Kerry recently alerted me to a website called freecycle, a sort of altruistic ebay where people offer to give away for free various things they no longer want. The aim behind the idea is to reduce the amount of rubbish ending up in landfill sites.
Over the course of the last few days I have become increasingly addicted. The most common items that appear to be listed are freezers and washing machines, but in my three short days of perusing the listings I’ve seen everything from stuffed parrots to classical guitars find new homes.
And I haven’t been slow to jump on the bandwagon either. As I type there are thirty bags of topsoil sitting on my driveway waiting for me to lug them up the hill to the vegetable patch. They normally would have cost me around fifty pounds if I had bought them from a commercial source, but some kind chap in Crosland Moor was levelling his garden and let me have the mound of earth he had dug for nothing. He even bagged it all up for me.
Of course the effort involved in getting the bags in and out of my car has nearly killed me, but that’s not the point.
Anyway, things are developing well in the garden at the moment, so here’s a quick update:
Tree Watch: week 56
I was looking through my blog archives the other day and came across the entries I made after I planted my three apple trees. The trees went in during the dormant season and I was a little worried that I had effectively stuck three dead branches in a hole then added water. My fears were unfounded however, and although they were slow starters they eventually showed signs of life.
This time round however they seem to have got their acts together and are already in full bloom. What’s more I’m allowed to let the crop actually develop this year as the root system should be adequately established. There is the small downside that I don’t actually like apples all that much, but I’m sure I’ll find someone to eat them.
Oh the humanity!
Whilst preparing to install our double glazing last week the workmen had to move a number of pots and containers out from under our lounge window. In the process of moving the mini-greenhouse a tray full of tomato seedlings was tragically upended; scattering it’s fragile passengers all over my lupins. As if to add insult to injury, one of the individuals responsible for the incident was my own wife. Needless to say she shall be sleeping in the car for the foreseeable future.
A few brave souls managed to survive however, and we do have some more growing in individual pots elsewhere. But if Amy develops rickets caused by tomato deficiency then you know who to blame.
The rest of the veg
Our potatoes are doing rather nicely and it will soon be time to add a bit more earth to increase the crop. The strawberries are growing well, although I suspect that the slugs have their eyes on them as they have already had a nibble of the lettuce. Not that that stopped me from eating a few lettuce leaves too this morning. They are very nearly at a size where we can start wandering into the garden and getting a few leaves for our salad. The runner beans are shooting up, but the French beans have some mysterious damage round the edges of the leaves which may be a bit cold damage, apart from we haven’t had any frosts recently. hopefully they will recover, but there is still time to sow some more if they don’t.
For the past couple of days we have had workmen in the house putting double glazing in. Last night they left us with cavernous gaps between the window frames and the walls as they had forgotten to bring enough edging material to finnish off properly. To make things even more uncomfortable there was also the acrid smell of drying sealant and various bits of furniture moved away from the windows and piled in incredibly inconvenient places.
All this, combined with the fact that Evan has some form of virus at the moment, led us to decide that Kerry, Amy, and Evan would sleep at her parents last night, while I stayed at home to open the door to the workmen in the morning.
People doing work in the house always intimidate me. I worry that they are secretly judging me, believing me to be an incompetent pansy for not doing the work myself. This paranoia was not helped this morning when as soon as I opened the door to them itunes’ shuffle selection chose to blast Amy’s nursery rhymes out of my speakers. I’m now convinced they assume my favorite album is Dingle Dangle Scarecrow and other Children’s Classics.
In a pathetic attempt to prove my manliness I’ve spent most of the day laboring in the garden and have managed to get quite a bit done. Which is more than can be said for the workmen who have just informed me they are going to go home early again and will finish off tomorrow because they have forgotten to bring enough edging material. Again.
Still, it gives me a chance to have some Foo Fighters playing when I open the door to them tomorrow.
In the nursery car park after picking the kids up I began my usual wrestle with Evan’s car seat. Suddenly I hear a gale of pre-schooler laughter coming from behind me.
Turning round I am shocked, horrified and just a little proud to see my three and a half year old daughter bent over with her bare arse showing; pulling a moony for the amusement of her classmates.
it is a bittersweet day indeed when your child’s sense of humor surpasses your own in it’s subtlety, sophistication, and maturity.
(actually it turns out she was just adjusting her trousers which were a little loose, but I prefer to overlook that fact)
Brand new Transformers. My favorite robot in disguise is the cow.
National downshifting week runs from April 21st to April 27th. It’s all a bit hippyish, but it’s still a pretty good concept.
I recently filled in an online questionnaire which determined my environmental footprint. Apparently if everyone on earth lived in the same manner as I do we would need 2.3 planets just to sustain us. While colonizing Mars and a couple of the moons of Jupiter certainly has its appeal, I recognize that I really should be modifying my behavior.
Recently Kerry and I have been doing quite a bit of thinking about this issue. We both consider ourselves to be relatively ethical people, but like many others we are heavy on good intentions and short of actual action. Oh sure, we buy free range eggs, our christmas cards come from Oxfam, and we have a healthy hatred for the BNP - but doesn’t everybody?
I’m not proposing we sell up and move to hippy commune in North Wales, but we have identified some things we want to change about our lifestyles. I realize they are just a drop in the ocean, and are certainly not going to get our environmental footprint down to just one planet; but it’s a start at least.
So here’s the list:
- Buy more fresh, in season, locally produced vegetables at small traders.
- Recycle more.
- Walk and catch public transport whenever practical.
- Eat less meat, particularly beef (this one is easy for Kerry as she’s vegetarian).
- Grow some of our own veg, and compost our waste.
Any other ideas?
Evan turned 6 months old on Friday. It doesn’t feel that long ago and yet, it feels like he’s always been here.
It’s very different the second time around, we’re not trying to see if he’s a genius by reaching developmental milestones early. Not that we obsessed over them with Amy, but you know what’s normal and you know it all evens out in the end.
I thought we’d mark the occasion by listing a few things about Evan being 6 months.
- he celebrated his half-birthday by getting his first tooth
- his main source of pleasure is grabbing things and chomping on them
- his main annoyance is teething
- he loves sitting up and only wobbles backwards when he gets too excited
- he idolises his big sister
- he doesn’t yet sleep through but he’s almost there
- he likes it when we all dance around the living room
- in fact, he’s a very happy chap
Eglu cube. A new chicken run from the makers of the original Eglu. It would be tempting if it wasn’t for the £595 price tag.
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