The Big Allotment Challenge

image from www.clker.com/

Gardening programmes on TV can all too often be a bit dull. Much as I used to enjoy Monty Don (I used to love Real Gardens on Channel4) I now find that Gardeners World is very repetitive and must be watched with the remote control ready to fast forward. I was pleased to discover The Beechgrove Garden last year, a more magazine based style that keeps moving. It shows a traditional style of working that isn't really for me but I do enjoy the show and I'm glad that it is no longer just shown on BBC2 Scotland.

Enough.

What can I say? 

Rain. 

I'm fed up with it. 

Give me some sunshine.

Christmas: presents

Warning: this is a bit of a ranting, moaning post. Please do skip past it! But I think that it does us all good to have a moan to get things off of our chest sometimes.

The importance of good design

A well designed, for our purposes, work space

I find myself pondering this subject often. It is so easy to spot a bad design but how do you come up with a good one. What makes a good design?

A good quote

Start where you are.
Use what you have.
Do what you can.

Arthur Ashe

I think that I have found my next piece of quotation art.

A ramble through the thorns: money, politics etc.

Some of the currency designed by my boys

"Why can't we all just have our own currency? Then the money will have to stay within the local community." - my son (8) 

Got milk? A few thoughts on breastfeeding.

Selection of milk products

There is something quite gross about using cows milk for our food. It is produced to nourish calves yet for thousands of years we have also been consuming it ourselves. Our modern dairy breeds have been developed to provide far more milk than one calf would ever need. This is not to say that I don't use milk, I do. We love cheese and yogurt but when I overthink about what it is I can't help but cringe.

Playing with words

My boys were watching Peppa Pig the other day (not as unusual as it ought to be) and I heard her ask, "What is a mist-story?"

Junk mail and charities

I hate junk mail. It just all seems like such a waste of time and money for all concerned considering that it usually ends up in the bin. I don't choose which charities to donate to by who sends us the most post! But, unusually, I did fall for this one from the guide dogs for the blind. All you had to do was to place 3 £1 coins into the card and post it back to them. So simple, it worked.

 

I understand why charities prefer to receive small regular donations but I must admit to be getting a bit fed up with the continuous requests for money we get through the post. I shared this particular one as I found this donation request to be very refreshing.

Autumn light.

Autumn has always been my favourite season. I love how the countryside changes colour from green to a variety of reds, browns and yellows. It is also when my birthday is. Did you know that we used to call this season 'Harvest' up until the 16th century? It was only later that we started using autumn and the word harvest became purely related to working the land rather than the time of year. I prefer the cooler weather and even enjoy the rain! But I am becoming aware that it really doesn't like me very much.

What's killing our bees?

Bindweed

We're not very good at watching TV programmes when they are on, virtually everything we see is pre-recorded. One interesting programme that had us all captivated recently was 'Horizon: What's killing our bees?' but because we didn't watch it live it's no longer available on BBC iplayer - sorry! It can currently be found on youtube.

My boy is getting older.

My youngest son at 1 week

My youngest has always been an awkward little so and so from the day he was born. It took him years to sleep through the night and he has always been overly sensitive when in a large group of  people. He is comforted by routine and rules though he doesn't like to stick to them. Every time he has hit a milestone I have rejoiced partially due to the twisted journey that it takes to get him there. But he does get there and each time, after the event, I am left wondering just what was I worrying about.

What can I say... tomato envy? It makes my collection of cherry toms look quite pitiful. Oh well, maybe next year!

Francis Pryor: in the long run

Enjoying life

Nice smelling washing up liquid

Chores are a necessary evil. They have to be done but nobody enjoys doing them in this household. Washing up is the worst for me as it is never ending, as soon as it is complete a cup, spoon or some other utensil will appear ready for it's bath removing the satisfaction of a job well done.

Washing up

 

On my to do list this August is to get the washing up done. It does usually get completed daily anyway but it can be known to hang around for a while sometimes - I hate doing it! More often than not my boys are badgered into helping too but the whole process feels like such a hassle.

The box that changed Britain.

BBC4 show some odd little films, and this was one of them, The box that changed Britain. There was some great social history and I learnt a lot about container shipping that I had simply never thought about before. I really enjoyed this film but it's lasting legacy with me is the incredible mass of stuff that gets shipped into our country. Shipping is actually quite a good way of transporting things globally but do we really need so much?

A lot to think on.

Unfortunately The box that changed Britain is only available on BBC iPlayer until midnight tonight.

The Squeezed middle

Recently there have been quite a few programmes on TV about people in food poverty. There was the 'Great British Budget Menu' which was appalling in just about every way. Where it wasn't completely impractical it was cringingly awful. Essentially three celebrity chefs had to produce a meal at £1 per head... and failed. How?! It's not exactly a hard challenge - though admittedly eating frugal meals day after day is dispiriting and much harder to happily maintain.

The other programme was 'Nick and Margaret: we all pay your benefits'. This paired up a family living off benefits with another family that is earning. Lots of vile judgements shown here. The only redeeming feature of this two-parter was Nick and Margaret discussing that no matter how tightly benefits are squeezed people are still going to claim them because there are not enough jobs. Fact.

Anyway, I'm going off track a little. I've been reading comments in the blogospere and one in particular caught my attention, describing these programmes as aimed not at those with real food poverty but at the squeezed middle.

This is such a wonderful term, the squeezed middle. Not poor but certainly feeling more than a pinch at the current economic situation. Actually, I suspect that it was meant in a derogatory way but it is apt for I, too, am one of the squeezed middle.

I am counting my pennies, live in charity shop clothes and have few luxuries. But whilst money has been getting harder to deal with I still have choices. We could downsize, lose a car, move back to a city. We choose not to and that is the biggest factor. We choose to live off very little in order to have our house in the country and we are lucky to have that choice. True poverty has few choices.

I have other advantages too. I have a garden which produces a harvest. I can cook and, having grown up with no money, I know how to cook cheaply. I am blessed to be able to take advantage of bulk buying and can be flexible with my budget to do so. Importantly, I also have the space to store this.

I am very fortunate. It is humbling to be reminded of that.

Individual choices

I've been adding a few blogs to my reading list including The Compost Bin which, thanks to a recent post, has led me to Life after Money . This is about a woman who consciously made the decision to manage on less money in order to have more time. She's been on TV a few times, including 'Super Scrimpers', but as I've given up on this programme this is the first time that I have come across 'Mean Queen' (I have found most of the tips on Super Scrimpers to be common sense and what I hope most of us are already doing - if not then I really do not want to be depressed by the amount of waste shown!)

Scanning through some of her older posts I found this one, Focus on my wheels. The post is just a daily catch up on her car maintenance spending but I love, love, love the final paragraph:

It might seem a bit odd for me to have a car, when I am on a very small income, sitting in a freezing house with no central heating and I don't have a television set, but that is how I prioritise my needs. My frugality gives me the things which I consider are important.

It is very easy to judge people, especially when it comes to their spending. But at the end of the day it is all about choice, and making choices that suit you and your family. Every household is different and we really aught to enjoy the diversity that this offers rather than criticise their choices.