Sustainable Living October

This blog has always been about living life in a mindful and intentional way, for me this means that most of the decisions we make have been thought about carefully, even if we decide to continue as we are a decision has still been made.  When we take a product from a shelf in a shop or tap a button on a screen, should we stop and think about how it has got this point before we do so?  It can be hard to make decisions over many aspects of our lives, we are often far removed from the means of production and it can be hard to find out how this operates.  Maybe we shouldn't be thinking is there a more sustainable replacement for something, rather do we really need it at all?

To help me keep on track I have come up with some words that I will be using to keep my decision making mindful and intentional, and my life in general as sustainable as I can make it.  If you you want to join me you would be most welcome, either using the same words for inspiration or your own that are more meaningful to you.  These are the words (you can read my thoughts behind some of them here and here) that I have been using in October: 

Nourish

I bought a new to me cookery book this month, one that I thought would be perfect for the autumn and winter months.  I have made several dishes from this book this month and they have all been delicious.  Some are a meal in themselves some you need to cook a little something extra, well I do here with my teenage son with hollow legs!  I love that you put everything in one dish and put it in the oven where it does its thing.  

I have been baking more this month as a result, the oven is on already so why not?  I love the smells that waft through the house when you have something baking in the oven, I have realised that I am an autumn and winter baker.  I seem to have had a lot of bananas that were in desperate need of eating up this month, getting to that almost black stage which is perfect for baking.  We have had several loaves of Banana bread and I found a delicious banana and cacao granola recipe in one of my recipe books too, each batch does not last long!

Lessen

A few years ago we were given a piece of furniture by a friend who was moving house.  It is one of the few pieces of furniture we own, so much we have built into our house.  It sits in Alice's bedroom and amongst other things it houses my yarn and some of my fabric.  It was always a pain trying to find anything in there, I always want the things that are at the back!  I knew that whatever I bought would not fit the space in such a way to make the best use of it so I have long wanted to make something, I think this project has been on a list in the back of my diaries for the last three or four years!  The cardboard box that held the fabric in was slowly falling apart, I had to be really careful each time I took it out as it was in danger of falling apart completely.  I bought the outer fabric for these storage boxes, the lining was from my stash, they are also lined with a iron on interfacing which stiffens it slightly (although they collapse inwards when they are empty).  I sewed handles on to the front of the boxes to make them easier to get in and out.  I originally had the left and middle parts of the cupboard and I measure up to make boxes for those two parts.  When I came to put them in I had failed to notice that there was a post right in the middle of the middle part of the cupboard - oops!  Alice had a few bits in the right part and she has kindly taken over the middle.  As a trade off she has most of the small shelf which you can just make out in the rather dim photos (it has been really dark here this month), as I was able to put most of the stuff I had stored there into my boxes.  I am pleased with the way these have turned out and it makes it so much easier to get to my yarn and fabric now.

Thankful

We were due to fly abroad at the beginning of November for a month.  We have been waiting to find out what would happen with our flights this month.  They were finally cancelled about ten days before we were due to fly.  We had already made the decision that we would not travel, even if the flights went ahead.  The cancellation meant that we were entitled to claim a refund should we want to which is what we decided to do.  The company that we booked through have been amazing, the customer service has been fantastic, I cannot fault it.  Our advisor has kept us informed with what they were doing throughout the process, even when they had no information to give us they still contacted us to let us know they were keeping an eye on things, I always felt I was in safe hands.  It would be lovely to be able to travel again at some point in the future, when that time comes we will be using this company again.

Create

I finished my hat that I started last month it has become my new favourite.  I am still not sure about the very pale pink, I ripped out the initial colour I used (that is also in the middle) as it just did not show.  The section above this where the decreases start was rather confusing in the pattern.  A search through other projects suggested that others had gone their own way at this point so I did too.  I am not sure how I managed to knit the pattern from this point, when I thought about it too hard I made many mistakes!  There is a part of my brain that just knows when something is right but if I was to try to explain it to anyone else I would be hopeless.   The light colour of this hat was the remaining yarn from my shawl, I still have lots of it left, so I will be looking for other projects to make with it, maybe some mitts?

Grow

My garden has become pretty dormant this month.   I have not harvested a single thing.  The leeks are nearly ready to eat and I am pondering whether to leave them other the winter in the hope that they might grow a little fatter come the Spring or to eat them now.  My cabbages and broccoli are well established and will now over winter in the garden also ready for the Spring.  I really need to get into the polytunnel for a tidy up and to pot out the kale and pot choi that I have in pots as it will more than likely continue to grow over the winter and hopefully provide me with some greenery over the winter months.  I have been neglecting my garden this month!

My sunflowers waited until October to flower!  One is in the photo at the top of this post.  I have never known them to flower so late, I thought they were not going to flower at all this year.  By the beginning of last month they had finally started to grow small flower heads, I think the warm spell we had in September was just enough to give them the energy to flower.  They were a cheery sight as the temperatures started to drop.

Sanctuary

Despite the very wet weather this month I have managed to get out at least once a week, sometimes more for a walk.  We have had a beautiful display of autumn colours this year, so often we will have a blustery storm early in October and all the leaves will be blown off the trees before they have had a chance to put on their wonderful display.  This year the storm waited until the end of the month.  There have been some days when getting out of the car or the house has felt like a rather crazy thing to do as the rain was coming down so hard, but get out we did and we have had some wonderful walks.

Learning

I have been listening to many podcasts about the election in North America, I cannot profess to fully understand how the election works but I feel that I understand more than I did at the beginning of the month.  I would like to extend my thoughts to all my North American readers as you enter into this time of election and uncertainty.  I hope that whatever the future holds it is brings with it the certainties that so many of you have been writing that you need to have in your lives as this tumultuous year draws to a close.

Fun

It was my birthday this month, I am going to post about that in a separate post, but it has been a month of celebrations for me.  I realised early on this year that my plans to have a big party were probably not going to happen, so I sent out an invitation to a handful of friends to ask them if they could spend some time with me to help me celebrate.  I have been out on walks, paddle boarding (new to me) and had some lovely phone conversations with friends who live far from me.  I have not quite managed to organise all the meet ups yet and this latest lockdown will mean that they will have to pause.  I have loved this intentional time with my friends, uninterrupted conversations with lovely people what more could I ask for?

Thank you once again for reading through this very long post,  I realise that it may seem that I do an awful lot, I suspect you do to, if you were to write it all down like I have here.  You are most welcome to join me, either use the same words or your own which mean more to you, let me know in the comments below and I will head over and have a read.  I will post my Sustainable Living November roundup on Wednesday 02 December.

Sustainable Living September

This blog has always been about living life in a mindful and intentional way, for me this means that most of the decisions we make have been thought about carefully, even if we decide to continue as we are a decision has still been made.  When we take a product from a shelf in a shop or tap a button on a screen, should we stop and think about how it has got this point before we do so?  It can be hard to make decisions over many aspects of our lives, we are often far removed from the means of production and it can be hard to find out how this operates.  Maybe we shouldn't be thinking is there a more sustainable replacement for something, rather do we really need it at all?

To help me keep on track I have come up with some words that I will be using to keep my decision making mindful and intentional, and my life in general as sustainable as I can make it.  If you you want to join me you would be most welcome, either using the same words for inspiration or your own that are more meaningful to you.  These are the words (you can read my thoughts behind some of them here and here) that I have been using in September: 

Nourish 

I was so happy to find out that my local farmers market would be starting again this month, I have really missed this wonderful source of food for us.  It was wonderful to chat to the farmers whose stalls I visit, it was like being amongst friends again.  I do hope this is able to continue through the coming months.  I bought two large red cabbages, one of my favourite vegetables.  I have two jars of sauerkraut fermenting in my pantry, they were made a fortnight apart, the first jar will be ready soon.  It has been a long time since I was able to make this.  

I have been doing a spot of foraging this month, first blackberries I managed to pick about 10lbs in two trips.  We had a delicious blackberry and apple crumble with some apples that were kindly left on our doorstep by a neighbour.  The rest have gone into the freezer to be used over the winter on those days when we really want at pudding with our meal.

The other berry I picked were elderberries.  The children and I went for a walk in a local wood to celebrate the autumn equinox.  We didn't go with the intention of doing any foraging, the elder trees were dripping with berries and as we walked past them I felt this pull to pick some of the berries.  We were careful to take only a few from each tree leaving the rest for the birds.  Having never made elderberry syrup before I had to do a bit of research to find a recipe.  I was keen to make it without using refined sugar, it gives me a headache if I eat or drink food with it in and I wanted to be able to drink whatever I made.  The elixir as the family is calling it, its rather good.  This is the recipe that I used:

Elderberry Syrup

1 cup of Elderberries

4 cups water

1 cup honey

1/2 cup brandy

Spices to flavour (I used cloves, star anise, cinnamon and turmeric)

Simmer the berries and spices (I put mine in little bag so it was easier to take them out after cooking) in the water for about half an hour until the liquid is reduced by half, strain and allow to cool a little.

Return the liquid to the pan, add the honey and heat gently to melt.  Finally turn off the heat and add the brandy leaving the lid off to allow the alcohol to evaporate.  You don't have to use alcohol, it acts as a preservative if you are intending to store it.  I had 3 cups of berries so I knew that I would need to store mine for a while as it made a large quantity, I used half the amount of honey (1 1/2 cups) and it is plenty sweet enough for us. 

Lessen 

We eat a lot of mustard in this house, so much that I usually buy it in bulk through a wholefood supplier that I use. When the last tub was running out I realised that I was going to have to buy something else as a stop gap as there was not much else we needed to buy in bulk at the time.  I scoured the shops in our local town to find a mustard that did not contain any sugar or preservatives and couldn't find any.  I am not sure why I had not thought of before but I ended up making my own.  It was so incredibly easy that I will not be buying mustard again, ever.  I have made a couple of jars now and will keep tweaking the ingredients to find a recipe that we like.  I can't find the recipe that I used as the basis of my experiments but if you search for recipes online there are many to choose from.  You basically soak mustard seeds in a liquid for a day or two unit the seeds have absorbed the liquid, once that has happened you process most of the seeds in a food processor and then add the seeds you have taken out and store in the fridge.  

Thankful 

I have been so grateful for my friends this month.  I had a wonderful day out with two friends to celebrate the equinox, it was an unseasonably hot day.  We spent many hours talking and walking with a long pause to share food.  I have also had time with other friends too who have supported me and listened in ways that have been so healing and nourishing for me.   The messages that are sent in between times are so important in my day too.  Just a few words, so that you know that someone is thinking about you can make all the difference to your day.

Create

My shawl is still waiting on buttons, it seems there is a supply problem somewhere along the line.  I managed to talk to the owner of the shop this week and she is going to look into it, I am hoping that I will be able to source some soon, it is now cool enough for me to be able to wear it, but it looks a little odd with six buttons missing!

I am continuing to knit the hat that I shared in my last post, I think I may have ripped out as many stitches as I have knitted in the last week.  I made a mistake and didn't realise for a couple of rows, then when I had corrected that and knit several more I decided that the colour of one of the yarns didn't work so I ripped that all out and changed the yarn.  A couple of rows into that yarn and I made another mistake!  So another row had to be unpicked.  I am hoping that is the last of the mistakes for now....

I also made a present from my nephew who celebrated this third birthday this month, with a lot of help from Alice we created a story sack, a bag with a book and some 'props' in this case needle felted characters to enhance the story as you read it.  I will share the complete creation in a separate post.  My nephew loves the story, it is his new favourite particularly as it comes with its own bag which he can carry it around in.

Grow 

September is often a month for gathering in the last of the summer produce from the garden.  This month I have had the last of the courgettes and cucumbers, they lasted right until the end of the month but I can't see anymore growing now.  It is a little too cool for that now.  Those plants have all provided a good steady crop for us this year without a glut.  I welcome a glut of courgette as I have grated and frozen them in the past but that was not to be this year.  I have cut 6lbs of rhubarb and frozen that, there will be more to cut before it stops growing for the year.  I have also harvested the garlic, every clove that I planted has produced a bulb, some of the cloves are huge, they are currently drying out a little so that they can be cleaned before I plait them into a rope for storing/eating over the coming months.  I need to purchase cloves for next year soon and get them in the garden in the coming weeks.  They are one of the easiest things to grow and we usually get a good harvest each year.

Sanctuary

We have been swimming outdoors in lakes and streams a lot this month.  It was lovely when the temperatures rose for a bit, it makes getting changed a little more comfortable.  I got a thicker wetsuit this month and it has made all the difference for the amount of time I can stay in the water.  It is so magical to swim with the sun on your face and the beautiful scenery to drink up as you move through the water.  It helps me to get things into perspective when they are troubling me and it is great exercise too especially when you have to walk uphill to get there!

Learning 

I have read a lot this month about the effects of the uncertain world we live in and the effects that is having on us all.  There is always a level of uncertainty about the future but the balance feels like it has tipped at the moment doesn't it?  I have been thinking about this a lot this month and the certainty that I can bring into our lives as a counter balance.  It seems to be working, in the main, I am focusing on the parts of our lives that I can have control over, taking each day at a time and not thinking ahead unless I absolutely have to.  There is is something rather wonderful about living in the present, it makes you be present so much more.

Fun 

There have been so many things that have been fun for me this month.  Swimming outdoors, lots of walks with friends, celebrating my wedding anniversary, so many things that have bought light into a world that feels so heavy at times.  During the week the only time we are together as a family is in the evenings when we sit down for a meal together.  At the beginning of the year when we were all so busy very often these meals were, by necessity, a rushed affair, people needing to be somewhere else meant that they were not terribly relaxed.  Now we all sit together and slowly enjoy our food, we talk about our day, we laugh, make jokes and it has become a part of the day that I look forward to, a time to enjoy each others company and relax.

Thank you once again for reading through this very long post, it is posted a little later than I would normally, this past week has been really, really full for me.  I am sorry that I have not visited any blogs for a while, I hope to have some time to do that in the coming days!  I realise that it may seem that I do an awful lot, I suspect you do to, if you were to write it all down like I have here.  You are most welcome to join me, either use the same words or your own which mean more to you, let me know in the comments below and I will head over and have a read.  I will post my Sustainable Living October roundup on Sunday 1 November.

Sustainable Living August

This blog has always been about living life in a mindful and intentional way, for me this means that most of the decisions we make have been thought about carefully, even if we decide to continue as we are a decision has still been made.  When we take a product from a shelf in a shop or tap a button on a screen, should we stop and think about how it has got this point before we do so?  It can be hard to make decisions over many aspects of our lives, we are often far removed from the means of production and it can be hard to find out how this operates.  Maybe we shouldn't be thinking is there a more sustainable replacement for something, rather do we really need it at all?

To help me keep on track I have come up with some words that I will be using to keep my decision making mindful and intentional, and my life in general as sustainable as I can make it.  If you you want to join me you would be most welcome, either using the same words for inspiration or your own that are more meaningful to you.  These are the words (you can read my thoughts behind some of them here and here) that I have been using in August:

Nourish

I have been struggling once again to find recipes to eek out the contents of our veg box, I had hoped that the garden would be able to fill this gap but it wasn't to be.  We have been able to harvest courgettes, broad beans and salad leaves but we have not had much else.  I don't think the quantities that I am getting in the veg box are as big as I was getting this time last year when I started to get the box.  I am really looking forward to the farmers market restarting next month where I can get a supply of veg to top up the box.  I have not felt as inspired to cook anything new this month, so it has been more of the same old favourites.  A friend has recommended a new to her recipe book which I am going to order a copy of in the hope that it will inspire me!

I started harvesting and preserving a little this month.  We picked the blackcurrants, we have one bush which always gives us a good quantity, this year we picked 9lbs, the whitecurrants are now ready to be harvested.  The rhubarb has been abundant this year, loving the cooler temperatures that we have had, I have already frozen 3lbs and there is about another 6 or 7 lbs to harvest, I have given away quite a bit this year.  I was lucky enough to receive some plums and figs from a friend, I have frozen and dehydrated most of the plums and the figs got eaten, fresh figs are a luxury, they didn't last long!

Lessen

We have been going through many of our storage places this month, sorting out things that we don't make use of any more, or things that the children have outgrown.  We have a large bag of things for the charity shop, they are taking donations, you have to make an appointment to drop them off, I need to arrange that. We also have a bag of clothes ready to pass onto friends with children that are younger, I am not sure when that will be possible and the place they are being stored in is rather full already.  We have also listed a few items online to sell through eBay.  It was a job that was long overdue, the house is getting rather full again, it is a job that often gets neglected in the busyness of life.

Thankful

At the end of last year I had an acupuncture appointment for the first time, it was a difficult time for me and it helped with the overwhelm of some of the things that I was dealing with.  I have needed it again this month and it never ceases to amaze me how restoring it is.  The first of my most recent appointments I attended I felt so anxious and overwhelmed, but I managed to fall asleep whilst the needles were in and felt so relaxed when I came out, I was surprised I was able to drive home!  

Create

My shawl is off the needles, blocked and has most of the buttons that it needs.  I found a suitable button in my local sewing shop but they only had 25 and I need 30, I have bought them and sewn them on whilst I wait for some more to come into stock.  I hope I haven't made a mistake doing that as the next batch may not match!  I am looking forward to being able to wear this once it is finally finished and will share photos when I have been able to buy the extra 5 buttons I need.  I wanted a small project once the shawl was  complete, I went through my stash of yarn, mostly the ends of balls from other projects, and found a ball to make a hat.  I have no idea what this yarn is as I don't seem to have recorded anywhere what I originally bought it for, I also had no idea how much I had left.  I did a bit of maths by weighing 5g and measuring it, to guesstimate how much was on the whole yarn cake, I am hoping I have enough to knit my hat!

Grow

My garden has been a real disappointment this month, after the lovely warm days we had in spring I had high hopes that we might have a warm summer but it hasn't been so, it has been really Autumnal here for most of the month with the odd rare hot sunny day.  Not only have we had cool temperatures (around 15°C/59°F) it has also been overcast and grey so little is growing and ripening, we have also had high winds and storms on a couple of occasions so the garden is looking a little battered in places.  I have a few tomatoes in the polytunnel which are tiny and green, the cucumbers and courgettes have virtually stopped fruiting, the salad leaves have continued to be abundant, with a steady supply.  In the garden the leeks, cabbages and broccoli have hardly grown beyond the size they were when I planted them out.  I am hoping for a warm spell in September which we sometimes have it might mean the Sunflowers actually flower, they have the flower heads but I think it is too cold for them to actually bloom.

Sanctuary

I have once again been walking this month as much as possible.  It was somewhat hampered by a pain that started in my foot right at the end of last month, the pain had started when I was sitting with friend, I had been walking around shortly before but only around her house.  It is a cool house so my feet were rather cold, which is not unusual.  I rested it a little over the following days and then it seemed to improve so I continued to walk on it, we join friends to walk along a beach, through woods and up a steep hill for a swim in a tarn/small lake, the pain came and went, I think I was getting also used to it.  When it was still not improving three weeks later I looked closely at my toes and realised something was not right, I video called a friend who is a medic and we concluded that I had most likely dislocated a toe!  It is back in place now and the pain is completely gone but it has made walking a bit more painful this month!

Learning 

I have been so thankful for being able to fit in time for my yoga everyday, I have found it to be so calming and restorative this month for those times when I have had a lot to deal with.  I did some research and found some videos online to extend and improve my practice.  I have learnt many new poses this month, some that I thought I would never be able to do.   It has been a good challenge for me, building my muscle  strength - gently! 

Fun

The highlight of the month has to be a short visit by my brother, his partner and my nearly three year old nephew.  They were travelling back from a holiday and passing our house so they dropped in for a couple of hours.  We decided it would be best if went for a short walk together, we managed to pick the only two hours of the day when it was not raining!  It was so lovely to see the again, it has been seven months since we were last able to get together.  I was amazed that my nephew recognised us and was really excited to see us.

Thank you once again for reading through this very long post.  I realise that it may seem that I do an awful lot, I suspect you do to, if you were to write it all down like I have here.  You are most welcome to join me, either use the same words or your own which mean more to you, let me know in the comments below and I will head over and have a read.  I will post my Sustainable Living September roundup on Thursday 1 October.

Sustainable Living July

This blog has always been about living life in a mindful and intentional way, for me this means that most of the decisions we make have been thought about carefully, even if we decide to continue as we are a decision has still been made.  When we take a product from a shelf in a shop or tap a button on a screen, should we stop and think about how it has got this point before we do so?  It can be hard to make decisions over many aspects of our lives, we are often far removed from the means of production and it can be hard to find out how this operates.  Maybe we shouldn't be thinking is there a more sustainable replacement for something, rather do we really need it at all?

To help me keep on track I have come up with some words that I will be using to keep my decision making mindful and intentional, and my life in general as sustainable as I can make it.  If you you want to join me you would be most welcome, either using the same words for inspiration or your own that are more meaningful to you.  These are the words (you can read my thoughts behind some of them here and here) that I have been using in July:

Nourish

It has been another month of trying out new recipes to eek out the contents of our veg box.  I have been informed that the farmers market I visit every month will be returning in September, I do hope it does as there is a wonderful veg stall that I use every month to top up our box.  I have really missed this extra supply of veg.  This months winner was a lentil and walnut loaf which was lovely and moist and really tasty.  I have tried many different savoury vegetarian loaf recipes over the years but this was hands down the best and definitely one that I will be making again.

We found a supply of field mushrooms growing on a fell behind our house, every couple of days my husband would bring home handfuls of them on his daily bike ride.  We had soup, garlic mushrooms (several times), and a lentil and mushroom bake.  I found a recipe for a lovely sounding mushroom pate, one of the ingredients was creamed coconut which I usually have in the house, sadly this never got made as we couldn't find any in any of the shops in our local town or the one where my husband works.  We will have to save that for next year.

Thankful

I started keeping a simple journal at the end of June, writing things down, under a series of headings, in the morning and the evening, one of the things I write each evening is three things that I have been grateful for during the day.  It has been interesting to look back over what I have written in this last month. It has been a fairly challenging month for me at times, my friends who have been at the other end of the phone, or supporting me with messages have helped me through that and have made me realise how important it is to have friends in your life who you can depend on and who you can support when they need it.

Create

I have not created much this month except many rows of knitting on my shawl and one mask that I made for myself as they are now compulsory in shops where I live.  I have only made the one so far as I only shop once a week and feel that it will be possible to wash and dry it in between.  The shawl meanwhile is reaching those final rows.  This has to be the biggest project I have ever knitted, I am half way through the zig zag pattern at the end, with 41 more rows of that and six to make the edge so still many rows to do.  I am just about managing to do it whilst watching things in the evenings although it is not as easy as the rows of stocking stitch.  It seems that it will be ready just as the cooler weather hits our shores which will be perfect timing.

Grow

The garden continues to be abundant in growth despite the lack of many sunny days this month.  It has felt like it was wall to wall rain but I know this is not quite true!  We have been enjoying a steady supply of salad leaves, occasionally providing us with three salads a day as I sometimes have salad with a boiled egg for breakfast.  The courgettes are growing at that perfect steady speed to provide us with a meal a week, now that I have said that they will of course starting producing a glut.....we have had one cucumber and the tomato plants are finally in flower.  There has also been a steady supply of herbs, it is wonderful to be able to go out and pick your own fresh herbs when you need them for a meal.  Some are getting a little leggy now so I really ought to sow some more seeds to keep the supply going.  I have sown some more lettuce, salad leaf, pok choi and kale seeds this month to keep the supply of those going for a little longer.

Sanctuary

I have rediscovered my love of walking this month.  It has been wonderful to get out on many walks, often with friends to spend a day or afternoon walking.  The amazing views and company that these have given me, remind my how blessed I am with the people that I have in my life and the beauty of the area that I live in.  We walked up the highest hill in England with friends on a lovely dry and sunnyish day.  It is a very popular walk and coincided with the first dry day in a long while.  The number of people at the top of this hill was the most I had seen together in one place for a very long time.  The best walk though was with a dear friend who I had not seen since before lockdown, it was not a particularly dry or warm day but we spent the whole time we were together (7.5 hours) talking and could have carried on for another 7.5 more!  It was a wonderful, restoring and nourishing day out.  I hope I can make the time to do more long walks in the hills that make up the area where I live.

Learning

I have continued to listen to and soak up so many podcasts this month.  I am loving this audio input which I listen to whilst cooking meals or on the rare occasion that I am on my own, which seems to happen often enough in a week that I keep up with those that I subscribe to.

The documentary podcast from the BBC World service has had a huge variety of programmes to listen to including the life of a photo journalist in Syria, a man abandoned as a baby at a few weeks old searching for his birth family, ambulance drivers in Karachi and the milkshake and cyclops genes to name but a few. I also love the Inquiry and the Forum which are also good BBC World service podcasts

I have continued to listen to the wonderful mediations offered by Tara Brach I have included a daily short mediation at the end of my morning yoga stretches again this month.  I am now able to do this without needing a guided meditation every morning.

I have been listening to On Being with Krista Tippett for a while now, she always has the most thought provoking conversations.  This month, one particular episode will stay with me for a while, I have already listened to it twice, I thoroughly recommend it.

Some of them I love to listen to with the children, Alice and I have been listening to the English Heritage podcast, this month we have learnt about how the railways shaped the UK, Eltham Palace, the history of make up and a Cold War bunker in York.  We all love to listen to Countrystride a podcast about the area where we live, we have learnt about Lady Anne Clifford and a brief history of our county this month.

Fun

We have been wild swimming several times this month.  Over the winter I read the rather wonderful book Waterlog by Roger Deakin and it made me want to go out and swim, immediately.  I thought it might be best to wait for the temperatures to warm up a little before I tried it properly for the first time.  I have always been a bit of a coward when it comes to cold water but I have been having a cold shower every morning since then in preparation.  I totally understand what Roger Deakin meant when he talks about how alive it makes you feel.  I am completely hooked and cannot imagine ever swimming in a man made pool again.  

Thank you once again for reading through this very long post.  I realise that it may seem that I do an awful lot, I suspect you do to, if you were to write it all down like I have here.  You are most welcome to join me, either use the same words or your own which mean more to you, let me know in the comments below and I will head over and have a read.  I will post my Sustainable Living August roundup on Tuesday 1 September.

How does your garden grow?

A month on from my last garden tour and things have changed somewhat.  The last six weeks have been a real mix of weather but mostly the temperatures have been cool (low teens centigrade, mid fifties fahrenheit) with lots of rain.  The rain is great but the low temperatures has meant that those plants in the garden that like it to be a bit warmer have been growing rather slowly.  The polytunnel is largely unaffected by the lower temperatures during the day although a lack of sunshine means it is cooler in there at night.

The nasturtiums which were hiding behind the now finished lupins, are doing well and providing lots of flowers for our salads.  In a previous year we have sown pansies or maybe they are violets in this bed and they have self seeded or come back - I am not a very good flower gardener, can you tell!  Anyway what ever they are they are also being added to salads.  The honeysuckle is also in flower and provides a heady scent whenever you walk past.

The herb bed has exploded there is absolutely no space in here at all which is what I have been trying to achieve for years.  There are chives, marjoram, salad burnet, yarrow, purple sage and comfrey in here, many of these are now flowering which the bees are loving.  The yarrow was planted in here and is not a weed as far as I am concerned.  I am cultivating it to make salves, yarrow salve is a native alternative to arnica cream and can be used for all the same things, it is even better though as it can be used on broken skin.  The leaves in the pot on the right hand side are my horseradish plants which have been potted up to this large pot in the hope it will encourage some bigger roots, they have been a bit thin and pathetic in the last couple of years.  This bed is also full of wild strawberry plants which are growing in every available space but as they are low they are not visible in this photo except above the chives where they are growing along a wall which you can't even see that separates the herb bed from the one above.

In the bed above the herbs are my sunflowers and until earlier this week 25 french bean plants that were in flower and about to set fruit.  Something, possibly a rabbit, has come in and eaten the lot, I am left with the stalks and not a shred of greenery.  This was my best crop of bean plants to date, so I am rather devastated by this massacre.  We have no idea where the rabbits are getting in to the garden as it is completely rabbit proofed, if indeed it is a rabbit, they haven't eaten anything else, yet.  The wire is now 18 years old and is rusty in places, we have checked the entire fence for holes but we may have missed the one that they are using!  I am hoping that they don't come back and start on my other plants any time soon.

In the cage behind the blackcurrants are now ready for picking, that is this weekends job, and the white currants are nearly there.  They are usually a few weeks behind.

The broad beans are doing well, we have had a few meals from them so far along with the Jerusalem artichokes which are not ready yet.  In between are some onions that I grew from seed which are not going  growing that well.  This was a bit of an experiment as I have never tried growing onion from seed, I think I will stick to onion sets in the future, I don't think my growing season is long enough to grow from seed.  To the left of the broad beans are purple sprouting broccoli plants, protected to stop butterflies laying their eggs on the leaves which they then decimate.  The rhubarb is also continuously producing, I gave a friend a few pounds at the beginning of the week but you wouldn't know, there is still several pounds worth of stalks on there.  I am going to start freezing it now, as we can't keep up with it.

Inside the polytunnel it is a bit of jungle and not terribly tidy!  The courgettes at the back are providing us with a steady supply, we haven't reached glut stage yet, if the temperatures stay low then that is unlikely.  My tomato plants have yet to flower, I think this may be a no tomato year, I don't think it is warm enough even in here for them.  The cucumbers and gherkins are growing well, we have harvested a few cucumbers now and there are many more on their way.  The salad bed continues to provide a daily salad for us all, some of the plants have flowers, hence the mass of yellow flowers, I don't usually pull them up until all their leaves have been eaten.  There are also three squash plants which have all fruited and I hope that they give us a few fruits by the end of the season.

My herbs are fantastic this year, I sow them every year and then they get neglected as I run out of time to deal with them.  This year, with being at home most of the time I have been able to provide them the attention that they need.  I am going start drying the holy basil so that I can use it for herbal teas over the winter.  I have also sown some more lettuce and salad leaves to give us a continuous supply for the months ahead.

The garlic is almost ready to harvest, I am hoping that we have lots of good healthy bulbs under the ground.  It is always a bit of a lottery growing garlic as you never know what is going on under there!  It is however something that is pretty reliable for me, and the recent rain will have helped those bulbs to swell.

Next to the garlic are some cabbage plants, again under fleece like the broccoli.  I have found this works until it is too cold for the butterflies and then I take it off to give the plants a bit more room.  You can also see our wee apple tree in this picture, we grafted this ourselves at the beginning of last year when it was about 6 inches high.  It has grown well and we are going to train it to grow along the wires on the wall to be an espalier.

So that is my garden, I share the progress again next month and hope that the rabbit doesn't return and I have something to show you!

Sustainable Living June

This blog has always been about living life in a mindful and intentional way, for me this means that most of the decisions we make have been thought about carefully, even if we decide to continue as we are a decision has still been made.  When we take a product from a shelf in a shop or tap a button on a screen, should we stop and think about how it has got this point before we do so?  It can be hard to make decisions over many aspects of our lives, we are often far removed from the means of production and it can be hard to find out how this operates.  Maybe we shouldn't be thinking is there a more sustainable replacement for something, rather do we really need it at all?

To help me keep on track I have come up with some words that I will be using to keep my decision making mindful and intentional, and my life in general as sustainable as I can make it.  If you you want to join me you would be most welcome, either using the same words for inspiration or your own that are more meaningful to you.  These are the words (you can read my thoughts behind some of them here and here) that I have been using in June:

Nourish

Regular readers here will know that we get a veg box delivered every week, we eat a lot of veg, but some weeks it is not quite enough for us.  I usually top this up at a farmers market and a shop that is near one of the home ed groups that the children go to each week.  As these have both stopped for now the only place that I am able to top this up is at the supermarket, I try to buy as much organic as possible, organic veg at a supermarket is always wrapped in loads of plastic.  I have been trying to keep this to a minimum, each week when I do my menu planning I have been pulling my recipe books off the shelf and searching for new recipes and reminding myself of those that I haven't made in a long time to make more use of the ingredients we have in the pantry.  Black bean and squash burgers, Tofu Nut Balls, Middle Eastern inspired wraps and Sweet Potato Timbales were all delicious and I will definitely be making them again.  A Tofu Walnut Loaf and an Onion Salad both of which sounded like a tasty combination of ingredients on paper were not a hit at all, they were both in one meal which was a bit of a disaster!  I also had a go at making a fermented chutney which was delicious, I have been eating it with my fermented breakfast pancakes.  Whilst looking through my recipe books I was reminded of recipes I had made before including a Savoury granola, it is a mix of nuts, seeds and herbs cooked in the oven with some oil and mustard.  I have been enjoying this on my salads this month.

Lessen

Like most people around the world I have not had a hair cut for months.  I had been meaning to sort out an appointment when lockdown started so it is actually over six months since it was last cut.  As it is long it is not too much of a problem, however the ends are not looking good.  I remembered that I had read about making hair conditioners using herbs, so I gave this a go to see if could help the ends of my hair which are becoming very dry. There are lots that you could use depending on what nourishment your hair is need of, I used elderflowers, soaked in hot water for half and hour to make a 'tea' and then I dipped the ends of my hair into the liquid.  I was a little sceptical I have to admit but it has made a real difference, my ends are still a bit dry but nothing like as bad as they were.  I am converted! 

We have several solar panels on the garage/workshop building at the back of our house, they are connected to a bank of batteries where the power is stored until we need to use it.  Pretty much everything that needs power in that building, the exception is the chest freezer, runs off this power supply.  We also use it to charge phones, tablets and my laptop.  At the end of May we started to run a cable into the house to see if we run some of the things in the house off this supply too.  We have used it to run my sewing machine, the hoover, the digital projector and the stereo for a solar powered cinema and Cameron's gaming computer.  The savings are not huge each day, but the pennies do add up.  

Thankful

We had some very unexpected news this month.  My husband came home from work one Friday and told me he had been offered a promotion.  As the main earner in our household (I have a  very part time job earning a little) it has been on my mind, throughout the period of lockdown, how safe his job is and whether he would have one to go back to, when the time came that he could consider going back to work.  I am so thankful that not only is his job safe but that they have valued his contribution to the company over the last ten years so much they want to acknowledge that with this offer.  He has accepted it and is loving the challenge that his new position is giving him.   

Create

Most of what I have been creating this month I shared in my last post.  A purple linen skirt, a new sock project and more rows on my shawl.   I was so excited to discover that my local sewing shop was opening up to allow customers into the shop.  They stayed open throughout the lockdown but you could not go inside, everything had to be ordered and paid for over the phone.  I like to look and feel fabric before I buy it, I could never buy it online.   I bought some linen to make a dress for myself, which is nearly finished.  I need to make a few adjustments as the fit is not quite right, luckily I am able to do that without unpicking too many stitches.  I will share it when I am done.  There was a slubbing in the linen not far from the length that I needed, the shop gave me the extra for free which was rather unexpected, they told me they would be unlikely to sell that 50cm or so.  I was able to arrange the pattern pieces such that I have managed to cut out the pieces for a top as well.  I shall be sewing that up too when the dress is complete.  

The children and I spend every Tuesday morning creating, on one of these days this month we sat and made the pictures in the photo.  They are created using a special paper that lets light though it, some call these window transparencies.  We used a book for inspiration and came up with our own designs for these summer inspired window transparencies.  

Grow

I am really enjoying the extra time that I am able to give to my garden this year.  It has not had so much attention since I became a parent when it has always come far down the list.  Everything in the garden is growing really well, not much is ready for harvesting yet except an abundance of lettuce and salad leaves.  The extra time I have been able to spend gardening has meant that I have been able to grow a lot of tender herbs, in the polytunnel, this year.  I grow these most years but they often die off for lack of attention.  I want to try and grow enough to freeze or dry them for use during the colder months when they won't grow.      I have tried a new one to me this year, holy basil or tulsi, I love the herbal teas I have tried made with this herb and was delighted to see that the seeds were available from the company I buy my seeds from.  I have about fifteen plants and have been enjoying tea made with my own leaves, I hope to pick and dry some to keep me going for as long as possible.

Sanctuary

I have been doing yoga stretches every morning for about the last five years or so.  I started with a sun salutation which is a series of poses that flow one from another, it is a great way to warm your muscles up each morning. Over the years I have gradually added more poses and now do between twenty to thirty minutes every morning sometimes more.  I have found that if something is on my mind it is a great way to help to make sense of it or release it.  I have also found a way to include a short meditation at the end of my stretches.  I have long wanted to find the time to fit this into my week and during lockdown have been doing some meditating but it has always been a bit hit and miss as to when I would do it during a week.  I have found both of these practices hugely helpful to get through the challenges of the last few months.

Learn

I have found more time for reading articles online this month.  One I came across offers an interesting perspective on what we should be prioritising as we find a sustainable way forward for the future.  I want to hope that these perspectives will be part of the thinking for the future, but the queues that were pictured in the media when clothes shops were reopened here in the UK doesn't fill me with much.    The last year has seen a huge increase in people protesting about climate change, last month has seen protests about the discrimination that people of colour face in their day to day lives.  As I have learnt about the level of this discrimination and how it pervades through every part of people's lives it has been hard to comprehend how this is possible.  How we could have been so ignorant about how this has been going on right under our noses and why is it that there are sections of society who think this discrimination is acceptable.  I have been thinking about whether once these protests stop will people continue to demand change and action?  We need to be doing more than paying lip service to the latest issue and thinking about the changes that need to happen on how people think and act.  It is not going to be a quick fix, just as coming out the current situation or slowing down climate change isn't either, when you have generations of people who think in a particular way, changing that viewpoint and thinking is like a muscle that needs to be constantly worked at to keep it strong and working well.  I have always been a little hesitant to speak out and say what I think about issues such as these but this last month has made me realise that not doing so makes me complicit.

Fun

We were invited to join some friends for a physically distanced barbecue this month.  They have a large covered area outside where we could sit far enough apart but not so far that we could still chat.  It was a strange but lovely evening.  We had to remember not to get too close to each other but it was good to talk to face to face with someone other than family.

I am sorry there are not many photos in this post.  Sadly my good camera broke this month, I am not sure what is wrong with it, whether it is repairable and where I could get this done.  I have not taken many photos this month!

Thank you once again for reading through this very long post.  I realise that it may seem that I do an awful lot, I suspect you do to, if you were to write it all down like I have here.  You are most welcome to join me, either use the same words or your own which mean more to you, let me know in the comments below and I will head over and have a read.  I will post my Sustainable Living July roundup on Monday 3 August.

How does your garden grow?

It has been a long time since I posted about my garden and since several of you have asked me recently to show you some photos I thought it was about time I did a tour again.  I live in a terraced house which means my garden is long and thin.  We have a very large wild rabbit population living in the railway embankment that runs along the back of our garden.  The first thing we had to do when we moved in was to fence of the entire garden and rabbit proof the fencing to ensure that anything we planted would grow.  We were amazed when we did this to discover that what we thought was a dead twig in the ground was a Holly tree which has now grown to a healthy height.  It seems that rabbits will eat anything!

So come up the steps and through the gate, which my husband made, and I will show you round.  (The words will refer to the photo below throughout this post):

Once we are through the gate, we are looking down the side of the garage/workshop building which is behind our house.  We have an access strip behind all the houses in the terrace which enables all the houses to drive their cars round the back of the houses should they so wish.  We are not allowed to build on this strip of land and it has remain accessible to everyone at all times.  It is a great safe place for children to play.  Sorry where was I.  So, down the side of the garage and workshop we have a narrow path with a wood store on the right and a long narrow bed on the left.  My lupins are still doing well and continuing to flower, beyond them I have some heather plants, nasturtiums and a lemon balm mint which I make a pot of tea with daily.

At the end of the path we come to a paved area and the garden opens out to its full width.  There is another wood shed on the right here (we have three in total), on the roof of which are some of solar panels providing power to the garage and workshop.  This is also where I hang our laundry outside, providing it is not raining - we get a lot of rain!  The lowest bed is my herbs, the chives grow rather well as you can see and are taking over the paved area too,  I love the flowers, they are really tasty to eat in salads, as do the bees so I leave them on for as long as possible but as you can see I have not managed that every time as they have spread rather a lot!  I also have marjoram, sage, salad burnet, comfrey, yarrow and plantain in this bed.  The right hand pot has a horseradish plant in it, I was told when I bought it to leave it in a pot as it can take over so that is where it has stayed.  To the left of the photo is a step up to a path which winds its way to the top of the garden.  The ferns arrived from I know not where and do get rather large if I don't keep them in check.  The higher bed has a fruit cage with a blackcurrant and white currant bush.  We have had to rebuild this this year, we often get strong winds and despite us using lines to hold it down it had not survived.  We have used metal joints on it now and made it a bit smaller, hopefully it will be able to withstand the battering it gets!  Reducing it in size has meant that I have a bit more space for growing vegetables.  I have planted sunflowers and green beans in front of the cage and sown carrot seeds to the side.

As we walk up the shallow steps of the path there is a large unruly honeysuckle growing along the fence.  We inherited this with the garden.  It has had a very severe haircut this winter, not that you would know.......there is also a Rowan tree and behind it a Hawthorn.  We didn't plant either of these trees, we suspect that the birds bought them to us by sitting on the fence and pooping out the seeds.

At the top of the shallow steps is a trellis.  There is a lovely climbing plant growing on this trellis, its leaves change colour in the sun.  I think the recent dry weather has not been to its liking, it doesn't seem to be doing as well this year.  There is some aquilegia growing in front of the trellis, another plant that 'arrived' in our garden.

On the other side of the trellis is a very small wildlife pond.  The birds love to come here to bathe and drink.  We also have a couple of resident toads in the garden.  The large yellow float, a buoy we found washed up on a beach, is to stop the pond freezing over in the winter.  Just out of view is a nest box which is used every year by blue tits, if you are quiet, when passing, you can hear the chicks.  Alice and Daddy made the small wattle fence round the pond, replacing a rather old rotten wooden fence.

From the trellis the path bends to the right round the back of the fruit cage.   To the left is another wattle fence also made by Alice.  Ahead are three large rhubarb plants and a hedge of rosehips, when we bought the house these plants were down both sides of the garden, we have left this one small section which is now about 7ft tall!

As we walk along the path the bed to the left has purple sprouting broccoli plants that I planted last year and are just starting to run to seed.  Next to them is my broad bean frame, the plants are growing well despite the fact that it has turned cool again, they grow well here as I think they must like the cooler temperatures.  Next to them are onions and then Jerusalem artichokes.  The three light stems next to the fence are the holly tree I mentioned before.

As you come round the bend in the path you are facing the polytunnel.  On the left is the purple sprouting broccoli on the right the rhubarb and next to them a large patch of wild strawberries, another plant that has arrived in our garden and grows just about everywhere!  We have just planted a small apple tree in this bed, a tree that I grafted by hand.  It will be a few years before it is producing fruit for us but we are looking forward to the day it does.

It is impossible to take a photo of the whole of the inside of the polytunnel so I have taken a few.  We use it to extend our growing season and to grow plants that would not thrive outside.  I have a mixture of beds and pots in here to make as much use of the space as possible, last year it was very full at the height of the growing season.  Currently I have courgette, cucumber and lettuce plants in the beds and tomatoes in pots on the floor.  The large plastic bottles are full of water which heat up during the day, they help to keep the temperatures raised slightly as they release their heat at night.

I have a small amount of staging where I keep all my pots and seed trays on a lower shelf and those that are in use on the top.  It is full at the moment....

...so full that I have lots of pots on a bed that is not yet in use.  I shall be planting out two squash plants in here when they are a little bigger.

Back out of the polytunnel and round to the left we are facing another trellis covered in another unruly honeysuckle.  This is where we hang the hammock, you can see that here, using the orange krab to the right of the photo.  Below the krab is a wormery.

The path swings round to the right again through the trellis.  On the left are the wormery and three compost bins, one is full of horse manure, one is maturing and the third we are using on the garden this year.  On the right is a bed that is mostly covered for now, in the farthest end I have recently sown turnip seeds.

At the top of the garden is a raised bed, this was a patio when we moved in, the pavers on the path came from here.  We have removed the patio and made it into a productive space.  This is the left hand side which is my garlic plants.  To the left are some raspberry canes another arrival in the garden, we are good at that kind of gardening!  To the right of them is some very large, run to seed kale and cabbages, I am leaving them for now and hope to collect the seeds from some of them soon.  The flowers are rather delicious to eat, I have been adding them to our meals.  The wooden slats are where we are in the process of building supports for an espaliered Apple tree we recently have planted in the bed behind the kale and hope to train it over the wall using wires attached to the slats.  It is another tree that I have hand grafted so it is not very big at the moment.

That is my garden!  I hope you have enjoyed the tour.  I shall try and remember to do one next month when I hope that things will have grown a little bigger!  Just need the temperatures to go up a little......