Fuming about seeds.

Like a lot of home gardeners, I grow a lot of traditional, open pollinated varieties, I save my own seed and buy heritage varieties from small seed companies like RealSeeds, MoreVeg and Kokopelli. I am also a member of HSL, Garden Organic's seed saving, membership organisation. I grow lots of different veg and find the diversity of seeds on offer to be very helpful in the changeable weather conditions we often experience, here in the UK. I also find they taste so much better than "ordinary" varieties.

The tomatoes pictured  in my Lammas post are a good example!

But according to leading organic charities Garden Organic and the Soil Association, the choice of what crops are available for gardeners to grow has been dealt yet another restrictive blow,

"In a recent ruling in the European Court of Justice in Brussels(1) a small French seed company, seeking to defend its sales of old unregistered varieties of vegetables, lost its case. The company, Kokopelli, argued that the basis of the EU Marketing Directive was unlawful and curtailed the right to trade seed freely. However the court opposed this and ruled in favour of the current legislation, which restricts what seed can and cannot be marketed and sold."

Read the full article here 

I suspect quite a few of the seeds I buy to grow will no longer be available to me after this ruling.

As Garden Organic and the Soil Association so rightly point out, every variety lost weakens our ability to create an effective food system that can cope with the increasing challenges of climate change and resource scarcity.”

Bob Sherman, Chief Horticultural Officer at Garden Organic said,

“It is disappointing that the EU has neglected to unravel this controversial Directive to give amateur gardeners freedom of choice. Very few people believe that trade in traditional and endangered varieties threatens the commercial seed world. Despite some recent slackening of the regulation of ‘amateur’ and ‘conservation’ varieties, it appears it is still possible for large corporate businesses to control the market with no hesitation in resorting to law against the minnows of the sector. Fortunately Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library is not a seed company and we will continue to work at protecting the availability of many ‘at risk’ varieties by allowing our supporters access to seeds.”

I think this is a serious mistake on the part of the EU. I am not quite sure who to complain to about this - but surely there must be something we can do?

What do you all think?

Why I am suddenly even more worried about Climate Change

Read this article, digest, be VERY concerned....,

and then wonder why the "Plane Stupid" protesters are being so pilloried in the Press for trying to highlight the damaging effects of aviation??

I personally would heap them with plaudits and flowers and laurel wreathes as speakers of truth, prepared to take non violent direct action for their views..

where would we be now without Suffragettes doing the same a hundred years ago?

( for the record, my Great Aunt and my Aunt were Suffragettes!)

And how much more of this type of factual scientific reporting will it take to make us all stop over consuming and start to reduce our personal Carbon Dioxide emissions?

Disclaimers and warnings....

Some of you have noticed I have added a "disclaimer" to my blog ( in the sidebar to the right...)

"ANY opinions expressed in this blog are my own, or the opinions of those who have posted them in the comments section. I don't claim to speak for anyone else apart from myself.
I also don't claim to be an expert in the things I have blogged about ( apart from the things I AM qualified in, and even then you should use your own judgement!)
It's up to you to chose whether to take my advice, as I take no responsibility for the consequences. The Compostbin is a "use your common sense" zone!"

I have done this for a variety of reasons. I have had a few comments recently from people about the way we live our lives here at Compost Mansions ( see past post) and from people who have complained that things I have said on here have not worked for them.

.....well I am sorry if your chutney didn't turn out the way I said in my post, but I *did* write down exactly what I did, with a full recipe, and *mine* is yummy... and several other people have tried it and agree with me....so maybe it wasn't MY fault? but something YOU did wrong? ( sarcasm alert here....)

and this has made me realise that some of the stuff I post on my blog could well be taken as definitive advice by some people. Who might then be rather annoyed if their version doesn't work as well. And who then might give me grief over their lack of success.

Look at it this way, I AM qualified or experienced in a number of areas but even in those areas I cannot dispense "one size fits all" advice, to people who I do not know, via a computer!

IF you need specific advice I suggest you seek more local, expert help and it is also generally a good idea NOT JUST to take "something you have read on a blog" as gospel!

I am more than happy to help if I can ( email me if you like...) BUT I cannot be responsible for the result. I am Compostwoman, NOT Superwoman!!


:-)

What are we?

This post was sparked off by someone asking me on the phone recently what I did for a living and how we sourced our income and food.

It was quite hard to answer that question..and it has set me musing.

We live at Compost Mansions ( not a mansion at all, btw, just a detached, 102 year old rather ropey house in need of lots of work!) on a smallish pension income plus what small amounts I occasionally earn as a self employed Environmental Educator
(working mainly in the school system so basically bugger all money! and a lot of what I do is as a volunteer) and apparently we are well below the national average income for our size of family………

BUT because we grow so much of our own food and do repairs to things ourselves if needed, do all our own gardening, DIY, decorating etc, don't take holidays, or live a consumerist driven lifestyle, we have apparently more than the average amount of money available to spend, on such "luxuries " as buying local organic meat and veg and dairy products. (As an aside, since when did proper food become a "luxury" item?)

And it made me wonder about where we fit in, when they asked about job descriptions...

are we full time smallholders…………I guess? …or maybe we are not? …….. we do not have any full time outside jobs, and we mainly spend all our time maintaining the place we live in to provide us with food and shelter? so *I* guess we class as full time smallholders even if others/DEFRA don’t.

So….that's what I said we were.....smallholders....

BUT the thing which has triggered off this particular post, which I have found recently, is the number of people who seem to think we should be doing MUCH MUCH MORE with our land and are saying so to my face, or by email....and sometimes quite rudely!

- for example we should apparently have more hens,( I already have 14!) keep pigs, goats, cows etc, grow corn for flour and harvest it and grind it ourselves, keep sheep and spin their wool to make our clothes by hand from the wool, and basically I have had it said to me that we should be much less reliant on buying stuff from shops and make ALL our own clothes!

A few have said I even should be utilising the clay I have said we have in the garden, to make our own pots.....rather than buying plates etc. (This wasn't said in a " why don't you take up pottery", kind of way, either...)

Setting aside the rudeness of telling me how *we* should live our lives...
when I certainly don't tell THEM how to live their lives.....

I tend to try to consider comments like this even if I think the person is barking mad..... ( rolls eyes)

So. Hmm. Yes, we could have many more animals, to kill and eat...but just because we could, doesn't mean we want to or should.

I have killed and eaten chicken I have reared myself in the past and intend to do it again in the not too distant future ( watch out no 2 cockerel!) and I would like to rear a couple of pigs for meat...

and I do like making clothes and want to have a go at spinning my own wool and knitting it into something...

BUT

I have other things I wish to do with my time rather than be a full time stock keeper, spinster, knitter, produce maker etc etc ...and so does Compostman! IF TSHTF I could (and would have to) do all this stuff.....and so would Compostman! but at the moment we have the luxury of not having to do all of it...in the Western world and in my personal life.

We are not quite into "Survivor" territory YET! ;-)

At the moment at Compost Mansions, we are largely self sufficient in home grown veg, fruit, eggs and wood for the wood burner..as well as making our own wine, cider, jam, pickles, and drying/ freezing surplus stuff to eat later on.

We make some of our own butter, cheese, yogurt etc…IF we had a house cow or goat I could make all of it..but we don’t have such an animal ( yet!) ….so I don’t.

We have our own water and sewerage supply/treatment plant…and so we do not rely on utilities for those…..but we DO rely ( at the moment) on external electricity..we are not yet “off grid” but that is the next BIG project! AND we have the know how to plan and install it all.....

we buy our meat from within 10 miles at a farmers market…and we get other stuff from it at the same time… but we could raise and kill our own meat if needed....

I get flour from a localish supplier and we make all our own baked goods...and NO I do NOT have enough land to grow our current requirements for corn! we would need a MUCH bigger area of clear field to grow enough wheat to keep us in flour for a year.
And if I had that extra land I think I would be growing other crops....

so …we have a long way to go by many folk’s standards..but compared with virtually all people in the UK I think we are VERY self sufficient! Nearly all of our bought in food ( which is not much) comes from within 20 miles, and most of our meat is within 5 miles and the veg comes from 50 feet away, if from our garden!

Rather than Te$co...

Sorry...I am rambling on a bit now I think? but I find it strange that it is those who (I think) have NO idea, how difficult it is …to do any self sufficient stuff…....who are the ones who seem to be the most vociforous in telling me that we should be doing *MORE*!

I DO feel sometimes, that some people read my blog or talk to me just to be critical.... BUT they have NO idea of the realities of trying to be even moderately self sufficient in this day and age.

Do other bloggers out there get this? People with no clue, telling them what to do?
I find it amusing, annoying and a bit baffling by turn, I must admit...

Sorry...rant over now....

;-))

Bagging some good news?

I saw this report on the BBC website today Supermarkets 'to halve bags used'

It basically reports that four of the UK's leading supermarkets say they are confident that by next Easter they will have halved the number of plastic bags handed to customers. The supermarkets have been appearing before MP's at the House of Commons Environment and Rural affairs Select Committee into Waste management in England

Waitrose and Asda have apparently already achieved 30% cuts by moving bags under counters so shoppers had to ask for them.

Asda also told the Select Committee it had diverted 99% of operational waste from going to landfills in two of its 353 stores, in Bootle near Liverpool and Horwich near Manchester - by removing all biodegradable waste and using it to generate electricity, and taking out all recyclables.

Other stores also reported reductions in waste during the committee meeting, and all parties seemed to agree action was necessary on the ever-increasing amount of textiles going to landfill which, in the past five years, was up from 5% to 30%. They are all also aiming for a reduction in energy-related transport CO2 emissions from deliveries.

HURRAH! Its all good stuff in this report, apparently.

BUT..I can't help wondering why they couldn't have done the plastic bag thing many years ago? If it is SO easy to reduce their use just by simply putting them out of sight, WHY THE HECK didn't they all do it sooner?

The same goes for the removal of recyclable materials from going to landfill. THAT should have been a standard requirement for any store.....

I don't mean to sound mean spirited, or as if I am carping about little details...I AM pleased these stores have ( finally) started doing more to minimise the waste they generate and to recycle it.

I just can't help feeling its all rather belated.....

First Aider!

Hmmm I had various posts scheduled to be published in this last week but it doesn't seem to have worked? As they all seem to have been published today? Ah well I must have done something funny with the posting times.....

ANYWAY.......

I am now the VERY proud holder of a First Aid at Work certificate! ...the proper, HSE, four day job!

I already have a paediatric first aid certificate ( a 3 day course) which I took last spring because I work with children as an Environmental Educator and playworker, Epi-pen training (which I have now updated 3 times in the last 18 months as it only lasts for 12 months in a school setting even though the certificate actually is valid for 3 years..) which allows me to help administer adrenaline to someone in the event of them having an anaphalaxis episode,

and a specialised two day "First Aid in the Outdoors" course which I did as part of my Forest School leader training in July this year.

BUT I now ( again) have a full First Aider certificate

I first did this training back in 1985 ( not 1990! I went and checked!) at work, I kept it up until I left work in the mid 90's...but then I (rather foolishly) let it lapse.

In 1985 it was a very different course, a lot more bandaging was involved as I recall, and if you failed anything you failed the whole course. Also the recusitation programme was MUCH more complicated back then. Apparently it has been changed because it was puting people off doing anything to help? in case they got it wrong? Hmm well if someone has stopped breathing, they will be dead in a few mins if no one does something..so IMO simplifying the guidelines is a Jolly Good Thing in my book!

I also worked during the 80's and 90's in a very specialised research establishment so had to do extra training in the sort of hazards I might encounter during my day to day working life..( HF and other nasty acids figured large, as did using breathing apparatus to get out of a toxic fume filled lab) ...I worked in a semiconductor research facility so we had some "interesting" training to deal with potential first aid cases !

Fast forward 30 years...and I am , once again, qualified to help people as a First Aider...perhaps not in quite such a hazardous environment but still...I can feel confident I know what I should be doing.

I have to thank Anubis Training, once again, for a wonderful course which made the complicated, seem easy.....And I am VERY proud of myself.....So sorry if I am blowing my own trumpet a bit..but I AM very proud of myself!

REQUEST FOR HELP! URGENT WASTE CONSULTATION DOCUMENT!

I don't know how many of you spotted recently an article in The Telegraph , or read about it on The Recycle Works blog, but there are a set of proposals out for consultation from DEFRA about waste management exemptions. BUT they also have serious implications for charity, not for profit and school composting operations!

This is from their website.

Defra, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Environment Agency are undertaking a review of the waste exemptions from environmental permitting. The aim of the review is to provide a more risk based and proportionate approach to the regulation of waste recovery and disposal operations, complementing the new environmental permitting regime. The consultation includes a number of proposed measures aimed at increasing the use of exemptions for as wide a range as possible of low risk activities (including most of those operating under an Environment Agency low risk position) whilst removing or restricting the availability of the exemptions for higher risk waste operations by seeking to regulate higher risk operations through one or more standard permits. The consultation also seeks views on a partial impact assessment and a draft set of regulations.

At the moment there are lots of different exemptions to do with small scale handling of waste, which are applied to charities/not for profit bodies in their activities.

One of the many things contained in these proposals is a plan for everybody who handles any kind of waste under an exemption from licencing etc at the moment, to register for an exemption to their waste operations AND pay a fee for doing so.

This would include charitable and not for profit bodies.

Composting is a waste activity which is either licenced (if done on a BIG scale by business) or classed as exempt at the moment.

Home composting of domestic compostable waste will still be fine and is not apparently part of this consultation.

BUT these new proposals suggest a registration scheme for everybody else, with a fee payable, for ANY activity which is exempt, renewable every three years.

So potentially that means the composting bins at a school could have to apply to be exempted AND pay a fee (suggested at £50, apparently) so as to do composting.

I think this is a bit silly!

I have sent in a comment, I add it in below and please feel free to copy it and use it with what ever amendments you wish...

My name is ************ ; I am a keen organic gardener and home composter.

I am also a Master Composter (a volunteer Community Composter advisor) working with my local council and Garden Organic. This scheme, as you are aware, is co promoted and supported by WRAP, a government sponsored and funded body.

I also volunteer to help and advise at a local school in their organic garden, where the children, teachers and I make a lot of compost as part of our gardening activities. Composting is also a big part of many schools activities to gain their Green Flag award with the Eco Schools movement.

I am therefore VERY concerned that there are proposals to make schools, charities and not for profit groups register and pay to be exempt from the new regulations being considered in this consultation.

This seems to me to be a very shortsighted idea. Composting is being promoted and compost bins and wormeries offered at discount prices by Councils and WRAP as a means of diverting compostable material from landfill. In many areas schools receive free compost bins, wormeries and advice. To therefore suggest a charge be levied on such activities is frankly NOT " joined up thinking" in my opinion.

A charge or even registration may well put off charities or not for profit bodies from starting new composting schemes OR cause then to halt existing ones. Schools and many small charities have no funds to pay for such a charge; indeed why should they be expected to?

I hope that you will reconsider this aspect of the proposed regulations and exempt not for profit organisation (including schools) and charities from having to register and pay for an exemption.


Yours faithfully

*********** B.Eng. (Hons)

PLEASE everyone, it is NOT too late to respond to the consultation which contains this proposal!

The deadline WAS 23 Oct but apparently submissions WILL be accepted until the end of Oct (according to an email I have recieved from the Community Composting Network...)

So , IF you want to know more go to this site to read the full consultation document.

It DOESN'T just cover composting but ALL waste activities!

If you want to have sight of the Community Composting Network's response to DEFRA, see here for their full reply to the proposals.......

and if you want to submit a comment email exemptions@defra.gsi.gov.uk before the end of Oct or a.s.a.p.

PLEASE! We NEED to act on this NOW!

Why not use cans?

I have been brewing this post for many weeks now!



This is the boot of my car, loaded up for a trip to a recycling site ( it doesn't matter which one, I have several around us) because I am going out in the car for another reason.....it might be to collect Compostgirl from school or to go to town and get some food and go to the library...but anyway the recycling goes in my boot JUST IN CASE I pass a recycling point.


All our waste collected on Tuesdays by the bin lorry goes into landfill, so it is up to US to make sure we recycle ( separately and at our own convenience, expense, washing, storing, sorting and transport) any recyclable waste.

This is what I put out for the collection this week...we do not have a kerbside(what's that?) collection of recyclables...we are " too rural" for Hereford shire Council to provide one: This week we put out a plastic laminated /cardboard box ...a mixed packaging box ( my pet hate!) which means neither the plastic film NOR the cardboard can be recycled...( my bad, I shouldn't have bought the paddling pool for Compostgirl which was in it...) and a (degradable) black plastic bin bag with a small amount of plastic packaging which cannot be recycled in my area...( Our council only recycles plastic milk bottles/pop/water bottles with the recycling symbols "1" or "2" on them....)





This is the corner of our kitchen where we sort out the recycling, compostable dry stuff ( the wet compostable stuff goes in a caddy by the sink, see the cider and wine posts a few pages back!) and the stuff which has to go into landfill. We try to minimise the stuff going into the landfill bin by not buying it in the first place as once in the landfill bin it goes to a big hole in the ground ( Landfill..nice euphemism!) - where it sits decomposing and generating Methane if otherwise compostable ( Methane is 23 times a more potent greenhouse gas than Carbon Dioxide!) OR just sits and does nothing useful except fill a hole in the ground and be part of a disgusting mess for future generations to be appalled at how wasteful the previous few generations were...EVEN THOUGH WE KNEW what a mess we were creating...

As you can probably guess EVERYTHING which can be composted here, gets composted....and if we can recycle it, we do, and we avoid buying it if we can't recycle it ( under normal circumstances... but read on...)

So, what has prompted my somewhat ranty post? Well, as regular readers may remember we have fairly recently acquired 3 new cats, Sid the nearly (now)year old cat, and Tom and Tabitha the (now) 6 month old kittens. We also have Kitty Cat the elderly resident puss. Kitty eats what he catches, supplemented with cat biscuits; the late beloved Monty Puss used to eat small quantities of cat meat and mainly biscuits so this wasn't an issue before, BUT now we have kittens we have suddenly started to get through a HUGE quantity of cat meat!

ANYWAY, with Monty, we always used the little foil cartons, as he had a small appetite and a can would go off or HE would go off IT before it was finished...so anyway, either can OR foil tray went into the metal recycling box and off to the recycling bin whenever Compostman or I were going past one.

But NOW we are buying "kitten" food, and can you get it in cans or foil trays? can you HELL....it all comes in plastic "pouches"...which of course are NOT recyclable!
SO I am faced with buying kitten food in plastic ( on the left) and throwing the empties in the landfill OR getting non kitten food in cans and being able to recycle the empties.














Whose bright idea was it to market plastic pouches? Did whoever think ..."Oh yes, lets sell cat food in non recycleable plastic rather than endlessly recycleable cans...." I am sure they didn't! but the end result is..a recyclable packaging option replaced with a non recyclable , fossil fuel using package...grrr.

Guess which option we chose to buy? Yes, the cans.....and before anyone shouts "Kitten cruelty!" We DO also feed them kitten biscuits ( which we get in a cardboard box...) .....so no accusations of kitten cruelty, please!

I really wish there was some joined up , adult type thinking over all this....why can't "TPTB" just decide that all packaging HAS to be recyclable...no ifs, no buts...and ideally easily compostable in home compost bins as well???


PS I feel ever so slightly guilty at the amount of food being bought for what are basically an indulgent luxury pet, when there are people who die from lack of food...but that's another post I think!)

Question to my fellow bloggers..........

I am finding the new blog Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op a very interesting read! I have followed Rhonda-Jean's blog for some time,

Tonight I read this post and was cheering as I read!

I STRONGLY recommend you read it!

To me it sums up why in the last 10 + years we have stopped buying so much stuff, questioned why we should get things, made sense of the reason why, every time we go to buy something, I think "why" and "who made it" and is it "fair trade/ethical/recycled" and "what is it made from " and most important "do we REALLY NEED this thing, or do we just WANT it"

Quite often, we don't...and even if we do, we often have something else which will do the same function...

One thing I HAVE found....It is VERY hard with a small child to do this..I KNOW, I KNOW...but it can be done..it IS possible to have a child and NOT be overwhelmed by the mountains of sheer plastic tat which seem to be assumed as the inalienable right of ALL Western children to consume...We have bought plastic tat yes of course we have, and had it given as ( well intentioned) gifts and I am not so churlish as to throw them back at kind people who bothered to give us /Compostgirl a gift ...even if we DID say NO PLASTIC ( grrr)

BUT on the whole, we have limited our exposure to child generated AND adult generated "STUFF"....

so how have YOU done? No penalties, no prizes, no insults.. no patronising.....I am just interested to know what you all think? I value your opinions and would like to know what your views are?

Go, read, and come back and tell me what you think...we can have a virtual chat over a glass of my home made wine, or some tea/coffee and Parkin ( thanks to Jennie world!) or home made bread, butter and jam..( mmm my favourite!)

Go on....I'm waiting! and the kettle is on!

A thought provoking post!

I had a very odd conversation with an energy supplier not so long ago who wanted us to switch from our current supplier ( Good Energy) and quized me as to why we had such a LARGE useage! Cheeky mare!

Well thinking about it I would say we actually have qute a SMALL electicity consumption considering what we have which needs electricity! And this got me thinking...and then the next day I read a post by one of the bloggers I admire ENORMOUSLY, Stonehead.

He had posted on a similar theme about his electrcity useage. We have similar energy consumption as Stonehead, have similar workshop/tool use and store our home grown produce in much the same way. Ok he does it on a bigger scale, but the principle is similar!

Like him, we cook our food from scratch, make home made booze from our own produce, jams , chutneys, bottle and freeze fruit and veg…we are mostly self sufficient in fruit and veg and I can’t remember the last time I bought jam or chutney! We, too have our own borehole and sewerage system.

Our total electricity LOOKS like a high consumption…..BUT, we actually consume very little which is optional ( TV, etc) nearly all our so called higher consumption is essential, to store food, cook from sctatch, preserve food, pump water, remove sewerage and treat it, run tools which help us to be more self sufficient etc!

as Stonehead so brilliantly posted on this very issue, other people don’t actually pay for a lot of the energy they consume…they don't use their own electicity to get their water piped in or their sewerage taken away ( they pay as part of their water rates, true, but not in with their electricity bill!)

They don't actually pay for all that energy/fossil fuel used to grow, harvest, transport, pack, transport, cook, pack, transport to the shop. They just travel to and from the shop to buy it…

and all they see is the cost of the small amount of electricity they use to heat up the ready meal….

( bangs head on wall…)

We effectively are the producer,transport, packer, transport, supermarket AND consumer of the food we eat, so no wonder we APPEAR to have a high energy usage!

So in reply to the twit from the power company, I would actually say more that we have a REALISTIC energy useage for our lifestyle! And that if all this is actually taken into account, our energy use MUST be quite small!

Some thoughts on modern life.

Reading a post on another blog and catching a news item on the radio just now has set me thinking....always a bad thing!

It made me muse about the way most people choose to live their lives..well I *assume* it is a choice.....(!)

They work long hours, to pay credit card bills they have run up for "stuff" then watch TV programmes on how to "de clutter" their lives of all the "stuff" they have recently bought ...they have no time to cook so they have to buy ready made meals or fast food or takeaways ..they get ill through stress or overwork...they have no time to go for a walk so pay money to use fossil fuels to power gym equipment to take exercise.....they have NO TIME to just BE....

They throw away stuff because they don't know how to fix things and lots of people throw away things JUST BECAUSE they are a few months old or are not "the latest model" what ever that is?


Parents are encouraged to go back to work when children are very young ( whether they want to or not) and then have to pay most ( or all) of their salary to someone else, to care for their children... :-o Do people really WANT to live like that? I don't...

Even when Compostman and I were both in full time work and lived in a small town house, we were not like that! ... OK we spent a lot of time and a lot of our surplus cash playing with an old racing car (which we restored and maintained ourselves I hasten to add!) BUT, we cooked real meals from real food, we grew some of our veg, we recycled and repaired stuff, we were active in our community and in various environmental groups, we made our own amusements ( walking, gardening, reading, music etc ) we holidayed in the UK ( apart from a couple of work trips in the space of 10 years...to the US of A ...where we stayed when the job was done and made a big holiday out of the need to fly there for work!) and were modest in our lifestyles, only spending money we had saved up if we wanted to buy something big.

And after we moved to Compost Mansions and we had Compostgirl, I stayed at home with her until she started school. I wouldn't even have dreamt of restarting my working life until she had started at school! I did this because I and Compostman both viewed it as important for US to bring up OUR OWN CHILD and we both felt that it was the most important thing we could do in the WORLD.

It meant we had less money, yes, than if I had gone back to work BUT we also had a beautiful daughter who was raised by her parents, not some other person who we had paid to do our job for us.

It may sound like I am critical of others in this post...I am NOT! Honest! I do understand that everybody has different needs and circumstances! I am not knocking what other folk have to do with their lives or children BUT I AM wondering why we, as a society , seem to undervalue so much the traditional ideas of making a home, growing our own food and raising a family SO MUCH nowadays. And why so many people seem to worship at the altar of "stuff" and "celebrity" so much as well.....

So I don't know...do people like living the "rat race" way, eating fast food, watching reality TV, working all hours in the week, shopping all weekend etc......or is it just that they know no different, or can't afford to do things differently or ( maybe) can't bring themselves to dare to think that they COULD live a different way?

What do YOU think?

Rant over. ;-)

Friday Freecycling frenzy!

Yesterday had a visit from a fellow freecycler who took away 2 garden chairs we no longer wanted, a cookery book surplus to requirements and some "green" philosophy books. Compostman has been clearing out the lean to and I have been clearing out in the house so we have had a few things to go on Freecycle lately! and seeing it go to a good home via Freecycle is VERY satisfying! I DO like to see stuff I don't need any more getting a good home.

I have another lady coming today to collect a small bike which Compostgirl outgrew and another couple taking some books I have surplus.

Last week I collected a new ( to me) compost bin...to add to my ever growing collection. I already had a "Can o Worms" wormery from Freecycle last month, and I am collecting a couple of Bokashi bins in a couple of weeks, thanks to the INEBG "surplus to requirements...." thread on the forum!

Freecycle and similar networks are SUCH a good idea! Matching up things people don't want any more to people who DO want them! Why on earth do people just throw good stuff away? I am continually astonished at the things I see in the bins at the Household Waste Sites I use. Our Council don't seem to let people buy stuff from them, but I know other councils seem to allow this- I wish ours did!

Plastic Bag RANT

I have spent ages today picking bits of plastic carrier bag out of our front hedge.....GGGGRRRHHHHH

We live MILES away from a town or village...there are NO shops nearby so WHAT are plastic carrier bags doing in our hedge???

I had to wrestle a bit out of the beaks of one of the hens!!! Imagine what THAT would have done to her insides~!!!

Well no I don't actually HAVE to...I am a member of the RSPB and have seen images of Albatross chicks dead due to being fed plastic bags by their unsuspecting parents who think the bits of plastic is food. If you watched a series of wildlife fund raising appeal programmes on BBC recently , you may well have seen the images, too. The skeletons of chicks, with where their stomachs USED to be, full of bits of plastic, which then blow out of the rotting carcasses to be eaten by some other poor unsuspecting wild bird or mammal.

Around 300 polythene bags per adult per annum is used globally. On average we use each plastic bag for approximately 12 minutes before disposing of it. It then lasts and lasts in the environment. The plastic bags last and last and a lot end up in the oceans....... Just because we can't BE BOTHERED to REMEMBER to take a shopping bag with us????

Plastic bags are NOT usually necessary...a cotton or jute bag is easy to roll up and carry with us, will do the job as well ( or better!) and when it reaches the end of its life can be composted...and in its lifetime will be used hundreds of times!!

Plastic bags are a petroleum product made from oil....an oh so precious resourse we are going to run out of sometime soon. Why on earth are we wasting a dwindling, oh so precious comodity on PLASTIC BAGS??? to carry STUFF in???? home from the shops, when we COULD be using cotton or Jute or Hemp or Canvas bags....?

When I am doing my "compostwoman " bit .............promoting discount compost bins for my local council........we give away free Jute shopping bags..and I get a real thrill to spot them when I am out and about...because I KNOW I have saved a bit of oil from being wasted as a plastic bag and a bit of plastic being used once ( or a couple of times).

So ......a PLEA....from me.

USE a recycleable or compostable bag and save wildlife and recources!! PLEASE!!!!