What's the point........

.......of having a Blog if you can't say what you think? Eh? This is *MY* space here, so read what I say, disagree or agree if you like, but *PLEASE* respect my right to say it.

April showers..........

......more of the same, but chilly as well today, so inside I should think. Was out more than in yesterday, so lots to catch up on, especially in the kitchen. Today's pics are socks for a friend (greatly appreciated and a perfect fit), the 1/16th of a cow we bought for the freezer (that's a *lot* of meat!) and the first salad fo the year from the garden , which was lovely - first pickings of salad leaves from the greenhouse, jack-by-the-hedge, wild garlic, hop shoots and viola flowers; almost too pretty to eat.

Almost..............

New picture!!!

The one on the left is the view from part of the front kitchen window, complete with new curtains. The building opposite is the pub, which makes me happy. :0) I managed to get that in there and up all by myself, so that's progress...............

Forgot to add - the wallpaper *will* be going, hopefully soon, and the wall painted a beautiful dark apple green like the rest of the kitchen. One day.

More on the BGI funding issue.........

To their great credit, the Admin and Moderator team over at INEBG have now removed the link to this buying site and are looking further into it. I have sent a message to Brigit via the forum, emphasising the fact that my post was certainly not a personal attack on her, but was to air my very, very strong feelings on this one. So, well done them.

St George's Day

.......here in England. Not being a great one for Saint's Days and such, I don't celebrate it as such, but it's marked in this house by the grand picking of the dandelion flowers for wine, the traditional day to do so. Luckily it's brightened up a bit and looks a good day coming, so they should dry off a bit and open up. So, it's into the brewery this evening, also to get the peapod on to the next stage. I got two big bags of peas greatly reduced in the shop on Friday; used some of the peas for a pea and asparagus flan (first of the English this year), the rest we had on Monday with cottage pie, and the pods gone to make wine. All for 50p ! Tomorrow will be nettle day, I think - I want to do some dyeing and get some wine on the go, and the nettles are perfect for a first cut.

Spent the afternoon out in the garden yesterday, but didn't actually get much done, just pottered about. Planted two little elders, seeded from another tree in the garden, on the woodland hummock, to mark Earthday. Will be delighted if they manage to survive the ravages of OH's dreaded horrible strimmer....... The first of theh asparagus is peeping through, everything going great guns in the greenhouse - the first rice shoots are up too, with the heat - and, joy of joys, my pulmonaria rubra seems to be thriving in a plalce I had forgotten I'd put it :0)

Selling out big time in the world of "green"

This is a post I made today on to the It's Not Easy Being Green forum, in total dismay of the fact their charity, The Big Green Idea is happy to accept money/donations from the lieks of Tesco, Reebok, etc.
************

Supporting The Big Green Idea..............


............and why I won't be. I came across this link yesterday, in a post up at the top under the Big Green idea forum. http://www.buy.at/thebiggreenidea As I understand it, when purchases are made online from various suppliers, via this website above, then a varying percentage of that sale is donated to The Big Green Idea. Dismayed to find that The Big Green Idea is happy to accept money from the likes of Asda, Tesco, Reebok, Superdrug, Next, Mothercare, Argos, Anglian Windows, mobile phone companies, Party Box and more. I have spent a good part of the last 25 years railing against companies such as these about their ethical policies, their "green" credentials, their sweatshop labour, connections with oppressive regimes and the arms trade, packaging, hype, encouragement of over - consumerism, misleading and dodgy advertising - you name it. One emmber queried the connection with this operation, with this response: "I have to disagree Sa Trinxa, people shop and if the charity can benefit even by a few pence each time then make the most of it. OK so the Companies offered may not all be ethically air-tight but I understand the aim of the charity is to strive toward greener and ethical living but not to the exclusivity of everything else. I understand that as it grows it will be offering its own green choices for shopping and lifestyle and at that point the shopping mall can surely be re-assessed and tweaked or disposed of as necessary. I notice browsing through all of the suppliers that some are to my eyes quite acceptable and Ethical Superstore for example offer an 8% return." (this is the personal response of someone on the forum, but obviously in support of the whole thing) "people shop and if the charity can benefit even by a few pence each time then make the most of it" - without consideration for where that few pence came from? For me, not good enough, if that is the stance of The Big Green Idea. That is why I will not be supporting them.

*******************************************

Bitterly disappointed in this, and just cannot see on tiny amount of justification for it.

Blog rationalisation!!!

I have decided to decant all my various blogs into one blog - this one; so from now on expect the gardening, sewing, knitting bits etc to all appear here - you lucky people, hahahahahaha :0) The others will be deleted I think.

Here's the current knitting, although the green socks are finished now, and the pram blanket has arrived at its destination. I finished a hat, but not happy with it, so will pull it back and do something different I think.

Camp fire skills

Found this site today, looks interesting, she's some woman!! :0)

http://www.campfireskills.co.uk/index.html

There really are so many interesting and useful things to learn these days.

Charging ahead............

.......the year that is - where is it going? - not me, sadly :0) Very busy week alst week, so didn;t get to post on here. The first weekend was the first meet-up for my own forum, and we had various folks staying here and around; great weekend, good company, good food, good fun. The week itself hurried past in a stream of paperwork, tidying up the last bits of the village hall to hand on, then a visit to a vintage textile fair at Pundbury and Guild committee meeting on Wednesday (managed to squeeze in a visit to the garden centre as well......), wedding on Saturday afternoon and evening, then a nother meet for a different forum yesterday. Bit tired, with a kitchenful of swapped plants to deal with. Weather isn;t particularly nice ehre today, though, but they will at elast need to get shifted out to the garden and greenhouses, if only to give me enough rooom to do the ironing - threatening to engulf the majority of the western hemisphere again...........
Have had to shelve a couple of things planned for the coming year, due to finances - visit to see the Dalai Lama is off, as is Bean's visit to London later on. Ah well, such is life. I'm quite happy staying at home, but it's ncie to plan these things.
Cold ehre too, thought we'd finished with the fires for this year; bluebells appearing up on bulbarrow, and the overwhelming (almost but not quite) pungency of the wild garlic as we whizz down the hill with the car windows open..............brilliant.