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Add comment July 4th, 2007
Momentous occasion at the green house’s greener garden!
As mentioned before, I’ve got my herb garden started, and at the weekend, I planted some strawberries. Well, today I finally planted something in the veg beds! Around half a “bed” each of red onions (haven’t sourced white yet) and runner beans, and some garlic too. Hoping I haven’t left it too late as the temperature’s dropped over the last couple of days.
I have spinach, rocket and radish seedlings growing under cover and only very slightly heated, too. I’m going to try and transplant at least some of them as soon as I can find some wire to make some cloches with… Don’t know if any of them will survive the cold though as I couldn’t find varieties that recommend autumn planting. I’ve also planted some wallflowers out, as the first part of my plan to supply myself with cut flowers rather than have to buy them - which is expensive and can be polluting as it’s hard to tell if they’re UK grown and nearly impossible to source organic ones.
Apart from the strawberries, these are all new territory to me and I’m not really sure what will work. Still it feels good to have got started again. Looking forward to lovely fresh veg and flowers, but it’ll be a good while yet…
Add comment November 2nd, 2006
Update from “the greenhouse”
Long time for me with no blog too. Over the summer I’ve been very busy with work on the house, the garden - oh yeah, and I’ve even done some work on the PhD now and again, too. The good news is that I’ve also acquired a boyfriend, who as well as being generally lovely has added much-appreciated brain- and muscle-power meaning that work in the garden particularly has proceeded at least twice as fast.
I’m going to give a very quick run-down of the story so far, then plan to go into more detail on some of these areas when time permits!
The garden’s now looking more civilised, and has 8 raised beds for vegetables, allowing a 4-way rotation, and a herb garden. Bird feeders are up but currently being ignored. Plans are afoot for a pond and planting of lots of flowers that insects etc. will like. And it’s now much easier to get the bike out of the shed too!
Inside, one of the first things I did was to remove the carpets upstairs and sand the floors, then treat with Nutshell’s floor and furniture wax. I’m really pleased with the result, particularly as I’m prone to walking around with no shoes or socks on! I also fitted a shower downstairs although unfortunately I was unable to source a low-flow shower head or tap aerators. I did put some 0.5l water bottles in the toilet cistern though, to help reduce the volume of water per flush. The whole house is now fitted with energy efficient light-bulbs.
I haven’t yet done much painting so haven’t had much chance to try out natural paints. I am considering painting the bathroom however, so this may move up on the agenda. More about this later, and also about my attempts to reduce the potentially hazardous chemicals used in the house (recently kiboshed, of course, when I had to have a damp proof course installed. Still got the headache to prove it too…)
Add comment October 29th, 2006
Hello
Hi my name is Scott Lewis. A friend and I set up an environmental group which we called Pembroeshire Environmental Action Group or PEAG for short. To find out more about the group read the articleon the BBC website
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/sites/greenhill/pages/lewis_tebbutt.shtml
Add comment September 21st, 2006
Long time no blog!
Blame it on the summer, but it’s been far too long since I last wrote something - sorry! A lot’s happened since my last entry.
First, hubby and I went on holiday in North Wales, as I’ve always wanted to visit the Centre for Alternative Technology , and this year I finally did it, hooray! Hubby also did some active stuff like mountain biking and white water rafting, while I lay back and enjoyed the fantastic scenery.
Then later in the summer we went to the Greenbelt Festival which was AMAZING!! I’d been before, but not for a while; in fact I discovered that I only went every 7 years. My first time was in ‘92, then ‘99 and now in ‘06. I’m hoping it won’t be so long before I go again!
Anyway the reason I ended up at GB again this year was all down to The Year of Living Generously and the discussion on the email list by seasoned Greenbelters about how much fun it was and what they were planning this year. Generous had their own area in one of the tents and it was a great opportunity to meet people I’d only ever chatted to online.
One of the Generous seminars was about the future of Generous, and my hubby ‘generously’ (??) volunteered me to stand up at the front and tell everyone about my involvement in Generous - I’ll get him back sometime… The seminars in general and the discussion they provoked were all really inspiring though, and I think I may have come up with a plan for introducing some of the ideas at church. However I have to go now, so I’ll tell you all about it another time. ‘Bye!
Add comment September 7th, 2006
7/7/06
Beautiful day here, 70 degrees, sunny, and low humidity. Son got up and flew outside as usual, is helping milk goats. Trip to Michigan went well, didn’t use anything to prevent fly bites, son got bit a dozen times, didn’t get sick. Perhaps I gave him some immunities breastfeeding him as a baby? Whole family loved visiting Lake Superior…son played at water’s edge entire time, I collected rocks to bring home, baby toddled through sand. Gave all sisters jars of my body oil and body scrub. Heard a bird song every morning at one sister’s house…don’t know what kind of bird it was, but it had the most beautiful song i’ve ever heard. Sister got me sampler pack of several essential oils for my birthday. Yay! Came home to find ants gone. Yay!
Convinced son to turn loose turtle he captured a few days ago. Felt so sorry for it. Explained turtle was used to being free, doing what it wanted…can’t take a 4 or 5 year turtle and put it in a cage and expect it to be happy! Also released ducks (nearly full grown now) at local canal, where lots of other ducks live. They seemed very happy, immediately went for a swim. Let son throw bread out to all of them.
Made a discovery about my body oil: Sister gave me bottle of her lotion to try…I did…noticed when I scratched, fingernails got dirty. Doesn’t do that when I use my body oil. Realized that the lotion can’t be totally absorbed by skin, so lots just sit on top of skin, collecting dust and dirt. Body oil is all natural (you could drink it!) so it is completely absorbed, thus nothing left on top of skin to collect dirt. Yet another good thing about my invention.
Add comment July 7th, 2006
What next?
Well, the Weekend Away was a great success and everyone had a good time, as usual; there may be some photos on the website soon! I didn’t get to talk to as many people as I’d hoped, but those I did talk to seemed keen to get involved with an environmental project of some kind; now all I have to do is decide what.
I’m a member of Christian Ecology Link so I think the next step is to find out what’s already going on in Birmingham as it makes more sense for us to join in with an existing project rather than start something new. If you’re reading this and are already involved in a Christian environmental project in Birmingham then please get in touch - I’d love to hear from you!
In the meantime my husband will be leading a session on the environment with the young people (11-16ish) this Sunday. He’s got a few practical things for them to do (set up some boxes for recycling, put silver foil behind the radiators etc) so it’ll be interesting to see their reaction and whether they have any more ideas. Next Sunday they’ll be discussing why Christians should be doing these things, but someone else will be leading as Jim and I will be heading off on holiday!
Add comment June 30th, 2006
Volunteering ‘Holiday’
Hi everyone,
Last year Carl and I went on a conservation ‘holiday’ in Scotland, with a charity called Trees for Life. We were there to do our small part in restoring the Caledonian Forest. The holiday was for one week and for that week we were cut off from civilisation staying in Athnamulloch bothy in Glen Affric with 10 other like-minded people.
A bothy, for those who don’t know, is an abandoned croft house. A croft is a small farm and the people who live and work on them are known as crofters. They live in the croft house, which is a small building with 2 or 3 small rooms downstairs and 2 upstairs, and they work the land around them. I don’t know if crofters still do this, but originally some of the rooms were shared with their animals. Anyway, I digress.
On the day of arrival Alan Watson Featherstone, the founder of the charity, who we were fortunate enough to have along on our work week, gave us a tour of part of the forest. He explained why he had set up the charity and showed us what he was trying to achieve, with our help and the help of the many thousands of volunteers who had come before us. He had been hiking in the area many years before and he had been saddened by the terrible state that the forest was in. Many of the ancient scots pines had been felled to make way for other species that would provide better timber for building, such as lodgepole pine and spruce. On top of that overgrazing by introduced species such as deer and sheep had prevented regeneration of native trees. He decided there and then that he must do something to help the forest. I’m sure many of us feel like that about something we have seen and say we will do something to help, but most of us forget once we are back home, not Alan. He didn’t forget and he did do something. He set up the Trees for Life Charity and he hasn’t looked back. When he was talking about this, his passion for the forest was tangible and it rubbed off on us. By the time we had finished our tour, we were definitely ready to do our bit.
We were then taken to the bothy in a minibus along a very long, very bumpy, track. It seemed as if we were never going to get there. Then as we reached the brow of the last hill before going down into the centre of the Glen, there was the bothy, looking like a tiny white dot flanked by two silver ribbons, the stream on one side and the river on the other.
As we approached the bothy it became apparent that it really was tiny, but also beautiful and welcoming with its whitewashed walls and red roof. We all went inside, and Dan our leader for the week, showed us around and asked us to pick where we wanted to sleep. Most of the volunteers chose to sleep in one of the two upstairs rooms on foam mattresses spread out over the floor, but we and one of the others had taken tents to sleep in. Once we had pitched our tents and made up our beds we set about getting on with the other chores. The bothy had no mains water, electricity or gas, so jobs such as fetching water from the river, chopping wood, lighting the fire, cooking the evening meal on the fire and the tiny bottled gas stove, and cleaning out the one toilet (which, by the way was about 100 metres away in an old barn) were shared amongst us. After this memorable introduction to our temporary home we all sat down in the main living room and ate our evening meal around a roaring fire. Then for the rest of the evening we played games, talked and made music, all by candle and gas light. Then we all went off to our beds to be well rested for the days work ahead.
The next day, we all woke early, had breakfast, made our own lunches and headed off for our first days work in the Glen. To get to the work site we walked over 3 miles of peat bog. It sounds hard, and indeed it was hard, but it was also wonderful. The scenery was breathtaking and we were surrounded by it. We spent the whole day on a hillside in the Glen, planting Downy Birch, then we headed back to the bothy, where we ate and talked around the fire. While we were out working it had rained and our tent had sprung a leak, so for the rest of the week Carl and I slept in the living room next to the fire. Bliss.
The next day Carl and I were first up so we lit the fires and put water on to boil. One big kettle on the fire and one on the little stove in the kitchen, then we got dressed, had breakfast and made our lunch before the big rush. This became our routine for the rest of the week. It was definitely an advantage sleeping downstairs, it was so peaceful at that time in the morning. What a truly fantastic place to be.
This second day was spent much like the first, then on the third day we had a change of scenery. We went to a different part of the Glen, where the vegetation was already quite dense. Here we planted Aspen and built fencing around them to protect them from deer. The aspen is being grown as part of a plan to reintroduce Beaver to the area. This day was really awful weather-wise. It rained relentlessly all day, and by the time we got back to the bothy we were all soaked and chilled to the bone. It wasn’t long though, before we had the fires lit, our clothes drying in the back room around the woodburner and a hot meal in our bellies. Then we spent another pleasant evening telling stories, playing music and chatting before going off to bed feeling pleasantly tired.
The next day was our ‘day off’ but it rained most of the day so everyone stayed around the bothy. We read, chatted, baked flapjacks, went for short walks between the rain showers and generally just relaxed. Lovely.
After our day off, we spent one more planting Birch trees in the Glen. This included planting trees that were bought, as gifts by various people for loved ones, so as we planted them we read out their greetings and wishes. Then we spent one day in the nursery at Plodda Lodge, where the trees are grown from seed. Here we tended the nursery beds and helped to transplant seedlings. Then, once again we headed home to the bothy.
We planted over 2000 trees that week and it was extremely satisfying.
By the end of the week I wasn’t sure whether I even wanted to leave. The bothy felt like home very quickly, and the people I was sharing it with quickly became my friends. Each evening we took it in turns to do the various chores. Then we would eat and chat and play music or games. Lets face it, there were 12 of us living in that tiny building and we all relied on each other. We came from various backgrounds and ages ranged between 18 and 70 and we were a great team. We started the week as strangers and we ended it as friends. I will always carry fond memories of that week with me and I know I will go back one day.
Home sweet home. Athnamulloch Bothy, Glen Affric
See you next time
Carolyn
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Add comment June 25th, 2006
An Introduction
Since this is the first post in this blog, I suppose I’d better start by introducing myself and what this blog is all about.
Well, my name’s Alison, I’m married to Jim and we live in South Birmingham where we are both members of Tiverton Christian Fellowship (named for the street it’s on, not the town it’s in, just to clear up any confusion!). If you’d like to find out more about TCF then have a look at our website here as that will tell you far more than I can include in this blog.
So, the aim of this blog is to tell you about what TCF is doing to care for the environment. At the moment this isn’t very much, but it’s something I’m passionate about and I believe we should be doing more. Thankfully there are a few people who agree with me and given time I should be able to bully, sorry, persuade a few more!
The majority of the church are going away together this weekend to discuss plans for September so it’s an opportunity to sound out other people to see how keen they’d be to get involved. I’ll let you know how I get on…
Add comment June 23rd, 2006
Related posts
I’ve added a feature that allows you to see any posts related to the one you’re currently reading. Hopefully this should help you to find your way around nice and easily. The links are clickable and can be found underneath each post.
Adi
Add comment June 19th, 2006
