A Holiday, A Holiday

We're off to the Cropredy music festival today for four days. We've gone every year since we were teenagers. We love the camping, the music, the food, the shopping, the atmosphere, we love meeting up with our friends, we even love the weather. I've written some blog posts and saved them to be published automatically whilst we're away. But I won't be able to reply to emails or comments until I get back. And even then I'm only back for a couple of days before I head straight off to my dad's house in Ireland.

Mass in B Minor

Last night I sang Bach's Mass in B Minor with St George's Singers at the Manchester Bridgewater Hall. We had a stellar line-up of soloists, including Nancy Argenta and Michael George, although I agree with the reviewer from the Manchester Evening News who thought that the countertenor Tim Mead (a last-minute replacement for Robin Blaze) stole the show.

Of the choir, the MEN reviewer said:

The way they handled the complex choral writing, whether in four, five, or eight parts, producing a mellow, balanced sound every time, is a tribute to the qualities of the choir's members and the skill at work in their training.

He seemed to especially enjoy the Kyrie and Sanctus which we sang from memory:

... there was no forcing in the singing there or anywhere else: instead a transparent sound which demonstrated how well the choristers knew their notes.

You can read the full review here.

It was a thrilling end to a wonderful season. In May we sang The Daily Service live on Radio 4. In March we sang Rachmaninov's Vespers at Gorton Monastery with readings by Terry Waite and Joan Bakewell. In February we sang Elijah three times with Paul McCreesh, an internationally renowned conductor, which was a huge thrill. We sang Brahms' German Requiem in a day in January, and carol concerts of course in December. In November we performed a very challenging programme of 20th Century English choral music which was hard work and very nerve-wracking, but gave us a fantastic springboard for everything that followed.

We've got 2 months off now before we resume in September. Tomorrow will be the end-of-season party - everyone brings a plate of food and a bottle of drink to share, and we get up and sing silly songs and crack jokes and have fun together for one last time before the summer break.

I can't imagine life without music, without singing and playing, practicing and performing music, going to concerts and listening to CDs, and all the friends I have found because of a shared love of music. I love teaching guitar to 6-11 year olds, because lessons like that set me on the path to lifelong music-making. It's great to pass the baton to a new generation.

Money-Saving Toothpaste Tip

There's a hoary old urban legend about a high-level meeting of toothpaste executives trying to come up with an idea to sell more toothpaste. A lowly cleaning woman overhears the meeting and suggests her own idea - make the hole bigger.

Have you ever actually read the instructions on a tube of toothpaste? They say "Use a pea-sized amount". But the photograph on the box always shows a long "worm" of toothpaste on the brush - that's about four or five times as much as you actually need.

But don't take my word for it. Last night I picked the brains of a friend of mine, Geoff Taylor, retired Dean of Postgraduate Dentistry at the University of Manchester. I asked him whether toothpaste was necessary at all, or whether thorough brushing without paste would suffice. I've tried brushing my teeth without paste sometimes when we ran out. It tastes pretty nasty, as all the bits of stuff you brush loose are released into your mouth. Mint-flavoured toothpaste makes brushing much more pleasant. But once you rinse with water and eat your breakfast, it doesn't really make any difference -your mouth just tastes of coffee and corn flakes by then regardless of what you used to brush your teeth.

Geoff said that toothpaste is worthwhile, especially for children who should use a fluoridated toothpaste. But he pointed out to me that everybody uses far too much toothpaste because of the images used in marketing the stuff. He recommends that you spread your toothpaste across your brush, not along it, to get a pea-sized amount.

He also said that, in his professional opinion, mouthwashes were not necessary for dental health. And he told me that people should floss if advised to by their dentist, but it is not necessary for everyone.

You're not going to save enough money to retire early by using less toothpaste. Nor are you going to reduce your carbon footprint significantly. But it's a lesson in using your brain to reduce overconsumption without hardship. What else are you using too much of because of sneaky marketing? When you wash your hair do you always "rinse and repeat"? Then you're using twice as much shampoo as you need to. It's hard for a company to get twice as many customers, but it's quite easy for them to persuade their existing customers to use twice as much. Read the instructions and think hard - how much do you really need?

One final thought; have you noticed that toothpaste tubes dont stay rolled up nowadays when you get to the end of the tube? It says here that's so you can always see the whole logo.

Link Love: Marc Roberts

Marc Roberts is a friend of Bean Sprouts. He draws and writes (sometimes with the help of Marc Hudson) the cartoons I usually publish on Sundays. If you're too impatient to wait for next Sunday you can have your fill of Cantankerous Frank, The Chocolate Fireguard and all of Marc's other creations by visiting his website, Throbgoblins.

He very generously allows free use of his cartoons for campaigning, educational or other ethical purposes, as long as credit is given to the cartoonist and the site. See the bottom of his website for details. If you're a green blogger, why not add Marc's cartoons to your own site? The specifically climate-related cartoons are all gathered in one blog called Climate Chaos. There is also a non-blog website called Climate Cartoons, where the climate cartoons are arranged into categories. So if you know you want a single-panel cartoon to fit your blog layout, or if you want to see all of the Labrats cartoons in one place, it's eaier to find what you want at Climate Cartoons than at a blog.

Marc also has a new website where he uploads his art rather than cartoons. It's called More Joy in Heaven and I very much like the paintings he has put on there so far. I have lots of talents but art is not one of them and I am in awe of people who can imagine and create images like this. I'd very much like to buy one of Marc's paintings. I'll have to get in touch with him about that.

Why not go and visit Marc's blogs? You've got a pretty wide choice - edgy political and environmental cartoons, or serious art with mythological themes. Leave him a comment. Tell him I sent you. Enjoy.

The Rubbish Diet

Have you been following the progress of The Rubbish Diet? Regular Bean Sprouts commenter Karen Cannard (aka 21st Century Mummy, aka almost mrs average) has been aiming to slim her bin to a size 0 by Zero Waste Week which started on 10th March, and she has been blogging about her family's quest to do just that.

The latest entry tells how, with a lots of effort and a bit of lateral thinking, she put only one item in her black (landfill) bin during zero-waste week - a used sticking plaster. She also starred on BBC Radio 4 Women's Hour between the 10th and 14th of March, and you can listen to the show on the Women's Hour website.

I loved the way she announced it:

Today is Bin Day and I am going to celebrate by NOT PUTTING THE BIN OUT...because for the first time in my life as a responsible adult...there's no need to.....HOORAY! Indeed, if I keep this up, I won't have to put it out for weeks or months!

We all hate putting the bins out, don't we? Wouldn't it be great if we could all make as little waste as Karen, so we didn't have to put the bins out at all?

My Bees Survived the Winter

I went to check on my bees today to see if they survived the winter. I would have been very happy if one of my two colonies had survived, as I could quickly build back up to two colonies if I had at least one. But I was braced to lose them both, and have to buy bees this year. My guru, Arnie, lost six out of his ten colonies this winter, and if he can lose so many I didn't rate my own newbie chances.

To my great joy, both colonies survived! One is very strong, with loads of healthy active bees and lots of honey stores. The other colony is much weaker; few in numbers but active and with honey stores - but it has suffered terrible mouse damage. I haven't seen anything like it. Some mice made a nest in the brood box and chomped their way through honey, wax, and woodwork. The buggers! The bees must have been too drowsy and perhaps too low in numbers to attack the mice. The mice have cleared off now the weather is warmer and the bees are more active, but they've made a terrible mess. I didn't take my camera to the apiary so I can't show you the damaged hive. But I brought some stored wax combs home to clean them up. The mice have had a good munch on those too, and that's what you can see in the photo.

I'm going to take off the honey that's there and extract it, so I'll have my own honey soon! I'll melt down the damaged wax, fix up the damaged frames and give my bees new frames with new wax foundation to work on. So I'll have my own wax soon, too. Then I'll feed my bees to build them up good and strong so they'll have plenty of workers ready to collect the spring nectar when the flow is strongest. If there is any sign of varroa I'll treat them with Apistan, a thymol-based anti-varroa treatment. That's why I've got to take the honey off, because the Apistan would contaminate it.

I'm very grateful for the expert help of my guru Arnie. He also helped me compile a shopping list so I can get everything I need to get my colonies back on track. And I'm grateful for Sam's help. He was feeling quite perky by the afternoon (he was off school with a cough and a temperature) and wanted to come and see the bees, so he suited up and came with us. He wasn't at all bothered when the bees flew around him and landed on him, even on his veil right in front of his eyes. He had a good close look and was very interested in the mouse damage. Maybe he'll be a beekeeper when he grows up.

Flipping mice! Eating all my honey! Grrrr!!

Review: Seasons of Love

I went to a concert by the Manchester Lesbian and Gay Chorus last night. A friend of mine was thinking of joining them, and wanted to go to the concert to check them out. She asked me to go with her, and I'm really glad she did because we had a great night.

They are a community choir, which means you don't have to audition to join, and they perform a much lighter repertoire than my usual choir, St George's Singers. Last night's concert included numbers such as Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, Can You Feel The Love Tonight (from Disney's The Lion King) and Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.

They have a lovely sound, beautifully blended, and I was very impressed how well they maintained pitch considering they performed a capella (without accompaniment) and they are not trained singers. They sang with lots of energy and sensitivity, helped by the fact that they learn all their music by ear since most of them do not read music. This meant they all kept unbroken eye contact with their conductor, professional choral trainer Jeff Borradaile, who used exaggerated changes in dynamic and tempo to add vitality and interest to the music, and the choir followed him perfectly.

Interest was also added by the choir occasionally splitting into smaller groups - a group of 9 men (The Cocquettes) and a group of 7 women (The Sapphonics). There were also two spoken monologues during the evening, which added variety to the evening.

They seem to be a friendly, tight-knit group who have a lot of fun. This, coupled with the great quality of the singing, convinced my friend that she did indeed want to join them. As we chatted to people in the bar after the concert I was invited to join too, but I don't actually qualify. And in any case I do something else on Monday evenings, when they rehearse. But I'm looking forward to attending more of their concerts to support my friend when she joins.

I think my favourite piece last night was Ysaye Barnwell's For Each Child That's Born. Some of the lyrics are:

We are our grandmother's prayers
We are our grandfather's dreamings
We are the breath of the ancestors
We are the spirit of all.

Cartoon by Climate Cartoons. Click on the panel to see the complete strip.

The Rubbish Diet

Regular Bean Sprouts commenter 21st Century Mummy has a new blog - The Rubbish Diet. She's aiming to slim her bin to a size 0 by Zero Waste Week, commencing on 10th March 2008, and the blog is all about her family's quest to do just that.

As well as interesting and funny blog posts about her wheelie bin's weight loss programme, she also has a great collection of links to recycling and zero-waste websites. Check it out!

New Chickens

My neighbour, Maria, came around yesterday to offer us two chickens. She has seven, and two of them don't get on with the other five, who bully them. She thought they might get on better with my two, since the numbers are equal. It's worth a shot.

She brought them round at dusk and we shoved them in the coop. The four sleepy chickens clucked softly at each other a bit, but soon settled down. By the time they were fully alert (well, as alert as chickens get) they had already been together 12 hours and so were somewhat familiar and less inclined to fight. They're a bit "This is our corner of the run and that can be your corner" but they're not actually battling each other. I think they'll be fine.

Maria says the new chickens are Rhode Island Reds. I'm no breed expert, but that looks about right to me. They hatched last April and so haven't been laying very long. A hen only has so many eggs in her before she stops laying, so it's good to get them young. Ours are a couple of years old now, and sooner or later they'll stop laying, although they're still very good layers and have laid all through this winter which is great.

I'm not expecting any eggs at all for a few days until the four of them settle in together, but then we should have 4 eggs a day, which is more than we eat. I plan to sell the surplus, to pay for the chicken feed. Then the eggs we eat will be free, in effect. Free eggs, free-range organic eggs as well. You can't complain about that.

If We Build It, They Will Come

I want a cat, but Ed isn't so sure. Then my friend Guy pointed out that I don't need to get a cat, I just need to get a cat flap. Someone I used to work for believed that there was a cat god who sends cats to people who really need them. So now we have a cat flap. If we build it, they will come.

Pink Dresser

Steph has gone home. Dad is still here for another week and a half. We had loads of fun whilst she was here - yesterday we all went bowling with our other sister Lindsey and her husband Andrew. Then we all had dinner at a pub and had a whale of a time playing the "yes no" game. Then after we put the kids to bed, Steph and I headed out again to a Twelfth Night party thrown by some friends of mine (Hi to Sylvia and Ted if you're reading this!).

Here is a photo of the dresser Ed made to Steph's design, using mostly materials we had in the shed. We had to buy a sheet of hardboard for the back, and some cuphooks (not yet installed) so the whole piece cost us just over £3. I love it enormously and it makes me smile whenever it catches my eye. I needed some shelves to store a few items that tend to clutter up the kitchen. And I knew I wanted it to be a "funky" colour, rather than a "tasteful" colour. It had to be painted rather than woodstained, to hide the fact that some of the shelves are pine, and some are MDF whilst the back is made of hardboard.

Recycled Bird Feeder

A friend of mine from a Usenet group, Ivan Reid, invented a quick and easy recycled bird feeder using a Pringles tin and a sardine can. There are instructions of how to make it on his webpage.

He says the design has been slightly refined over the years:

You might want to note that it finally succumbed to the elements after about 2-1/2 years. Also it's very windy in my backyard and I kept losing the cap off the top, so I cut the top off a 1-1/2 litre mineral-water bottle just below the neck and slipped that over the top to keep the rain out.

I like it a lot. Of course, it's not exactly a thing of beauty. But I don't put out birdfeeders to adorn the garden. I put them out to attract the birds, which are more beautiful than any garden ornament.

Leftovers? We Call Them Ingredients

I spent a happy day in the kitchen today dealing with the leftovers from Christmas dinner.

Juices and fat from the roast ham - became pease pudding with the addition of a bag of split peas.

Uneaten turkey, gravy - became two things. 1. two helpings of turkey in gravy (frozen) 2. turkey and caramelised onion flan (frozen)

Uneaten ham - was sliced and frozen in 8oz portions, trimmings were stirred into the pease pudding

Turkey carcase - became turkey soup

Leftover veggies, surplus cream, cheese - became vegetable quiche with cheesey pastry (eaten fresh with reheated leftover roast potatoes and sprouts)

Spare bits of cheesey pastry from the quiche and flan - became cheese straws for kids to nibble on

And there is still some sliced ham, turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing in the fridge for sandwiches (omelettes, stir fries etc.), along with loads of leftover pudding, mincemeat, Christmas cake etc.

Dad has gone up to Sunderland to spend New Year with Steph and our North Eastern relatives. He is under strict instructions to bring back some saveloys and stotty cake to go with the pease pudding. And two old uni friends came for a brief visit which made me very happy. Now they know where we are I hope they'll come again.

What are you making with your Christmas leftovers?

Beth Made Yogurt

Beth from the Fake Plastic Fish Tank made her own yogurt. When I posted my list of 10 reasons why everyone should make their own yogurt, I didn't think to include reducing plastic waste - but that's what inspired Beth to make it.

It looks great, Beth. And thanks for the list of uses for whey, as well.

Link Love

A roundup of some blogs I like, or have recently discovered.

I'm always linking to my sister's blog, A Roker Artist, but I never explain what it is. Steph was a prolific and gifted artist when she was younger, but marriage, children, work and housekeeping pushed painting and drawing to the sidelines for many years (why do we women allow that to happen? You can bet Michelangelo never felt he mustn't paint until he had caught up with the vacuuming and laundry). She wants to bring them to the fore again because they are a vital and precious part of who she is, but it's hard to create art in a vacuum so she blogs about her sketches, her works-in-progress and her completed works, as well as her life in general as it impacts on her creativity.

I'm hoping to convince our other sister, Lindsey, to start a blog too. Perhaps she could blog about her music and promote her wonderful new album.

Steph's best friend, Hazel, has recently started her own blog, Living and Mothering in the Chilly Northeast. Hazel blogs about natural parenting and childbirth. She's a qualified NCT breastfeeding counsellor and all round earth mother. I've never met her but I feel I know her because Steph tells me so much about her. Apparently we're kindred spirits, she and I, and it's nice to be able to get to know her through her blog.

Another new blogger about natural living is Mandi at Lettuce Live Naturally. Mandi is still finding her blogging voice, but so far she has published a mixture of long factual articles about irradiated food, dodgy historical medical treatments, and vaccinations, along with some lighter videos such as the one at the top of this post. I'll be keeping my eye on Mandi's blog.

There are a lot of gardening blogs in my blogroll. Petunia's Garden is one of my favourites, and I have recently been enjoying her beautiful photographs of her winter garden. I also enjoy reading Happy Hobby Habit. Not so much photography, this one, but her rant about Christmas shopping made me smile.

Chile Chews is a regular commenter here on Bean Sprouts, and blogs about sustainable living in the desert. One of the things I like about her blog is that her environment is so different from mine here in Cheshire, where it has rained more-or-less continuously throughout 2007. I enjoy reading The Frugal World of Doc, by an Australian handyman, for the same reason.

On the subject of frugal blogs, one of my favourites is Lazy Man and Money (subtitled Making My Money Work So I Don't Have To). It's more about personal finance than tips to save money by making orange nets into pot scrubbers, and as it's American some of the saving and tax advice is not relevant to UK readers. But I enjoy his philosophical articles, such as his cynicism about advertising.

Azura Skye has also been writing about advertising recently. She's following a raw food diet lately and blogging about that. I can't say it appeals to me in the slightest, but it's interesting to follow other people's experiments.

I hope you find time to check out some of these interesting blogs, and maybe leave them a comment to encourage them to keep on blogging. The whole blogging phenomenon is an interesting one - anyone can set up their soap-box and tell the world what's on their mind. Some of these people will attract a large readership. Some will attract a small but dedicated readership. And some will hardly be heard at all. And as blogs link to one another, and quote from one another, ideas spread out like ripples on a pond. I find it exciting, and I'm glad to be a part of it. Please tell me about other great blogs you think I should know about.

Christmas Quiz

Here's a quick quiz about last Christmas:
1. What did your partner give you?
2. What did you give your partner?
3. What did your parents give you?
4. What did you give them?
5. What did you give your kids?
6. How much did you spend?

I'm not really interested in the answers, I'm interested in whether you found the questions easy or hard. In a recent BBC news story:

...more than half of men have forgotten what their partner got them last year. And women were also forgetful of their gifts, with 43.2% unable to recall what they received from their partners.

Here are a few more questions:
7. What's the best Christmas gift you ever received as a child?
8. What's the best Christmas gift you ever received as an adult?
9. What's the most memorable Christmas gift you've ever given?

I bet those questions were easier to answer. Think about your answers. Can they help you choose better gifts for your loved ones this year?

Here's the last question in the quiz:
10. What do you really want this Christmas? What gift would make this the best Christmas ever?

Does anyone in your family know you want this? Maybe it's something quite inexpensive and simple but if no-one knows about it you're unlikely to find it in your stocking. Maybe it's inexpensive but would be time-consuming to organise. You need to let the person who loves you most know about it well in advance. Maybe it's expensive - but if everyone who usually gives you a gift clubbed together perhaps they could afford it between them, instead of giving you lots of CDs and chocolate that you don't really want. One year everyone gave Ed money instead of gifts on his birthday (which is at the end of November) and at Christmas. It wasn't enough for the 6" astronomical telescope he wanted, but with some money he had saved himself he was able to buy what he really wanted. Now he wouldn't swap his telescope for all the novelty socks and tins of shortbread in the world.

Ginger Beer Around the World

I sent some ginger beer plant grains to a nice lady in Florida, in exchange for some sourdough starters. I made some delicious bread with the starters she sent me, and she is making ginger beer with hers. I love the label she made for her bottles.

It's fun to swap cultures with people and make friends all over the world. Of course, home-made bread and ginger beer is also a nice by-product.

Three Bags Full

I found three bags of shredded paper on my front doorstep this morning. That's good, because I need them to clean out the chicken shed and replace the bedding. But I don't know who left them.

Sometimes the secretary at the kids' school gives me bags of shredded paper. But I don't think I've ever asked anyone else for shredded paper, or told anyone I use it. I suspect my sister Steph has been talking to someone over the weekend.

Good Day on the Allotment

It was my turn to be on duty in the site shed again this morning, and I had an exciting time. We'd had a new portaloo delivered with an actual flushing toilet. It may not seem much, but it's a huge improvement on a draughty shed with a bucket in it. You can imagine how pleased the chap is whose job it used to be to empty the bucket.



I also found some raspberry canes leaned up against my compost heap. They're from my lovely friend Hazel, and I'll be putting them in the ground very soon.







And I was given a bag of apples by a nice chap called Stuart, who got them from a neighbour. He's going to try to get me some more, in exchange for a bottle of home-made cider.







Finally I picked up a free magazine from a chap called Terry. All in all, not a bad haul for a cold and miserable day on the allotment.

Happy Birthday, Jill

Jill of Who Could Ask for Anything More is 40 today. Happy birthday, Jill. Hope this will be your best decade yet.