Some thoughts

When I was looking back at last year to write my last post I realised that lovely as it is to be reminded of what you have been doing from photos there are so many other things that we have done that are no photos for either because there was no camera to hand or we were too focused on the moment to consider taking one.

I have also been reading old posts from the past few years which reminded me of some of the things that I have shared on here.  I am writing posts once or twice a week which seems to be sustainable for me, this adds up to about five posts a month, I have realised that if I am to write about more of things that we are doing I need to be compiling more roundup type posts that cover a broader range of things rather than those that focus on just one.  I used to join a lovely link up focused on slow living, there were nine topics to write about every month suggested by the host, they helped you to focus on taking things slow, my kind of living.  Inspired by that link up, which is no longer running, I have come up with my own seven words that I will be inspired by and write about each month, like keeping an online journal.

Nourish what we have been cooking and eating using as seasonal and local ingredients as possible, maybe sharing recipes and tips.

Lessen our attempts to lessen our impact on the world inspired in part by the ideas of a circular economy of reusing, repairing or recycling by making something else, of buying less - especially packaged items, buying in bulk and decluttering.

Grow what is growing in the garden, what we are harvesting to eat/preserve.

Thankful what we have been grateful for this month, it could be many things or just one.

Create anything we have created be it with wool, fabric, wood, metal or words the list is endless.

Learn it is never too late to start learning and discover something new and it is always good to share this with others.

Fun saving the best and perhaps most important till last, we all need to have fun and enjoyment in our lives lets embrace it and share.

I would love it if you would join me.  If one or many of these words don't inspire you feel free to leave them out or come up with your own that do.  If it is not your thing I hope you will still visit here and read along with me each month.  Either way I could do with your help.  I have been trying to come up with a title/name for these monthly posts and can't find the right words.  I have thought about using the month name with conscious, mindful or focusing but they are not quite right.

Any suggestions?

I shall be posting my first monthly roundup on Tuesday 4 February.

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 hat 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 link up here are mine for March...

...nourish the end of the winter is a time when I long for the foods of spring and Summer, salads and the 'lighter' foods.  But when we still have the odd day of snow, frosts in the mornings and the lazy winds* I am glad of the warm nourishing foods of Winter.  We are still eating lots of soup, especially on those days when we need an outdoor picnic, and pies.  I finally got round to sharing my pie recipes you can find them here.  The odd salad is finding its way onto our menu but often it coincides with a particularly cold day and it is the last thing we want!

...prepare last month I shared with you my sourdough starter which I had just started to make.  This month I have been getting to grips with using it.  I have started off with a 100% rye one and have been making 100% rye bread with it.  It makes two small loaves which is perfect for us, we are not big bread eaters in this house but we do like a little every now and then.  At first the loaves did not rise very much, if at all.  Now they are rising a little and each time I make a loaf they are a little bigger.  I have been reading and researching as much as I can about sourdough and wild yeasts so that I can get a feel for what to do next.  One thing I discovered is the more you make bread, the more yeast you have in the air which means your bread will rise more.  This has helped me not to be too disappointed with those early flatter loaves.  I know that rye does not rise as much as other grains but I knew they could rise more than mine were!

...reduce some months ago our washing machine died.  We were loathe to sent it to landfill so my husband stripped it to see what we could do with the bits.  We kept some for ourselves, we took some to a scrap metal merchants and local recycling facilities, the rest we tried to sell.  At first we thought that no one was going to be interested, we had listed them on eBay and no one looked at them, but slowly and surely, one by one all the pieces have sold, the last one the last week in March, it seems we have done it.  We have disposed of an old wasting machine without adding to landfill.

...green a few years ago I developed the symptoms of hives or urticaria on my hands, luckily for me it didn't and hasn't spread anywhere else.  Once I worked out what it was and more importantly what was causing it, I have managed to keep it mostly at bay.  I have always used skin products that were gentle on the skin and the environment, the sort with a list of ingredients I could understand, but the hives put paid to using any of the things I had in the house or any that I could buy.  It was easy to make most things myself mostly using bicarb but there were two things I had always used, moisturiser and lip balm, which I couldn't find an alternative or a satisfactory recipe to make them, so I simply stopped using them.  To my surprise I found I didn't need them, if I drink plenty of water then my skin doesn't get dry, my skin needing nourishing from within. I protect them from the cold by always wearing gloves, which I have also started to wear for washing up and cleaning as I find water to be the worst for drying out my skin.  There are occasional days, usually just after a flare up, that my skin gets ultra dry, damaged by the hives.  I have now found a cream which I can use and I do for one or two days but no longer all the time I not sure that was really helping my skin at all.

...grow I had hoped that March would see the start of me sowing seeds the month started off cool and then started to warm up.  Just at the point when I was ready to go the temperatures nosedived again.  We have finished the month with frosts and lots more snow!  So the seeds area still waiting..........in those warmer days some of my spring bulbs did start to put in an appearance I just hope that the cold has not killed them off!  I still have some salad leaves, that I sowed last year, still producing in the polytunnel and I have been sprouting beans, alfalfa and lentils in my kitchen as a welcome addition to our winter salads.

...create I have started lots of projects this month as we are moving towards a birthday season for me. I made a rainbow story sack for a friends little boy, I started on the contents of another one for my twin nephews.  I ventured into the world of fairisle with a jacket for Alice which is knitting up fast.  I cast on a project for myself with the wool that I ripped out of another project as it wasn't quite right.  I have also designed a pattern for a dress/top for Alice, the fabric has now been cut out and is waiting to be sewn up.

...discover we were lucky enough to have a partial eclipse this month which I used as an opportunity for us all to learn about the sky, sun, stars and moon.  It has been a great topic and we have learnt a lot, we have decided to continue for a few more weeks and learn about all the interesting planets.  We are also hoping for some clear skies at night so that we can actually see the things we have been learning about!

...enhance I had a busy end to the month with several D of E commitments.  It's a shame that these always get bunched together but as most of the participants are in school its inevitable that in the school holidays I am suddenly having to be here there and everywhere......

...enjoy I joined a local amateur orchestra back in October last year.  They are part of an outreach group started, about fifteen years ago, by a professional orchestra .  I have been attending their weekly rehearsals since then and have really enjoyed getting back into playing the violin and being in an orchestra, two things I have done little of since leaving school.  They also hold regular events at weekends too, concerts, play days, sight-reading days amongst others.  In March they have an annual get together of all the orchestras (there are now nine) to play together the music we have all been rehearsing for the past few weeks, this year the theme was dance.  It was such fun but very tiring, I ended up playing for the best part of five hours!

*************************

*where I live they talk about a lazy wind being one that blows right through you rather than round you!

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 hat 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 link up here are mine for February...

...nourish I have porridge for breakfast every morning in the winter, complete with some mashed banana and a teaspoon of slippery elm.  I have been meaning to soak the oats for some time now as I was sure that I had read somewhere that the oats were more digestible if you did.  I was intermittently remembering to soak them until I read an interesting blog post about soaking your oats and I knew that I had to try and remember.  I have taken to setting an alarm on my mobile phone to remind me to do this, until it becomes part of my evening routine.  The porridge tastes so much better for it, I soak mine in water and a dash of cider vinegar, but I am yet to be convinced that it makes me feel any better but maybe the benefits take a while to be felt?

...prepare I have a second alarm on my mobile phone to remind me to do something each evening and that is to feed my sourdough starter.  A few years ago when Alice was small I had a sourdough starter which I managed to keep going for a number of years.  Sadly, for reasons that I can no longer remember, that starter died and I had to throw it away.  I have been meaning to start one again for some time now but to get one going you have to feed it every day for a number of days, we were away quite a bit in January so it became a February job.  It is is looking and smelling good and I hope that in March it will be ready to make and bake bread with it.

...reduce my small pile of clothes that I mentioned last month got a little smaller this month.  I made a pair of trousers for Alice from an old pair of mine.  You can read how I did it here.

...green I have posted before in these refections about my uses of bicarb, I make deodorant, washing powder, dishwasher powder, carpet deodoriser, and wash surfaces with it.  I also use it to wash my hair in place of shampoo.  I started by using a recipe that I found on the web, a few months later I tweaked it slightly, then when I started swimming regularly it all went to pot and I had to add a Vitamin C rinse at the start.  There are many websites that give you advice which is based on the individuals findings but I have found that these don't really work for me.  There are so many factors to think about that it is likely that every person who washed their hair in this way would use a slightly different method.  So if you have ever tried it or are considering doing so then the only advice I would give is to persevere and keep trying different quantities of bicarb and water (and cider vinegar and water to condition if you are doing that too) until you find the one that works for you.  If you live in a hard water area then the bicarb will not dissolve as well in the water so it will not work that well. If your hair is getting very dry, reduce the amount of bicarb, if your hair is getting very greasy then reduce the amount of vinegar.  It is important to remember that what you eat effects your hair too!  I wash my hair once a week using this method, I have long hair ( a couple of inches below my shoulders) and I can wear it down all week.

...grow we have a few edible plants growing in the garden at the moment.  The snowdrops have been delighting us with their presence for a few weeks but no other bulbs have made an appearance, yet.  My rhubarb that I split late last year seems to have survived the hacking and all three plants have started to sprout.  I have cleared the polytunnel of all the plants that have died over the winter and it is now ready for Spring sowing, there are a few salad leaves that have survived the winter which we are enjoying with our meals.  I have bought all my seeds for the year now and am ready to go when the weather warms up.  Inside my sprouter is providing us all with some crunch to go with our winter salads.

...create I always do more of this in the Winter when there is nothing to do in my garden, so I have been trying to think about some of the Spring projects to make for all the birthdays coming up at a time when the garden is also pulling on my time.  I have made the pair of trousers mentioned under 'green', I made a skirt for Alice, some more coasters like those that I share last month and a shawl that I cast on last month is now ready for blocking before being sent off as a gift.  I also ripped all the stitches out of a cardigan I had been knitting for myself and cast on a different pattern with the same yarn.  I knew that I if I carried on I would be knitting something that would not be worn so despite it seeming like a lot of effort for little gain I knew it was the right thing to do.

...discover I have been planning a topic based on the solar eclipse that we will have in our part of the world in March.  As well as thinking about learning for the children I have also been finding interesting books to read for myself.  I have started a trilogy of books which are fiction based on historical facts. I have really enjoyed reading the first one this month and look forward to reading the other two books in March.

...enhance several people have mentioned in the last month or so that it would be lovely to have a home ed camp this year at some point.  We have been talking about doing this for a few years now, so I decided it was time I did something about it.  I have been making enquiries of various campsites to see whether they will accommodate such a group and hope to advertise it to my fellow home edders soon.

...enjoy we have been to a new home ed group this month, it has been running for a while but we haven't been as I wrongly thought it was going to be a really long drive.  We have made several new friends and hope to make this a regular commitment in our week.

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 hat 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 link up here are mine for January...

...nourish I have felt a desire for pies this month.  Warm, nourishing food after time outside in the cold.  Each week we have had a least one meal if not two.  A lentil pie with mash potato topping, a spinach and feta filling wrapped in puff pastry, a leek and squash pie, are just a few that have made it to our menus.

...prepare we seem to be spending more and more days of the week having lunch away from the home.  This means I have to provide a nourishing lunch that will keep us warm and full.  Most evenings whilst cooking the evening meal I have also been making a pan of soup to eat, on some occasions I have made a large enough quantity to freeze some ensuring that I have a supply for 'emergencies', you never know when you might need soup.......

...reduce I have a small pile of clothes in a drawer that are beyond repair but the material could be put to good use so I have kept them.  An old pair of linen trousers have been transformed into mats for hot drinks with a piece of old towel in the middle they are the perfect thing to protect our tables from being marked.  I shared a how I did it here.   I also started on a pair of trousers for my youngest from an old pair of mine.

...green we have been visiting and staying with friends and family quite a bit over the last weeks/months.  It has been lovely to spend extended time with the ones we love but it has created a lot of washing for me.  A skin condition that developed a few years ago has meant that the only washing powder I can use is one I make myself.  There are times when touching items washed in other cleaners can make it worse so I usually take my own bedding with me!  The powder I make is a simple combination of borax and bicarbonate of soda, equal amounts of each.  We keep a jar of the mix on the kitchen counter as we use this mix in the dishwasher too.  I use a tablespoon and a half to two tablespoons per wash depending on how dirty the items are.  I add two tablespoons of white vinegar and seven drops of lavender oil as a fabric conditioner.  I have noticed that using the lavender oil has really reduced the amount of moths I have been finding in the house.

...grow it is also quiet on the growing front for me at this time of year.  We are in the middle of Winter now and it is too cold for much to grow.  The hardy herbs are still providing me with their leaves for cooking and I still have a small amount of salad leaves growing in my polytunnel which provides a welcome bit of raw green to my meals.

...create January is often a quiet month for me after the busyness of creating for Christmas.  Perhaps because I managed to make everything in good time that has not been the case this January.  I have been knitting a lot, a cardigan that now has sleeves attached and the beginnings of a yoke, a scarf that I am writing the pattern for as I knit, a sock which is growing slowly and a shawl which I cast on a few days ago and is growing very fast.  I have also made some more fabric bowls as a birthday present for a friend, the start of a pair of trousers from an old pair of mine and the project mentioned under reduce.

...discover I have been keen to observe more of the old traditions and festivals this year.  I have been writing them into my diary for a while now but not actually finding out about them and adding them to our week.  This month we have been finding out about Plough Monday and Wassailing, both very similar traditions based on the type of agricultural practiced in the area.

...enhance I am an assessor for the D of E Award, these award, there are three levels, is started at age 14 and includes an unaccompanied expedition which is what I assess.  Although I have not assessed any this month (they have to be completed between Easter and October when the weather is usually less serious) I have added four dates into my diary this month for later in the year.  This is the most I have ever completed in a year and some of them are in places where we can take a short holiday when we are there, I am really looking forward to them all!

...enjoy we have two weekends away this month one to stay with my brother the other with an old friend they have both been filled with fun.

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 hat 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 link up here are mine for December...

...nourish December can be a month of overeating.  When I worked in a supermarket in my late teens and early twenties I was always amazed at the quantity of food people would buy at that time of year. I know that many people do so because they are cooking for many more people than they usually would but I can't help wandering how much more food waste there is at this time of year compared to the other eleven months.  I have tried to keep our diet simple this month as I know that the potential for upset tummies is higher.  I am not, and never have been, a fan of the rich foods such as mince pies, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake that are traditional so I am looking forward to getting that back on track in January.

...prepare it is the season for parties and sharing food with friends.  I have made quite a bit of food that we have added to buffets and Jacobs join meals with friends.  Simple dishes such as dips and vegetable sticks, homemade bread sticks, hummus and falafel are what I tend to make to share.

...reduce December is the time of year when consumption and spending can be excessive.  The scenes we have seen from Black Friday were thoroughly depressing to me.  I had an idea for a present I could make for a few of the children I give presents too and realised that I could make them from bits I had already.  These charming little baskets are a great way to use up small pieces of material, I had to buy a small amount of interfacing (used to stiffen them slightly) but the rest I found in my stash.  My husband also made two presents out of pieces of wood he had in the workshop, a saw horse and a lee board (for use on a canoe when sailing).

...green last month I mentioned my uses of bicarb including as a carpet deodoriser and one commenter asked for the recipe so I thought I would share it here.  I have used this successfully in our bathroom which is not a room I would choose to have a carpet in but we inherited it with the house.  We have yet to refurbish the bathroom, and will definitely be installing a different flooring when we do, small children and carpeted bathrooms do not a good combination make!  Now back to the deodoriser.....here is my recipe I adapted it from one which makes a very large quantity, I did not want/need to make that much:

4 tbs bicarb

1 tsp borax

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground cinamon

You can also add 1 tsp of finely chopped dried mint, rosemary, lavender and thyme I didnt have all of these so I just added rosemary and thyme.

Mix all the ingredients together and sprinkle on the carpet where you need it, leave on the carpet as long as possible and Hoover up.  I do this last thing at night and Hoover up in the morning.

...grow we are in the middle of our coldest weather now, it is too cold for anything edible to grow.  This time of year is all about tidying, weeding and fertilising.  I have managed to get into the garden a few times to deadhead, tidy, and spread our own compost and horse manure that we collect from a neighbours family farm.  It is good to give the soil a rest for a bit making it ready for the growing months.

...create I try to make as many presents as I can as gifts for Christmas and Birthdays.  In years past I have knitted most of these but I was finding it took up about six months of the year which was just too long.  This year I knitted a few and sewed many which actually meant I made many more presents in less time, five people were not given anything handmade at all, they were all given a book instead.  The rest (eighteen) got one sometimes two handmade things and my husband made two presents too, maybe in the not too distant future we can make and give at least one homemade present to each person?

...discover I have been trying to focus more on festivals in the last few months of this year, finding a way to either observe them or to enhance our learning and knowledge about other cultures, religions and countries. As Advent drew nearer I halfheartedly thought about ways we could observe the four weeks leading up to Christmas.  I have read about different ways that people do this and I wanted something simple that would work as a focus for the weeks which we could work into what we do.  I settle on a focus for each week using the four festivals adopted by steiner/waldorf methodsof learning and it worked so well for us that I know we will use this again.  I kept it simple this year but I know that we can use this as the focus of our learning at this time of year for many years to come and am looking forward to planning more activities in the future.

...enhance I had a knock on the door early in the month from our local councillor.  Here in the UK some local services are run at a fairly local level with some money trickling down from central government and some paid locally.  Every four years we get a chance to elect who we would like to represent us on the council to ensure our local taxes are being spent wisely, our local councillor wishes to stand down before the next election and asked me if I would like to stand in his place.  I was rather taken aback, it is not something I had even considered.  I have mulled it over and decided it is not for me but I was very flattered to be asked.

...enjoy this month has to be about celebrating Christmas with family and New Year with friends.  Knowing that this will happen and does so every year is reassuring and comfortable.  It is a very busy, bustley (is that a word?) time of year and it is easy to lose focus which for me is about family and friends.  It should be a time of coming together and enjoying each other's company and that is exactly what we had this year, a perfect end to another good year.

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 hat 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 November...

...nourish we have moved into root season, most of what we eat over the coming months is root vegetables.  I am loving this at the moment but I know by early Spring I will be yearning for the lightness of some Spring veg which is always slow in coming.  For now we are enjoying the delights of Colcannon and Root Veg and Blue Cheese Bake amongst others.

...prepare I have made a lot of soup this month eating some but much of it ending up in the freezer to be used over the coming months for extras at lunch when we fancy soup as well as whatever else we are having.  I have also made a huge batch of rolls, instant lunch!

...reduce we celebrated a birthday this month which always means more stuff coming into the house. It is at birthdays and Christmas that I usually have a big clear out.  So this month I have been finding bits and pieces from all over the house that we make no use of anymore.  I regularly clear out the children's clothes with the changes of the season anyway this was about books, toys and similar.  I had a huge bag of books and games to take to the charity shop, it was so heavy I am surprised I managed to carry it!  The spaces they left have soon been filled by the piles of things without homes!

...green despite my making considerable use of it I have realised that I have never posted about bicarb of soda or as some call it baking soda.  Since finding that I could not tolerate Limonene on my skin, an ingredient in all the household cleaners and toiletries in my house I have been using this as a replacement.  It has become my shampoo, my surface cleaner on all surfaces including floors, a carpet deodoriser, to make deodorant and toothpaste, a dishwasher powder and a washing powder for clothes!

...grow you would be forgiven for thinking that not a lot was growing in my garden at the moment given the cool temperatures at this time of year but I have been amazed to find that some lettuce plants that I sewed late in the summer are still going strong.  We are having regular frosts but still these plants are fine.  They are not growing but they are big enough that I can pick leaves each week for my lunch!  This month has been about tidying up in the garden, weeding and dead heading.  My compost bin is very grateful for the extra food!  I have sown garlic and spring bulbs in readiness for next year.  I have also got round to doing a job I have been meaning to do for about five years, dividing my rhubarb plant.  You can only do it in the dormant period of the plant which is about now, end of Autumn/beginning of Winter.  It is usually so horrible weather wise at that time of year, either we are covered in snow or it is wet and grey, but it is now done, I am hoping that I have not killed the plant of completely time will tell.......

...create it has been another busy month on the creative front, making presents mostly.  I have sewn up a bag for my mum to carry her music out and about in, I noticed she was using a sturdy paper bag when I last visited.  I have also sewn five fabric bowls from this lovely book they are really quick to make up!  I have also made another cape a birthday present for a friend of my youngest.  My needles have been busy too making hats, one for me, and one you can read about below, and rows on a cardigan for me, a vest and a scarf as a present.  I also managed to finish of a cardigan that has been waiting for buttons and ends weaving in, it is lovely and warm, perfect of the cooler weather we now have.

...discover I love to cook, always from scratch.  I posted about my recipe books and how I use them earlier this month.  I have come across a few books recently on the web that are about the wonderful food of the Middle East, of Lebanon, Iran, Syria to name but a few and I discovered one in the library that I have been reading this month.  It is the best kind of book about food, one with recipes interwoven with life, in this case that of the author Anissa Helou.  The recipes make me want to head straight into the kitchen and start chopping.

...enhance I knitted a hat this month, nothing special in that I suppose but it was knitted for a lady I have never met nor am I likely too.  A fellow blogger put out a request for knitted hats for a friend of hers who was about to start chemotherapy, the hats were to keep her head warm in the cold of winter as the chemo usually results in hair loss.  The hat was knitted and sent to the US with my best wishes for her recovery.

...enjoy the highlight this month has been celebrating the birth of my eldest.  He turned ten which felt like a significant age to reach, I am sure I will say that when he reaches other ages in the next few years too!  In some ways it doesn't feel as if I have been a parent for ten years, but in others well.........!  We didn't have a party because that is not my eldest's style we had three days of fun.  First with a day out birdwatching, the middle day his actual birthday we spent at forest school and the last day he had a friend over for an afternoon play and tea.

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 October...

...nourish with the weather cooling, although in some parts of the UK you would be forgiven for thinking that Autumn has passed them by, we have been eating a lot of soup.  It is a welcome warm addition to our picnic lunch we eat at Forest School each week.  I have also spent a large amount of time making food to take on an expedition/holiday we had at the end of the month.  I am unable to eat food with preservatives in so any food we eat on holiday I usually precook and reheat or take the ingredients to cook whilst away.  On an expedition it is so much quicker to precook all the meals but this does mean that I spend the week before cooking, cooking, cooking!

...prepare aside from the masses of food I prepared for the expedition I have also been doing a bit more preserving.  This month I made Pickled Onions and Cucumbers (not together!) and with some apples that I ended up buying from the Famers Market, usually I go to a local orchard to pick my supply, I made Apple Butter and Chutney.  I have now a good stocked pantry ready for the Winter, although the rosehip syrup I made last month has nearly gone now.

...reduce my husband is always saving things from being thrown in skips, he often comes home from work with items that 'might have a use one day'.  For a good while we have been storing two cable drum ends, a further one has been put to good use under our large rainwater tank, but the other two were waiting for their future to be revealed.  We attend a forest school each week and we were in need of a surface to work on, one that we could leave in the woods.  I knew the cable drum would be perfect for the job.  It has so far been used to plants tree seeds, water filtering and preparing apple cordial.

...green I made some more toothpaste at the beginning of the month, I am still using it daily (not whilst we were away tho' its a bit messy for that).  I visited the Dentist for my six month check this month and he commented on the improvement in my teeth so it seems that although it is not the most pleasant taste/texture it is worth persevering with.

Last month I mentioned that I had started to trial a new method for washing my hair after swimming. I have continued to use this method though out October and it is great my hair is much improved.  One week I tried not using the bicarb/vinegar wash post the Vitamin C rinse but my hair was very greasy by the end of the following week (I only wash my hair once a week) so it does need to washed and conditioned when I get home.

...grow I sowed some winter lettuce and salad greens this month.  Some from seed and some from seedlings which I got for free from a local Apple Day.  I am hoping that I will have some lovely salad to munch on throughout the winter.  That said we are having such a mild autumn that the lettuces I sowed in the late summer are still thriving outdoors!  I have also sown many tulip bulbs which I hope will flower in the Spring, provided the mice don't eat the bulbs first......

...create I have been knitting much more this month, in the evenings with the fire lit it is a great way to wind down.  I have been adding rows to a scarf and cardigan which are still on the needles.  I knitted up a hat for myself in the hope I could take it away with me, but I need to rip some of the rows and add to it as it is a bit short, I wanted it to cover my ears and it doesn't quite reach.  I also sewed up another fabric bucket for my youngest to store her soft toys in and a handkerchief bag for storing our hankies in so that they are accessible downstairs rather than tucked away in a basket in my wardrobe.

...discover I have been reading a wonderful book about one of greatest loves, trees.  I have enhanced my knowledge and I am still entranced by these marvellous plants.

...enhance I had been due to assess a group on an expedition in Scotland this month, it was the reason that we were going away ourselves.  I had to make the heart rendering decision to pull the plug, made even worse as it was at the eleventh hour.  The timing coincided with a vicious storm that swept through North West Scotland, a whole month of rain falling over a two day period (300mm) the streams were swollen and many roads were flooded.  The month had been spend in organising this expedition and checking that the group were ready to go out into the hills.  It will have to wait for another time.

...enjoy despite having to cancel the expedition we still had a memorable few days in Scotland.  We camped the first night but it was so wet and windy we bailed out and stayed in a wee chalet for a few days hoping that the weather forecast was correct and there would be a small window of good weather later in the week.  There was and we had the most amazing two nights on the shores of Loch Arkaig.  The rain earlier in the week had filled the loch to overflowing (a good two or three feet over the wall you can see in the middle picture at the bottom left side of the page on the last link)  the road was underwater so we offloaded our canoes and equipment, parked the car on safe high ground and canoed down the road to the loch!  It was a memorable trip for so many reasons.