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‘We need to know how to build a shed,’ The Man from Salford informs me. 

‘How to build a shed?’ I echo.  This is random.  I didn’t think we needed a shed, a green house maybe, but a shed?   I certainly didn’t think we needed to know how to build a shed.  You see we have outbuildings.  Outbuildings that passers-by in Summer tell us they would be quite happy to live in.  And yet all of a sudden the generator room, as we call this collection of buildings, is not big enough for all our junk.  

Apparently my gardening equipment is a problem.  This could turn into a domestic bicker of  large proportions.  ‘My gardening stuff?’ I ask incredulously.  It barely takes up a fraction of the heavy industrial gear in there.  As it is I have to climb over a bank of battery chargers to get to my fork. 

But the bicker stops there as I think about this.  A shed.  Just for my gardening stuff?  No battery chargers to climb over?  This could be good, I could create my own shed heaven.  A little potting bench.  Portable radio.  Window looking out over the buddleias and butterflies.  Tools hanging neatly from the wall.  An old chair with a much loved and worn cushion on it.

I smile at The Man from Salford.  ‘I think what you do is take your credit card to a DIY store and they give you a shed.  Flatpack.  Just knock it together! Easy, that’s how you build a shed.’  Apparently this is very un-green and consummerist of me.  An accusation that appears frequently in our bickers.  I don’t like to point out he hasn’t even constructed the owl box he’s been meaning to make since the beginning of Winter.  (Admitedly he’s been busy with the water system.)  The Man from Salford is right, we do need to know how to build things for ourselves and be more self-reliant.  And while building a shed seems like a big undertaking to me, I am keen and warming to the idea the more I think about it. 

The Man from Salford is already busy researching the net in search of useful info on shed building.  I look doubtfully over his shoulder and make useful comments.  But that’s American I tell him as he peruses yet another promise of shed perfection, but he is not perturbed.  Apparently American centimetres are the same as English ones.  For the record I have great trouble cooking in American, the only thing I measure in cups is bra size.    I’m going to put it here he says……..

Ok and when is he going to build a garage to store the cement mixer and scaffolding?  I’m watching this space. 

So, what is your idea of perfect shed heaven?

Ever since last Friday Goldilocks has been urgently reminding me that today is World Maths Day.  She is clearly gripped by Maths Day fever, I’m not sure why.  Are we meant to give presents on World Maths Day, on this most festive of festive days?  Perhaps Halllmark have already capitalised on it, maybe people across the country are sending their relatives hard sums to keep them amused?

And why the 3rd of March?  Does this commemorate the birth/death/other of a famous mathematician?  I’m appalled to admit I can’t think of a single famous mathematician off the top of my head.  (Feel free to help me out here!)  Is it the day on which many people (like me now I’ve just realised my watch thinks it’s the 31st February) figure out they are going to have to wind their watches on for 72 hours before the date reads right? 

Maybe the 3rd March is the only day left that hasn’t been carved out of the calendar by some other deserving cause.  I’m afraid I am beginning to suffer from world day fatigue.  I am unlikely to ever remember the date of any one of them.  Anyway, I can’t let this special day go uncommemorated and thought that the most fitting thing for this blog was a reminder of the 350 cause.

390ppm = current concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

350ppm = the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Now do the maths as they say, or just visit www.350.org.  And Happy World Maths Day to you!

It seems like a long time but yesterday I had my first proper day in the garden this year.  I decided to do battle with the enormous brambles in an overgrown thicket of shrubs at the back.

I want to get this out of the way before Spring arrives.  Obviously I don’t want to be clearing it once birds have decided it would make a good nesting spot.  Given  the number of spent nests I found it clearly is a desirable location.  Also I don’t want to give any of those bramble suckers a chance to make contact with the soil and root anew.  Some of them were over twenty-five foot long!  I had some fun whizzing them around my head like a lasso, they make a very satisfying whirring noise!

There’s going to have to be a fire I think.  Again we’re going to have to be wildlife savvy and check  that the heap that’s steadily piled up since last Autumn isn’t harbouring any hibernating hedgehogs.   Once I’ve chopped the plants back enough to see where they are sprouting some serious digging out is going to have to be done.  Followed by yet another fire to rid us of the evil roots!

It’s not the most fun you can have in a garden, and I was covered in thousands of tiny scratches by the time the day was out, but the whole time I sustained myself with daydreams of what might replace this brambly thicket.  The ground here might possibly be even enough and light enough for a polytunnel, now that’s exciting and will extend our growing opportunities no end.

The veg patch is looking a bit sad.  The sprouts, cabbages and remaining leeks  all look slightly poorly  after such a prolonged spell under freezing snow.  What did still look surprisingly good was the pak choi.  This is definitely on my list for sowing again this year.  Even now it just looks fresh and vibrantly green.  It tastes good raw or cooked and appears to survive anything the weather can throw at it – despite its delicate appearance it’s one hardy plant.

I sowed the pak choi straight into the soil and it had a very good germination rate.  I had to force myself to do a fair bit of thinning out.  We were surprisingly untroubled by slugs and snails last summer, but the pak choi I’m afraid was a slug magnet.  I laid beer traps.  These do work, but you have to make sure to cover them over with crocks to encourage the  slugs in.  The Man from Salford however has pointed out to me that the calories in the beer far outweigh the calories from the entire pak choi crop and that this surely is not sustainable practice?  Mmmmm!  Does he have a point or does he not want to share his beer?

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For the Fair Trade Fortnight I’ve chosen to write about fair trade textiles as it still seems to be the Cinderella of the fair trade movement.  I did a quick (if not comprehensive!) survey of my friends, they all conscientiously buy fair trade sugar, bananas and tea, but none of them buy fair trade clothes.   Fair trade tea and coffee has become ubiquitous, not a bad thing of course, we can pick it up easily at any supermarket as well as the more traditional fair trade outlets.  Now that Cadbury has made the switch to Fair Trade I imagine most of the chocolate consumed in this country is fair trade also.  Fair trade really has come a long way and it has a lot to celebrate this fortnight.  But where do you get hold of fair trade textiles and clothes?  This is not a classic Cinders tale of rags to riches, but of organic cotton to fair trade.  Continue reading Fair Trade Textiles

I have been sorely neglecting my blogging – mostly because  the disruption to our water supply caused by the cold weather this winter paralyzed us.  We are back to normal now but it was a useful insight into how people manage without the world’s most precious resource on tap.  We had to resort to drinking and cooking with bottled water.  At one stage I threatened to buy paper plates, so fed up was I with smashing and melting ice for the purpose of washing up.  We had lots of meals at the pub instead! 

Now I’ve caught up with myself  I can settle back to blogging almost in time for Sustainable Living Project’s first birthday.  (It was Monday I think!)  To celebrate I’ve made an archive for my witterings and also I’ve added an extra page with some of my favourite photos.  Continue reading Happy Birthday Sustainable Living Project

Hello, sorry for not posting – seemed to have got lost somewhere in between my birthday and the snow appearing – occasionally in a slightly alcoholic haze!  Happy New Year anyway and I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.  In an inspired bit of junk swapping The Man from Salford managed to get me a manger for Christmas.  How seasonal was that?  Of course I don’t have any live stock to feed and I’ll almost certainly get the sack if I try to stick any babies in it, but it is just perfect for soaking my willow in without worrying about it getting washed away down the canal or warped in the butts.  Another great freebie for Christmas was a large family sized canoe, somebody’s storage problem has become our entertainment – slight hitch though – it’s completely useless to us until the canal unfreezes! Continue reading Brrrrrr!

I’ve been trying ever so hard to be conscientious about buying (or more accurately not buying) clothes.  This also means I’ve been thinking about what to do with clothes once they are no longer serviceable as such.  Goldilocks generally manages to out grow clothes before they wear out too badly and so can be passed on to her younger cousins and friends.  I tend to wear things to the point of falling apart and then they become part of my cleaning arsenal.  I don’t darn, patch or stitch things back together though and I think perhaps I should. Continue reading A Patchwork Planet and Stitching Together the Fabric of Time

We had our first proper frost this weekend.  I like frost.  According to allotment lore it will make my parsnips really sweet and tasty.  Actually I dug one up about two weeks ago because I couldn’t wait any longer for the frost.  I was dying to find out what was underneath the soil and leafy top growth.  Unsurprisingly, what was underneath was a parsnip.  I served it up for lunch that day.  The Man from Salford, who is quite partial to roasted parsnips, complained that there wasn’t much.  I explained that I was just digging one up to see what it was like.  ‘It’s like a parsnip,’ he helpfully told me.

The cold weather always turns our attention to our less than efficient and somewhat crude plumbing and heating.  We would like to have a water heating solar panel (we would like to have PV panels too) but we are not allowed.  We live in a listed building on a conservation site and even something as inoffensive as a slimline panel on the roof is a no-no apparently.  I’m all for preserving our heritage but I would like it to be presupposed by a need to preserve the planet first.  I think a planet would make heritage sites so much more accessible.  If only there was some way we could bypass all the red tape at the local planning department.  Perhaps we could put in for a nuclear reactor?   

The Gates of Hell are About to Open:

(Mind the gap) is a fabulous book by John Connelly.  We are reading it together aloud as part of our ongoing efforts to find cheap and low-impact family entertainment. It is cheap, it is definitely harmless and generally more funny than it is frightening.  And it is hugely entertaining.  Connelly’s hell is populated by weak, flawed and vulnerable demons.  Their desires and actions are governed, in turn, by avarice and a need to be loved.  They fear their superiors and loathe their inferiors, and some of them are a little power crazy.  Not a whole lot different from us then?  Oh, for something simple, pure and uncomplicated – like a parsnip. 

Last week I bought myself some leather driving gloves.  I didn’t buy them, as I’m sure you will have already worked out, because I intend to take up recreational motoring.  I wanted to have another go at willow weaving but without getting crop after crop, day after day, of very itchy weals.  (See Woeful Willow Tale.) Normal gardening gloves don’t really allow for the fine motor movements necessary to weave, thin plastic gloves would probably rip straight away and so the leather driving gloves.

I’m glad to report this time I had no allergic reaction to the willow.  I wonder if the allergic reaction last time was actually caused by the willow at all.  You have to soak willow for at least five days before trying to weave with it.  I toyed with the idea of securing bundles in the canal, but was a little wary of losing them so I stuffed bundles into the water butts instead. 

The project I set myself was to make a serviceable cloche over which I could drape horticultural fleece for growing lettuces as early as possible next year.  We’re still a long way off getting a greenhouse, so lots of improvising is going to be called for.  My efforts were pretty wonky and still big on the rustic charm!  But at least now I’ve got round the allergy thing I can practice and only get better at it.

Continue reading Willow Weaving 2

I thought our Off-Road Soup event for www.350.org day of international action was going to be a complete disaster.  Last Saturday the sky turned black and was full of rain all morning.  Not a single person passed by our house.  On the grounds that I didn’t have a plan B however, I set Goldilocks and her pal to work painting a banner anyway.  Here is little Loopy-Lou drawing butterflies onto it.  They thought butterflies were an important part of where we live.  It would certainly be a less bright place without them.

Continue reading Off-Road Soup Day