hello to my new readers! i see you there on my stats page! just a quick note to say merry christmas if I dont get a chance to write beforehand. I’ve been ever so busy with working and putting up decorations, seeing friends and all that. I may get a chance to right before the big day, but probably not. So I shall update as soon as I can afterwards! Now….I’m off to socialise!
yum yum December 12, 2007
I am really lucky because very close to my house is an independent bakers, who still make everything on site. So I got a lovely loaf of bread this morning and two sticky buns. And the ladies that work there have been there for years and years. It was the nicest sticky bun I’ve ever had, couldn’t even compare to the one I bought from a chain bakery in London last week. We are so lucky to have this bakery, it’s on the route to a couple of schools (when I was at primary school I was going in there for my lunchbox treats) so I guess that’s why it’s still going when so many others have closed down or been taken over by larger chains. But it does surprise me still that supermarkets are supposed to be so cheap, yet I just got two sticky buns and a loaf of bread for less than what a loaf of bread from the supermarket ‘bakery’ would cost. (I put bakery in quotes as they don’t actually really bake on site, most is made from premix, or is already partially baked and is just finished off in store). There’s so many good reasons for using your local bakery over the supermarkets – for a start the taste will be better, our local bakery wraps everything in paper not plastic, you’ll get a better shopping experience (when was the last time you had a decent gossip at the supermarket checkout without people huffing and puffing in the queue behind you?) and I’ll bet it’s probably cheaper. And an even bigger bonus is that you are putting your money into the local economy instead of paying for supermarket executives cars and holidays.
it is better to give than to receive December 9, 2007
What with it coming up to the season of goodwill and all that, I felt the theme of late has been giving and receiving. In the broadest sense of the meaning though. Over the past few months, I’ve been clearing out and generally giving a lot of stuff away, as well as finding homes for friends cast offs as well so nothing gets dumped unnecessarily. But I have found that the more selfless I am, the better things go in my life. Karma? I am a huge fan of My Name Is Earl, and although I’m not planning on writing a list of all the bad things I have done in my life, then atoning for them one by one, I have taken note of the fact that the more good things you do, the more good things happen to you. And with surprising synchronicity. Most recently, a couple of times I have wanted things, not really mentioned it to anyone, then completely out of the blue friends have said ‘oh I have one of these I dont want anymore, do you want it?’
I also find, the way you treat people is the way they treat you. If you treat them with unflappable kindness, then usually they are kind back to you. However, this is not always true. Some people are just arseholes. Although I was quite proud of myself for keeping my temper the other day. How many people have been laughed at because of how they look or for some physical feature? I’m willing to bet 99% of people have been laughed at for their appearance one way or the other (although I’m fairly certain it happens to me more often than anyone else, as my husband was very shocked to discover when we first got together), it’s all too common, but very recently somebody insulted me to my face for a cheap laugh. It wasn’t even slightly funny anyway, it was just bizarre and it upset me (and nobody laughed). But whereas I would brood on that for days, it upset me for all of 10 minutes because I thought ‘well I couldve shouted at him in which case he wouldve accused me of over-reacting, or I couldve laughed along with him which wouldve condoned his behaviour, or I couldve insulted him back which wouldve brought myself down to his level’ In any case I just stared at him and gave him no reaction which unnerved him somewhat and he ended up saying how much he liked me and complimented me instead. But I carried on thinking about this man, and realised that he was clearly extremely unhappy in his own life, in fact he said how much he hated his life (what a waste!), so I guess him trying to laugh at me was just a way to try and make himself feel better. Not that I condone it obviously, but the thought that his life was clearly a lot worse than mine, made me able to stop my hurt feelings and in fact feel good about myself, and realise how lucky I am in being able to feel good without hurting somebody else.
In other news I’ve been doing the Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation (I’ve linked to one site there, but there are plenty more if you just Google it), and at first I strained a few muscles but after a few days, then increasing the repetitions I have found myself so full of energy, that I couldn’t get to sleep until 3.30am this morning. I thoroughly recommend them. I don’t know if the legends about these exercises are true but I have noticed wonders, regardless.
Apologies for my journal being slightly off green topics recently, but I’ve been exploring many types of alternative (i hate that word) living, and it’s opened up a lot of new interests for me, and I’m generally moving further and further away from a typical consumerist lifestyle. Which is very liberating! And my husband and I have made a very important decision regarding our new place (when we get one) – we are not going to have a television. A) that saves us the cost of a tv license and B) stops our time being wasted by watching rubbish we’re not really interested in and C) saves us electricity. We ARE going to have our laptop so we can watch DVD’s but that will not be in our main living room. Hopefully this will make us spend more time doing interesting things, and personally I don’t see why I should be paying to be advertised at. All my friends know that I’m really susceptible to adverts – McDonald’s (*gasps* swearword!) adverts have even had me drooling and I’ve been veggie for 13 years! So hopefully *crosses fingers* I’ll be a little less brainwashed! So that’s quite a big step for me, as the household I live in has the television on CONSTANTLY and it’s all too easy to get sucked in then find it’s a month later and I’ve actually done nothing.
Anyway, signing off now, more updates on the life changing soon! Thanks to my friends for poking me to keep me updating this thing! And I think I’m going to have the confidence to ‘advertise’ for more readers in the near future as well, so in advance “WELCOME NEWCOMERS”
seeds December 6, 2007
Unfortunately it seems to rain every time I have a moment to go down the allotment at the moment, so it’s been somewhat neglected. Luckily we seem to be ok on the weed front so hopefully not too many will have sprung up in the meantime (fingers crossed). So instead I’ve been oogling seed catalogues and just sorted out my order. I’m using The Real Seed catalogue, as they are really friendly and helpful and have lots of really interesting varieties, and they are an extremely honest and ethical place to buy from. They are not a business as such, as they are a not for profit organisation, dedicated to keeping old heirloom varieties in use. They encourage seed saving and even give you recipes with your seed purchase! Anyway, any fellow gardeners – I really recommend them, as they only sell seed that they have experience with, and everything sold is with the allotmenteer in mind. Visit here for more info: The Real Seed Catalogue
I was really pleased to find an organisation like this as (like pretty much anything else), seed is a big business, and in this country (and most of the EU), seeds sold are not suitable for back gardens, or for seed saving – well, there is no money in seed saving is there? However, it is very important to save seed so that you are saving seed from the strongest plants and carrying on the genetic line. It is also very important to preserve many varieties of plant, because if we only had one variety, it would be easier for pests to attack, and suchlike. It’s the same with any organic being – we need a variety of genes to replicate and for our offspring to be strong and resistant to disease.
Anyway, it looks like I will be moving soon as well so hopefully I will have a small garden/courtyard type garden so that will get filled up as much as possible with pots of fruit and veg! I’m really excited about growing my own, especially as it’s so expensive in shops nowadays, and especially expensive to buy organic. And of course, theres the taste to think about. Not to mention the fun of gardening, it’s very relaxing even when you are working your body hard, your brain has a chance to rest. I recommend gardening to anyone, even if you have to grow herbs in a windowbox, or carrots in a bucket full of earth – DO IT! (one day you may not have an option!)
