It is a fascinating discovery at an already very interesting site, and the sheer scale of the gathering and sophistication of their society is food for thought. Someone may well yet write an Orcadian version of En sР“Тђs av ringa vР“В¤rde based on these finds. IРІР‚в„ўve been reading about the recent food-related archaeological finds from the huge Iron Age feast on South Ronaldsay, with the cooked bones of about 10,000 animals found in the midden. IРІР‚в„ўve moved the euphorbia out onto the windowsill to harden off, but havenРІР‚в„ўt risked the lupins yet. The ground has been saturated for days, with swamp-like qualities underfoot since the last snow melt. Brilliant blue skies, golden sun, flurries of snowflakes, howling gales, sudden darkness from black clouds, blue skies again. The weather doesnРІР‚в„ўt seem to be bothering them. We had a good close-up of a long-lost dunnock, a great tit, a blue tit, a coal tit and some sparrows take advantage of a brief squirrel absence to steal their oily food. The nuts are all coated in coconut oil, but none of the baldy squirrels have been in today yet. IРІР‚в„ўm watching the squirrels taking turns at their feeder. Heavy on all forms of dairy, with grains especially oats (but rarely wheat), farmed meat, wild meat, fowl, fish, shellfish, lobster, root vegetables, cultivated and wild greens, legumes, fungi, seaweed, lots of local herbs, sea salt, garlic, mustard and onions and honey for extra flavour, wild berries and nuts, farmed apples and an impressive range of alcohol. It seems to be very nutritious, inventive, tasty and abundant, not at all bleak and windswept. My Irish recipes all feature the potato, which is fine as I love potatoes, but they werenРІР‚в„ўt introduced to Ireland until the (17th, so IРІР‚в„ўve been researching the pre-Peruvian Irish diet. It is snowing here, though the sun is shining too.Р’В I donРІР‚в„ўt know what colour the beer is dyed for her. It is said that if the weather is nice on her feast day then it is time to plant the crops.

She drove out mice, but actual mice, not symbolic ones.

Gertrude of Helfta, theologian, mystic seer, and patron saint of cats and travellers. In the interests of social anthropology IРІР‚в„ўve made a tentative grasp onto how a Welsh or Scottish Roman tax collector or maybe slave trader who claimed to be a slave became an evangelist and persecuted pagans and druids in Ireland evolved/ devolved became a weekend of drinking bright green beer, wearing giant shamrock hats and marching/ dancing/ fighting in the streets while singing about a priest who drove snakes out of Ireland.Р”В¬anРІР‚в„ўt wait to find out which saint is credited with driving the squirrels out of Bute.

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