working at WO-MUD!!

WOMAD 2007 - Charlton Park

Just spent the weekend working at WOMAD festival for event recycling. Even though the weather was bad at first I seem to have escaped the worst of it while working. The event recycling team are a great bunch of people and if you have missed a ticket or just can’t afford festival prices take a look at their website. I’m considering working for them at Bestival if they get the contract for it so if you go I may see you there.

Even though most of the time I was covered in bin juice!! I had a great laugh and it’s nice to feel that you are doing something for the environment and the ecology of the site. You can also find loads of ace stuff that people have thrown away, like beers, food, clothes we even came across a wedding dress which our supervisor insisted on wearing for the whole shift.

lemon and ginger wine

Well the lemon and ginger wine finally stopeed bubbling and cleared so yesterday I bottled it. This has been on the go since around january. I finally tatsted it and it’s like a cross between paint stripper and acid. On the upside it’s strong. I mixed it with lemonade which took the edge off, well for a while. I’ll just list it under experiments!!! I’m going to call it ‘you won’t like it’.

Seed saving

So all your plants have gone to seed, well good that means free seed next year. All my lettuce and raddish have gone wild but I normally rip them up and compost them, what a fool I have been as then come spring I buy the very same varieties all over again, well no longer. Next years lettuce will be 100% organic and more importantly 100% free.

First organic garlic

After all thats gone on in my life and subsequently effecting the garden, I am very proud of this garlic. The other reason is that I try every year to grow garlic and it never produces anything, so it may be due to the fact that I have always tried to grow it from supermarket bought garlic, where as this season I ordered organic bulbs. I think that there must be some manipulation going on in the garlic from the supermarket, all the reason to go organic!

It’s not all quite ready at the moment but if the rest is as good as these then I’m on a winner. It’s a great crop for a small space as you can plant quite a lot which will keep you in garlic for ages, well unless you get a lot of vampires where you live.

couch surfing

I think that I have found the ultimate in voluntary simplicity. I have decided to move out but with no real idea where I’am going to live, where I’m going to get money from and what the hell I’m doing with the rest of my life.

You really understand what friends mean to you at times like this and also how much they love you. I have had so many offers from my close friends for a place to stay and a shoulder to cry on.

Also though I have realised that day to day you really don’t need much more than food a safe place to sleep and a bit of company. Rather than me worry about what’s mine and stuff in general, I have enjoyed the fact that I have left behind a lot of objects that where more of a burden than they ever made my life better.

I have always opened the door for people who needed a place to crash for a while and it’s nice now for me to realize that many others are willing to do the same. Perhaps community spirit is not as dead as I may have thought. So remember next time somebody asks you if they can stay for a few days open them with open arms as one day it could be you.

private and public life

I must apologise for the drop in posts over the last few months, the reason I wanted to post an article is really for all of you who regularly check my blog even when theres not much going on. to be honest the reason is that me and my wife have seperated and it meant that a lot of the time I was not in the mood for talking shop. I also let a lot of things slide especially in the garden needless to say that this years crop will be a little thin on the ground. Even the fruit trees/bushes seem to have reflected my mood looking a bit sorry for themselves. Looks like this years chutney will be made from the grocers veg rather than my own.

One of the things thats anoyed me is that I missed making birch sap wine and nettle beer, bugger. They will have to wait another year. Again…

On the positive side however I have been getting back intouch with old friends and making new ones. I have decided to get back into art again and made some good connections there. The most surprising though is that I’ve met so many permaculture/sustainable living types, in the last few months. This has been great as I don’t know many in my area. I have also applied for a job, “it’s about time” I can hear my family say.

The most surprising was when I got back intouch with a friend who I have not seen for years. We were chatting on the internet and I happened to plug my blog (modest) She then told me that she lives in an Eco home with Penny Poyzer.

She presented ‘No waste like home’ She regularly does talks all over the country and is Metron of the womens environmental network. She also presented the Green awards and writes books on all things green. Check her out. Her husband Gil is a green architect and does sustainable design. My friend said that they could use some help with the garden which would be a great experience and a chance to put my permaculture design to the test. Perhaps I’ll get my own TV show, and be famous, and change the world, sorry I’ve slipped into a fantasy world again!!

trees for the future

50 Million Trees and Counting: Trees for the Future