine needles. The plant produced a single berry which we shared. It was full of flavour and we look forward to more next year.
The second crop of radishes failed miserably. They were flourishing in July and despite being thinned out, most failed to swell or develop. Perhaps it was the soil or the weather, or perhaps it was a combination of both. One reason for radishes not developing can be if the soil is too compact or if it contains excess nitrogen. The soil was loose enough and as we have usually grown radishes in the ground in previous years, we can only assume too much nitrogen was present in the soil and in future when growing radishes in containers we will add some mulch, which should help to rectify the problem.
The butterhead lettuces were a tasty success and were picked for salads during the course of July but the second batch of seeds did not produce the hoped-for rocket as we had a rainy spell towards the end of the month and the slugs and snails stripped the rocket and the underwhelming radishes bare, so all was lost, and the nasturtiums were looking glum though a few of those have rallied round after another plant feed.
Our Garden in July
The rhubarb has cropped amazingly well this year. We have picked rhubarb every month since May right up to about a week ago. Last year the crowns were new and it was important to leave them to settle in, so this year has been their first harvest. I have chopped a lot of the July and August rhubarb into 1″-2″ chunks and stored in a big bag in the freezer for future recipes, including pies and chutneys, so we can still enjoy it once summer is long gone.
We picked some of the Heritage beetroot and all of the speciality globe carrots, all of which were delicious. The beetroot crop comprises a wide variety of types; we have white, red, golden and candy stripe. They have been pickled, grated in salads and roasted as part of a main dish with other vegetables. It is now early September and I have cooked the last of what we had picked so it’s time to pull up some more! Stored correctly or preserved and pickled they should last us through the winter months.
In August I sowed some cut-and-grow salad leaves and some land cress. The land cress is all used up now, as are some of the fast-growing salad leaves, so I have sown some more leaves along with some spinach to keep us going for the next few weeks, as we eat salad for lunch every day.
Whilst making the August video we came across some wilded blackberries nestled among our redcurrant and black raspberry canes, a sheer delight! We love blackberries made into jam or in pies and crumbles, and they are also a good accompaniment to game, which Dan enjoys. We also enjoy them just as they are, freshly picked.
If you do not already grow any of your own produce, I hope our garden project has been inspiring you to give homegrown a try.The main thing to note is that home produce is of course at is freshest, can just be picked whenever it is needed and is way more flavourful than shop bought, which tends to be picked before it is ripe and is often stored or treated with chemicals or preservatives for a longer shelf life and therefore isn’t as fresh as homegrown or, say, foraged or purchased from a local farm shop for example. If you don’t object to finding pests in leaves and salad greens or having to wash the soil off your root vegetables, and if you have any amount of space to grow your own – even if it’s just a window box or a few plant pots or other containers – then I think homegrown is definitely the way to go.
Spring was late this year, we estimate most things are 2-3 weeks behind in growing time and despite some obvious challenges, it has not deterred us.
Dan and I have grown our own produce ever since we had our first flat together in Isleworth 16 years ago, though I personally have been growing fruit and vegetables since the mid-1990s after I left my long-term partner at the time and moved into a rented house in South Derbyshire. The property had a garden with a greenhouse and a lawn, and a shared accessway with my neighbours in the small row of railway cottages we occupied.
I started off with tomatoes and bell peppers in the greenhouse and soon discovered I had ‘green fingers’ as the space became full and I would engage in exchange and barter schemes with a couple of my neighbours who had allotments across the road from the cottages. Those allotments were on fertile land by the canal and there was a long waiting list but in any case in those days I worked full-time and therefore did not have sufficient time to invest in a large growing project, but the seeds were sown and I had fallen in love with gardening and the whole ethos behind home-produced.
Over the winter months of 2022/23 in the midst of the global cost-of-living crisis and mindful of the need for tightening our money belts, Dan and I spent some time discussing and planning what we would grow this year in an effort to become even more sustainable and self-sufficient. Although we grew a variety of fruit and vegetables last year, we knew our garden was capable of accommodating more, even with one of our two raised beds being purposely left fallow for the whole growing season to allow the soil to regain its nutrients. The continuous growing of crops eventually depletes the soil of certain nutrients, resulting in the fall in crop yield. This means that manure or fertilizers need to be added to the soil in order to replenish it with the nutrients it has lost.
There are a number of disadvantages of adding fertilizers to soil. Expensive to buy, they they are easily washed away by water and reduce the fertility of the soil. Also, they harm the microbes naturally present in soil and cause pollution. In general, fertilizers provide only a short-term fix as they also tend to change the nature of the soil, making it either too acidic or too alkaline, although some plants may thrive in one or the other. For example, blueberries must grow in acid (ericaceous) soil or potting compost with a pH value of 4.5-5.5. Our blueberry plant is happy in a corner of our garden near our quince tree among a nest of pine needles.
Over winter I ordered four wooden self-assembly ‘growing tables’ (80 x 40 x 75 cm). Made from 100% FSC sustainably sourced wood, the design comprises a trough on legs for easy-working height with a shelf underneath, from Homebase and these cost around £37 each, although the price has since gone up to £45. These I had home-delivered and Dan put them together, two for our patio and two for our greenhouse. We then lined the troughs with black membrane and filled them with topsoil. Two have since collapsed due to warpage, and so far Dan has mended one of them and we have some plastic troughs on the patio containing various salad goodies. We store and thoroughly wash and reuse all our pots and other growing containers until they fall apart, so fortunately when the tables collapsed we had other containers ready to hold the plants that had endured a nasty shock.
My main project is tending the herb garden and the salad goodies while Dan focuses on the rhubarb, the soft fruit and the vegetables in the other raised bed which needs heavy digging and with my back problems is something I am not capable of, though I do help out from time to time.
We sowed and propagated a variety of lettuce and tomato seeds indoors throughout March as the weather was still too cold to sow directly into the raised bed or any container outside, and more seeds – jalapeno, salad leaves, bell peppers = were sown indoors in early April as the weather continued to be disappointing, but finally they were ready to go outside and by the time King Charles III was coronated nasturtiums, cut-and-come again salad leaves (which were ready for harvesting) and radishes in the growing tables, more lettuce seedlings in a trough and in the greenhouse tomato plants growing well and the salad leaves, chillis and peppers sown back in April propagating in egg boxes.
We use no chemical pesticides or other chemicals on our crops but to deter slugs and snails we scatter broken-up egg shells, oatmeal or sharp sand which act as a natural deterrent, although this method is by no means foolproof. It is however kinder to creatures and the environment and ultimately our digestive systems.
The kale seeds we had sown directly in the ground in March was flourishing. Although primarily intended to provide us with a good source of nutrients during the ‘hungry gap’ period of January and February next year, later in May we were able to harvest some of the young leaves to chop finely for salads. Next to be sown directly into the ground were carrots, parsnips and Heritage beetroot, beans and peas, which would provide a variety of colours and flavours during the summer.
Two or three ‘weed potato’ plants had sprung forth. These are plants that grew out of last year’s potato crop when we had probably overlooked a few potatoes in the ground during harvesting. This seems to happen most years and the potatoes are always delicious and perfectly formed with no blight or tunnelling. A happy accident, one might say.
In the herb garden we had garlic, lavender and rosemary all growing well in pots and there was rhubarb ready for picking.
The blueberry bush we bought last year was faring reasonably well though needed repotting, though of course in the end we planted it in the ground. The quince tree provided us with a good harvest last year and was once more coming into leaf after a long winter and the black raspberry bushes and redcurrants and whitecurrants were also flourishing although we did not expect a harvest until later in June or July due to a late spring so to celebrate the Coronation, Dan was perfectly happy with a dressed crab salad containing the first of our tender, homegrown salad leaves. You can see the recipe video here:-
The month of June started with similarly mixed weather and variable results, and certain of the salad goodies were not thriving as they ought, especially the radishes which were stunted in growth and spongy and eventually I pulled them up and sowed a fresh quantity of seeds in their place. The second of the growing tables also collapsed.
The butterhead lettuces I had planted were a delight and we enjoyed them in our daily salads along with some of the nasturtium flowers and leaves that were thriving; some of them were not so these too were pulled up to make way for fresh salad goodies.
The Heritage beetroot were also beginning to flourish and we started to look forward to the time (a bit later in the year) when they would be ready to pick perhaps for a colourful beetroot salad – red, candy stripe and golden – along with some soft goat’s cheese, its creamy saltiness balancing out the sweet earthiness of the beetroot, a union of perfection with a zingy red wine vinegar dressing dancing on the tongue.
Our rhubarb was still growing lavishly. We had started harvesting it in modest quantities since early May, simply picking as much as we needed, and this continued throughout June month. A poached rhubarb compote spiked with orange juice and root ginger and finished with a drizzle of honey was a simple and healthy pudding served with some full-fat Greek yoghurt.
The carrots, peas and beans were all coming up and the black raspberries were well on their way for picking, and we started harvesting at the end of June, along with the first of the redcurrants.
The young kale we had planted earlier in the year we thinned out in June to encourage abundant growth, and the tender leaves were chopped finely and added raw to salads. Kale is a nutrition superstar literally packed with goodies; vitamins A, B6, C, K, folate, fibre, carotenoids and manganese and you can eat it every day in moderation for a real boost to your health and wellbeing and a strong immune system. Believe it or not, one single, 100g serving of kale provides over 100% of your daily intake of vitamin C, which helps to reduce the risk of cataracts. Kale also provides a rich source of tlutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants that lessen the risk of macular degeneration and other age-related eye diseases.
In the greenhouse the bell peppers and tomatoes were in good condition. We had started spraying the leaves every five weeks with half a soluble asprin added to water in a bottle (a tip I learned from watching “Countryfile”), which helps to protect against blight. Potato plants, roses and most other plants can also be sprayed in the same way to protect against diseases.
Thus, only the salad greens were conspicuous in their lacklustre, but I was resolute in my determination to succeed.
Recently I was invited on to The Jaden Show on YouTube hosted by Jaden Cornelious to discuss my music and other creativity and it was so much fun. The interview was pre-recorded over Zoom and we had much to catch up on as we hadn’t seen one another for 7 years – isn’t that crazy?!
In the late 1990s Jaden was Lead Singer/Songwriter in the UK group B-YOND who were best known for their song, “The Key”. They also performed the song “Lighten Up” on an episode of the TV programme Blue Peter in 1997. These days, Jaden is a Classical crossover artist now based in Mexico. One of his ambitions is to sing in every state of the United States and he’s performed in three so far. He is also renowned for his work with animals and community projects including the non-profit organizations JC Fundraising and Power2Endure. He is Global Ambassador at Discover the Gift, owner of Selva Singing and Director at the London Room – Recording Facility. In 2009 Jaden and friends put together an evening of celebration of songs made famous by Olivia Newton-John with the aim of raising £10,000 within 6 months for the ‘Only Olivia’ Breast Cancer Charity.
Please visit Jaden’s Facebook page to find out more about him and his work:-
Every Sunday evening the Jaden Show features a special guest and showcases some of their work. Recent shows have featured US opera singer and ballet dancer Rachel Nash; the Indian Singer, Composer and Lyricist Shoolbhrit Darshan who, from a very young age, developed a mystical thought process which is reflected in his music; and the legendary Singer/Songwriter Thereza Bazar who was one half of the 1980s Stock Aitken and Waterman pop sensation, Dollar. A warm and approachable character, Jaden seems to have the knack of making you feel comfortable and putting you at ease which encourages you to stand in your best light, and the shows are always interesting and inspiring and delivered in a friendly, down-to-earth manner.
My turn was on Sunday 19 February 2023 and you can tune in here:-
I do hope you enjoy watching it and will consider subscribing to Jaden’s channel so you are notified of new uploads and stay in the loop. Again, I would like to thank Jaden for inviting me on to the show and for all his support, which means a lot to me.
Please feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts.
For many years my way of living has been inspired by the Tree of Life and the teachings it evokes, and I often incorporate the Tree of Life symbol into some of my handcrafted jewellery and other items I produce. It is probably true to say that the ancient Tree of Life symbol has captured the hearts and minds of people for millennia, as far back as 3000BC, if not earlier.
The Tree of Life has been used to represent many different viewpoints, whether that be the interconnectedness between all living things or as a symbol of eternity. Some ancient cultures including the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Celts also used the Tree of Life as an icon of life and fertility, often depicted through artworks from elaborately-carved stones or tombs to delicately-stitched embroidery to rich tapestries.
The Tree of Life has always been closely associated with the spiritual realms and is honoured for its magical properties, offering protection and guidance for those who seek it out. It also symbolizes abundance and reminds us that we all belong to one universal energy and unified by the Divine Spirit, or Source. In this way we need to remember that we are as one as the human collective connected to the Universe, no matter what differences and diversities we may have. For example, Native American faiths use the analogy of a colossal World Tree as a source of ageless wisdom which supports the heavens, encompassing the heavens and the earth plane among its trunk and leaves and branches, as well as the underworld through its roots.
Another example is the Australian song “We are one, but we are many”. This song was written in 1987 by Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton and perfectly captures the spirit of the ANZACS, and has become a popular anthem of the Freedom Movement in Australia over the last couple of years; despite any differences we may have – great or small – and wherever we may be, we are stand in our power sovereign human beings belonging to one nation and one Universe, and our voices will be heard, united in the face of discrimination and adversity.
From a religious and spiritual viewpoint, the Tree of Life represents a number of things:-
Abundance of life, in all its forms. Abundance is not one-dimensional and shows up in many ways, and each day we have the opportunity to give thanks for what we have, even if to some that may seem very little. For example, we may have a roof over our heads, food on the table, nature’s bounty in the fields and hedgerows and on the trees, there are fish in the sea, clear water in the rivers and streams, the love of family and soul tribe, dear friends and neighbours, and indeed the gift of life itself;
Eternal life with God;
Jesus Christ, or Master Jesus the Ascended One;
The cycle of life and a new beginning. The leaves fall from the stark branches of the trees in their dead of winter’s sleep before new buds appear and the trees awaken in the breath of early spring, fresh leaves softly unfurling with their sweet-scented blossom in the gentle warmth of the sun symbolizing the beginning of a new life and a fresh start, or rebirth.
Good health and vitality. It is believed that the tree has healing properties and the fruit it bears bring immortality. Whether or not you are a tree-hugging hippy, there is more and more evidence to suggest that trees are indeed good for our health and wellbeing so why not go hug a tree?!
A sacred embodiment of life. God created the tree in the Garden of Eden, making every tree burst forth that was pleasant to look at and could produce food. The Tree of life was in the middle of the garden with the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. God created man in his image and he created male and female, we are all God’s children and life is sacred. He said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28).
Enlightenment. In Buddhism, the Tree of Life is known as the Bhodi-tree and is said to be the Tree of Enlightenment. Beneath the Bhodi-tree Buddha attained enlightenment and therefore it is a highly sacred symbol;
Reaching a higher level of inner light;
The Tree of Life is a direct link to the spiritual world;
An interconnectedness, or oneness, of all things in the Universe and between the physical and spiritual worlds.
In the Kabbalah and other traditions of mysticism, the Tree of Life diagram is drawn into 10 different nodes or spheres, each denoting a particular archetype presided over by an Archangel or other deity, for example, and connected by 22 lines, or paths, and arranged into three columns to show that they belong to a common category. This unique concept is known as the Khabbalistic Tree of Life to distinguish it from other Tree of Life concepts, and modern-day philosophers suggest that the concept of a tree with different spheres containing comprehensive aspects of reality (energy intelligences, or ‘Sephirot’) can be traced back to Assyria (an ancient Mesopotamian kingdom) in the 9th century BC.
From the top, then right to left, downwards:
1. Crown (‘Keter’) – Archangel Metatron is the Angel of Life and sits at the top of the tree. Like Archangel Sandalphon, once upon a time he was a human being who ascended to the angelic realm due to his faith in God and perfectly pious behaviour during his earthly incarnation as the Hebrew prophet Enoch. He often appears on a purple-orange ray and channels God’s living energy throughout the Universe created by God, bringing balance and helping people to direct the sacred energy through their lives in order to reach spiritual enlightenment. Metatron is also associated with the sacred geometric, tetrahedronal pattern of the Merkabah and its origins to the Flower of Life, which holds the structure of the whole energy systems of the body in its shape connecting us with the fundamental forms of space and time. Activate and align the Merkabah with your Soul’s truth, to enable you to become the best version of yourself, as it encompasses the eternal flow of the Divine Trinity and the four elements of earth, air, water and fire – “as above, so below”.
2. Wisdom (‘Chokmah’) – Archangel Raziel on the indigo ray is the Angel of Mysteries and Keeper of God’s Secrets. He reveals divine mysteries to enable people to become wiser by showing them how to weave knowledge into their lives in practical and inventive ways, thereby reaching their full potential as human beings. We can call on him when we need to find answers to a mystery.
3. Understanding (‘Binah’) – Archangel Tzaphkiel is the Angel of Compassionate Understanding. He leads the angels in sending the spiritual energy of understanding to people helping them to learn more about God, sending them insights and guiding them to make decisions in their daily lives that reflect their core identity as God’s beloved children, for God’s love is unconditional and everlasting.
4. Kindness and Mercy (‘Chesed’) – Archangel Zadkiel is the Angel of Mercy. He and his angels send the energy of God’s mercy to people, inspiring them to be kind to others as God is to them (for example, do as you would like to be done to) and bringing them peace when they pray, so they may be confident that God will answer their prayers in whichever way that is best. This of course does not mean that their prayers will be answered with what people want or expect but with what they actually need and this they will come to appreciate in the fulness of time.
5. Judgment and Strength (‘Gevurah’) – Archangel Chamuel is the Angel of Peaceful Relationships, bringing tough love to strengthen and empower relationships and enable people to experience inner peace and peace with each other and God. Chamuel and his angels test people’s beliefs and motivations to determine whether they are wholly grounded and authentic and to purify them in order to help people build stronger relationships with God.
6. Beauty (‘Tiphareth’) seated at the heart of the tree, Archangels Michael on the blue ray and Raphael on the green ray work together. Michael, angelic warrior, holds steadfast his Sword of Truth as the angelic leader in spiritual battles while Archangel Raphael is the chief Angel of Healing. Together they express the divine energy of beauty, helping people to tap into a higher state of consciousness.
7. Eternity (‘Netzach’) – Archangel Haniel, the Angel of Joy, expresses God’s eternal energy by helping people to trust and rely on God, who is the omnipotent one and eternally reliable, rather than people’s fickle emotions flailing around in uncertainty. He opens the doors to insightfulness that have the potential to bring them joy no matter what.
8. Glory and Splendor (‘Hod’) – Archangels Michael and Raphael again work together to express God’s beautiful glory as they fight sin and wrongdoing to ensure that His perfect design for creation triumphs over sin, which tries to taint and corrupt and permeate that splendor. Good always triumphs over evil and Michael and Raphael are there to help people overcome wrongdoing and to carry out God’s will during their lives.
9. Foundation (‘Yesod’) – Archangel Gabriel, the Angel of Revelation, is paradoxically a mixture of the Divine Masculine energy as a Master of Communication as well a perfect embodiment of the Divine Feminine energy, being associated also with birth. He was the angel who guided the Three Wise Men to the stable where the baby Jesus was born in Bethlehem and he also appeared and brought word to the Virgin Mary that she would give birth to a son and he would be the Son of God. God put Gabriel in charge of the tree’s foundation and to announce God’s glorious will to people. He brings with him divine love, wisdom, strength and new beginnings, enabling those blessings to flow through their lives by helping people to connect to God through messages of faith and to rely on God to bring changes to their lives that will help them to evolve.
10. The Kingdom (‘Malkhuth’) – Archangel Sandalphon, the Angel of Music and Prayer and Spiritual Ascension is seated here on the turquoise ray. To me, he comes through as a gentle and refined, Divine Feminine energy associated with the astrological sign of Pisces and keeper of the turquoise gemstone. The protector of unborn children, he cares for the earth and takes people’s prayers to God, and directs the music in Heaven. His role is designed to keep the divine energy flowing freely between God in Heaven and people on earth, nurturing the roots of the tree and all areas of God’s great kingdom. Call on him when you have an important prayer you wish him to carry to God or are a musician and need creative inspiritation. He will also help you process your emotions in healthy ways, nurturing emotional maturity and helping us to see the crux of a problem for us to take personal responsibility for our actions and behaviour.
Which of the areas on the Tree of Life resonate with and inspire you the most? Which of the Archangels, if any are you able to connect or seek to connect with? What kind of teachings and guidance might benefit you right now in order to enable you to show up in the world as your authentic self and bring about transformation?
I share more of my thoughts in my Tree of Life video on my YouTube channel below.
First of all, I would like to wish all my subscribers (and other readers of my blog) a very healthy, happy and empowering 2023. If you are new to my blog, welcome, and I do hope you enjoy reading my content.
I guess it’s true to say I’ve been gone a while; there’s been a lot happening the last few months; most notably juggling balls and spinning plates in the air (metaphorically-speaking), the whole festive thing with its gift-buying-and-wrapping, tree-buying and decorating and taking down again, cooking, washing and tidying up, making and editing videos for my various platforms, wading through mountains of admin and paperwork and accounts, doing my music, making and pricing up and photographing of items for my two pitches at the Petticoat Lane Emporium in Ramsgate plus my Etsy shop and my Ebay site (basically, doing what I can to earn some money whilst also running a household and helping my piano tuner husband to be a success in his trade), visiting nearest and dearest and those further away up and down the motorway . . . and looking after our two young cats and one diabetic, arthritic and incontinent senior tabby cat, our lovely loyal boy Merlin who follows me around or sits on his favourite chairs watching me with love hearts in his eyes. Merlin was diagnosed with diabetes in October of last year, following the suspicions I had carried around for a while, watching and observing his habits and demeanor. Several months had passed before Dan would believe me and when he did, he admitted he had been in denial. We have put a lot of work in with Merlin as it takes him time to adjust to change. We have had to change his mealtime regime to twice only daily – to which he was not at all receptive for several weeks – source wet food and biscuits for him that are diabetic friendly and made of the most natural ingredients (which of course are far more expensive than regular cat foods, but anything for our boy), inject him twice a day 30 minutes’ after he has finished eating, change his pee pad in his special tray sometimes multiple times a day and mop the floor, as he often dribbles urine when he’s finished his business. I sometimes cook him fresh chicken or turkey and he might get a little of this if he’s very hungry during the day and needs a small snack; the vet said it was better than giving him more biscuit. I also groom him regularly and massage extra virgin olive oil into his fur as he is prone to flaky skin. This he enjoys very much and likes to lick the oil on his fur. Twice we also give him a fish oil powder capsule which we break into his food and mix in well. This also helps to ease his skin condition though it seems to have made only slight improvement to his mobility.
He sees the vet once a month for a checkup, to get weighed, examined and bloods taken to monitor his insulin levels. This time we discussed his mobility problems which suddenly came on more recently and seem to affect his pelvis and back legs from what we can make out when we watch him move around awkwardly. The vet was very gentle with him when she examined him thoroughly and agreed that his hip joints appear to be arthritic and at one point we heard a ‘click’. She also said that the muscles in his back legs are weak, which of course is probably due to the fact that he is no longer to move about comfortably so the muscle is wasting. At home, he is no longer able to jump on to the side of the bathtub to drink from the cold running water from the washbasin tap, something he has enjoyed for most of his life; nor is he able any longer to run up the stairs when I call to him and instead he makes a slow hop up one stair at a time, which breaks my heart. One day last week he tried to jump up on to the kitchen chair beside me and was unable to do it, his claws caught in the fabric seating, so I picked him up gently and lifted him on to the seat though mostly he can still manage without help. It is, though, heartbreaking to see him in discomfort and unable to do some of the things he used to enjoy. The vet recommended a full panel of bloodwork this time to check that Merlin doesn’t have any underlying medical conditions other than the diabetes and to rule out anything else such as side effects from his insulin. If the results come back clear, we can perhaps start him on Metacam medication and see where we go from there, though she understands I prefer the natural way and she definitely thinks animal healing is a good idea and told me she used to work at a practice that encouraged it for their furry clients.
Anyway, I digress, since this is intended to be an article about goals and New Year’s resolutions. As we journey the days in the life of January, it is perhaps opportune to think about what we might all wish to achieve during the Chinese New Year of the Water Rabbit (ironically, in which I was born almost six decades ago, in 1963) when celebrations start on 22 January.
It is customary, as one year ends, to formulate our intentions for the coming year and this is often done at New Year’s Eve or it’s equivalent, for example the Pagan festival (Sabbat) of Samhain (Halloween) or, yes, at Chinese New Year. Whether we be adult or child, deciding to set ourselves a few tasks or objectives can be both life-affirming and empowering, however resolutions often fail because they are too vague and lack real focus. For example, a desire to “eat more healthily” or “take more exercise” is not specific enough, as neither address how you are going to eat healthier or how or what exercise you intend to do. However, if for example, you say: “I am going to grow and harvest my own salad greens” or “I am going to eat a salad at least five days a week and enjoy one glass of wine a week” or “I am going to go for a swim three times a week”, then those are specific goals. This is how New Year’s resolutions are more likely to be successful.
If living a more healthy lifestyle is on of your goals, perhaps you felt guided to give Veganuary and/or Dry January a try in order to kick-start the process and shift a few pounds after the excesses of the festive season. If, at the end of it you begin to feel the benefits of the initiative and find you are enjoying trying different foods and the creative aspect of preparing a healthy, balanced meal with fresh ingredients or can see the benefit of limiting an alcoholic drink to once a week then perhaps you might decide to make it part of your everyday life. On the other hand, if you tried it as an experiment and decided you missed some foods too much but you don’t mind cutting back on them a little in future and you did lose some weight and you learned more about yourself in the process then that’s good too. Everything in life is a learning process and one size does not fit all. Do not think either that you have failed if you despised most or every aspect of Veganuary/Dry January, you didn’t lose any weight or you just couldn’t ride it out right to the end; at least you gave it a try and know beyond doubt that what is right for one person is not necessarily right for another. We only fail if we think about doing something but don’t try it out at all.
I take on board that vague resolutions may work for some people, but personally I never found they worked well for me and I need the structure and clear intention that a solid goal gives me, something to aim for at which I can monitor my progress and at the same time stay positive and focused. It needs to be something that challenges my capabilities and mindset but at the same time is realistic and achievable. Here are a few of my goals:-
To grow my social media:-
Do at least one video per week for either my Rumble channel catevansartist or one of my three YouTube channels – @catevansartist, @catevanscuisine or @electrickwytchofficial.
To do at least one video a week for either my Facebook or Instagram on whatever topic feels appropriate
To do two Facebook or Instagram live streams per month
To upload a new blog at least twice per month
To drop one dress size this year by continuing my healthy regime. This includes going out for a walk or disco-dancing at home both at least three times a week. Also my newfound interest in sprouting seeds and fermenting, as well as continuing to eat a salad every day and by growing a wider range of organic salad greens in my back garden which I can pick what I need each day and when they are at their freshest. I have already made a start on this by purchasing four “growing tables” which are wide, wooden planters at table height with shelves below for storing compost – or even more planters containing healthful goodies, especially useful for tender plants which do not fare so well in full sunlight. I have called it “My Garden Project” and will be discussing more about this in a future blog post.
To focus more on my music by:-
Piano practice 5 times a week (often I manage four).
Composition/songwriting one half-day per week
Record the 4th movement of my sonata in preparation for the studio.
“How will you achieve all of this when you already lead such a busy life?” you may ask. As a self-confessed workaholic I take this on board and one of my tasks this year is to slow down a little and make more time by cutting back on activities that have the least importance. Non-negotiable are some household chores, seeing to the cats and meal preparation. Also, paperwork and general administration is vitally important; I do my husband’s as well as my own and failure to do paperwork will land us in a mess. Plus, at some stage it would need catching up on, resulting in a potentially stressful situation. However, I am able to free up a bit more time by the way I do it, for example spending an hour a day on paperwork and admin rather than, say, two or three hours twice a week. I am also able to fix crafting activity to maybe one morning or afternoon a week. I still have outlets and online to produce items for but I have fewer of them now and no longer need to hold larger quantities of stock and can therefore produce just as much or little as I need, which also increases efficiency and turnaround. I am also an avid maker of ‘to-do’ lists and have been using these more as an exercise to see exactly what I can achieve without filling up every second of my day, as being kind to ourselves and having sufficient rest and recreation time does help with focus and productivity. I can comfortably complete four or five tasks a day but if I complete any quickly or if I choose to push myself I can manage half a dozen. I am no longer minded to tackle more than that.
Neither do I need to concentrate on all goals at once. Some goals may be ongoing, others may be achieved quickly or may not work out as planned or may need to be ‘tweaked’, or put on hold, and new ones may present themselves instead. We should remember that personal and business circumstances may change either suddenly or over time and these circumstances may have a knock-on effect on what we are able to achieve. The point is, sometimes goals take longer to achieve even if we have put in some good work, but as long as the foundations and groundwork are there they can be picked up again in the future, by which time we may have more wisdom of experience and learning that will help bring our goals to fruition in a more effective way. As long as we enjoy doing what we are doing and gradually see some results or learn more about ourselves and our aspirations in the process it’s all good. If we don’t enjoy doing what we are doing, then perhaps we might find something else to try that might work better. We are all a work in progress and there is no need to beat ourselves up about it if something isn’t quite working out. Even taking a little time out might revive and refresh our vigour.
What are your goals in 2023? Is there anything that is going particularly well for you? Is there something you are struggling with or does not inspire you? I would be interested to know, as sometimes by sharing our experiences we might learn from one another.
Catherine Evans 