Christmas Concerts

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

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

Via Neatorama

Buy Nothing Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Craft Day

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

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

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

Gardening Kit Competition

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

From the ever reliable xkcd

Tom's Scones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

How Bean Sprouts Can Help You Survive the Credit Crunch

So, the Credit Crunch. Funny to think that when Bean Sprouts began its sabbatical at the end of August, the credit crunch was part of the lesser-read financial news. Now it seems like it's on the front page every day. Today, for example, the announcement that Britain has officially entered an economic downturn and in all probability is in recession. So how can the Bean Sprouts archives help?

Well there is a wealth of articles in the archives tagged "frugal" which can help anyone who is tightening their financial belt. By far the most popular is How to Make Greek Yogurt, and if you don't like the Greek stuff you can also find out how to make regular yogurt and how to make Philadelphia-type soft cheese. You might also want to check out the very popular How To Get Started With Chickens - Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3.

It's also worth looking at the posts tagged "foraging" to find out if you can pick any leaves, fruits, nuts, berries or mushrooms and get food for free. You can also find out how to make them into wine, jam, liqueurs, chutney and so on.

You might also consider signing up to Freecycle or one of the alternatives. You might want to join the Freeconomy community.

For a more general discussion of using your brain to reduce overconsumption without hardship, check out Money-Saving Toothpaste Tip, and if you're feeling blue and deprived then watch The Story of Stuff and console yourself that by saving money, you're also saving the planet. Find out Why You Should Know Your Hourly Pay. And if you're wondering why we're all in this mess in the first place, find out what sustainability means and think about why anybody could seriously expect that the economy can keep on growing forever.

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

When is an A-Rated Appliance Not?

When is an A-rated appliance not an A-rated appliance? When it only last 2 years before irreparably breaking down. Five years ago we bought a White Knight A-rated tumble dryer. As far as I know it was and still is the only A-rated dryer available. We really liked it. It has some nifty features like reverse tumble - it changes the direction it tumbles every few minutes, so your clothes don't end up in a tight sausage, bone dry and hot on the outside and wet in the middle. It has a sensor, so it goes until the clothes are dry then it stops automatically. I used this feature to test the tumble dryer balls a couple of years ago. You can set it to full-eco-mode where it takes all day to get your clothes dry but uses very little energy in doing so (this is the A-rated mode), or you can set it to murder-death-kill-mode where it blasts your clothes dry in an hour or so. But even in this mode it seems very gentle and I have stopped being fussy about what I tumble-dry and what I air-dry because nothing has ever shrunk in this dryer.

But just over two-and-a-half years after we bought it the drum ripped clean off the bearing leaving a huge ragged hole in the back of the drum. We inquired about getting a replacement drum but it was totally uneconomical - it cost more to do this than to buy a whole new appliance. So we bought another identical dryer. After all, we liked the model very much. Maybe it was a freak manufacturing fault which made it fail so quickly. But just in case it wasn't, we took out the optional 5-year-warranty.

It is more "green" to replace a part than to replace the whole appliance

We're very glad we did, because 2 years and 1 month after we bought it, the exact same fault happened again. And this time the warranty-people have ordered a replacement drum. I don't know why it is economical for them to do it when it wasn't economical for us, but hey-ho. I feel a bit ambivalent about this. It is more "green" to replace a part than to replace the whole appliance, so that's nice. But if they had just sent me a cheque to buy a new dryer, I would have avoided this model like the plague. I feel sure the new drum will also fail in another two years - or more likely in about 3 years, when the 5-year-warranty has expired.

How much energy have I saved by using an A-rated appliance compared to another appliance? I don't know. it depends on exactly how often I have used it, which varies from season to season. And it depends on how much I have used it on A-rated mode and how often I used it on regular mode, which also varies. I put slow-mode on when Ed is at work all day and I just tune-out the sound of the endless rumbling. But in the evenings and at weekends when Ed and the kids are at home I put it on fast-mode. There is enough noise in the house at those times without adding to it.

the embedded energy of the appliance

But how much energy is there in the extraction and processing of the materials that made the appliance? How much energy was used in its manufacture and transport? This is the embedded energy of the appliance. Think of it like the cost of owning a car - if a car is very cheap to run, then that's nice. But if it is very expensive to buy in the first place then that weighs against the cheapness of running. Maybe it still works out cheaper overall, as long as you keep the car on the road long enough. But if you buy an expensive car that breaks down after two years, then it's always going to be uneconomical compared to a car that lasts a long time. I don't think the White Knight dryer deserves to call itself A-rated if it only lasts two years, because I suspect the embedded energy outweighs the energy savings in use.

it is better to dry clothes on the line, and I do this when I can

P.S. yes, it is better to dry clothes on the line, and I do this when I can. But it has rained in England almost without let-up for the last two years. OK that's not strictly true, but it feels true. We have certainly had an unusually wet period for two years now. So line drying has been difficult, and I find a dryer is an essential emergency back-up when every surface in the house is covered in wet clothes and the kids need clean school uniforms by the morning.

Sad News

On Saturday I spent some time in the garden sketching things in charcoal, including the chickens. They all seemed fine. On Sunday I got dressed up in old jeans with holes in them, an old faded t-shirt, marigold gloves, headscarf and wellys (with a fetching cow-skin print) and went to clean out the chicken coop and run. It's a mucky job, and long overdue this time, but satisfying. I spotted one of the new Rhode Island Reds lying in the run, apparently dead. She moved a little when I went to investigate, but shortly afterwards she did expire.

I don't know what was wrong with her. She had seemed fine the day before. All the other chickens are healthy and well except for a mite infestation, which is why I went out to clean the housing and treat it. Anyway mites on a chicken are like fleas on a dog - they're annoying but not lethal. There was no sign that anything had got into the run or harmed her. She was only 18 months old.

We have two older chickens, both hybrid layers, which we got at the same time and have always got along well with each other. Then we got two Rhodies in January, and they were pals with each other but the older girls bullied them a bit. Well whilst I was cleaning the hen house, the surviving Rhodie went over to her dead sister, lowered her head to her and made soft clucking noises. I don't think we should anthropomorphise animals (anyway, they don't like it), but it was impossible not to interpret it as saying something like "Elsie? Are you OK? Elsie, what's the matter? Get up!" And she pecked at the dead bird a couple of times as if prodding her to move.

I buried her at the back of a flower bed. I might pop a few spring bulbs on top later.

Did You Miss Me?

Sorry for the long break. Nothing horrible happened to prevent me from posting but thanks for all your concern, I'm really touched. After I came back from London, dad came to stay for a few weeks. I kept telling myself "I'll get back to blogging when things get back to normal", but somehow I didn't. Call it "the blogging blahs", call it getting out of the habit, call it sheer laziness, I don't know what.

I've got a new guitar, the first guitar I have ever bought for myself, so I've been playing a lot. I have been learning to draw and putting my drawings on a "secret" (or at least un-publicised) blog purely so my family far away can see them. But some of you have found it, you crafty things. I'll probably put some drawings on Bean Sprouts when they are relevant to the posts, but this isn't going to turn into an art blog. It will remain about living sustainably and our family's search for the good life. I've been watching old musicals with my 8-year-old daughter, like The King and I, and Calamity Jane. That's been a lot of fun. One of our chickens died from unknown causes. The allotment has been utterly neglected, we're thinking hard about what we want to do with that. Sam turned 7. I'm looking forward to Hallowe'en, Stephanie will come up then and I'm sure we'll hook up with Lindsey too. Life has been going on as it always does.

I already have ideas for the next few blog posts. More about our chickens, about keeping chickens in general, and particularly about pest control. When is an A-rated appliance not an A-rated appliance? And getting started making home-made Christmas gifts, but realistically. It may take me little time to get back into the "post every day, or more" habit. But I'm back now anyway, and it feels good. I missed you guys too!