Slow Living

It is always lovely to look back and reflect on what you have done over the previous weeks or months, taking stock, observing changes and celebrating achievements.  Even better if you can join together and see what others have been doing too in their part of the world, blogging is a wonderful way of making the world a smaller place.  Christine over a Slow Living Essentials started this wonderful reflection and has now passed the baton onto Linda at Greenhaven for the monthly linkup  here are mine for August...

...nourish I feel like I have spent a large amount of time cooking food this month.  We have been camping three times, which always involves a huge amount of preparation not just equipment but also food.  Two of the trips were with young people on scout camps and involved large quantities of cake baking................our own trip meant that I pre cooked every meal for four days of being away.  Spicy lentil pasties, veggie sausage rolls, mini pizzas, refried beans and lentil salad were just some of the food on our menu.

...prepare aside from the camping food I prepared, I have also been busy freezing fruit from the garden this month.  I have one blackcurrant and one whitecurrant bush that were both covered in fruit, I managed to pick over 10lbs of fruit from each!  We have been eating lots of food with blackcurrants in including muffins and smoothies.  I also made a small quantity of cordial which was delicious and I will definitely be making some more when I have some time.

...reduce my husband went through his wardrobe and got rid of a few items of clothing he no longer wears, most of them went to the charity shop but there were a few pairs of shorts that I am adapting to fit my eldest.  I sewed the sides up to make them a bit thinner in the leg, cut the elastic waist band off and folded a seam over and made a new case for elastic, I need to find a long enough piece of elastic and thread it in and they will be finished.  I hope they fit him next year as the warm weather is most definitely finished here now.

...green I had a go at making my own toothpaste this month.  I have been wanting to do this for a long time.  It is one of the few toiletries/cleaning products that I still buy.  I had not been able to find a recipe that I thought would work for me until I stumbled on this one which I thought sounded intriguing and would be fairly easy to make with ingredients I had, so would not involve me buying anything which I then would not use if I didn't like it.  So do I?  Well if I am honest it takes a bit of getting used to, it is nothing like toothpaste out of a tube.  It is really messy and definitely an acquired taste, my family won't use it but I do and am actually liking it now.  I have nearly finished my first batch and will be making up some more soon.

...grow this is the one month of the year when my garden really comes into its own.  My growing season is very short (nearly at an end now) so we always make the most of August, harvesting as much as we can especially veggies that will keep producing.  Usually we can manage a week maybe two of eating just veggies from the garden and not buying any but for the first time we have managed the whole month, I can't quite believe it especially as so many seeds failed to germinate.  

...create I have managed to finish a few projects this month that were started earlier this year.  I have been making a shawl for a friend which I have now have finished knitting but I need to block.  I completed a t-shirt which I have been knitting only to discover that it is way too big for me!  I have given it to my mum to try, I hope it fits her and she will wear it, otherwise I will be undoing it as I will never wear it.  It was fun to knit tho'.  I have also started on a few christmas presents a shawl for my daughter and some more slippers for friends.

...discover a few months ago I won two skeins of alpaca yarn in a giveaway, they are beautiful and I have been pondering since what to make with them.  I have searched Ravelry for a pattern but have not found what I want, so I have decided to create my own.  It will be some kind of shawl, scarf, wrap kind of thing and I have had three books out of the library which are full of knitting stitches so I can work out what I want to include.  I am now pondering whether to have cabling stitches or texture with interesting knitted/purl stitches.

...enhance I have helped out on two camps for my local explorer scout group this month.  The first was a international camp which we sent a small contingent to, although it was international it was hosted down the road from us so we did not have far to travel.  We met scouts from Spain, France, Belguim, Tanzania, Ghana, Ireland and from all over the UK.  It was great fun and my children thought it was wonderful.  The second was our annual summer camp, a mix of activities in the rain!  

...enjoy the highlight for me last month has to be the music festival we attended.  I love live music and a whole weekend of it is, for me, is close to perfection.  The weather was kind, the music fantastic and we all had a great time, what more could I ask for?