Follow Bean Sprouts on Twitter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Solstice, Bean Sprouts Readers.

Ingenious Green Pizza Box

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!

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

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