Bean Sprouts

Upcycled Stained Glass

2010-09-10T18:22:00.002+01:00

My sister Stephanie's degree is in Glass and Ceramics. She did stained glass making, glass blowing, throwing pots on a wheel, all that sort of stuff. The other week she and I went to a reclamation yard and bought £25 worth of old leaded windows. Then we chopped them up and reassembled them into panes for my front door.

My front door used to be pretty ugly. It was varnished (unevenly) with a horrible reddish-brown varnish. It had ten long narrow panes of unattractive patterned glass, and unpleasant knobs, handles and latches. It didn't bother me that much, but it certainly didn't make me smile every time I entered or left the house.

Now it is painted a handsome steely blue. It has smart new brass door furniture (not in the picture) and it has beautiful and unique upcycled leaded glass in the top and bottom (only the top panes are pictured). Needless to say, it makes me smile every time I walk through it, or even walk past it.

Skein of Geese

2010-09-08T11:03:00.002+01:00

This morning as I was returning home from the school run I had to stop in a queue of traffic only a couple of hundred yards from my door. I only caught the occasional glimpse of the reason for the delay, but I could clearly hear the sound of a farmer herding his cows across the road.

I didn't mind waiting. It was a beautiful blue-sky morning promising a fine early autumn day. The hedgerows were heavy with deep red hawthorn berries and I began to contemplate which route to take with the dog today on our daily walk.

As I was waiting, a skein of geese honked noisily overhead.

I love living here.

I Get To...

2010-07-08T11:45:00.002+01:00

I read an article in a magazine by a woman who felt stressed by her life. She was overwhelmed by all the things she had to do. So she shifted the way she described these things by changing "I've got to..." to "I get to...." It struck me as a great idea.

Today I got to have a coffee with a friend first thing in the morning. We looked at some photos she had taken on a recent family trip to the safari park, and we made a plan to go to the gym together starting in September.

Then I got to take the dog for a walk among the rolling English farmland. Millions of people dream of living in the countryside. I get to live the dream.

After that I got to begin tidying the house ready for my dad's arrival tonight. It's fun to anticipate a much-loved guest, and to show my love and respect for him by making an effort to spruce the house up.

Later I get to go to the end-of-year assembly at the kids' school. There is a great community there and I count most of the other parents and the teachers as my friends. We will all get together to celebrate the children's achievements over the last year, to say goodbye to the Year 6's who will go to high school in September, and also to say goodbye to the headmistress who is retiring.

After that I get to finish the house cleaning and make everything just-so. And I will get to make dinner for my family, who have never had less than three meals a day in their lives, unlike the majority of the world.

In the evening I will get to rest in a clean and tidy house, with my well-fed children tucked up safely in their beds. I will snuggle on the couch with my husband and watch some DVDs until it is time to go to bed, keeping one ear open for dad's arrival at around 2am.

Peace in the Garden

2010-06-27T17:48:00.002+01:00

I can't do everything, but if I do the important things first, take one step at a time, and accept the help of my family, I can find peace.
I am sitting in the garden right now with an ice cold smoothies made partly from my own strawberries, the first of which ripened today. The house is clean and tidy. The lawn is mowed and the plants watered and fed, as are the fish and the chickens. The washing is hanging on the line. All my essays are marked.
The garden looks great - the beans have climbed to the top of their bamboo pyramid and are starting to climb up the wisteria. The tomatoes are growing big and strong and starting to make flowers. The spuds are growing strongly, despite the dog's penchant for digging them up and eating them. I've been harvesting salad leaves for a while now, but am still awaiting the first radish harvest. The herbs are looking great, especially the mint. The rhubarb is doing well as are the courgettes. The garden is also full of flowers, and bees, and butterflies (I am not a fan of butterflies. Oh they look pretty and are harmless enough, but the caterpillars are buggers).
Peace? Yes, I'd say so.

Happy Solstice

2010-06-20T17:10:00.004+01:00

Happy Summer Solstice, Bean Sprouts readers! Tomorrow is the longest day and the shortest night of the year (in the northern hemisphere where I live anyway. In the southern hemisphere it is midwinter, the shortest day and longest night). At this time of the year light dominates over darkness, day dominates over night, warmth dominates over cold, life dominates over death.

Here in Britain we are finally having a nice summer after several long years of cold, dark, wet summers and it feels glorious! I am spending every minute I can out of doors shedding as many clothes as I dare and letting the sun warm my skin. I must admit I have got sunburned more than once already this season, which is not very wise.

Enjoy the special day, readers, and enjoy the summer.

Take Your Canvas Bags

2010-06-17T14:17:00.004+01:00

Tim Minchin is God, and that is all I have to say about that.

Ratatouille

2010-06-16T16:58:00.003+01:00

When we were students at Aberystwyth university, back in the early 1990s, we would often have barbecues on the beach. At the time, Ed and I were both vegetarian, so our usual barbecue fare was vegetable kebabs. We'd thread cherry tomatoes, button mushrooms, pieces of coloured peppers, courgette and aubergine onto skewers, brush them with olive oil and grill them. When they were done we would transfer the veg to a pitta bread and top with hummus.

I always brought too much veg. I think it's much better to have too much food at a barbecue than not enough. So the next day I would fling all the leftover ingredients in a pan with a close fitting lid, put it on a slow heat, and make ratatouille. You can serve it hot or cold, in a bowl, and scoop it up with any leftover pittas.

It's really as easy as that. You don't need a recipe. The proportions don't matter. This is peasant food - the peasants didn't have recipes or kitchen scales. They didn't say "Sorry darling, I was going to make ratatouille tonight but we have rather too many aubergines and not enough yellow peppers". They just flung what they had in a pot and heated it until it was cooked. You can't break it if you leave one ingredient out because you can't get it, or don't like it. It doesn't matter if you chuck in some other things you have lying around in the fridge. I admit, my mind slightly boggles at the idea of ratatouille with neeps, but why not? Whatever floats your boat.

We had a barbecue yesterday so today we are having ratatouille. Like day follows night. Yum.

Low-Hanging Fruit

2010-06-15T13:10:00.007+01:00

Infographics (displaying facts and figures in a pictorial way) are very trendy right now. My favourite producer of infographics is The Oatmeal but he hasn't tackled anything related to the environment yet, so I haven't linked to him from Bean Sprouts before.

But I also liked this infographic about the "low-hanging fruit" of energy saving - the easy, simple, money-saving things everyone should be doing, like installed low-energy light bulbs and turning down your thermostat by one degree. Do they actually work? Can they help save the planet? Isn't it just small potatoes compared to things like smoke-belching factories and long-haul flights? Isn't it pointless when the Chinese are... umm... I can't actually remember what the argument is but basically we don't need to do anything about saving the planet unless the Chinese do it first?

Well, no. These things are worthwhile. Loads of households doing little things is just as important as a few factories doing big things to reduce our carbon emissions, our fossil fuel consumption, water consumption and all the other stuff. This infographic shows you why, and if you go to the Wellhome blog who produced it, you can go read up all the information sources they used to make it. Top marks for your references, guys!

Sunday Funnies

2010-06-13T15:56:00.003+01:00

I loved this poster from Fake Science (for when the facts are too confusing). Sometimes there's a fine line between "hilarious" and "heartbreaking".

And I'm delighted to see that the witty and talented Marc Roberts has a new website to showcase his climate cartoons, as featured in New Internationalist. Click this week's cartoon to see a bigger version.

World Cup

2010-06-12T10:54:00.002+01:00

I'm not a massive football fan. I watch football matches in the following circumstances: When Liverpool or England are playing a cup match, and the World Cup.

My husband, Ed, hates football. So 12 years ago I watched the 1998 World Cup at my parents house. I would walk the mile or so to their house with little baby Thomas, and we would watch the matches together. We watched every match, however insignificant, Lithuania v Cote D'Ivoire, Netherlands v Japan, all of them. I don't remember if my sister Lindsey was there or if she was living somewhere else at that time. I remember watching tournaments with her and others without her, but I can't place this particular one. Dad would get very cross if everyone wasn't in place on the sofa by a good 10 or 15 minutes before kick-off. It was as if he thought we were in the team and they couldn't start without us. And he got very tense in the last few minutes of any match with a goal difference of 1 or less (which is the vast majority of football matches). He would leave the room and pace up and down the hallway. Occasionally we would arrange to all cheer or groan on 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... and he would come dashing in to see what he had missed.

Then 8 years ago I would leave baby Eleanor and toddler Tom with Ed and haul my pregnant self to mum and dad's place to watch the 2002 World Cup. We always had bowls of salted peanuts when we watched football games. I don't know why, it was just a sort of family tradition. Mum and I loved interactive wallcharts, and would obsessively fill in the results and calculate what they all meant, especially in the group stages: "So as long as England win against Slovenia by at least one goal we are definitely through...", "...unless France lose to Tunisia by more than four goals...", "...yeah but that's not going to happen..." but we still watched the France v Tunisia match with fingernails bitten to the quick. We watched every match until England got knocked out, and then we skipped the rest and watched the final.

Mum died five years ago. I seem to remember making a desultory effort to watch the 2006 World Cup on my own, but it wasn't the same. The football was only ever part of it. More important was the family time spent together. The family traditions, the shared focus, the common joy and grief.

Since mum died there have been many Christmases and birthdays, her grandchildren have made first holy communions, been in nativity plays and strings concerts and swimming galas. I often think "Mum would have enjoyed this, she would have been so proud", but mostly I was more sorry for her that she was missing things than I was sorry for myself. Today I feel sorry for myself. I wish I could watch the World Cup with mum.

New Look for Bean Sprouts

2010-06-11T10:45:00.002+01:00

Away with the old Bean Sprouts look and in with the new. What do you think? Is it readable and clear? Is there anything you can no longer find? Anything you have noticed is missing? I'll continue to tweak it for a few days so give me your feedback.

Relocating Feral Bees

2010-06-10T11:16:00.000+01:00

I really enjoyed a video on the BBC news website of a beekeeper relocating a large colony of feral bees which had established in somebodies home in California. I wish I could embed the video here but there seems to be no way to do it, so if you want to see it yourself, follow this link.

I was interested to see the use of the bee vacuum, and the way the beekeeper cut sections of comb with honey and brood from the wild hive and inserted them (with elastic bands) into standard frames. Of course you can't just move the bees - you have to move all their stores and brood too. I didn't see anything about him ensuring he had the queen, that would have been interesting. But since the bees seem to be partially Africanised, and therefore rather aggressive, he will surely have wanted to re-queen them anyway. I would also have liked to see him examine some brood for mite infestation.

By definition, feral bees are resistant to pests such as varroa. If they weren't, they'd be dead. So hybridising feral colonies with managed strains could help develop resistant varieties of bees which is so desperately important in these days of colony collapse disorder (which is just a posh name for "Oh shit! All the bees are dying and we don't know why!")

Green Britain Day 2010

2010-06-09T11:30:00.003+01:00

Green Britain Day 2010 is on 17th June, 8 days away. But it seems to be a secret - I only know about it because I have a relative who works for EDF, the company behind it. Even after she told me about it I had a heck of a job finding any information about it on the internet. It's not on the EDF home page. It doesn't seem to have its own website, although there is a website for Team Green Britain which mentions it. My relative tells me it has been advertised on TV and in the national press. Have you seen any publicity for Green Britain Day 2010?

Well anyway, events for Green Britain Day 2010 include Bike Week which runs from 19th-27th June. You can search for your local Bike Week events and there do seem to be a lot of them going on.

There is also an event called The Big Lunch on 18th July which encourages people to have lunch with their neighbours, whether in a small event or a street party or whatever. Sounds like fun, and worthwhile to build up communities. Not sure what it has to do with "Green Britain" though.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that neither of these events take place on 17th June, Green Britain Day. So what is happening on that date? I have no idea. I have combed the Team Green Britain website and I have searched the internet for "Green Britain Day 2010" to no avail.

EDF, I am calling you out. Do you get some sort of tax break or something by claiming to have organised Green Britain Day, which sounds like a great idea but in practice is a load of puff? As the great philospher Bart Simpson once said "I didnt think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows". It's a shame because I happen to know there is an active group of people working for the company who are really dedicated to improving the environment, and who are imaginative and tireless in doing so.

Cowslip Wine

2010-06-08T14:06:00.003+01:00

For my birthday, my dad bought me a bottle of Lyme Bay cowslip wine in a lovely stone bottle, and I cracked it open last week with Stephanie and Ed.

It was delicious! It's a long time since I have made any wine, but this has given me the bug again. It had that proper home-made "country wine" taste, entirely different from anything made with grapes. It was the perfect thing to drink on a long hot summer evening. Thanks, dad.

Eat Local, Wear - ?

2010-06-07T16:07:00.000+01:00

Increasingly I am coming to the view that buying local food is more important than buying organic or Fairtrade food. But what about clothing? I live in Britain which is not exactly famous for its fields of cotton or its mulberry plantations producing silk. We produce wool, but it's difficult to wear all year round (and I have a horrible tendency to shrink it in the wash).

A surf clothing company called Rapanui contacted me a couple of weeks ago to publicise their products (full disclosure - they have not offered me any incentive except a link exchange. Loads of businesses offer link exchanges with Bean Sprouts but I ignore 99% of them as irrelevant to my readers). I checked out their website and I was impressed at the thoroughness of their eco credentials. Rapanui is not a clothing company that makes a token effort to claim the "eco" label as a marketing ploy. They truly seem to have built their business on sustainable and ethical principles that extend to everything they do.

I liked the traceability maps which show a product-specific supply chain traceability map for every product they sell. I liked the detailed description of the ethical standards for workers they apply in the (wind powered) factories and farms. I was very impressed by the in-depth carbon footprint calculations they make available for all their products.

I'm not exactly a surf chick so I'm unlikely to buy any Rapanui products, although the pashminas are rather nice, and so are the socks. The men's range is much more "fleshed out" than the women's range so far, and there are no children's products yet. The company is young, though, and they may already have plans to extend these ranges. But I really liked their approach to business. I wish many more companies would be as thoughtful about their environmental and ethical values.

Folk on the Coast

2010-06-06T20:14:00.002+01:00

My second music festival in two days! Today I went to Folk on the Coast to help my sister Lindsey sell her hand-made jewellery and run jewellery-making workshops. Her stall was right next to a workshop area, so we got to overhear a song-writing workshop and a poetry-reading session with John Gorman of The Scaffold, in whose honour I have included the YouTube clip of Lily The Pink.

2010-06-05T16:35:00.002+01:00

Ed and Steph (with help from me and Guy) spruced up our garden pond, which was being reclaimed by nature. It was more of a garden swamp than a garden pond. But now the quantity of pond plants has been greatly reduced, the water has been topped up. The child-safe grille has been removed, and the turf has been trimmed back.

Living in the pond are 5 (non-native) fat goldfish, 2 different species of frog (common frog and British pond frog), smooth newts and common toads. Not to mention all the insect life attracted to the water. It's pleasant just to sit by the pond and watch the comings and goings of the wildlife.

2010-06-04T16:54:00.002+01:00

Having a wonderful day in the garden with family and friends. Good food. Cold beer. Chasing frogs. Making musical instruments out of old gas drums. Painting the gas drums. Playing music. Feeding snails to the chickens. Using scary power tools with lots of spitznsparken. Nice day.

A Fresh Burst of Energy

2010-06-03T18:47:00.003+01:00

My commitment to blog every day didn't last very long did it? I need to accept I have up days and down days (and weeks, and months...) But just lately I have had a boost from spending time with my sisters and my brother-in-law. The four of us went to London for a day trip. Lindsey and Andrew shared the driving, and we went shopping in Camden Lock and Covent Garden, and ended up sitting outside a bar in Soho drinking cold beer and people-watching.

It was a wonderful day, and it has put me in a good mood for the whole week. I will blog more about what I have been doing in the week, as well as passing on some news that various people have emailed me about. Lots of good things have happened recently which have felt like getting back in touch with the old "me", and I hope to keep the feeling going.

Craft Fair

2010-04-25T15:14:00.002+01:00

I'm at a craft fair again, this time in Aintree, Liverpool with Lindsey. I feel very inspired to make more mixed-media art. The only trouble is I have about 20 essays to mark.

Blakemere Craft Centre

2010-04-19T11:25:00.001+01:00

Today I am at Blakemere Craft Centre with Lindsey and my dad. It has all kinds of craft shops, including craft materials and crafted items. I am enjoying browsing but mostly I am enjoying spending time with people I love.

Dig In

2010-04-17T12:11:00.001+01:00

The have a great website called Dig In which is full of resources to help beginners grow their own fruit and veg.

There are tips on what you can grow in any space, from a windowsill to a back garden, advice on specific crops including french beans, courgettes, carrots and salad leaves, and many more.There are videos to watch, and message boards to show of your successes and ask for help with your disasters.

There is even a touring bus where you can take part in workshops and activities, get advice from expert gardeners, and pick up free seeds.

Are Supercars Good For The Environment?

2010-04-16T10:22:00.000+01:00

I was reading a car magazine recently (I was in the local fish and chip shop waiting for Ed's vegetarian chop suey roll to cook, and there wasn't a lot of choice, ok?) and there was an article about the new McLaren supercar. I was reading about the work they have done to get the weight as low as possible, including building it partly from carbon fibres instead of steel. The magazine said that this was good for the car's eco-credentials, which made me snort loudly and brought stares from all the other people in the queue.

Maybe when we replace the VW Polo I'll ask Ed if we can get a McLaren instead. "It's not for me, darling, it's for the sake of the planet!"

Snort.

Doesn't Make a Summer

2010-04-15T10:04:00.002+01:00

As I was driving home after having coffee with a friend, I thought I saw two swallows on a telephone wire. I couldn't quite believe my eyes so I parked and came back for a better look. I have been watching them for a little while now and sure enough they are swallows. I have had a really good look at them both perching and in flight.

I know the old saying "One swallow doesn't make a summer" but two of them have lifted my heart this spring morning.

Gratitudes

2010-04-14T10:07:00.000+01:00

Today I am grateful for:

1. The beautiful sunny weather we have had these last few days
2. My sisters
3. The changes I see every day when I walk my dog - more flowers and buds, insects, lambs getting bigger each day, and so on
4. The things that have made me laugh today
5. Friends I can rely on when I need help
6. That I have the capacity to appreciate music, art and other beautiful things
7. My children who make me so proud and happy
8. Ed, who has worked very hard lately to make our home better for our family
9. The talents and abilities I have been given
10. My supportive readers who pick me up everytime I am feeling down

Tasting Notes: Punk IPA

2010-04-13T10:37:00.000+01:00

RobR recommended Brewdog's Punk IPA so I grabbed a 4-bottle pack next time I saw it. First impressions - bitter. Second impressions - really bitter. Finish - OMG this is bitter. It's fantastic! If you like your beer bitter and hoppy and dry (and not at all gassy) this is a treat. In fact, I can't wait for the summer and for some really really hot weather because a bottle of Punk would be the perfect refreshing drink on such a day. But it goes down very nicely on a cool April evening too. Thanks for the heads-up Rob!

What's Going On With This Blog?

2010-04-12T17:05:00.008+01:00

If you have been wondering what is going on with this blog you are not alone. I have been wondering, too. Bean Sprouts is very important to me and I don't want to let it die. But I have been finding it hard to post.

It's not that I have stopped caring about all the things I used to write about. I still care very much. It's true that when I realised I was ill I eased up on many of the more time consuming and arduous 'green' practices. I found it a tremendous struggle just to get out of bed and dressed so more convenient options were literally life-saving to me for a while, and I had to learn to stop beating myself up about that (there just wasn't time, anyway. The list of things I was beating myself up about was very long). So I haven't lost interest. In fact I have added some new interests that I would like to blog about. So why haven't I?

I think I know why - I have been having similar difficulty in other areas, such as crafting, gardening, work, art - everything, really. The problem is that I have lacked confidence that what I create would be good enough, so I have been creating nothing. Stupid, huh?

I had a breakthrough today - I am going to stop worrying about whether it is good enough and just do it. Scary as that is, I am strong enough now to take the risk of failing. So I pledge to update the blog every day, whether or not I have something earth-shattering to say. Whether or not the writing process flows easily. Whether or not I cam find the perfect image to go with the post (this time I have used a photo of my dog, Gil - my Zen master in teaching me how to not care about what people think but just do whatever seems like a good idea at the time). I'm just going to do it.

Homeward Bound

2010-04-09T20:18:00.003+01:00

We didn't get past the Food Halls in Harrods but we got some lovely things for our packed lunch on the journey home. We made it to the National Portrait Gallery just in time for Marcus' recital. What a divine ending to a lovely day! We are now on the train home, eating pate and olives and artisan bread, and comparing our sketchbooks and purchases. Tired and footsore but very very happy after our adventure. We MUST do this again, soon.

G&T @ the V&A

2010-04-09T15:28:00.002+01:00

We loved the quilt exhibition. Even Stephanie(who had been a bit dubious about it) had a great time. We were starting to suffer from museum fatigue so we went to an outdoor courtyard and cooled our feet in the fountain whilst drinking gin and tonics. Steph is sketching whilst I update the blog. Next - Harrods (v. unlikely to buy anything but I've never even been inside and I wanted to see it.

Lunch at the Natural History Museum

2010-04-09T13:36:00.002+01:00

Steph and I are sitting outside of the Nat History Museum eating our packed lunch of pate and bread and admiring the gorgeous architecture. The weather is lovely - warm and sunny. It's almost too nice to go back indoors but the quilt exhibition beckons so we are heading soon for the V&A. I'm so grateful to my husband, Ed, for agreeing to spend the day with 5 kids under the age of 12 to allow me and Steph to go gallivanting off like this.

Trip to the V&A

2010-04-09T10:30:00.003+01:00

Do you remember I said I wanted to go to London to see the quilt exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum? Well I am on the train right now for a day trip with my sister Stephanie. Our itinerary includes the V&A, the National Portrait Gallery, and a concert by my friend the Wigmore Prize winner Marcus Farnsworth. I'll keep you updated throughout the day.

Pure Ubu Beer

2010-04-03T16:05:00.002+01:00

I picked up a bottle of Pure Ubu premium Amber ale at Tesco and popped the top off as soon as I had finished putting away the shopping. Gosh, it's nice. Hoppy and fragrant, not too sweet and with nice degree of bitterness. It's a smidge strong for a session beer to my mind, but that's what it tastes like. If Hobgoblin is a bit too sweet for you, as it is for me, you might find this a nice quaffable alternative.

Follow Bean Sprouts on Twitter

2010-03-25T11:12:00.005Z

Did you know that Bean Sprouts has a Twitter feed? The name is beansproutsblog and you can become a follower by clicking the link!

If you haven't dipped your toe into the Twitter pool yet, you should know that it is a website that does one very limited thing - it allows you to post a short (140 characters) message which will be sent to everyone who has chosen to "follow" you.

So what use is that? You can use it to keep your family and friends up to date with what you are doing. A typical tweet of this kind might read:
Drinking coffee, listening to Miles Davis and trying to install anti-virus on dad's laptop

Or you can use it to draw people's attention to stuff on the web, such as:
I just laughed at a funny picture at http://i.imgur.com/Ta9DV.jpg

You can even use them to organise or participate in a flash mob.

I use the beansproutsblog Twitter feed to tell followers when I update the blog, to pass along things that interested me that I didn't want to blog about, and to re-tweet messages I think would interest my followers.

Try it. What's the worst thing that can happen? It's free, and if you don't like it you can always unsubscribe.

Spring is going to be a stunner

2010-03-24T10:39:00.000Z

According to a news item on the BBC, the consolation prize for our long hard winter is going to be a stunning spring.

Matthew Oates, the National Trust's conservation advisor, says

One of the problems with early, rushed springs is the flowers and butterflies then get clobbered by foul and abusive [spring] weather

By contrast a late spring following a cold winter means the animals have all had a proper hibernation, and plants emerge over a longer period in successive waves. I hope he's right. I've had about as much manky weather as I can stand.

Quilts at the V&A

2010-03-23T10:12:00.000Z

I'd love to go and see the exhibition Quilts 1700-2010 at the Victoria and Albert museum in London. It's on until July 4th, maybe I'll be able to get down there some time before then.

Arty Crafty Day

2010-03-21T18:40:00.003Z

I had a wonderful day with my sister Lindsey. We spent the whole day in my garage/studio with all the doors flung open and the spring sunlight streaming through. We drank gallons of teas and listened to CDs whilst chatting, laughing and making arty crafty stuff.

Lindsey made a dreamcatcher, a couple of necklaces and several pairs of earrings. I wasn't as prolific, I only made four inchies, but I turned a few more pre-made inchies into brooches.

I like making inchies, and I think the finished items are very appealing, but I'm always at a loss of what to do with them. Lindsey and I came up with a few ideas for making them into wearable/usable items and now I am full of inspiration to try some of these ideas out and see if people might want to buy them.

Spring Equinox

2010-03-20T09:29:00.003Z

Today is the spring equinox (unless you live in the southern hemisphere in which case it is the autumn equinox). For the last six months the nights have been longer than the days. But today day and night hang in perfect balance. From now onwards the days will be longer than the nights, and will continue to grow longer and longer until the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.

Yesterday I saw my first open daffodils growing in the ground (not cut daffodils in a florist or pot-grown from the garden centre), and today the narcissus in my own garden have opened. I have been watching the new lambs in the fields near my house. Ground elder and cleavers are starting to cover the bare ground wherever gardeners are not actively rooting them out. And last night I found a small insect inside the house. The world seems to be coming back to life.

Ed has been in France on business for the last week but he got home last night. My dad has been staying with me following a serious illness but he is much recovered. Even the moon is in its waxing phase and I feel full of hopefulness.

Happy St Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T13:39:00.002Z

Because my dad is staying with me, I've been listening to the Irish radio channel RTE all day so there is no way I could fail to notice today is St Patrick's Day. We're going to have Irish sausages and champ for dinner tonight, washed down with Guinness.

Champ

Boil about 4lb potatoes until cooked. Simmer a couple of bunches of chopped spring onions in 1/2 pint of milk for a few minutes. Mash the potatoes and add the hot milk, spring onions, salt and pepper and a couple of ounces of butter. Mix well. Serve with a generous knob of butter on top.

Starting to feel like spring

2010-03-14T17:10:00.002Z

I've been feeling depressed again since around Christmas. Don't get me wrong, Christmas was great and I had a lovely time. But I ran out of my dried frog pills (antidepressant tablets) and I thought "I don't really need them anymore. I have been feeling fine". Big mistake. I got back on them about a month ago and I am starting to perk up. It's really grim to feel like you are in a black pit the whole time and nothing, absolutely nothing at all gives you the least little bit of joy at all.

This winter hasn't helped. It has been extraordinarily bleak and long. It's not just my perception; statistically this has been the hardest UK winter in my lifetime. We are only a week away from the spring equinox but there are scarcely any signs of spring at all. A few crocuses and snowdrops are starting to bloom, and I saw some lambs this morning whilst I was walking the dog. But no daffodils are flowering in my area yet and the trees are not in bud. The forsythia and ribes are not out. It feels like early February, not mid-March.

But I got loads of house and garden plants for Mothers' Day and Eleanor helped me re-plant all the hanging baskets with pansies, primroses and dwarf narcissi. I still have some plants left but I ran out of potting compost. I will get some more tomorrow on the way home from school and replant some of the containers. I also have some seeds I want to sow indoors.

It feels good to get my hands in dirt, in amongst roots and bulbs, and smell the green, vital, earthy scent. It is good to plant things - it always feels to me like a powerful act of faith. You can not plant things unless you have hope for the future. You have to expect that a frail stem with two small leaves is going to grow into a large and beautiful plant. Solipsists do not do gardening.

Happy St Brigid's Day

2010-02-01T10:24:00.003Z

Did you know today was an important day? It is St Brigid's day, also Candlemas (the feast of the presentation of the Lord), also Imbolc in the Celtic calendar. There are a number of traditions and superstitions about this day. For example if snakes or badgers come out of their dens on this day it is considered a sign that spring will come sooner rather than later (an older version of the American tradition of Groundhog Day). In parts of Ireland young girls make a Brideog, a corn dolly representing St Brigid (who is also the Celtic goddess Brigid, the personification of Spring) and make a special bed for her to lie in on St Brigid's Eve. On St Brigid's day they carry her from house to house where the married women give them gifts of food or money. It is also said to be the day the Cailleach, the hag personification of winter, collects her firewood. Legend says if she plans to make the winter last longer she will make the weather fine on this day so she can collect plenty of wood. If the weather is foul she is asleep because winter is almost over and she doesn't need any more firewood.

Why so much superstition about this one same day? Well it is a cross-quarter day. It is half way between the longest night (the winter solstice) and the spring equinox when day and night are equal. If you think of the solstice as mid-winter and the equinox as mid-spring then today must be the start of spring.

Well here in Cheshire it is very cold today. So cold that I drove Ed to work in the car because it is too icy for his motorbike. But I have seen the very first signs of spring beginning to show, such as shoots of daffodils and crocuses starting to push through the earth and some of the trees just beginning to bud. The days are getting perceptibly longer - the mornings are just that little bit lighter and the evening comes a smidgen later.

I have lit a fire and a candle to mark the day, and I plan to spend the day making crafts. I think I will incorporate imagery of St Brigid, the goddess Brigid, the Cailleach, light, fire and spring into my crafts. And maybe spring will come sooner rather than later and this cold, cold winter will be over.

Creative Day Out

2010-01-31T16:49:00.001Z

It's been a crafty weekend. Yesterday my 8-year-old son, Sam, represented his cub pack at a crafting competition in Macclesfield and had a lovely time. And today I went to the Stitch and Creative Crafts show at the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre with my sister Lindsey and her friend Caroline. Amongst other things I bought some books which have filled me with inspiration for crafty things to do.

January Moon

2010-01-29T20:00:00.002Z

It's a full moon tonight. I saw it in an almost clear sky, with just a few fluffy clouds close to the moon. The moon illuminated their edges and they seemed to glow pale blue. I love it when it looks like that. It seems very magical. I remember a children's TV series when I was a child about a garden in which statues came to life at night, and the young hero befriended Greek nymphs and godesses and so on. The moon tonight reminded me of that for some reason.

Caught One!

2010-01-26T09:19:00.003Z

I got one! Since enabling comment moderation I have allowed about five or six comments and blocked one spam comment. Zapping spam feels good!

Comment Moderation

2010-01-25T09:24:00.003Z

I don't know about you but I am getting sick of Asian comment spam. So I have sadly enabled comment moderation. I'll check at least once a day and get your comments up as fast as possible. Sorry about this. :(

Redwing

2010-01-25T08:24:00.002Z

A few years ago I decided I would like to be able to identify the common birds in my neighbourhood. With the help of my sister Stephanie and a couple of good bird books I gradually achieved my aim. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Quite quickly the mass of similar little brown birds separated themselves out into sparrows, chaffinches, blue tits, great tits and a wide variety of other species. I could even identify male from female in many cases, and juvenile from adult.

It was well worth the investment of time and effort. Whenever I catch a glimpse of a familiar species I smile to myself. And the "hang on, what was that?" moments are a thrill, followed by the hunt to see the same bird again, gather enough information to try to identify it, followed by frantic riffling through the bird books to confirm the id.

I have no wish to see every bird species in the world, or Europe or even Britain. I wouldn't go chasing off somewhere because some rare species had been spotted, or stay in a cold bird hide with a flask of tea and soggy sandwiches. That's part of the fun of birdwatching for some people, but my own goal is clearly defined - I just want to know the birds in my local patch.

So why do I bring this up today? I spotted a seasonal visitor today, the redwing. It's a species of thrush, like the blackbird and songthrush and mistlethrush that stay year-round. But the Redwing is more colourful than these dowdy birds, with its dandy eyestripe and vivid red patch under its wings. It's quite shy and although I am sure it comes to the area every year I don't always manage to spot it.

Cupcakes and Punk Rock

2010-01-17T16:15:00.004Z

It is my daughter Eleanor's birthday party tonight. She was 10 on Friday. We spent the day making and decorating cupcakes, chopping fruit for the punchbowl, and planning the music.

I think the cupcakes are adorable. So cute and pretty. Whilst I was washing up I asked Eleanor to write out a playlist for the CDs she wanted during the party. Her list read:

Siouxie and the Banshees
Blondie
Pink
Kiss

She may still like baking with mummy but my daughter is growing up. I'm so proud of her.

Happy St Stephen's Day

2009-12-26T13:46:00.002Z

Today is St Stephen's Day, the day Good King Wenceslas took his famous stroll. My dad assures me that in Ireland it is a bigger occasion than Christmas day. It is traditional for boys and men to try to catch and kill a wren on St Stephen's Day. Why, I cannot discover. But they then take it round all the houses and are given money.

The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze,
Although he was little his honour was great,
Jump up me lads and give us a treat.

Sunday Funnies

2009-12-20T23:17:00.001Z

Happy Solstice, Bean Sprouts Readers.

Ingenious Green Pizza Box

2009-12-18T10:09:00.000Z

This one has been doing the rounds on the internet for a while, but just in case you haven't seen it yet...

Copenhagen - The House is on Fire!

2009-12-17T11:06:00.003Z

Sometimes, when our house is looking very messy, I might balk at the idea of tidying it by myself and ask the kids to lend a hand.
"But I need to finish this level of my computer game!"
"Ummm, I suddenly need the toilet. See you!"
"I'm too little! I'm tired! Will you help me?"
Ah well, it's human nature.

But if the house was on fire I don't think I'd get these responses. I think it would be amazing how unimportant computer games and lavatory needs and tired little legs would become. The family would respond quickly and efficiently in saving everyone's lives.

So why is it that the climate talks at Copenhagen are 18 hours behind, and look like they will result in no agreement at all? This isn't a negotiation about cabbage trading. It's no time to quibble and stall to protect some finagling point of national interests. Our house is on fire!
For God's sake, will everybody shut up and grab a bucket?

Christmas Concerts

2009-12-08T10:18:00.003Z

Sorry I haven't posted for over a week, but Ed was away in France again and I was gloomy. He is home now, hopefully until Christmas at least, and I am much happier now.

I had a lovely weekend, filled with music. On Saturday my choir, St George's Singers, gave our Christmas concert. The church was lit by candles and filled with the scent of mulled wine and mince pies, which were served in the interval. The programme was a mix of choral and audience carols, some accompanied by organ and some by the Poynton VBS brass band, who also played some festive pieces of their own. There were readings by children from local schools, including my daughter Eleanor. I might possibly be biased but she is a marvellous reader and I was very proud. As this year is the 250th anniversary of the death of Handel, we also performed three choruses from Messiah (with the brass band, which was heaps of fun), and topped off the concert with a performance of the Hallelujah chorus.

Then on Monday it was my turn to be in the audience as Eleanor performed in a Christmas concert given by Poynton Music Academy. Ellie plays violin in the Academy's "beginner's strings group". I loved listening to the various children's groups performing Christmas music. I was involved in children's orchestras, choirs and other groups when I was young and it is lovely to watch a new generation setting out on a life of music-making. Ellie was exhilarated before, during and after her performance and I am sure she is now as hooked on performing music as I am, which pleases me no end.

So now I feel thoroughly Christmassy. Stephanie and her kids are visiting this weekend to help us put up the Christmas decorations, and I hope Lindsey and Andrew will be able to visit too so we can sing carols together (perhaps accompanied by Eleanor on violin). There's really nothing like Christmas music to get into the festive spirit. Have you been to any carol concerts yet, or are you planning to?

Vegetables Are All Your Body Needs

2009-11-27T12:54:00.001Z

I loved this ad by the International Vegetarian Union. So clever.

Via Neatorama

Buy Nothing Day

2009-11-27T10:29:00.002Z

Buy Nothing Day 2009 is this Friday. I suggest you do something fun that doesn't involve shopping. Have a family movie night with home-made pizza or popcorn. Play a board game with your loved one, or play video games with your friends. Visit your parents or your relatives. Invite your neighbours over for a coffee and a chat. Phone an old friend you haven't spoken to for years. Put all those photographs into an album like you keep meaning to do. Or go through your wardrobe and sort everything into three piles - keep, repair, thrift shop.

What are you going to do for Buy Nothing Day this year?

Coffee Cosy

2009-11-26T10:22:00.000Z

My cafetiere holds 3 mugs full. Ed and I drink a mug every morning, and after the school run I re-heat the final cup and drink it. My sister Stephanie crocheted me this cafetiere cosy with yarn from my stash, and now I don't have to re-heat the last cup, it stays nice and hot until I am ready for it.

I use the cosy every day. It saves a little bit of energy, and it makes me smile. Thanks, Steph.

Dog Walking in Autumn

2009-11-25T14:28:00.000Z

Gil, my dog, becomes very excited every time I start putting on my coat and hat. It's annoying when I am just going out to post a letter, or collect the kids from school. But this time he has guessed right - I am preparing to take him for his daily walk.

I grab his lead and we head out together. Crows squawk at each other from the bare treetops. The farmer stops his hedge-trimming as we walk past so we won't be bombarded with hawthorn-shrapnel. I smile and raise my hand to him, sitting in his tractor, in thanks.

The sound of the wind fills my ears and it is hard to hear cars approaching. A few times I mistakenly call Gil to me, thinking I hear a vehicle. Obediently he comes. But his hearing is better than mine and his good sense better than I give him credit for. He trots closer to me long before I hear the cars.

We meander along lanes, paths and tracks. The rain-sodden leaves are more treacherous underfoot even than the mud. It occurs to me that the sensation of mud oozing up between my toes is, at one and the same time, my least-favourite part of the experience and Gil's most-favourite. Eventually the track becomes too muddy for me to pass (though not too muddy for him). And in any case the rain is starting to fall again. So we turn for home.

Back at the house, the milkman has been. There is milk, juice and bread on the doorstep but I ignore it. I know I must be fast to grab the old towel I left by the front door, and rub down the dog before he shakes mud all over the hallway. Too late. Again. After I rub the dog I also have to wipe the walls and the door, the stair-rails and the dresser before I can even start to strip off my own wet muddy trousers and socks.

In warm dry clothes and clean fluffy socks I fill the dog's water bowl and he laps it thirstily while I make myself a hot cup of tea. Then I sit down in an armchair, Gil flopped at my feet, to write this blog post and rest, before resuming the rest of the day's duties.

Everything You Know About Going Green Is Wrong

2009-11-25T10:07:00.000Z

The Daily Green recently posted an article titled Everything You Know About Going Green is Wrong, subtitled "Why driving the most fuel efficient car and buying the most energy efficient appliance matter much less than we think. (Hint: It's all about stuff.)"

It's about the work of Joshuah Stolaroff of the Environmental Protection Agency, who wrote two reports which conclude:

the stuff we buy and the packaging that comes with the stuff we buy represent our biggest contribution to global warming – far more so than the amount of electricity our stuff uses, or the amount of fuel our stuff burns on the highway

Well, technically I already knew this, and probably so did you. But so many manufacturers and retailers are jumping on the green bandwagon that we are now bombarded with advertising telling us we can save the planet it we buy the right "green" stuff.

But that's not just wrong, it's dangerously wrong. What we actually have to do is buy LESS stuff. This is timely advice with Buy Nothing Day coming up this Friday. And if you haven't seen it yet, take 20 minutes and go and watch The Story of Stuff. It's really eye-opening.

The Wisdom of Eleanor

2009-11-24T09:57:00.002Z

My 11-year-old son Tom was excited about his new video game and boasted he would probably beat it in about a week. his 9-year-old sister Eleanor replied,
"It's just a video game. Even if you beat it in five minutes, you still lose"

Probably best not to remind her of her words the next time she is playing the Sims. I have been known to waste appalling amounts of time on computer games myself, and have a level 80 Blood Elf priest to prove it. But just because it's sometimes hard to live by, doesn't make it any less wise.

Save the Planet - Wear a Condom

2009-11-23T10:09:00.000Z

What's the best thing you can do to help fight climate change? Buy a Prius? Quit flying? Insulate your loft? How about wearing a condom. On Wednesday the UN population fund said that the battle against global warming could be helped if the world slowed population growth by making free condoms and family planning advice more widely available.

As part of a whole raft of measures, it sounds like good sense to me. And of course it's also a crucial part of the fight against AIDS.

From CNSnews.com

Sunday Funnies

2009-11-22T10:21:00.000Z

Cartoon from Throbgoblins. Thanks Marc. Click on the panel to see the whole strip.

Craft Day

2009-11-21T20:30:00.003Z

I had a fantasic day today with my sister Lindsey and her husband Andrew. We met up in Poynton and visited my favourite hand-crafted gift shop, Warm Earth Gifts. Afterwards we had coffee in a pavement cafe next door. And then we went back to my place for lunch and spent a fabulous afternoon making crafts in my studio/shed. Lindsey made a gorgeous ring, and helped Sam make an amazing wire-work bat. I'll show you some photos of that later. And I made this quilted clutch purse from my fabric stash and a few other items. I had a wonderful time, and with any luck we will be doing it again soon.

Spanikopita

2009-11-18T18:48:00.003Z

I have been in a whirl of artistic inspiration lately from the book Mixed Mania by Cheryl Prater and Debbi Crane. It is a craft/art book about mixed-media art (my husband calls it "gluing-and-sticking") The chicken image on yesterday's post was one of my creations inspired by the book.

But it also contains a small number of recipes, including an intriguing one for a Greek spinach filo pie called Spanikopita. I had to try it and it turned out spectacularly good. Not only did it look stunning but it tasted delicious, and was so easy that the second time I made it I did it from memory.

Debbi Crane has very graciously given me permission to reproduce the recipe, so here it is:

Thea Betsy's Spanikopita (from Mixed Mania)

Over medium-low heat, put 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan. Add a chopped onion and a minced clove of garlic and sauté until the onion becomes translucent. Add a 10 oz package of fresh baby spinach - it will mound up in the pan but cooks down, so don't panic. Add about a teaspoon of salt (not too much because feta is very salty) and about a teaspoon of oregano and 1/2 teaspoon of dill. Stir as the spinach cooks down.

When the spinach is cooked all the way down and dark green, remove the frying pan from the heat and tip it so the oil and water drain off to one side. I blot it up with a paper towel and even blot the spinach a bit to get all the extra moisture out.

In a small bowl, slightly beat an egg and add to a 4 oz container of crumbled feta cheese. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan or Romano. Mix the cheese in with the spinach in the frying pan. Set aside.

Using a basting brush, coat a glass pie plate with 2 oz butter melted with 1/4 cup of olive oil. Next lay one sheet from a package of filo pastry in the plate (you will have excess hanging over the edges, don't worry we'll deal with that later). Brush that sheet with the butter/oil and lay another sheet on top. Do this until you have 10 to 12 sheets in your pan. This is the bottom crust. Scoop the spinach mixture into the crust, and top with a sheet of filo. Create the top crust with remaining filo, brushing each layer with the butter/oil mixture.

To finish, here's my mom's advice, straight from the recipe card: "You can trim off the excess filo if you like. I fold it in along the edges and baste it with the butter/oil. Turns out nice and crunchy. Bake at 350 degrees until golden on top. Looks like a lot but it goes fast."

You can say that again!

Follow Bean Sprouts on Twitter

2009-11-17T11:01:00.003Z

Bean Sprouts now has a Twitter feed. The name is beansproutsblog and you can become a follower by clicking the link!

Gardening Kit Competition

2009-11-16T11:29:00.003Z

McCains sent me two gardening kits for children after I posted the article last week about the Potato Bus, and I'm offering them as a competition prize. Watch the video to hear the riddle. If you think you can solve it, email me with the answer and your name and address. Two correct answers will be drawn from a hat on Monday 23 November and I will post a children's gardening kit to each of the winners. I'm afraid the competition is only open to UK addresses for reasons of postage costs.

Good luck!

Sunday Funnies

2009-11-15T10:11:00.000Z

From the ever reliable xkcd

Tom's Scones

2009-11-14T13:07:00.002Z

In September my eldest son, Tom, started high school. This means he is doing all sorts of subjects he has never studied before, such as Spanish, drama and cooking (although they call it "food technology"). Unlike his brother and sister, Tom was never interested in cooking with me at home, and claims not to enjoy it at school either. But he seems to have a natural talent. Yesterday he made these cherry scones, and they were delicious - quite unlike the hard grey lumps I produced the first time I ever attempted them.

It's Not Easy Being Green

2009-11-13T11:13:00.002Z

Sesame Street has just reached its 40th birthday, so I thought I'd share this lovely video of Kermit singing "It's Not Easy Being Green"

Quilt Maker

2009-11-12T12:10:00.002Z

You may remember the beautiful quilt I found in a local charity shop (thrift store). It had a date and the maker's name embroidered on it, and I mentioned these when I blogged about it back in 2006.

Well back in October I had a surprise email from the maker, Sandra Loder. She had come across the article about her quilt and got in touch with me. I was delighted to hear from her. She told me that she probably sold it for about £100 - £120. The sashing and blocks are in Laura Ashley fabrics which are probably a few years older than the finished quilt. The block pattern is called Somerset Folded Patchwork (or Somerset Folded Star) and there is a tutorial on a blog called Bronze Wombat. By the way, Bronze Wombat is a super blog and worth a browse if you are at all interested in crafts, gardening and so on from an Australian perspective. The pattern is quite an old one, and the Americans have their own version called porcupine or quill patchwork, although neither of those terms seem to yield much in a Google search so I'd be interested to know if anyone can find any relevant resources.

The quilt is much loved and is in daily use here. Right at this moment it is folded over the back of my sofa along with a crocheted afghan, and piled high with home-made cushions. It decorates our home and it keeps up warm when we snuggle under it in the evenings, and it gives me even more pleasure now I have made contact with the lovely lady who made it.

Buy Nothing Day 2009

2009-11-10T09:42:00.002Z

There's just over a fortnight to go until Buy Nothing Day 2009. What will you be doing on Saturday 28th November this year? You can keep it simple and just buy nothing all that day. Or you can print out and display a poster from the BND website, or join the Facebook group. There are videos to watch on the BND website too.

If you are feeling a bit more energetic you can join an event, or even organise your own. I like the idea of:

Credit card cut up
Volunteers stand in a shopping mall with a pair of scissors and a sign offering a simple service: to put an end to extortionate interest rates and mounting debt with one considerate cut. Be careful though: in some first-world countries, carrying scissors in public can get you arrested as a "terrorist".

Zombie Walk
The cheerful dead wander around malls, marveling at the blank, comatose expressions on the faces of shoppers. The zombies are happy to be among their own kind, but slightly contemptuous of those who have not yet begun to rot.

Whirl–mart
This activity has the advantage of being most likely to piss off security personnel. You and nine of your closest friends silently drive your shopping carts around in a long, inexplicable conga line without ever actually buying anything.

I love Buy Nothing Day because it makes me smile. We're bombarded with advertising telling us that the way to happiness is through buying stuff. So it is easy to characterise anti-consumerists as being cheerless killjoys (I'll let you in on a secret - some of them really are). But it shouldn't be like that. In truth, the pursuit of happiness through buying stuff is guaranteed to end in misery and dissatisfaction. If you ever actually bought the holy gizmo that made you feel fulfilled and happy you would stop buying stuff, and the businesses don't want you to do that. Wandering through a shopping mall dressed up as a zombie sounds way more fun to me than rushing through a shopping mall trying to find the perfect pair of bootcut low-rise stonewashed jeans in my size before the shops shut.

Mass in Blue

2009-11-09T12:02:00.003Z

Last night my choir, St George's Singers, sang Will Todd's Mass in Blue at the Royal Northern College of Music. It's the words of the Latin mass set in a jazz idiom. It works surprisingly well and is terrific fun to sing. We were accompanied by the College's jazz ensemble. The soloist was Tina May, whose delivery was quite extraordinary.

The music is very melodic and rhythmic and "catchy". I know I am not the only member of the choir who has been humming the tunes in the shower ever since we started rehearsals. But it is also very sensitively set to the words. It starts solemnly with Kyrie (Lord have Mercy) set to a plaintive melody reminiscent of a negro spiritual, which the soprano soloist takes away in a soaring variation. The Gloria (Glory to God) is joyful and upbeat, but the Credo (We Believe) is my favourite movement. I have always wanted to sing in a Gospel choir and the Gospel-style writing here is probably the closest I will get. The solo part is just sublime and Miss May's singing was incredible. The Benedictus (Blessed is He) is probably the most fun movement to sing as the different parts of the choir imitate musical instruments in a sort of jazz quartet. The Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) is the most musically complex, but it segues unusually into a reprise of the Credo and the whole mass finishes on the most glorious high. The audience applause was as rapturous as any I have ever heard.

I had a really fantastic day singing this super piece. It will be quite a come-down to start rehearsing boring old familiar Christmas music after this.

The McCains Potato Story

2009-11-06T14:04:00.005Z

I have been inundated by comments and emails since I resumed blogging. Thanks for all the support, Bean Sprouts readers, it means a great deal to me.

I have also heard from some organisations who would like to be featured on the blog. For example McCains (of the oven chips) thought my readers might be interested in the ‘Potato Story’ bus which is currently touring Liverpool.

McCains say that:

1 in 10 children aged 7-11 think chickens lay potatoes (where on earth do they think eggs come from, then?)
1 in 5 have no idea that potatoes are grown in the ground (I've grown most of mine in bags this year, but that's just nit-picky)
1 in 5 don't realise that chips are made from potatoes

That last one may have something to do with children these days getting their chips from plastic bags of frozen oven chips. And no doubt McCains have a marketing agenda here. I doubt they are acting out of the goodness of their hearts. But someone ought to educate children about where food comes from. I rather liked their Potato Story website which features videos and games and resources for parents and schools. The McCains logo is clearly featured on each page. You can make your own mind up about whether that is brand placement or honesty. I'd have been more uneasy if it wasn't there but that's just my response.

McCains have also offered me a couple of gardening kits for kids, which include a gardening set, colouring book and crayons plus some vouchers. I'll always tell you if I am offered an inducement to include anything on the blog, and I try not to let it affect my decision but I'm only human. I was only ever offered cash once and told readers about it straight away. Mostly I get offered books to review. I remember once I was offered biodegradable poop-scoop bags. I usually give them away as competition prizes to readers and that's what I plan to do with the gardening kits.

What do you think about this kind of education-cum-marketing? I think as long as it doesn't masquerade as being independent and unbiased I am OK with it. Do you agree or disagree?

Paper Dolls

2009-11-05T13:35:00.006Z

By the infallible method of "switching it off and on again" I have managed to persuade my scanner to talk to my laptop, so I can share with you the crafts I have been doing this morning. I've been making mixed-media paper dolls and dressing them up with scraps of paper and fabric and embellishments.

A part of me is complaining about the futility of this activity. I am not making clothes, or curtains, or furniture or anything else I will use. But another part of me replies "Shut up. It is fun. I am playing and enjoying myself. Not everything has to have a function."

I'll show you some of the dolls in the book. There was a template you were supposed to copy for this doll, and then dress it however you wanted. But I am so sick to death of female figures invariably being represented as stick-thin that I rebelled and drew my own doll with more lifelike proportions (lifelike to me anyway. I had a good look in the mirror and took a few measurements). I tried to keep the cartoony look, such as the over sized head but the big hips and little bust are true-to-life.

I don't think the public run screaming in horror from images of female bodies that are generously padded. I don't think fat (or just average-sized) women look disgusting or repulsive. And I don't think anorexic lollipop-headed women look beautiful. Beautiful women look beautiful, whatever their size or shape, whether they are fashion models or cartoons or paper dolls.

Thanks for the Welcome

2009-11-05T13:28:00.001Z

Thanks everyone for your kind comments on my last post. I never imagined there would be anyone still reading after all this time.

Yesterday I spent the whole day running around like a blue- fly. The evening was meant to be a relaxing get-together with Lindsey and Andrew, but it took me two-and-a-half hours to make a one-hour journey there. So that only added to my stress.

I decided that today should be a fun day instead, so I have spent the morning doing craft projects from a book called Mixed Mania. I'd like to share my projects with you but my scanner is absolutely refusing to play ball, and as this is meant to be a no-stress day I have quit fighting with it and given up. Instead here is a photo of my dog, Gil, when he was a puppy. He's much bigger than this now but he still has the brain of a Labrador puppy. That is to say he has the brain of a bowl of porridge. On speed.

I'm Back

2009-11-04T13:22:00.002Z

I've been away, but I'm back now. I've been suffering from depression for the last year or so. I only figured it out in April (with prompting from my sister Stephanie, for which I am very grateful), and started getting some help.

While I was ill I was unable to blog. I was unable to cook or garden or craft. I was unable to answer the telephone or read emails or open letters or see people. I'm much, much better now and all these things are starting to return. What is more there are new things in my life. For example I have a dog who makes me laugh, keeps me company and forces me to leave the house and get exercise. While he and I are walking together I notice the flowers and fruit and nuts as their seasons come and go. I notice the migrating birds, the turning leaves, the changing height of the sun at midday and the phases of the moon. He has really been a vital part of my recovery.

I have also taken up art. I love drawing and painting, and other media such as lino prints. I don't think I am expressing any deep inner feelings through my art, unless I have deep inner feelings about fruit and vegetables. But while I am creating I am so engrossed in wordless evaluations of colour, light, line, form etc. that my verbal self-critical inner dialogue is completely closed down, and temporarily I have peace. And this peace has lengthened and spread so that now the nasty inner dialogue is rarely heard at all.

One by one I have picked up the threads of my life and started doing the things that used to give me joy, and reconnected with the people who love and support me. Now I feel ready to begin blogging again. So if there is anyone out there who still reads Bean Sprouts - hi. Thanks for sticking with me. It's good to be home.

I am very sorry for the spam

2009-04-17T13:37:00.002+01:00

Some sort of automated spam bot has been sending messages in Chinese to every single Bean Sprouts post ever. This is irritating enough, but it means that people who have commented on the blog are receiving lots of unwanted emails telling them about followup comments, which are nothing but spam.

I have now added word verification as an anti-spam measure, which I hope should stop this particular spam bot. I apologise to Bean Sprouts readers if their mailboxes are full of this garbage. Imagine what my mail box looks like!

Thanks to VegPlotting for alerting me to the spam bot and sharing the solution with me.

Wet Moon

2009-02-28T19:57:00.004Z

I saw a beautiful "wet moon" tonight; the crescent moon is tilted on its side. It looks like a bowl, or a smile. If you are in the Northern hemisphere and the sky is clear where you are, why not go and have a look at the wet moon? As in the photo, Venus is quite close by the moon tonight.

I used an astronomy website to make the following sky map. You'll need to know your latitude and longitude to get an accurate map for your position, but thanks to the wonders of the internet it's very easy to find that out too. I used this latitude and longitude finder. If you plan on a bit of stargazing tonight, you could print off a star chart for your own location so you know what you are looking at.

Potatoes in Bags

2009-02-20T12:05:00.002Z

In October or November my dad ordered me a kit from Marshall's for growing potatoes in bags. His intention was that I would have home-grown potatoes for Christmas. But the kit only arrived a week or so ago, so today Steph and I planted them up, with some help from Eleanor and Rebecca.

You put about 8" of compost in the bottom of the bag then put three chitted spuds on top and cover with about another 4" of compost. Keep it watered, and as the shoots appear you cover them with more compost until the bag is full. I've had friends who used this method and they were amazed at the size of the crop. They told me the bag is just jam packed full of potatoes by the end.

The kit came with three bags and fifteen Swift seed potatoes. The instructions said to put three spuds in each bag, so we jabbed some holes in the bottom of a half-empty compost bag and planted that up as well. There's nothing magic about the bags that Marshall's sent me - you can grow spuds in any sack or bag or bucket of roughly the right size. The only "magic" is that receiving a kit through the post gave me a kick up the behind to actually do it. Thanks, Dad.

Allotments All the Rage

2009-02-19T09:04:00.004Z

The BBC is reporting that allotments are all the rage. A combination of the credit crunch and eco-awareness is driving a huge interest in vegetable growing. National waiting lists for allotments are said to be over 100,000. According to the BBC:

In some areas, it's more difficult to get an allotment than it is to get in to the most exclusive London clubs, with waiting lists running to 10 years - those that have not been closed altogether.

In order to feed the demand, the National Trust is releasing enough land for 1000 allotments. What caught my eye about the story though was a link to Landshare.net. With a strapline "Linking people who want to grow their own food to space where they can grow it", it struck me as a brilliant idea whose time has come. The ubiquitous Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall appears in a video on the site explaining how the idea works. Or at least that's that it says - I couldn't get it to play. But from what I can gather it seems to be encouraging people to offer their underused gardens in exchange for some of the produce.

So if you can't get an allotment why not sign up to the Landshare website and see if anyone near you has a garden you could use to grow some produce? Or if you have good intentions to do something with your garden but you never seem to actually do it, why not offer your land to someone who desperately wants it? You get to see your garden looking cared-for and productive. You get a share of some of the produce. You get to build up relationships with people in your local community. It's a real win-win arrangement.

Back to the Allotment

2009-02-13T17:31:00.002Z

Ed and I went back to the allotment today for the first time in 2009. We were almost scared of what we would find, and it certainly looked weedy and neglected when we got there. But we harvested some leeks and some borecole (a curly cabbage-related thing). And we found most of the weeds were shallow, surface-rooted things which came up very easily. In an hour and a half we had cleared about an eighth of the whole plot, which is very encouraging.

I'll go back later in the week and plant something in the ground we cleared. Broad beans and garlic can go in at this time. And we'll return once a week to clear a bit more. By the time spring really gets started we should have it all shipshape.

I enjoyed myself enormously. I had forgotten how much I love going there. It helped that it was a beautiful day. The sky was blue and the sun was shining, although there was an inch of ice in the water butt. But after only a short while of digging we had stripped off our layers of woolies and were in our shirtsleeves. I chatted to one of the allotment holders who filled me in on what had happened since I was last there. I took stock of what is still there - my soft fruit bushes, my apple tree, the rhubarb is already coming up and so are the daffodils. Ed and I planned what we would plant in the coming season.

It's good to have dirt under my nails again.

Happy Christmas Bean Sprouts Readers

2008-12-24T13:23:00.002Z

Happy Christmas to all Bean Sprouts readers. Unlike last year, I haven't been keeping you up-to-date with all my festive preparations. Sorry about that. But the preparations have been going on nevertheless - making decorations, giving carol concerts, making gingerbread houses, attending the children's nativity plays, making pickles, playing music, getting ready for dad's arrival from Ireland, and lots of other activities. December's full moon was observed, and the winter solstice remarked, but I didn't share them with you all. I feel bad about that, it's not you - it's me. I simply let myself get out of the habit of regular blogging. I promise to do better in 2009. But for now I wish you all a very merry Christmas, and see you again soon.

Tumble Dryer Again

2008-12-01T09:47:00.001Z

A lot of people commented on the Tumble Dryer story I posted last week. Many were surprised that I admitted to having a tumble dryer. Simon Sherlock said "I'm astonished anybody can afford to run a tumble dryer at the moment, and amazed that Mel even considers one." And Compostwoman said "We don't have one...never have , never will..we dry stuff on the line OR in the house and if it looks wet, I don't wash stuff until another day."

But others were pleased I had written about it. Lizzie said "I felt a lot less naughty for occasional use of the tumble drier when I read your post Melanie. I cant dry on radiators at the moment as that would involve putting the heating on, which we havn't so far this year." and Anonymous said "It's easy for those who don't use tumble driers to feel smug - however consider that other people's life styles, house size, family size might make life more difficult for them to do this"

If people can dry their clothes without using electricity then obviously that's great. It's great for the environment, it's great for their finances, it's great for their clothes too - nothing feels or smells the same as line-dried clothes.

But for some people (me, for example, and several Bean Sprouts readers too) it's not an option all the time. And I guess for some people it's not an option any of the time. I don't feel bad about this. I do other things for the environment and for my bills. I am confident that I am doing what I can do. And I keep trying to learn more and do more to do my bit to live more sustainably on the planet.

I'm thinking of changing the tagline on this blog to "Bean Sprouts - Greener Than Thou". Just kidding. I'm actually thinking of changing it to "Bean Sprouts - You Don't Have To Do Everything". You don't have to do everything. You just have to do something. You don't have to live in a cave. You don't have to go about in damp clothes if there's just no green way for you to dry them. You don't have to save the planet single-handedly. And you don't have to feel bad about the things other people do that aren't practical for you. There's almost certainly something you do that they don't do, anyway. It's not a competition to see who's greenest. What it is, is a feeling of personal responsibility that I should do my bit. And I do, so my occasional use of the tumble dryer doesn't bother me.

Sunday Funnies

2008-11-30T11:04:00.002Z

I love this video of a bloke who spends over £80 on beauty products which the saleswoman promised would make him feel more youthful, energised and better-looking. Two weeks later he shows "before and after" photos of himself to passers-by who all agree he looks no different. So he returns to the store and loudly demands his money back. The reactions of the staff and other shoppers are priceless.

Buy Nothing Day

2008-11-29T10:00:00.000Z

Happy Buy Nothing Day 2008! According to the BND website:

It's a simple idea, which challenges consumer culture by asking us to switch off from shopping for a day. Its a global stand off from consumerism - celebrated as a holiday by some and street party for others! Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

As we enter the headlong rush towards Christmas, it sometimes seems like every celebration is an excuse for a huge orgy of consumption these days. So I really love the idea of a celebration specifically and solely about non-consumption. I will be observing BND 2008 by working on my home-made Christmas presents and spending time at home with my family. We might paint some Warhammer fantasy miniatures together. We might play some multi-player Wii games. If the weather is nice we might head to the park. I'll probably send some Buy Nothing Day e-cards (they're free, natch).

What are you going to do for Buy Nothing Day 2008?

Tumble Dryer

2008-11-24T10:00:00.002Z

My broken tumble dryer has been repaired. Hurrah! I think it did me no harm at all to do without it for a while. It's good to have a reminder that the old ways of doing things still work. And certainly I got lazy and used the dryer when I could really have hung things on the line instead. But by golly, it's good to have it back.

Sunday Funnies

2008-11-23T10:51:00.004Z

Buy Nothing Day 2008 is coming soon. If you're not sure what BND is all about or whether you want to participate, watch this short animation by Friends of the Earth

Cartoon strip by Throbgoblins. Click the panel to read the whole strip.

One Week to Buy Nothing Day

2008-11-22T10:00:00.003Z

In one week's time it will be Buy Nothing Day again. It's a day where you challenge yourself to switch off from shopping and tune into life.

The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

It's time to plan what you are going to do for Buy Nothing Day 2008. Check out the BND website for an event to join, such as the Food For Free Freeconomy Feast in Bristol, the Big Green Giveaway in Birmingham, or the Go Green Fair in Southampton. Or you could organise your own event in your local town, there are hints and tips on the Toolkit page at the BND website. Or you could spend some time with people you like doing something fun that doesn't involve buying stuff. How radical is that?

What are you going to do? Leave a comment and let me know.

Sprouts - Not Just for Christmas

2008-11-21T10:21:00.004Z

In the summer I long to eat salad and vegetables, fish and cold chicken. But when the cold weather comes I welcome the swede and leeks, roast meats, pies and casseroles, and yes, sprouts. It seems to confuse Ed when I serve sprouts. He said "It's not Christmas yet is it?" But sprouts are not just for Christmas. Steamed and served with a knob of butter and plenty of black pepper (or better still, ground nutmeg), they're divine. I had mine with a nice gammon steak and some boiled potatoes.

The next day I used the leftover vegetables and some proper corned beef from the butcher to make bubble and squeak for my lunch the next day. And that's the best bit of all. Ed doesn't realise, but that's the real reason I served him sprouts the night before.

Make a Christmas Gift

2008-11-20T10:07:00.004Z

How are you doing with the Make a Christmas Gift Challenge? I have to confess, I haven't yet started on dad's waistcoat. I did do a lot of sewing though. I made historical costumes for two of my children. Their school organises historical days each year, and sends home a description of what sorts of clothes the children should wear on the day to get into the feel. The teachers dress up too, it's always great fun. Last year everyone was1 Vikings, and the year before it was WWII. This year they were Tudors.

Dad, if you could email me or phone me with your chest measurement. That's all I need to know to make you a waistcoat. I promise I'll get stuck in straight away. I enjoyed making the kids' costumes and I'm in the mood to do more garment sewing.

22 of you voted already to say you have started making Christmas gifts, so I'm definitely behind the field but I'm determined to catch up. If you haven't already voted, why not? You can find the poll in the right-hand sidebar.

R.I.P. Hugg

2008-11-19T10:39:00.003Z

Two days ago Hugg died. Hugg used to be one of my favourite websites - run by the fabulous Treehugger, it was like Digg for green stories. I used to submit Bean Sprouts stories to Hugg to get a few more hits here, and a few of them made the front page. I never made the front page of Digg. And I also read Hugg to get a heads-up on upcoming green stories. It rocked.

But really Hugg had been sick for a long time. It started to die about a year ago, when Treehugger relaunched it with much fanfare. Except new Hugg was a bit like new coke. It sucked. It wasn't half as good as old Hugg. The readership of Hugg dwindled. The amount of traffic it brought to Bean Sprouts dropped to about nothing. The number of good stories on there dropped to only slightly more than nothing. And I gave up on it. So it's not really a surprise that Treehugger gave up on it too.

R.I.P. Hugg. We really need something to replace you.

Remembrance Day

2008-11-11T09:26:00.004Z

Today is the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War. On Sunday I attended a remembrance service at Poynton church. My 7-year-old son, Sam, was there with his beaver scout unit, dressed in his uniform and marching in the parade. Inside the church a young local man who had just returned from Afghanistan spoke about his experiences. As we all stood by the war memorial for the two minute's silence at 11am, I watched the cub scouts shivering in their shorts and wondered what they made of it all. I think perhaps in a world where they are mostly pestered by their parents to wrap up warm, they must at least have understood that this was something important. Important enough that hundreds of people gathered on a sleety November day to shiver together with heads bowed.

I stood in remembrance services as a child myself. I knew what they were about. Well, sort of. They were about The War (we still say "The War", as if there was only one war. As if war is now over. As if). They were about the Men Who Died (and the men who lived, and the women who died and lived). Ah, forget it, I didn't really understand at all. When I stand in remembrance services now I look at my sons shivering in their scout uniforms, standing next to boys who look hardly older in their army uniforms, some with medals already on their chests. And I shiver too.

But I still don't understand. I haven't been to war. Nobody I know personally has been to war whilst I've been alive. I try to imagine what it would be like if my children joined the services and went somewhere like Afghanistan or Iraq. I understand more now than when I was a child, but I still don't really understand.

I hope I never understand. I hope my kids never go to the front. I hope we will soon bring our boys home from Iraq and Afghanistan. I hope we learn to quit meddling with other parts of the world - we only ever make things worse in the long run. I hope we use our brave servicemen and women to defend our own country if need be and to do peacekeeping services around the world, but not to make war. I hope we equip them properly for that job, and repay them properly for their service, take care of their families properly and take care of them if they are injured. I hope Britain never starts a war again, and I hope we never again join the cause of a nation that starts a war. This I hope, and I pray.

Pumpkin Pie

2008-11-07T13:45:00.004Z

I made pumpkin pie today, as I do every year from the scrapings of our Hallowe'en pumpkins. This year I used ready-made shortcrust pastry for a change. After all, the pastry isn't the best thing about the pie, it's really just a shell to hold the spicy pumpkin-flavoured custard. So why take a lot of effort over it if you don't want to?

Delia Smith got a lot of stick a little while ago for teaching people how to cheat at cooking. I don't understand why though. I'll take Delia over ten of your Gordon Ramsays any day. I understood what Delia meant, and I think it showed a deep understanding of the difference between good food and bad food. Take instant powdered mashed potato for example. It's a travesty. It's not food at all. It's some sort of fake food substitute. Here are the ingredients (I found them on the web):
Potato (82%), Full Cream Milk Powder (15%), Salt, Emulsifier: Mono and Di Glycerides of Fatty Acids, Antioxidant: Ascorbyl Palmitate, Natural Colour: Curcumin

It can't do you any good to eat it and it doesn't even taste nice. But frozen mashed potato is a different kettle of fish. The ingredients are:
Potato, Milk, Butter (2%), Salt, White Pepper.

I don't know how you make mashed potato, but that's exactly how I do it. And that's what Delia was trying to say. Use your brain. Distinguish good food from bad food. You don't have to make everything from scratch. Even top chefs don't do that. I know how to make butter from scratch but I only do it once in a while, for fun (or by accident). Most of the time I buy my butter like everyone else, top chefs included. I know how to make bread from scratch. Is it cheating if I buy a loaf instead? How about if I buy it from a farmer's market instead of from a supermarket? Is that less cheating? Why?

What matters is not that you make every damn thing from scratch every time, but only that you know good food from bad, and that you choose the good food most of the time. If having access to ready made pastry means you make apple pie at home from apples, sugar and cinnamon, rather than buying Mr Kipling's apple pies (ingredients: Wheat Flour, Apple (21%), Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Glucose Syrup, Dextrose, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Modified Maize Starch, Humectant (Vegetable Glycerine), Salt, Acidity Regulator (Malic Acid), Raising Agents (Disodium Dihydrogen Diphosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Preservatives (Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Metabisulphite), Gelling Agent (Sodium Alginate), Adipic Acid, Milk Protein, Flavouring) then I think ready-made pastry is a really good thing.

Remember, Remember

2008-11-06T09:17:00.002Z

Eleanor reminded me last night to shut Tic Tac, our cat, indoors all night. It was Bonfire Night here in England and animals can be traumatised by all the bangs and flashes.

It was good advice and I intended to follow it. But I had felt flu-ey all day, and I fell asleep (or perhaps "passed-out" would be more truthful) at about 5pm and slept through until 7.30am. So I never did lock the cat flap last night.

This morning when I woke up Tic Tac was not about. This was worrying as he is the most intensely sociable cat I have ever known. He is always there when the family is assembled, trying to join in the activity and the conversation and generally thinking that he's a human being. I went out into the garden and called his name over and over. And Ed walked up and down the crescent looking for him, to no avail.

Then when I was ushering the kids into the car to take them to school, I heard something. With difficulty I persuaded the kids to be silent and we could clearly make out the sound of a cat mewing. We tracked down the sound to our garage. Ed had accidentally locked him in when he locked up his motorbike for the night (I told you the cat follows us around and tries to join in with everything we do).

So Tic Tac had been locked inside for Bonfire Night after all. Perhaps the angel of cats was looking after him when I was too poorly to do it myself.

Portrait of Tom

2008-11-03T13:43:00.003Z

My sister Steph has gone home. We always have a great time when she's here. This time we spent a lot of time celebrating Hallowe'en - decorating the house, carving pumpkins, organising costumes and face-painting for everyone, children and grown-ups. We made mock pumpkin soup and stuffed squash. We got together with our other sister, Lindsey and her husband Andrew and had a lot of fun. We also painted some of Tom's Warhammer miniatures - his latest hobby is fantasy wargaming.

But mainly we did art. Steph taught me to use soft chalk pastels. I'd never used them at all before she arrived. I did a number of drawings with the pastels under Steph's guidance, but I'm happiest with this one of Tom. In fact, I've framed it and hung it in the living room.

Sunday Funnies

2008-11-02T08:12:00.003Z

George Carlin on saving the planet.

Cartoon by Marc Roberts at Throbgoblins. Click on the panel to read the whole strip.

November Challenge - Make a Christmas Gift

2008-11-01T14:29:00.003Z

Assumption #1 - Sometimes you get to Christmas and wish you had given hand-made gifts instead of buying everything from Argos (or wherever)

Assumption #2 - One year you decided to give only hand-made gifts for Christmas, and ended up with a nervous breakdown because you couldn't possibly do it all in time

Assumption #3 - At least once you decided to make someone a hand-made gift for Christmas but didn't get it finished in time. In fact you never got it finished at all

So, this year is going to be different. I'm going to give at least one hand-made gift this Christmas, but no more than three. And they're not going to be huge and time-consuming. They're going to be of a size and scale that is achievable without me being committed to a mental institution. And I'm going to start now. This week. That's November's challenge.

I have already agreed with my dad that I am going to make him a waistcoat for Christmas. he and I picked the pattern together, and bought the fabric and all the notions. All I need are his measurements. So dad, I'll be emailing you a list of the dimensions I need. If you can't do them yourself, you'll have to ask one of your friends to measure you. Once I've got the measurements I'm going to get stuck in, and it will be finished in plenty of time. I've made garments many times before, so I know how long it will take to do. It's not so quick and easy that dad might feel I hadn't spent any time or effort on his gift. But it's not so big and time-consuming that I won't have it finished in time (like dad's quilt which is still half-quilted). It's just the right size for a hand-made Christmas gift project.

If you'd like to join in, choose a realistic gift to make for someone this Christmas, and get started as soon as possible. Tell me what you have decided to make, and keep me posted about your progress. And don't forget to vote in the poll in the right-hand sidebar to say when you've done it.

Pumpkin Ale

2008-10-31T08:40:00.003Z

Pumpkin Ale by Badger. Is it just me or is "real ale" getting crapper? This gimmicky "bitter" actually had very little bitterness and an overload of sweetness and fizziness. The flavour wasn't very complex or interesting. I could maybe detect a hint of pumpkin and clove flavours like it said on the label. But to be honest if it didn't have "pumpkin" printed on it, and a cute carved pumpkin on the cap, I don't think I would have said "ooh! tastes of pumpkin" just from drinking it.

If you like Hobgoblin by Wychwood you might like this. They're similarly sweet and fizzy. Actually Hobgoblin is rather better than this, the flavours are darker and more complex. Pumpkin Ale could be an interesting thing to serve at a Hallowe'en party where the company and the atmosphere are more important than the food and drink. I'm sure it would taste a lot better if you were wearing fancy dress and listening to "The Monster Mash". But I won't be buying it again after today.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Un-Shopping

2008-10-30T10:28:00.003Z

My sister Lindsey and I went through my wardrobe and yanked out everything that doesn't fit me any more, everything too ratty to wear any more, and other things that needed de-cluttering. We also discovered some things I haven't worn for ages, and things I had forgotten I owned, and Lindsey suggested different ways of combining items into outfits I hadn't thought of before. Then she took some things from the "give to charity" pile that she wanted for herself. It was a lot of fun.

The next day she brought me some things from her own wardrobe that she didn't wear any more and thought would suit me, or would go with outfits I already had. And we hit the local charity shops and found some great bargains. We bought a few items new, too, from a shopping list we devised of "must-haves" (e.g. that brown skirt you have is fabulous but you really need a couple of matching tops and a brown belt to go with it).

So now I have a totally new wardrobe of outfits to wear, but with a minimal budget. And Lindsey and I had a great time together doing sisterly girly stuff, dressing up and trying different looks out. I get the point of retail therapy. I understand why people like to go to the shopping mall for a day as a leisure activity to cheer themselves up. I understand the pleasure of coming home with an armful of trophies from your day of 21st century hunting-and-gathering. But my green instincts rebel at the wastefulness of shopping for the sake of shopping, and treating clothes as if they were disposable. So it's nice to find ways of getting the same retail rush with a clean eco-conscience.

Hen House Cleaning

2008-10-29T12:10:00.002Z

I thought I was so clever, using shredded waste paper as chicken bedding. But the problem is that shredded paper, when combined with chicken poo and left to dry, becomes a kind of combination of papier mache and adobe. It's almost completely impossible to remove from any surface it adheres to, including hens' ankles. On the other hand, I may have inadvertently invented an exciting new environmentally-friendly building material.

Yesterday's News

2008-10-28T10:38:00.003Z

Steph and I went to my favourite art and craft supplies shop, Fred Aldous in Manchester. And one of the things we bought was a set of coloured pencils made from recycled Chinese newspapers. The newspapers are so tightly wrapped around the coloured lead that it feels like a normal wooden pencil, and can be sharpened with a regular pencil sharpener. But you can read the text on the outside of the pencil (if you can read Chinese). The packaging seems to be made of Chinese newspapers too. Very groovy.

You can also buy them online for £2.99 from Giftmonger.com

My Biggest Fan

2008-10-27T15:40:00.004Z

If you are drying clothes indoors, either through choice or necessity, an electric fan speeds it up considerably but it still uses a lot less juice than a tumble dryer.

Sunday Funny

2008-10-26T13:46:00.004Z

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I haven't vanished again. But my sister Steph has arrived for a visit over half term. We've been learning to draw in pastels (well I've been learning, Steph is already very good at it), decorating the house for hallowe'en, shopping for our brother-in-law Andrew's birthday presents (happy birthday Andrew!) and generally having lots of fun.

Since it's Sunday, here are some funnies:

After an exhaustive three year study, scientists at the University of the Isle of Dogs, East London, (UIDEL) have discovered what they think could be the real cause of global warming - people all over the world hanging out their washing to dry writes special washing correspondent Barry Rooster.

The boffins say that when freshly-laundered clothes - especially whites and light coloureds - are hung on washing lines, they reflect the sun's rays upwards, leading to an increase in the greenhouse effect.

Head of Research Gunther Smallpiece comments: "We've previously been told to reduce the temperature on our washing machines to save electricity, but this is fact counter-effective. We will recommend to the government that the population use the full drying cycle on their machines, instead of hanging the garments outside in the fresh air". And he goes further: "This is so serious, we'd like to see hanging washing outdoors to be banned in the same way as smoking indoors.""We'd like to see it become, if you like, a 'hanging offence'!", he jokes, proving conclusively that even dull scientists do have a sense of humour.

From The Spoof.

Cartoon from Throbgoblins. Click on the panel to read the whole strip.