PROMISES

There has been a lack of pictures lately, as unfortunately my camera has had a hiccup, sorted now.

The tomatoes in the polytunnel promise to be lovely and lush, and will probably be a couple more weeks waiting. The smaller ones, varieties sungold and gardeners delight, are ripening and we can pick them every day. It really is a pleasure to see it all coming together and at the same time, a bit daunting to know what I am going to do with the bounty harvest. There are butternut squashes growing, giant pumpkins and the recent heat really has made the plants show up.

Canning has been on my mind, and I am still looking to find the equipment. I have some jars and thanks to Katie I am prepared with my towel in the stockpot. I reflected on what I should can and have decided this year to have a go at tomatoe sauce, green beans and apples. I am restricted to the amount on jars I have available and need to give some thought to what the family will actually eat.

In a dusty bookshop I discovered a small pocket book on canning which is interesting reading. It was printed in 1943 in the middle of World War II and is full of advice on what to do.

So making food stretch is our latest job. And that, I feel is why you are holding this book. Like thousands of others who have never before given a thought to the mysteries of preserving food at home, or who have specialised on a few luxuries as a hobby, you've rolled up your sleeves and are asking ' How do I Start'?

How does one start....
It takes just one step and hopefully I am going to give this a go soon. I have hesitated because actually I felt I could freeze quite a lot quickly but it has been pointed out to me that when the electricity goes, so does the freezer and all the produce and hard work could be wasted. This year I will attempt both then, and see where it takes me. The promise of a larder full of neatly labelled and full jars for winter may be tempting me. I like painting with flowers in my garden and harvest time will be different this year.

The little book is quite specific on food storage ( I had never thought about storing things in the attic apart from the usual junk but I guess during the winter, its dry and even temperature). I am amazed at how much produce our garden can actually produce and how little work is needed, apart from weeding, watering and checking the plants to get worthwhile results.

Of course its a job, but one you can look at every day, it gives you exercise, knowledge and a promise that when winter comes, you can read books, feet up near the log fire, home knitted socks, and a lovely supply of goodies in the larder.

I am prepared to give it a go now that I have managed to at least grow some things.

FRAZZLE DAY

Its been announced and I well believe it, a heatwave coming our way, 37 degrees celcius, the hottest day in history in the UK. Any doubts about global warming, check out what is happening all around with the weather patterns. We are dry, lack of rain in the winter and now we have a heatywave coming along. It is being announced by the chickens who are also adapting by reducing egg production, an no, I am not introducing fans to get them to lay more. If its too hot for me to do anything worthwhile then it has to be too hot for them to lay eggs. My DS sportsday was cancelled 2 weeks ago because a sudden rainfall had made the ground too slippery and today it has been cancelled because it is too hot. They now reschedule it for am and not pm in an effort to get it to happen without children expiring from heat exhaustion. The salads are boulting so the chickens are getting the best of that but there is definitely some plant, animal and human distress going on about the change in temperature.

I am still considering changing the planting in my garden to a zone up if this is going to be a thing for the future and might need to put in some more planning to water conservation. I think it will need a 2 prone attack on this, plants that do not need as much water and tolerate a hotter climate and a grey water saving and water saving facility that enables us to irrigate the garden more that what we are doing at the moment. The ground is still damp underneath because we have been mulching it, but I believe we could do more to prepare for the future.

Gardening needs to be done before 10 am and after 6 pm as it is way too hot work outside. So it may be olives, lemons, lavender, rosemary, peaches and nectarines and less apples, beans and plums?

Changing weather patterns also may affect the way we work, we may introduce a siesta to miss the midday heat and work longer into the evening to make use of the cooler hours after the sun has gone down. That may not sound too bad........has its advantages too. Its all about adapting.

A small report I read but cannot link to is that there is also evidence that electricity demand is higher in the summer now as we all demand air counditioning and so there is no lull in the demand for energy. Solar power has to be a real attraction here and yet it is still very expensive.

Vegetable Juices

I am not a real fan of juicing, simply because it has never been introduced to my taste buds and requires a bit of work. Having a vegetable garden however gives me the opportunity to create juices from freshly picked veg, do the juicing and benefit from all the goodness very quickly. I have tried apple and pear before but todays juice was a bit of an interesting combination:

2 small beetroots
1 cucumber
2 apples

It yielded 1 pint of blood red juice which tasted refreshing and sweet. As I have another 5 cucumbers growing which will require eating soon, using them in juice is an alternative. I have no recipes available that pickle cucumbers or store them in any other way so if you have any suggestions please let me know. It is the height of summer here and apart from freezing beans and zucchini, the pumpkins are growing the size of grapefruits, tomatoes show promise of ripening. I keep wanting to go and pick berries but its either too hot or threathening to rain and I hear my grandma's voice saying

No don't pick soft fruit when it shows rain, as all the bugs climb inside.

Seems good advice and as the cats were hanging around the kitchen today I thought, not today.
I still see plenty of sunshine but I trust the cats, or else they are just lazing about because it is too hot. In that case, maybe it is too hot to pick fruit as well......

This morning instead I ventured out to the local farmers market which opened at 9.30 am and there was a queue of people outside. The rush to the vegetable stand was impressive ( you would think it was rationed, which it probably is), and the system they used to speed up service was novel When you enter you are given a number and a small piece of card on which the stall holders write down what you buy and then you pay at the exit. I think this is interesting because it will show them what on average sells quickly, what amount of money is spent on average visit, and also solves the waiting times at each booth.
I came away with some raspberries ( as I did not pick any as yet), some different types of bread, some cheese and a ready made cake for evaluation purposes. I love making cakes but as the chickens are on strike here due to the hot weather conditions, I bought one......this gives me the opportunity for quality control on cakes sold at farmers markets and the boys will appreciate some variety.

Weeding was also attempted in the shade and it goes a lot quicker when you plug yourself into an ipod and listen to podcasts......

CLARITY

How to get a glass vase clear and clean?
I received a lovely glass vase yesterday, which was a bit grubby, granted and so I thought I would have a go at making it clean and beautiful again. I started washing it with dishwashing liquid, which did not do much to shift the grubby scum at the bottom. Then I filled the vase with a layer of salt and vinegar to create an old fashioned acid base.....still not quite the desired result.
As a last resort I thought I would have a look at the dishwasing tablet method......so here's what you do, as this really worked!

• Fill vase with very warm water
• Drop dishwashing tablet into the vase
• Stir and rest
• stir and wash with bottle brush

The result is a sparkling vase........OK the cost of the dishwashing tablet may be high considering but I have a lovely fresh looking vase.

On a different matter, clarity is what is missing with my digital camera at the moment...the batteries go way fast even the ones that I am recharging.....I may revisit the clarity vase subject again when I have a go at some more glass vases.

Oh the reason I wanted a clear vase in the first place was to display one of the great bloodred sunflowers that grow in the garden. Pix as soon as the camera's fixed...promise.

CREATIVE QUOTE

My DD moved house last week and sent out these lovely change of address cards, handmade, hand coloured with a lovely quote I thought I would share with you.

SOAP

When I did a garbage audit, I noticed that many of the plastic containers that we bring into the house and end up not recyclable are the ones that contain shampoo, bodywash, handcream etc so I have been looking at making changes. Why do we not use soap? Soap used to be the norm some time ago. I have a few of those luxury soap bars that people have given me at Christmas time and now my last super luxurious bodywash is waning to its end, I have opened the soapbox and put it near the shower. I have used it and although it seems to leave my skin squeeky clean, I cannot see the difference as yet. I am contemplating making my own soap using natural ingredients and oils from the garden to suit our skintype. I am not sure whether the soap suds will leave more dirt around the shower etc, but will have to find that out in the future.

On a decluttering note....does it ever stop I wonder? I am still decluttering............

Zucchini and French Beans - Freezing

The heat is bringing the plants on rather quickly and although I have no wish to stand there cooking away, I have frozen 1 lb of french beans and 1 lb zucchini/courgettes.
Just in case its useful to you:

French Beans

Wash, trim ends of and cut into bite sizes. Blanch for 3 mins in boiling water, cool quickly under cold tap, put in marked freezer containers and freeze. Cook as normal.

Zucchini

Cut and slice, blanch for 1 min, cool quickly under cold tap, put in marked freezer containers and freeze. To cook, fry in a small amount of butter.


I was hoping to go and pick some strawberries today but the heat is just too much to move in, hence working on the computer inside.

Caterpillar heaven

How does one deal with caterpillars when they eat your plants? Any ideas.
I am playing around with my computer software today in an effort to see whether my journalling is going to get on the net that way. We shall see.
Frustrating....cannot work this out.....
nasturtium

the 15 min renegotiating challenge

Having heard a post on moneyblogger podcast about the possibility of renegotiating your contract with providers and opportunity arose today. An advert leaflet came with the post ( mots post is opened next to the recycling bin as most of it goes in), stating that a discount of 6 months could be available if you took out this service on cable TV. We still have cable TV with that provider and fuelled by the ridiculous notion that maybe I should give that a go, I dialled the number and waited patiently to go through all available options until a mere mortal answered my call.

I have this leaflet that offers a discount, is it available to me?
No afraid not, its for new customers only?
Oh and what do you offer existing customers?
Not sure, can I take your details?

Long pause....... ( do not be tempted to sound eager...silence is nerve racking to customer services representatives...means you are actually thinking.)

Well, we could offer you a discount ofr 30% on your current package for 3 months. Is that OK?
OK, that sounds fine?
Thanks

So that was not that hard after all and it has saved me about 1 months subscription. Note to self...date of October is now in the diary to give it another go when the date gets around. Now what else could I negotiate on that is paid out automatically?

I do think you may need to do some homework to have alternative answers available, such as what competitors are offering to give them the idea that if they do not offer you anything, you have a choice to go elsewhere...which of course you do as the customer is king! Go girl, go get that discount, just think about how many hours you have to work if you don't have a go at the 15 mins phone call challenge.

To me, at minimum wage ( just in case), the saving equates to 3 hours of work each month for 3 months, so that was not bad for 15 mins. Now if of course you earn mega bucks then the phonecall and the saving might not be worth your while but then I guess you are not really interested in this blog either. Shame......

HEATWAVE

The chickens and plants obviously knew their stuff-----the temperature has been 30 plus which is unusual in my timezone and hence the plants and animals have suffered some distress about it. I also did not know that chickens do not drink hot water, it has to be cold which means that we need to change the water twice per day. Thanks to the waterbutts, we have sufficient water to water the plants. There are signs that gardeners around my area are going to experiment with moving plants one zone up, in a speculation that the climate is indeed warming up and I am considering planting some fruit trees on my southfacing wall that might otherwise not flourish. I might plant an apricot and nectarine to add to the variety already in place. As the temperature is also hot enough I might consider growing some tomatoes outside but in pots so they can be moved about a bit.

A garden diary will certainly help to monitor what is happening and I have a feeling that what is ....normal.....is shifting. Some people are considering olive trees. If the climate here really is shifting then planting trees around the house might provide some welcome shade in years to come. The house we live in is made of stone and has one place in the lounge that stays cool whatever the season. Good in summer but requires some warming log fire in the winter. Water preservation and irrigation systems should also be worth considering.

So far we have installed two 200 litres water buts which fill up quite easily so we have installed an overflow system as well. There are 2 more places in which we could put water tanks and this will be the next step, funds permitting.

I wonder, whether you, reader have really considered the place you live in, what its assets are and what you can do to improve naturally what is around you?

DROUGHT IS COMING

How do I know that.....I am looking at what is happening in the garden. the sprouting broccoli is sprouting far too early meaning they are stressed and want to get the flowering over and done with...they are 2 months early. Secondly, the chickens are not laying very much and I guess if they think it is too hot to lay an egg who can blame them. I wonder how they know though and what goes through a chicken's mind thinking....nah it will be far too hot need to keep that egg production down, if a chick should hatch in 21 days, there will be too much heat. We shall see, the rest of the gardedn is quietly hotting up and zucchine are sprouting out as well as cucumbers and tomatoes, lovely and green and ready in a few weeks I guess. It has been a hot and sticky day, not something I relish but is every one ever happy with the weather?
Tomorrow my DS 3 is maypole dancing. Country dancing with some school friends. Its a dying art which our countryside here likes to revive from time to time. I love the music, I love the energy and the history behind these pagan rituals that are incorporated in country practices.

SUMMER TIME

This year, there seems to be more time to sit in the garden and let the world go by. having talked about weather prediction I found a small book in the library and this is what it says about this time of the year.....


Calm weather in June, sets the corn in tune.

A dry May and dripping June, brings everything in tune.


July and August are some of the wettest months of the year in the UK ( thats interesting because I always looked at them as being hot and sunny!).

There was very little to say about the months probably because people were too busy harvesting.

However watch the following dates:

St Mary's Day on the 2nd July

It is said that if it rains on this day it will rain for a month.

St Swithins Day on the 15th July

Oh St Swithins Day, if thou'll be fair
For forty days shall rain nae mair
but if St Swithin's thou be wet
For forty days it raineth yet.

Just shows that my usual expectation of a warm and sunny summer are an illusion here. However, it will all be good for the garden and the harvest.

A nice suprise this year is that my purple sprouting broccoli which I planted in May is now in flower which usually does not happen. A surprise harvest, unusual for this season but then very welcome alternative to lettuce.


I have invested in a 5 year diary which will enable me to check how things compare year by year.

I am strawberry picking later today, some for freezing so we can use them in smoothies and winter fruit salads and some for jam making. I am very fond of strawberries in season.

THE GIFT OF LIFE

Today, creative muse in the garden gave rise to a poem to share.

I give life to being alive in an indescribable way
I am energy in the current that flows between each of us
I gift my passion where my soul guides its necessity,
I flow with the current of love that holds my soul.
I float in the present, creatively alive, giving birth to colour
I see the gifts of nature in every encounter

I am one being, being one with all, yet authentically a part,
insignificantly one, yet at one with the universe
At peace…..being……alive in the present
I am for giving
A gift
A sense of compassion
Timeless
Endless


I am stillness
I am peace
I am gratitude

©2006 All Rights Reserved by Angora

IRONY OF TRANSPORT

I must get out more, obviously as I am getting out of practice. What happens when you only take your car on long journeys once in a blue moon......you get a speeding ticket. It was a hot day, I was tired and....on the way back from a lovely Spinning, Dyers and Weavers meeting and talk on Japanese textiles. Thats about the only long distance driving I do and it is about 15 mile away from home. Despite that, I must have missed the 30 mile per hour spot and passed it , as it says at 41mph. Probably not as fast as the man who raced past me some minutes before. Anyhow, the point I want to make is that in 25 years of driving this is my first driving offence, I used to do between 10,000 and 30,000 miles per year on business and now that I am downshifting, it appears I have been noticed for the wrong reasons....maybe it was my time to get unlucky on this or I am just out of practice noticing the yellow boxes in the hedgerow. The laws of probability obviously change when you diminish your driving distance. I cannot walk that distance so will try and share the journey with someone else. Expensive trip out. Kicking myself here while at the same time takeing responsibility as it was me after all. Cannot help muttering something unmentionable at the same time....I am no saint only human after all.

SLUGS AND TOADS REJOICE

They seemed to as long awaited rain has fallen all night. On a small garden visit yesterday, my evening walk to catch the smells of honeysuckle and roses that pervades the air, I noticed 2 toads, venturing out.....a few minutes later it began to rain. I wonder whether its their idea of sunbathing...they must find it really hard when the sun shines constantly and there is not enough moisture in the air.
Today, the slugs are rejoicing as they can again slide easily over the paths instead of having to stay wherever they are due to dry conditions.
Both of course need each other. Slugs are toads food and I am quite happy to have them in my garden, shows signs of good organic wildlife that supports our soil.
Whatever they do, I like to watch them and notice. I am happy to share in the wonder.

EGG ON TOAST -v- Breakfast cereals

The battle has been going on for months, whereby packets of cereal have been commanded by small people with commands such as :

Mum, can you buy this cereal, because it has a toy in it, and I want it.

This ploy has been declining, although it has been a slow process and made me aware of the amount of consumer messages my children unconsciously pick up from the TV. The tactics I used were not the same, no messages of what is bad in the cereal but rather of providing a gentle alternative to what was on offer.

• I no longer shop with the children in the store.
• I buy on line once a month and get it delivered at the house ( staple goods).
• I shop locally and am reducing the amount of meat we eat.
• We have chickens
• We bake our own bread so I know what goes in it.

To my amazement, cereals in packets with bright colour and toys no longer have an appeal.

Today, my son said:

Mum, can I make myself egg on toast today.

This is an amazing statement for many reasons.

• It voices a deliberate choice of egg on toast, a natural product with ingredients made at home or carefully sourced.
• It seems to state a preference as to any cereals that might be on the shelf still.
• The emphasis of ' can I make' means that he has chosen to make his breakfast himself.

These are small little triumphs in my mind, but I think I amongst the family had lost the ability to check what nutrition I need for my body today, what is available and how I can produce it with the resources available to me.

We have also changed from buying one sort of bread to producing 5 different loaves at home and we are still experimenting with more ingredients. Some come out fine, others not but then thats the fun of it all.

If you are interested in what is happening with food, you might want to check out the deliberate agrarian's article...but be warned it might scare you a little.

ELDERFLOWER CORDIAL

Havings just bottled 3 lots and 8 oz of green beans I thought I would share the recipe with you.

ELDERFLOWER CORDIAL

25 elderflower heads ( wash)
1.5 litres if boiling water
1.5 kg sugar
2 unwaxed lemons, sliced
2 oz ( 50g) citric acid

Disolve sugar in boiling water and leave to cool.Stir in the citric acid and add elderflowers and sliced lemons. Cover and leave for 3 days, stirring occassionally. Strain and poor into clean sterilised bottles and then seal. Store in a cool place.

I also put some in plastic bottles, leaving some headroom and put them in the freezer, keeping a bottle on hand for cool summer drinks.

Enjoy

WEATHER PREDICTION

Whilst at home, eating food in season and working in the garden, hands in the earth, I recognise certain rhythms that I have lost track of. The natural rhytms that surrounds us, the natural order and cycle of things and how I amongst many, have chosen to change these over time.

Years go by and we celebrate the start of a New Year in many different ways, depending on our culture. We know a new year starts, because our calendar tells us but previous civilizations did not have the comfort of yearly produced works that hang on their kitchen wall, they looked for other signs.

The seasons can give us an indication as to what is happening. We all know what spring, summer, fall and winter feel like.....although the effects of global warming are blurring distinctive boundaries that existed in the past. Traditionally, plants are sewn at certain times, and yet, this year spring was delayed and although the packet said my courgettes should be planted in April and May, the effects of a delayed spring showed on plants that would shiver and not thrive until their time for development was right to enable them to grow. Our wishes as consumers to eat strawberries all year long mean that these conditions for optimal growth have to be stimulated and replicated and the natural order of things disturbed. Of course, my strawberry season will be different to the zone you live in, and we might be able to trade and prolong our season, but that means that the strawberries need to travel and use different global resources.

Hence my wish to eat seasonally and to have a succession of fruit and vegetables that my body needs to live in the place I live in. I can prolong my strawberry season by having and indoor and outdoor crop but for the outdoor crop I need the plants to be pollinated by insects which will be at the mercy of the weather patterns.

I have lost the ability to read weather patterns as my ancestors did. There are many songs and rhymes in childhood that talk about when plants are planted and that knowledge has also been long lost, and maybe is not appropriate in a changing global climate either, as there is definitely a change happening.

I am starting a garden diary which will track the seeds I plant and whether this is the ultimate time to do so, trial and error will show whether I get it right or whether things can be improved. This could also track changes on a global scale in my local environment. If I had paid attention locally that the swallows came 3 weeks later than last year, I might have recognised that my planting schedule for optimum production in tune with nature would be 3 weeks late. From spending time with my cats on a daily basis, I can predict the amount of rain that is coming and its timescale. If my cats do not leave the kitchen, all gardening plans should be put on hold as it is sure to be cold and rain heavily. If they stay around the house, around the boundaries, I know that it is likely to rain that day and planting would be good no watering needed as it is coming later. I can only speak for what I find in my own garden and climate but apparently they have not lost the ability to venture our or not as the case may be, depending on what is in their awareness.

Again, when the swallows, meet and leave, I will know that fall is being announced. The quality of light changes, the plants all react to the seasons and I am not certain what makes me so confident that I can overcome all of that. I too need a time of hope and growth, of warmth and fun, of preparation of hibernation and a time of rest and reflection to observe the rhytms in my life. There are periods in our life childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, parenthood, middle age, and so on that each have a flavour, each bring us wisdom of another kind and we cannot spend all our time in childhood and ignore that we too are working towards reaping the rewards of what we have sewn in the past.

Its a reflection worth doing, finding your place in the sun now, seeing what it is you are wanting to achieve and working towards a happy harvest. I wish you sunshine, a good foundation to enable you to grow roots and reach your potential.

As for me, I am going to go out and survey what the garden tells me, bottle my elderflower cordial, enjoy my glass of fresh mint tea and pick a salad for lunch.

What are you doing today, what is your rhytm, what is natural for you?

ICEBERG

Not lettuce this time but a lovely climbing rose which clambers in between the honeysuckle that currently perfumes the air.
Apart from being my own greengrocer this year, I also would like to grow enough flowers to bring natural scents into the house. Its a work in progress.....

Also installed now are 2 waterbutts to collect rainwater which will help us water the plants if we ever get a drought order and are unable to use the water from the water company. This is the beginning of water saving measures. There is another water butt to be installed near the patio, to enable us to water the tubs there. Phase one of water conservation. The next one is more complicated and requires some different equipment.
If you saw the programme about the Strawbridge family you might have seen that they managed to do a lot because they were able to invest a huge amount of capital into their venture. Here we only put in what we are saving in other ways, so its likely to be an organic process.
I managed to barter some more plants and have been given a small contract to grow seedlings for other people next year. Its a start.

Its important at this time to walk around the garden and look out for pests such as white cabbage fly, you will see small white dots on the bottom leaves, smallinsh larvae which if you ared not careful will end up being lovely caterpillars. They eat and strip your crop bear. Organic remedy for me is to pick the lower leaves and give them to the chickens. Then water and spray the plant and wants in between them. Its looking good.

CHECKING IN

Wow, time certainly flies....apologies if you thought I had vanished, its just that the garden really is vety enjoyable to be in, the sun is shining and I simply need to catch up with the planting.
This is a corner bed which is quite shady and in which I have chosen to plant the summer lettuces and some beetroot, hopefully both will flourish.
We are eating potatoes, peas and green beans now, some courgettes on the menu and I am hopeful that the succession planting will pay off.
I have discovered that we have a lot of elferflower in the garden and am going to try and find a recipe for elderflower cordial. Its very refreshing and a great thirst quencher in high summer when I can find another time to put my feet up and admire the garden.

REDUCING LAUNDRY

How can you make your laundry load lighter......and save on washing powder, water and electricity.....

• Reduce the amount that needs washing.
• Wear your clothes more often ( i.e. if it is not visibly dirty, smells put it away)
• When tidying bedrooms, tell the kids not to just dump the clothes in the basket if they could be refolded and put away.
• Kids have showers and sleep in clean bedclothes so new pyamas are not needed every day.
• Give each person in the household a dedicated towel and keep a spare one, wash when necessary.
• have less clothes in the wardrobe, less choice means less washing.
• When you come home having worn your jacket or dress once, dont automatically put it in the washer, check that it is dirty......and if not....put away.

That should save on a lot of washing in the house......instead of 3 load per day we are down to 2 and am still working on reducing that too.

At work

There seems a million and 1 things to do in the garden at the moment, so there seems little time to post. I want to keep up with the garden at the moment as my meals depend on it. Still salad galore which is great, some new potatoes fresh to eat, strawberries at breakfast time and plenty of eggs. Next should be green beans to add a little variety and then I will be able to have nicoise salad:

bed of lettuce leaves
some tomatoes
hard boiled eggs
steamed green beans
cold cooked potatoes
1 tin of tuna
pour over vinaigrette sauce ( oil and vinegar)

enjoy with a chunk of home made bread.

Something to look forward to for a nice summer lunch in the garden.
I also spotted the roses are coming in bloom, white, red, pink and apricot. Its looking very pleasing.......when you get time to sit still.

The weeds are doing great to and thats where I am off to, to weed, hoe and find me some weeds to pull.

It may be a simple life, but it is hard work. Very satisfying though....

HOME MADE LEMONADE

Its that weather, you can see yourself with a refreshing drink in the garden. This is what the boys did yesterday:

• Take 4 lemons, peel them in a bowl ,( the zest not the white bits,
• add 100g or 4 oz of fine white sugar.
• top up with 750ml boiling water.
• Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar is disolved.
• leave to cool.
• when cool, sieve out the bits of peel
• add squeezed lemon juice
• store in the fridge until ready to use.

PS you could add some sparkle in it by diluting with sparkling water when you serve.

Cheers!

CATCH THE SUN

Its lovely out here in the garden, my plants are bathing in the sun and so am I in moderation. The seedlings are continuing to grow and this morning, we had our granola with a sprinkling of strawberries from the polytunnel. The harvest is beginning to show, yesterday was my DH's birthday and we had some fresh potatoes, peas and some salad form the garden. I really love the idea fresh from fork to plate, gathering what is in the garden, cooking it and enjoying a burst of freshness and taste.
Today the boys spent some more time in the little pool they bought, a bit of sunbathing and working on the craft room. Its a new idea, more time, means we can do more arts and crafts and so we are dedicating a space to this. Its all taking shape and I feel as if I am beginning to live the downshifting life.
I also now receive the Countryside magazine which although from the USA is geared towards the homesteaders life style and the articles are pertinent to this way of life.
I remember the cold days in winter and relish the warm ones of summer. I am continuing to tidy up cupboards to make space for some of the canning I hope to do this year with whatever I can harvest from the garden and local farms.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT

It came yesterday and it was a pleasant surprise. The electricity bill, online now as I want to save paper. I do not usually get excited at bills arriving on my doorstep but I wanted to see whether the changes we had made, had in fact had an impact somewhere like on the bill for all to see. It did, bearing in mind that this is for the last 3 months, our supply has gone down to such an extent that I am still in credit after paying the bill off so hopefully, even though prices are going up, my monthly contribution will stay the same. I can therefore say that the lightbulb changes do make a difference as well as turning off the lights and generally being more efficient in our use.

I have also stopped buying computer games. For many reasons, mainly because they cost a lot, rob my kids from family time and they are addictive, I want them to do better things than think a life can be zapped and started all over again when you press a button. I am renting them for the moment so they get a chance to wean themselves off the buying consumer wagon and gradually reduce the use. It also means they can have a better choice, i.e. play with them and then decide whether they are any good.( and I can censure the games as they have to be ordered via me!) They also have to wait for them to arrive which is also good as it means they do not expect instant gratification. I no longer have to go to town in the car using petrol as they arrive by post. This is the in between step. I also no longer will be encouraging games boxes into the house reducing clutter.

I personally do not spend time watching TV on a regular basis, even with 46 channels there is little to tempt me, I am now more in favour of fresh air, reading and enjoying my relationships.

So who would have thought that changing your lightbulbs would have such interesting effects. I dare you, change a lightbulb, change your life and help the planet.

By the way, the boys and I went into town to buy Dad's birthday gifts and the message is getting through, he will getting real useful stuff.......well thought out by the boys as well as handmade cards and a lovely home made birthday cake. I am looking forward to the day very much, I will be cooking his fav meal from scratch and we will really celebrate him and not be rushed into consuming. It was my monthly trip to town, to buy stuff, such as school trousers, spiced tea, school socks and birthday pressies which I cannot get locally. I have become a very focussed shopper, once a month. It feels satisfying.

One of the boys spent some money on a blow up pool, which they have been thoroughly enjoying putting together, filling with cold water and screaming the neighbourhood down..........sad about the fact its plastic, but then again, they have spent 3 hours working things out and splashing in there enjoying themselves. Just think, they could have been playing competitive computer games instead......there is progress. The message is slowly trickling in. Well I am confident that if the media can master advertising drip drip effect, I should have no problem parenting using the same style.

MAY UPDATE

Its going to be tight, I have another 40 miles in my fuel tank and am beginning to feel fuel deprived. Not really but it just goes to show that managing on one tank of fuel is challenging. Its done wonders for our budget though and I am pleased with the fact that we have spent more thinking time than automatic behaviour, jumping in our cars and going out. This will be continued in June I think.

On clothes, I have far too many, will be giving some away again, and have decided to make notes in my diary about the things that I really need and then I can keep a lookout in the charity shops or make plans to make the items myself if that is feasible. I saw an article on how to make kitchen aprons from curtains which sounds feasible but again, I have 4 aprons and need only 2!
My yarn shash also has been put on hold, no more buying and it is pleasing to see what is happening and what space it is creating. I decided that my dog needs a new blanket and I will be using up all those bits and bobs I have saved from projects over the years. It will be gaudy I am sure but then as long as it is cosy the dog will not mind. It will keep me busy also.

To make changes this month I have had to look at the behaviour I have automatically taken on, which is probably induced by watching and reading ads a lot of the time. I have struggled in the past with' having the perfect bidy' but if it fits and I am comfortable in it......

The gardening has become my earth gym and I am quite contented at the moment. That is a first too......always on the lookout for the next adrenaline rush at work, and now I am just happy standing in the polytunnel munching on the odd strawberry that ripens. Feels good.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Why do we buy certain things and how come we can do so and simply be unaware that we are adding to some consumer addiction.
Its still raining by the way so am focussed on the inside of the house for the moment. I am glad it is raining as the garden really needs it and can turn my hand to my summer and winter clothing. I felt an urge to go and get the colourful summer things out and take a stock of what is actually in my wardrobe. I have managed to fill a complete bin bag with clothing to go to the charity shop; items such as coats that moved with us here 3 years ago and have been hanging in a closet, as well as a suit my husband has not worn for 15 years. I could hang onto it if it was of a certain quality but even that is dubious.
What I gathered from the clearing up is that I have a fetish of black trousers. I have 10 in my collection. How many can I wear at a given time, 1 actually. So I have made a little note in my diary about things not to buy, such as black trousers, coats and black and blue skirts as again, I have a large collection of those in any possible black you can imagine. ( There is only 1 black colour actually). The styles are a little different but they are basically still the same item. When my friend emptied her wardrobe and I had a portion of it, yes you guessed it, I went for the black trousers bringing home another 3 pairs.
How many items does one need in a working wardrobe? Anyone any suggestions as if I could just create a capsule wardrobe that suited me and that was flexible, I might only need a few items each season if I wanted to have something in the fashion colour of the day. That in itself is debatable at the moment.
Do any of you have a list of clothes?

RAIN, RAIN WELCOME RAIN

Its been raining now for 3 days, which in a way is great as the plants really need it but it hampers any work outside in the garden.
Lettuce is still on the menu most days, and the chickens are enjoying eating fresh greens that are going over. I need to really manage the amount I grow as a pinch of lettuce seeds every 14 days should be enough to last a family on lettuce. Potatoes should be ready soon and that will be a welcome surprise.
The first strawberry in the tunnel was lovely, not enough there to make a dish with, but the occasional one on my granola makes a welcome change.
Monday's is my ' get the house straight' day and I have been up there polishing mirrors, cleaning out bins and recycling the rubbish. Any moment now, the sun will shine and I will be out there again.
I am enjoying the new way of life, a little slower, a smaller life and the stress is dropping away. I just did not realise how tense I was..........the here and now is on the menu and here and now is simply great.

UNIQUENESS

I have forgotten how to play. Not only cricket with my boys, or the game of 'monopoly' but to spend time doing what gives me a feeling of wellbeing and peace and joy. So yesterday, I got my big pot out, some yarn and dyed it. It started with white yarn, blue, yellow and red colouring and have ended up with something completely merged, different and unique. Maybe that's how life works out for each of us, take a life, add some colour and you get a unique person. All I had to do was to provide the right environment, softly tend to it and stand back in awe that what I thought would happen actually had not and what I was presented with was a unique colourway. I will never look at my children in the same way.

On a more serious note, I am preparing plants for the village plant sale this weekend, adding to community and hopefully will bring back some plants I do not have in the garden. I have 25 tomatoe plants left, some purple sprouted and red cabbage plants and just cannot bring myself to put them on the compost heap. I am sure it will help some of those ' busy' folk who buy plants. I had fun tending to them but 25 left over is just too much. I have made a note not to plant so many seedling out next year but then you never know do you? There is plenty to do in the garden at the moment but its looking good.

Today I am cultivating and nurturing relationships in my life, sharing soup with a friend so we can catch up with what is happening in our lives. Not far away as my fuel allowance is carefully running out and this trip will be combined with a plastic bottle recycling trip.

BLOSSOM FESTIVAL

Not sure whether its just me and the winter was really awful, but the festival of blossoms around us is breathtaking. ( probably also not that good for asthma sufferers), but wisteria is great, apple blossoms are plentiful and everything looks simply great. Rain in April. Flowers in May.

I love May, its really makes me feel that spring is here and so for the moment I am enjoying in wonder and awe, the beauty that surrounds me. Most of all, watching all these colours and feeling inspired is entirely free!

HAPPINESS AND PASSION

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.
And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware of urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.

Martha Graham as told to Choreographer Agnes de Mille in Dance to the Piper.
Source : The Circle of Simplicity by Cecile Andrews

The above spoke to me when I was reading it and wondering what had happened to my joy and happiness and what I had done over the years to compensate. I had to go back in memory to when I was about 6 and completely care free and when my passion for nature and all things tactile was apparent. Gardening, cooking, music, singing, spinning, weaving, crochet, sewing etc all flourished as well as a great sense of compassion. I can pinpoint when it went by the way.......when school came to the forefront and expectations to do this and that. Suppressing all these ideas and energy eventually was not good for me. I have asked myself over the last year why I go shopping, watched TV and spent so much time on the internet. What I am in denial of? For me personally I was denying the things that made me happy, that made me feel connected and that used the unique talents I was given in this lifetime. I am still decluttering and spending time dealing with mistakes pre downshifting. We all have the opportunity to reassess, make different goals and strive towards an authentic expression of how we live.

My son spends much time on the internet talking to his friends .....and it takes some persuasion to get him out there on his bike, playing football and enjoying the sunshine when it is here. Yesterday he went out with a friend and they came back completely soaked to the skin after having fun 'river jumping'. I saw a glimpse of happiness and a carefree child, more worried about how I was going to react to wet trousers, soaked shoes and a child walking barefoot in the house making marks on the floor. How did we get to this?

Add to that the emotional expressions we are no longer encouraged to do, we are not encouraged to talk, to deal with conflicts by words and not deeds etc........can we change this.

My DS who is beginning to formulate an opinion on the world came out with the following comment :

I think Western Europe and the USA will be third world countries in the future, maybe having had everything they could from the earth but missing the point.

He was, I think, explaining that we are missing the point that people come first, then money and then things. Happiness ,is that in anyone's country quota?

GRACIOUS LIVING

A simple life, where we effortlessly go forward, focussed in the moment, the here and now, at a pace of life that suits our individuality.

Is there time in our lives to find out what that pace is? Do we respond to change of pace in life? What suits us when we are young and vibrant with energy may be different when we are more mature? How does society respond to that? How do we respond to that?

Here and now, a positive moment to be enjoyed, usually we have everything we need in this moment. Open your eyes and see the sun, the green fields, the smile, the laughter, the warmth and compassion of human beings, the fun that surrounds us, the air we breathe, the tears..........remember how good it is to be alive.....

Can we soar high and fly, drifting on an air current, swimming like a dolphin following the current in the ocean, or do we need to paddle and struggle...... I know which image I would like to aspire to.

PETROL RATIONING

Working out your travel allowance is good, having said I was going to have 1 tank of fuel this month. Its the 10th and I am half way through which is not that promising. I am thinking about transport and how we use it, I am reducing my need to use it and I still feel that 1 tank is a realistic target.
Just to prove a point I met 2 women today who have joined a gym, its costing them:

membership £30.00 per month
travel to town £ 27.00 per month ( thats just fuel based on 3 trips)
Refreshments £ 40.00 per month they meet for lunch after the gym

The aim of one of the women is to look better on the beach this summer. At £ 97.00 per month that is quite a price to pay to look good, and uses some planet's resources. I wonder what they will be doing :
Usual expectation would be rowing. stairwalking, lifting weights, stretching. Oh and they do get a personal trainer as well as working out while they watch big screens and listen to music.

Alternatives could be:

Daily walk to the local shop. ( 2 mile round trip)
carrying shopping home ( in backpack or 2 bags whilst flexing muscle)
Cleaning a couple of floors
Digging the garden.
Cycling about 3 miles on a regular basis.
Dancing for joy to some upbeat music.
Having friends around for a potluck dinner.
Listen to some lovely relaxing music and watch nature through the window or walk in nature every day.
Cost --------very little.
Cost to the planet ----very little


That could save the planet transport costs, it would bring the community together, it would make them fitter and they would benefit from fresh air.

The only thing thats missing is the personal trainer.....I suggest a pair of scales and a weigh in each day, that should do it as would a friendly pat on the shoulder saying, well done.

Am I missing the point here?

TIME AWAY

I have been away for a few days. I would not call it a retreat but a place of quiet and rest which has been very interesting. In the past I would have been far too busy to veen contemplate going away and giving myself time away for reflection but it has been a useful thing to do.
I am sure that our spiritual development gets neglected in a fast moving world. No Tv , radio or newspaper went through my hands, no internet available just a simple furnished room, plentiful nourishing food, good company and time to rest. The gardens were magnificent and there was time to walk around, engage in conversation, fellowship and prayer, all things I would probably have shied away from saying' there simply is no time'.
The nearest we got to that in the past was going on holiday but instead of relaxing, there was a lot of stress in getting ready, making the most of our holiday and actually not appreciating the time we have together, the places we visited and what I call home as my sanctuary.
What was excellent was the fact that I have realised that I spend a lot of the time on the internet, which could be reduced somewhat and that there is time to engage into fellowship and relatiionships with the people around me. I wonder whether I used the internet as a ' fix' to meet with invisible people? Maybe you too can ponder on that question.
I am reading the Circle of Simplicity by Cecile Andrews which is an very thoughful and reflective piece of reading.
Coming home I was surrounded by the usual family hustle and bustle and today I am spending time in the garden to admire what has visibly grown during my absence and to tend to the plants that need some attention.
Gracious living....I feel thats a new concept to explore.

CAPTURED ON CAMERA

The lettuces in the raised bed are doing great , I wonder if you can see the bits bitten off by the pheasant....plenty in any case to keep us going.

As a downshifter I am saving money but from time to time we have to invest in some machinery.....what can the above be? Its a beanslicer. I am getting ready for the time when the runner beans are plenty and I start preserving them. My Dh remembers his Mum having one of these and when I spotted it on Ebay I thought it was a bargain. Someone else probably would have thought it was rubbish but the machinery produced for use in the kitchen was manual and heavy. Its bound to last a few years.
I have been reading up on canning but cannot find the equipment over here in the UK. The jars are easy to find but not the pressure canning equipment and the water bath canning equipment. I need to do some more research on that....keep looking you never now when someone unearths something in their attic and wants to recycle it.
Maybe AJ and Matt will find it in Nova Scotia?

DEW BALANCE

How does nature manage to make such perfection? ( Dont answer that one) If you look very closely you can see the little dew drops perfectly balanced on the tips of the leaves.
Now that I am not rushing so much I do have time to stop and stare and capture with the camera what I can see. These are strawberries in a hanging basket, vertical gardening in the polytunnel.

SUNSHINE HERE WE COME

On a day like today, full of warm sunshine you just have to bathe in it like the plants do. It has been very busy getting the seedlings out in the garden, hoeing and weeding and watering the plants in. Its coming together. I really do not feel that I am doing that much in the garden, most of it is done automatically and mother earth seems to do the rest.
I have managed to have too many plants so will be sharing them around the neighbourhood.

PETROL RATIONING

I am so pleased, so far filled the tank up and have done 29 miles to date. Thats about right on target and I am not planning on using the car for the rest of the week.

The boys shared outdoor work this weekend, one washed the car and let the water run onto the flowerbeds, one did some strimming on weedy areas in the shrub border and little DS helped DH with the additional flowerbed.

PHEASANT LOVES LETTUCE

Silly beautiful creature loves my luscious lettuces in the polytunnel. They now sport a sort of cerrated edge which is not unbecoming but it looks different and definitely eaten. If its not something like slugs its other creatures. I spotted her in the polytunnel and gave her a bit of a fright....then she strolled as if nothing had happened and just sort of passed me by. Cheeky bird, is all I can say, they follow the chicken coop because of spilled corn and other bits and there is plenty of green stuff for them to eat, but instead....they have to enter the deli of the polytunnel. Wrong season but otherwise I could plan on killing a pheasant in the autumn season.

MAY DAY

May Day is a busy day in this household. We had a really fruitful talk yesterday with one of our new friends in the village about pig keeping. It is on the list in the future but will not be for this year. This year's goal is about producing and canning vegetables and fruit and so far its looking promising.
The tomatoe seedlings are plenty and have shot up this week, as have all the squashes, pumpkins, cucumbers and melons. I always grow too much and need to make a list of what we grow and how well it performs.
DH and DS3 are building a raised bed for the squashes so they can ramble in the heat and later in the year I will plant it with onions and broad beans to have some variety.
Guess I am going out there in the sunshine again, admiring the plants, cosseting my future larder projects and reading up about canning and preserving.

CREATIVE PRESSIE

Guess what .................its a long time to Christmas but with the simple life in mind, and more time to do things I like, I share the finished product of felted hat and bag. It is my aim to give home made pressies this year, including more food items an experiences to stop other people accumulating clutter. I am working on it anyway.

LIVING WELL ON LESS

Check out a wonderful story here, and see where you are in your life.
The moral of ths story is......... do you need to be a big fish or can you handle being a small one?
Another one is the recipe for simplicity, you might like that too?

DOWNSHIFTING WEEK DAY 5

Yesterday I ventured into the garden for the collection of nettle tops. I wore yellow gloves ( seems obvious but thought I would state it in case you get lost in the enthousiasm and forget that they are nettles and can sting you). I used scissors to cut the tops off and then made soup using 2 onions, 1 carrot, 4 sticks of celery, the nettles, some turkey stock I had in the freezer and voila, a green soup.
DH tried and quite liked it but my son who is a bit poorly still and saw me collecting the nettles was less keen. ( Maybe next time).
Cooking a meal from scratch is possible.
I also exchanged some spinach for 6 eggs and am looking forward to my egg benedictine ( poached egg on toast on a bed of creamy spinach).
DH is on the lookout for some raw fleece to enable me to continue experimenting with the spinning and dying I am doing. I find it very relaxing and at least it will mean we will have some socks and hats for next winter. The rooster is keeping us up a bit in the morning but apart from that, rural life seems to be suiting us.

The veg in the polytunnel are coming along. I tend to water in the morning now as that minimizes the slug population that come and feast at night. The french bean seedlings that I planted out are still finding the weather a bit cold. Potatoes in the tunnel are up and running and the ones in the raised bed outside are peeking through. Succession seems to be in hand then. I have lots of squash, pumpkin, cucumber, melon seedlings that are popping their way through so hopefully that means that the weather is warming up.

DH has on his list to build another raised bed specifically for the squashes so they can roam a bit, as well as working on some fencing for the chickens. They have been cooped up together and now that they are used to the routine I am keen to give them some more running space in the garden.

DOWNSHIFTING WEEK - Day 4

Rationing of fuel is on its way. Don't panic, it does not relate to your household, but to mine.
I have been focussing on transport as you know and to make it more real and create some sort of pain factor ( no I am not a sadist) I am going to limit myself during the month of May on 1 tank of fuel for my car. It should do 400 miles which is 10 miles per day so I will need to plan, measure and work out what is a priority and base my choices on that. Sounds barbarian in a world where everything is available and on tap, but it will also be an exercise in saying ' no thank you' and reevaluating whether I want to use the car, whether is it a need and whether I can do without.

I am also learning to say 'no thank you' a bit more. Quite often saying yes is done automatically and then does not really fit in with the goals I aspire to. I am saying 'no' to too much TV, I am saying ' no' to going shopping etc etc. Practice makes perfect as they say.

DOWNSHIFTING PODCASTS

I just love podcasts, listening to others as they travel their path to downshifting their life, so here's my selection for this week.

Downshifthing.me where Matt and AJ plan to leave Leeds for Nova Scotia to live.
Geek Farm Life a combination of exactly that, some geek computer things, items about farm life and items about life including the crazy cuisine section which could broaden our minds about what we eat.
Last but not least is Caroline's podcast ' Rural Radio' which includes frugal tips, geek of the week, snippets of gossip over the garden fence' and a book review.

While potting on in the potting shed, it is reassuring to know that I am not the only one doing this in my little homestead. Not that I thought I was.

Best of all, these are generous people sharing their conversations for free, for the love of it and to inspire you if you need it that is.

I continue with my motto:

Dream your life and live your dream

It is possible, and sometimes you need to think outside the box so to speak.
Ok I am off to barter some eggs for spinach and to have a social chat with one of my neighbours, over the garden fence.

DOWNSHIFTING WEEK - DAY 3

Today, I have sent my boys to school and thanks to being around at home, I am there, not too inconvenienced to have one home again with ' tummy ache'. The philisophy in this household has always been to go to school unless there were any visible signs of ilness, such as temperature, sickness, pale colour etc, as I want to encourage my children to attend school when they can.
When I was working full time, having a child called home from school was a major inconvenience because it would always be on a day that I had an important meeting to go to, a presentation to make etc etc. The priority however should have been my child( you may disagree with this!) and of course I always ended up with guilt, anger and frustration at both the workplace, the child and me, a very stressful time.
What a difference to be able to say

yes, I will come and collect him.

What a difference to be able to spend time and ask

' so what do you need, what is happening where does it hurt?

Of course I miss the importance of being important at meetings and presentations and all that it brings with it, but I value my children and when they are ill, insecure and have tummy ache, they need my attention, my care, love and warmth more than I need the meetings and the presentation however inconvenient that is to others.

Today, I will probably have to watch the odd children's DVD, snuggled up on the sofa, my writing will have to wait, the housework will have to wait, the garden will have to wait ( it is raining though) ................it is an unexpected moment of togetherness on the sofa, a time for me to listen, a time to share.........and hopefully, my son will be replenished enough tomorrow to go back to school and get on with life.

Slowing down for us is the same thing, we need that time snuggled up on the sofa to replenish and to be listened to, to dream and to make plans to make our dreams a reality. Sounds like another Sunday then, a day of rest but it is anything but...I am investing time and care on the next generation and that is an important job and far from insignificant.

DOWNSHIFTING WEEK - DAY 2 and 3

Sundays are considered to be a day at rest now, it has taken a while to get to grips with that concept but if it was was good enough for God to rest after creating heaven and earth for 6 days why on earth do I have a problem with it?
Rest does not always mean sleeping, rest is a pause.....a pause from what we do on a regular basis so that we can relax, assess and see what we are doing with our time and energy. A period of reflection.
The most I could hope for while I was working full time was either the weekend bridging one week with the next, where actually most time was spent organising things for the next week, catching up on socialising, shopping etc . Holidays also provided an idea for relaxation and reflecting on life, spending time with loved ones, but in general, it took me a week to relax and then a week to wind up again to the speed of work.What I learnt over the last few months is that a day of rest and reflecton allows us to nurture some of the parts in our life that we have pushed aside. This could be spiritual aspects of being human, it could be finding time to read the papers with a leisurely breakfast, spending time with the children, basically living in the here and now with the people we have relationships with. And that may include for some of spending time in a spiritual relationship.

If you have a homestead or some animals to look after, then of course routine does not stop on Sundays, it has to be done, but I urge you to look beyond that and give yourself some time....this is not the time to catch up on work for next week but time to give to yourself.
I really had a problem with this in the past, but slowing down has shown me that there is a need to give to myself and the other people in my life and as with everything, building it in your hectic schedule is the first thing to do.

I lazed about a bit, yes you heard me right, lazed about...that means doing things at my speed, slow shower, slow breakfast of pancakes, slow reading of a book, spending time with the children, a slow cooking casserole in the oven and generally putting my feet up.

INTERVIEW WITH TRACEY SMITH

I caught up with Tracey Smith today, founder of the Downshifting.com website, promoting downshifting week.
Tracey and husband Ray moved to France and back again to the Uk to improve their quality of life, to slow down and have more time with their children. You can read all about it in the Guardian's article printed today.
Tracey has also been put forward for the ITV Eco Hero award which is due to be announced by the end of April 2006.

Q: The suggestions made in National Downshifting Week are very easy to follow. For positive green change, surely it needs to be more assertive.

A:

On the contrary, I think the beauty of it is that people can just dip their toes in to a bit of simple, green living. If they are encouraged by achieving quick and effective results, they are far more likely to explore the next step and do more.

Q: What do you hope to achieve from it all? Do you have a book coming out you want to sell?

A: I am a committed and optimistic downshifter, very content with her lot! I have realised that by taking on an extreme downshift, there are just so many layers and levels to it and I just want to write about them Lots can be done in your own four walls and you do not need to move anywhere. I want to get that message across. Also, there are so many green elements you automatically embrace when you have a bit more time on your hands - I want to encourage people to lean towards the green for all of our benefit. As for the book, yes, I have an e-book on my site - 'Slow Down and Green Up - A Beginners' Guide to Downshifting' ...no charge though, it's free, so hop on and download it!

Thanks to Tracey and fingers crossed for the award.

I agree with Tracey that you do not need to move per se to green up and slow down, and I have found the information on her site to be of great help. There are a lot of books on simple living out there and they all have a valuable message to put across but I believe the essence of downshifting week is making a commitment yourself to think about the principles and make realistic goals that are meaningful to you. Changing something every month towards your goal and rewarding yourself when you have achieved that step are simple for us all to do, it just needs you to get started. In the end, only you can achieve the way you want to live, no one can do it for you. It sounds scary.....it sounds hard work, but actually are you not working hard as it is...it is just a different way of life......

DOWNSHIFTING WEEK-DAY 1

What have I been up to on day 1 of the week, been quite busy without leaving the house.
The jackdaws are nesting in our cliff and making a lot of noise. It must be springtime. The chickens are now laying every day and we collected 7 eggs today, there are plenty of seedlings to water and veg to pick. I even managed to pick some rhubarb for eat tonight, not a lot, but then do you ever need a lot of rhubarb.
I have been winding some yarn I dyed last week which dried on top of the aga, and have been practicing on my spinning wheel. I kind of acquired some fleece from a local farmer and am working on it, the smell is heavenly rural, the lanolin makes my hands very soft and my arm muscles are increasing when I card the fibres ( who needs the gym I tell you).
Breakfast was home made granola with soya milk, some freshly juiced apple juice. After some rest, little son ( aged 7) told me something like :

Come on Mum, weed pulling time

He put his wellies on, donned a nice hat, got the wheelbarrow and went and attacked the brambles. He also delighted in the sticky weed that sticks to your clothing and we had a bit of a fight with that in the garden. I limit myself to 2 buckets of weeds per day which get added to the large compost heap. Oh, I made some freshly baked rolls for lunch which the boys devoured as well.
After lunch, the boys played outside although one of them decided to build a model out of lego. I spun a bobbin of yarn and worked away until at about 3 pm I sat down with my nice cup of tea. Is this how life could be, sounds maybe like the Little House on the Prairie but there really is some benefit in staying home, not using the car, working out in the garden, picking your own vegetables and having meaningful conversations with your children. We debated cable TV and whether we could do without....appears not as yet.
I try to stay away from the shops...better that way.

DOWNSHIFTING PLANNER

Thanks to Tracey at Donwshiftingweek ( which is from the 22nd to 28th April) there is a new tool available that should help us all work out how we can be greener, leaner and have more money in our pocket. Have a look at the downshifting planner. its a pdf file so easily accessible to most and I think it is a really good way to focus on one aspect at a time and reward yourself.

I have been looking at the way we use transport in our family. The amount we spend on fuel is still too high with an average of £ 125 spent on petrol alone.
What could be done I thought had already been tried but in line with the above I am going to work hard and focus on the following :

• using the smallest car for journeys, the one that is most fule efficient
• get the tyres to be at the right pressure and make sure that the oil gauge is OK
• not rush and keep to speedlimits
• reduce the use of airconditioning as that uses 11% more fuel
• keep coupons for cheaper fuel in the car so it can be used when it it needed
• Kids could walk to school instead of being driven
• Shop locally or get shopping delivered
• share lift with liftshare.org
• organise activities when transport planned, i.e. avoid small journeys and build a list of things to be done when I am in one or other direction.

Saying that the most amount of fuel used is my Dh attending his social engagements and changing those might be a little bit more dificult. I suggested 2 out of 3 but got a smirk, so not all of us are keen on the green side of things.

I am patting myself on the back though as this week I have had 6 car free days. Thats a first.
I will keep a track on the mileage that gets done, what alternatives are available and let you know how I have done at the end of May.

FOOD FOR FREE

Thank you for your comment. I phoned the agricultural college and they pointed me to a book by Richard Mabey called Food for Free which looks useful and I found it in the library.

I think it would be useful to know what herbs and grasses grow in the garden and around which are not cultivated by us but are there as nature has intended. Saves on planting and produces variety. My garden is organic and slightly away from the road so at least I do not have to worry about fumes and pollution on the plants.

Here are some uses for the dandelion......

Dandelion leaves can be served in sandwiches with a dash of Worcester sauce, or cooked with butter like spinach. Choose the youngest leaves, and strip them from the plant by hand. Remove the excess stalk and wash well. dress the roughly chopped leaves with olive oil, lemon juice and garlic.

Sounds feasible.

Another plant to add to my salad bowl, are sweet violet flowers which I know where to find.

So for lunch today I will go and forage and try and take a picture of the plate........

NATURE

I am in wonder of the many colours that spring offers. The daffodils and other flowers are bright yellow and blue, then there is the magnificent magnolia which is pink, spreading its colour around and it feels as if God has taken the paintbrush out and has gone to town in bringing some colour and hope into the world. The birds are definitely mating and dancing in the branches and I feel hopeful and am enjoying the nature festival.
I am going to try and make nettle soup today with the young nettles that are growing up and try and find recipes that use purple sprouted broccoli. That is such a nice plant, you pick the florets and it grows some more. Then there is rhubarb. What many of these plants have in common is their ability to purify our digestive system, to cleanse us from the inside out and I am not sure why we had given up on those. Maybe we felt we could do without?
I would like to learn more about edible plants that we have given up on and that are there for the picking. I am never sure what we can eat and what we cannot and unfortunately I am not sure whether there is anyone around who can share that information with me. In time, I would like to be able to identify the plants that grow in my garden and find out their uses because I have some incling that they all have a use, some for good and some for bad I am sure, but there must be a reason why they are growing. How to go about discovering?

WANT and NEED

Have you ever wondered what the difference is, or have you just always got what you wanted?
The spring clothes are in the shops and a little feeling inside me jumps up and says...I want one of those and one of those and one of that. Then I check and wonder whether I actually need the clothes, and in fact, I do not.
Whatever happened to planning our wardrobe. Clothes used to be handsewn and family members used to be allocated certain clothes to make. Usually only similar patterns were used and the scraps of material would be used to make quilts. Nothing was wasted and small garments could be made out of clothes that were outgrown. Or they were carefully washed and folded, given to new family members etc. I suppose only one set of clothes was needed as smaller sizes would be available. What has changed is that material is as expensive as buying the finished article, people no longer have sewing skills and patience to make clothes that fit them.
I can resist the urge to go and buy new clothes. I can delight in the wardrobe that is full of the clothes I bought last year and years before. I recently received a full bag of clothes from my friend who has lost a lot of weight and am thus recycling my clothes and having something different to wear.
Who does an audit of their wardrobe? Who keeps classic, classy and good quality clothes in their wardrobe? What we have lost, is the care and attention that went into making the clothes and the appreciation of the time and effort so that we look after the clothes.
Clothes do not make a man.....sure...I get that. The media do a brilliant job at making me want things, sort of makes you lose your mind.
Then there is the opposite emotion.....I need to exercise....but I do not want to.

Today, with every decision you make to buy something, ask yourself whether you really need it, can you buy it second hand, can you make it and then make a responsible choice....as you are response able.

ONE STEP AT A TIME

I am ashamed to read that Britain is eating the planet and that each year, we eat more and more of the planet's resources. I am trying to do my bit to change that, on my part anyhow, and for those of you who seem to think this might be a hopeless step, I urge you to think again.
My main project for this year is to increase the amount of green veg and fruit we eat and to make sure that the majority of it grows in my garden, hence reducing the ridiculous amount of miles that food travels as well as reducing packaging that supermarkets use to market the stuff, and reducing the plastic bags and petrol I would need to get the salad. Is this difficult, it appears not, do I need a lot of land, it appears not, do I need a lot of patience.....well a little and there is the unpredictability of the weather. Not all seedlings come up, but then I may be hard pushed to eat 26 lettuces in a week. However, I have plans for those. Nature I have to say, does most of the work and is very obliging. I need to plant the seeds at the right time, ensure the basic needs of the plants are met, stay on the lookout for slugs and other competitors and the results slowly but surely start to manifest.
I managed to send my DD away yesterday with freshly cut Novita lettuce from the garden and fresh parsley.
I also wanted to eat seasonally and that becomes a lot easier when you see the stuff growing in the garden.

One step at a time, is my philosophy. I am still buying things but reflecting each time I do on what I would buy locally or produce myself.

You could for instance, cut down on the teabags and go for loose tea. It is a little more cumbersome to make, but tastes a lot better and you get more tealeaf and lest tea dust.
One of my daily pleasures is to sit outside in the afternoon, look at the unfolding garden and bask in a little fresh air with a steaming cup of freshly brewed tea. Simply delicious.

It takes very little to enjoy the view and see nature at work.

have just collected another 4 eggs from the hens...so omelette has to be on the menu, maybe with salad?

DOWNSHIFTING MANIFESTO

A few more weeks and it will be downshifting week for 2006. When, check here.

Also why not see how you are doing on the downshifting manifesto.

Do let me know what your plans are regarding downshifting. Yesterday we had our first salad from the garden this year, we have just collected a very small egg and for lunch we made some very naughty cinnamon rolls with white sugar icing which are simply.....well mouthwatering.
As my DS 2 says, this is the life and I would agree with him. Go on....stop beating yourself up about decisions you have made in the past, today is a new day, today is as good a day as ever to start a new life and make decisions you are truly happy with.

Weeds are growing too at alarming rate so must go out there and do some more to compost. I had added some work on the to do list, a special raised beds for squashes , zucchini, pumpkins and other lovely vegetables that ramble a bit. Its going to be a feast when it all comes together.

SALLOW TREE

Spring has to be here officially now as the sallow tree is out. It come sout in catkins first, they burst open and are covered in sticky liquid which attracts a lot of bees to the garden. Apparently it is a native English tree and there are not that many about and it hosts 2500 types of insect. I can well believe that because in the summer you do not want to be sitting underneath that one, it crawls.....



The chickens have produced 3 little tiny eggs to date, which are very welcome and Squeek is settling in well. He needs some TLC on his feet which I am giving him about every 3 days. Hopefully there will be progress.



The more I relax and enjoy the simplicity of my life, the more I am aware that I no longer chase the clock so much. To do that and become proactive instead of reactive to things, I need to calm down and reflect at the end of each day how I am doing. I have gradually been planting seeds in my polytunnel and am very pleased with the results so far. There is a natural rhytm to things and I am trying to fall into that as much as possible. I have read extensively about the Amish people and some of their principles and ways they lived was extreme but there was also some wisdom in it. I don't want time to stand still but I would like to dance with time instead of getting the feeling that I am chasing my tail. Its the Easter weekend and there is lots of activity going on inside the house, children are painting eggs, looking forward to an egg treasure hunt and together time. The garden is bursting with blue and yellow colours all around and although the weather is cool, I look forward to the warmer days ahead. A few more weeks and we will be eating lettuce from the garden. Currently on offer is a small amount of rhubarb, nettles for nettle soup and purple srouted broccoli. I can build that in over the next few weeks. I simply love the idea of being able to go out there and pick my food...hunter gatherer probably but the quality is phenomenal and the effort...well actually....the earth and mother nature do most of the work. I just tend.

ADDITIONS

Dear Son,

You might have noticed that I have moved from the coop last night and have settled in well in my new home. I had to move because you were pecking me all the time and I am pleased to leave that behind in any case. I am now surrounded by 10 lovely chicks who seem to be spending their time looking up at me, finding out who I am and nestling quite close to me. These chicks have no idea on country living, they used to live in massive condos where food was provided on tap, the temperature controlled and there were no perches. Fancy having to explain how to sit on a perch, at my age. Wisdom comes with age and I wish you the same. Cannot wait until these chicks get the hang of living in our new home, but on first impressions they do seem a bit stupid, pecking away at the wood trying to find food as where they could be out there scratching the ground and finding lovely bugs. It wil ofcourse take time, all education of young ones takes time and I am getting a bit older now. My feet are aching a bit, getting used to the changes in the home environment but don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. The keeper of the house seems friendly and as bemused as me that the chicks do not wish to be outside. I would like to say I like it here but it is day one and it might just be a bit presumptious to say that. I hope you are being nice to the ladies I left behind and you are taking great care of them.

Your Dad, Squeek.

( Squeek is the Orpington cockerill who is finding a new home here with 10 new chicks) He seems to be a gentle giant and his call in the morning was not too ofputting ----the neighbours have not yet come around to check what the noise is about.

I am looking forward to the eggs when the chickens have settled as well as lovely manure to heat up my compost heap. ( I know, you probably do not get excited about that one, but to me, there is beginning to be some comprehension how things fit together even though the world might seem chaotic, there seems to be some plan).

Its a question of quality

I am not sure about your thoughts but I am concerned that there is meat available in the supermarket at such a price that it is just too cheap to eat. A chicken at £ 2.99 just cannot be quality. I am not sure how long it would take for a chicken to actually grow from egg to table ready but it cannot be less than 40 days surely.....and what do they do to these chickens that they grow so far...actually I probably do not want to know. My question is, am I prepared to either be a vegetarian and eat no meat or eat meat responsibly. By that I mean, I am willing to find out where my food comes from, how it has lived and what the quality is like. I ask this question because I wonder what it does to my body to be flooded with angst hormones from an animal.
I have looked at the benefits of not eating meat and although I am reducing the amount we eat while at the same time sourcing locally produced traceable meat, the price of this is a lot higher than what is available. If I continue to buy the £ 2.99 chicken then the supermarket will think I want this and produce more. Actually what I want is probably a more expensive happy chicken and that will not be available there.
My friends cultivated their own chicken supply one year, bought 15 chicks and brought them on until they were way past the normal table weight, but when we received one of those as a gift, the quality was fantastic, we actually ate less of it because it was better quality and a chicken could last 4 meals including making stock for use in soups. It took more than 40 days, it took care and pasture to let these chickens roam and have a happy life, it took them to be killed there and then, with the least possible stress. They did not get foampacked, injected with hormones, strung up by their legs awaiting to be killed. I know which one I would prefer.

I am really sorry if you are a vegetarian and this post upsets you....and if you are a meat eater and this post upsets you....it upset me too....and that is why I believe I need to look at making changes because I want a simpler, less tampered with food supply and I want to reward the people who look after animals and not those who could not care less and produce a bird for less than £ 3.00.

SEEDLINGS IN THE NURSERY

It has been a fantastic sunny day today and I have spent some of it outside and in the polytunnel. Things are definitely warming up. I am very good at the seedling stage and have not quite figured out what to do with them all. There will be surplus as last year. I have about 50 sprouting broccoli plants as where I probably will only be able to plant out about 18 of those. I belong to a LETS groups so will share them around. You never know what comes up and what does not. I am still working on a succession planting.
The potatoes are showing through and hopefully will be ready beginning of May
The peas have been transplanted and should be edible by June.
The strawberry plants are in bloom ( last years trial plants) and the new ones are settling in nicely.
about 45 tomatoe plants Tamina and Alicante variety are on the bench growing, french beans are popping through, parsley is still plenty and rocket and salad greens showing growth as well.
Some small munchkin pumpkins and courgette plants , sweet peppers are in the propegator.
Last years sprouting broccoli plants are coming in flower....they got ravished by caterpillars last year and although my DH said to take them out, they have managed to grow, not very tall but will still be giving us a crop.
Outdoor onions which I planted in autumn are showing through well.
Rhubarb plant is coming up slowly and the plum tree is budding.
We are still having hard frosts from time to time so hopefully the blossom of the plum tree will hold on until it has gone.
That is the variety of plants so far, I do not have the sucession thing worked out yet but I plan to sow saladings every 2 weeks to get a continuity in that as well as nasturtium flowers to make the salads colourful.

Done most of the sewing for early spring now and in a couple of weeks there will be more beans, salad things, courgettes and squashes to add. I love french beans and like to freeze them for the winter.

Its going to be colourful.

CARNIVAL OF GREEN 21

If you want to read some excellent posts about being green you can find them here this week.
In case you wonder, blog carnivals offer you a selection of posts with links in one post. Saves hunting around on the net.
Happy reading, I am off to watch the second episode of the Strawbridge family in about 20 mins.
Feet up and relax.

SPRING CLEANING

Hooray, spring is here. If you are a perfectionist and you need a list to tick off for a job well done check these out, room by room, so you can do things methodically if you need to.
I am off with a spring in my step, have baking bread, biscuits and chocolate brownies to do as we have what seems like a lot of playful children round for lunch. Off I go, might even have a go at the kitchen list while I am awaiting.

AS SAFE AS HOUSES

I guess one of the biggest investments you are going to make in your lifetime is buying a home for yourself and your family. It is pretty unusual to be able to purchase a home without a mortgage these days so this is going to be one of those loans or debts that are going to be around for a while. Mortgages are one of the cheapest ways to borrow money over the longest term and when you have a mortgage, paying for it will be with you for a long time.
There is however no reason why you should keep to the 25 or 30 years of a mortgage you have been given as a term. You could make overpayments as a form of savings thereby cutting back the amount of years you have to pay and the total cost of your mortgage.
To do this however you need to have a very disciplined approach to your savings. You could make a monthly overpayment or save it separately and pay a lump sum off each year thereby reducing the amount you owe and thus also your monthly payment ( but do check that there are no penalties in your mortgage deal).

How can you reduce your mortgage payments?
Well surprisingly, people who take out a mortgage think they have to stay with the same lender, but a mortgage is just like any other consumer product and it pays to speak to your financial adviser to see if you can get a better rate and spend less out of your monthly budget. You will be surprised how much you could save. A friend on mine did this exercise and saved
£ 1200 in one year which is not to be neglected. As with everything you can shop around and see if you can find the item at a better value.
If you have saved anything as a result of this plost, let me know.

CHOREBUSTER UPDATE

By way of an update, the second week is posted on the fridge door and everyone is having a look. The chores done this week were done, sometimes with a lot of moaning, other times with pride and responsibility. As parents we had to give some pointers as to where things live in the house and where for instance you would find the dishwashing tablet, what the dog eats, how you deal with the cat when she comes with you on the dogwalk, why shoes have to be polished and whether you can barter your chores or even share them with another person.
From our point of view, a lot of praising has gone on, a lot of encouragement and acknowledgment that we have some more free time. We also discuss bigger issues at the dinner table, such as plans for the garden, leisure activities and what each person's goals are. Which jobs do they like, which ones they hate and.....I am beginning to discover skills the children have but have not shared before with us. They have problem solving skills and are capable of looking at difficulties in creative ways that sometimes are interesting ways to solutions.
This week they are on holiday and have suggested additional jobs they would like to be considered for....I wonder whether that will last but I am optimistic about this new family model. There is a lot more listening going on at the dinner table, a lot more negotiating as to who wants the Tv when etc and how they can work together.
I would say thats quite a result in one week.....will it last and get better?

FREE PLANTS

Courtesy of mother nature. There is something to be said for not tidying up your flower sites in the autumn. Not only does it feed the birds, but in spring, like right now, you might find some seedlings from your flowers have made a home in the flower beds. My way of dealing with it, is to get DH to dig and turn over the earth, pick out the little seedlings and then replant them in another part of the flowerbed and you have a free orderly flower bed. Problem is that I am not really plantswoman enough to fully remember what they are, apart from the one sort which I found today which are cerinthe major purpurense. They are purple, they have lovely foliage and can be used in flower arranging or making your bouquet a little larger, so go and look for the free plants you may have some.

TAXING

Beginning of April always heralds the end and new beginning of a taxyear. The local tax demand comes in in the middle of March as well as paying for the water we use. Last year I paid in monthly instalments but this year, I have the satisfaction of paying it in full. I prefer to save the money over the year, earn interest on it and then pay it in one lump sum. Might not suit everyone but I do not like owing money.

The Young Professional's Financial Blog has a good article on getting your finances in order, that being filed and sorted. So maybe today is a good day to start doing that if you have not got that part of your filing cabinet simplified. Take some time and it will be simpler in the future.