Category Archives: eco-jude

mountaineering

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posting in completely the wrong order, we started our day at the beach at Formby Point. I haven’t been down there since last year, and as an eco-flim-flam was really pleased to see this:

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That would be wind power with the Welsh Hills in the background. Maybe I should have been an engineer, but I think wind turbines are genuinely a thing of beauty. But then, I also gaze at tankers and jumbo  jets (thank goodness we moved away from Heathrow, I’d never have achieved anything with my life. As it was, it was touch & go until Concorde was grounded…)

I’ll have to finish later, Diggy dig is trying to climb up my nose and I can only batt him out of the way so many times before something will break.

in an English semi-rural garden

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Here’s the latest on the vegetable patches:

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Last year’s strawberries are doing a lot better after Steve cut down the tree which was just to the right of this picture. Given enoughb weather variation, we should be in for a feast this year. In the background you can see the “fence” I’ve built to protect them from being over-run by the squash plants I’ve just put in. Hopefully it will serve the dual purpose of stopping the strawberry gannets from crushing the squashes when feasting….

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…and here’s the wider view of same patch. I’ve put in all 8 squash plants the Chief Vegetable Architect has entrusted me with. If nothing else, they may suppress the weeds. Back right you can see the 4 blueberry bushes. I explained blueberries to Lily in a Charlie & the Chocolate Factory context, which I’m now thinking I may regret in the ling run when she refuses to eat them because she doesn’t want to inflate lijke a balloon. In the middle are 3 courgette plants. I’m wondering if they need a protective fence, too. Back left of the picture are the rhubarb plants which are guarded by 2 accidental potato plants. I may dig them up soon, as last year the potatoes took over & trashed the tomatoes.

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Here’s the other “new” veggie patch. Carrots (not very many of them, mind) back left, runner beans down the middle, sugar-snap peas back right. Tomatoes in the middle, french beans in the foreground, more strawberries right at the front (we *really* like strawberries) Various lettuces under the dome. This end of the carrots in front of the stick, you can see Lily’s sunflower, and her bean from nursery is growing up the A frame.

These are my favourite flowers, shown with my favourite girl-named-after-a-flower who wouldn’t get out of the picture:
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We’ve cunningly managed to get them to grow somewhere where they can’t be seen from the house. Nice one.

Spring is here – pretty much!

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Spring has sprung! This is the blossom on our damson tree, with our re-vamped rockery in the background. You can just see our new veggie patch in the background as well, although if you don’t know where it is, you could go blind looking.

You can tell the sterling work Chris is doing to maintain the garden & hold back the wilderness tendencies. And thanks go to mum for the rockery plan & execution. It snowed again after this, but much of the blossom appears to have survived.

enjoy it while it lasts

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Last night we got our weekly box of organic fruit & veg. The kids piled into it, and chose to scoff… the tomatoes. Joel ate 1/4 of one, which wasn’t a shock. Lily worked her way through THE OTHER FOUR, one after the other. Joel helped to put the broccoli in the fridge, and finished off last week’s carrots. Oh, and ate 3/4 of a crunchy pear, burbling “mmmm, juicy”.

Goodness only knows how long I’ll have to fight them off the *vegetable* drawer so that we get a look in. I’m just enjoying it while it lasts, and thinking about how they’ll store up vitamins & minerals ready for the strawberries & nutella sandwiches years.

flood alert!

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Ages ago in January, our front garden flooded. Here it is in its various stages of submersion….

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I didn’t get an unblurred pic of this – I may have been in flight mode, in case the house sank. It’s flooded before, but never this badly. Basically, anything you see that’s under water shouldn’t be.

And then this happened:

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See how it now encroaches into our neighbour’s garden. We may have to do some drainage work in the summer…. Also, see how icy clear my camera work is. By now I’m used to this level of water. No wonder the golf course was closed, eh. At least they didn’t have to stop the traffic on the main road.

bargain fun

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The best toys really are the cheapest. I kept the kids entertained for a good 10 minutes this afternoon with a story about a mouse that went “POP” in our kitchen. You whisper it, and then every time you say “POP” you turn the volume right up. Had them in hysterics. Speaking of which, followed a link to this clip on you-tube. Had me & Lily in hysterics, although she was mainly worried about what the baby’s name was… (Ethan, btw). Sadly. I think Joel may be beyond this, but it’s worth a try….

thought processes

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I had a couple of thought processes recently which struck me.

Ages ago at Perot there was a tale of how Northern Electric solved the problem of heavy snowfalls bringing down power lines, the point being that in the problem-solving meeting no idea was to be dismissed and you had to think of how to do anything, no matter how bizarre. I’ll post the full story sometime if I can’t find it on the web (it’s probably an urban myth, anyway). It’s a much smaller problem, but I was quite pleased with how I resolved my work-morning thirst problem. Here we go:

In the mornings when I go to work & L&J go to nursery I don’t get time to drink a cup of tea before leaving the house. I used to make myself one, but kept finding them untouched scattered around the house, so then I stopped making them. I was finding that after I’d dropped Lily off and was driving into Wigan, I was feeling really thirsty and as though I’d really like a cup of tea. So, the thought process went: how can I get a cup of tea when I’m driving in? Is there anywhere along the way that sells them? That will cost money, and I’ll have to stop and/or drive out of my way when I already feel bad about being “late” for work. Can I get Lily’s nursery to make me one so I can pick it up when I drop her off? No, because that’s really properly taking the piss. So, I could make myself a brew, since I have time to *make* one, but then how do I transport it in the car (I know, this mystical new invention called a cup, don’t start) and keep it warm so it’s OK 20 minutes or so after we leave home? Some kind of insulated cup LIKE THE ONES I GOT WITH MY LITTLE FLASK would do the job just nicely.

You can see the moment the light dawned and I had my solution. So now, I make a brew (rooibus tea, thanks to Ken) and take it with me in the car when we go. Well, usually I do, anyway – I’ve only left it on the fridge twice so far. And so long as the traffic from the Pemberton traffic lights is only backed up to the motorway junction, that does me nicely, thank you!

A brighter person might have got there sooner, but I was quite pleased about thinking through the problem and coming up with a solution that meant no stopping and no spending cash.

The second thought process was last Saturday. I was walking into Ormskirk to get a gift for a friend and was filled with a sense of well-being. In identifying why, I came up with “I love living here”. That was in spite of the hangover which had meant that I had to uphold my green ideals and walk instead of drive(!)

woo-hoo!

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Our gas bill came in today and the company has decided to reduce our monthly DD by over 20 quids. Never mind that we’ve just put the heating and aga on after a summer of no-aga & broken central heating boiler. Woo-hoo! chances are if we *are* using a lot more than they think, it’ll take a wee while for them to catch up with us. Better get the loft sorted out, then, eh.

But woo-hoo! that’s 20 quid less leaving the account while we sleep. AND our electricity is hugely overpaid & in credit. Feeling good about my utilities today, which almost makes up for the threatening letter we got from the Water Monopoly Company last week as an almost direct consequence of the postal strike.

the sites I check out…

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Although I’ve only been tracking his blog for a short time, it feels as though an end of a phase of *my* life has occurred. Whose? No Impact Man – a NY Journalist – has been living in NYC for a year with wife & 2-year-old with the aim of having net no impact on the environment. His year ended this week. His family’s journey has been fascinating and uplifting, I wish there were more folk like this in the world.

This week he pointed me (yes, me personally) at another interested site – fake plastic fish. This time, an artist in San Francisco is eliminating plastic. I’m now looking at the recycling symbols on everything with new knowledge – 1,2,4 & 5 not-so-bad, 3 really bad, also 6 & 7 also bad unless 7 recyclable. Remember to make sure what you’re check is empty before you check it, if the symbol is on the underside…