December Bits and Pieces

It's been a very busy few weeks, so busy that last Monday passed me by without even noticing that I hadn't written a blog, but now I'm back and here are a few things that have been worthy of note in this green life over the last week or two.

During a quick (and sadly rare) visit to the local Waitrose I discovered that they are still selling UK grown strawberries. This amazed me and although the berries were quite small they smelt delicious. After a quick internet  search I found this fantastic page on strawberries on the BBC Food website. It turns out that

Traditionally, part of the strawberry's appeal is that its short, six-week season, from early June until mid-August, coincides with the brief, long-awaited British summer. These days, however, the British strawberry season extends from mid-April until mid-December, thanks to the increased use of plastic polytunnels, which provide the berries with a warmer, more protected environment - and a much longer growing season. 

When do you think of strawberries? It's true that I'd put them in June and July and sometimes August. I can't believe I've lived 24 years without realising you could have UK grown strawberries near Christmas. But as the article says, the traditional season is only extended because of plastic polytunnels, and (I would imagine) heating in those polytunnels. I'm always a little confused over which is worse, flying food to the UK where it is naturally in season or growing in locally but using lots of energy to make it work. I was so confused that I gave up, and put the strawberries back on the shelf.


Electricity has been in the news a lot recently too and it's been hard keeping up. On the BBC website alone there have been articles here, here, here and here. There's quite a useful page on how green taxes are broken down but I'm still a little confused. From what I've heard on the news it appears that the government has cut green taxes which in turn has reduced the average household bill by £50 a year, so just less than £1 a week. It also means that projects which helped the poorest people save money by improving energy efficiently and general sustainability projects which help to make future energy production more secure. To me, this seems like a short term publicity win for a long term real life loss. But then, maybe for some families that extra £1 a week means the world of difference. If so, I'd rather pay an extra £2 a week and help then AND have green projects continue.

And finally....

Staying of the subject of heating I've found a new green way to keep warm at night. Rather than putting the heating on in the bedroom I often have a hot water bottle in bed to keep my feet warm. But I've found that a 2L empty coke bottle filled with hot water works just as well as a rubber, specially bought hot water bottle. In fact, I've also started using recycled water too, since still-hot bath water seems to keep me warm enough without having to boil the kettle. So there's a new green idea for keeping heating costs down and recycling both plastic bottles and bath water. I wonder what surprises the next week will bring.

50 Years

Last week there were lots of fiftieth anniversaries. Fifty years since the deaths of JFK, C. S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley and fifty years since the first Doctor Who episode. All this happened twice my lifetime ago. Today, much is still the same as it was then, but there have been changes.

Compared to fifty years ago my childhood had less skylarks than my parents' did, less fields to play in and more cars; but also more access to knowledge, more sights of far away lands and unimagined creatures. Today there are more nature reserves, but is this because we value our nature more or because these are the only islands we have left in our world where nature can remain? We have so much more of almost everything than fifty years ago. More people, more televisions, more food (for some of the world), more hunger (for other bits of the world), more knowledge, more travel, more communication. But you can't just have more, we still only have twenty four hours in each day, what have we given up for all of this more? Recent studies  indicate that over the last fifty years the proportion children playing in natural spaces has dropped by as much as seventy five percent. So for every four children running around in fields, rivers, beaches and woods when Doctor Who first aired there is now only one child today.

I expect JFK and Huxley have somehow affected my life, perhaps by affecting my parents lives (they were in primary school all that time ago), but I am certain that C. S. Lewis and Doctor Who have helped to shape who I am today. Both the Narnia series and Doctor Who tell stories of escaping to another world, full of wonder and adventure and where battles can be fought and won and where hard decisions for good must be made. These are elements from any good children's story. In fifty years time I want my future children and grandchildren to have these stories too. I want them to wonder at worlds far beyond our reach and imagine what dangerous adventures they might go on in the future. But I don't want that wonder to just come from a screen or a book. I don't want to tell them tales of why the hedgehogs disappeared or explain what a tree house was.

Whenever we imagine the future, we want to imagine it brighter, cleaner, safer and better for our children. That's the image that I hear people talk about when they talk about JFK's potential legacy. It would have been better if....

But the future we give to our children is whatever we can manage to make it. It's not something to be imagined it's something to be made. My children will run around in fields, they will see creatures they have never imagined and they will reach for the stars, because I will show them how and because my parents showed me how. But if we don't try, if we don't open the doors to the fields, or take the time to show them a daisy, a hedgehog or a skylark, how will they learn?

We are the children which the past produced, whether it was fifty or ten years ago. Our children stories have taught us to fight for good, to make hard decisions for a better  future and take ownership of our lives. All we have to do is make those stories reality, fight for the best bits of life and our planet and protect them. If we can do that, then who knows how good the next fifty years might be?

Finally Feeding

Six weeks after I first put up my new bird feeders I was beginning to lose hope that the local birds would ever find them. I moved them a fortnight ago to a different window because the large flock of local sparrows congregates in a hedge in front of our flat, rather than at the back where the feeders had first been.

Even the meal worm feeder which had been successful last spring wasn't attracting any hungry insectivores and was still completely full.

But then, a few days ago at breakfast we saw movement at the window. A magpie hovered against the window, picked up some meal worms and then darted back out of view! I never knew magpies could hover, but apparently they can. Over the last few days (while I've been away) the magpies have returned again and again, learning that the window sill can be sat upon to feed and so we don't get the entertainment of hovering anymore.  Now the feeders empty and I need to fill it up again, which I've very happy to do!

It's wonderful to see the feeders providing a use now the weather has turned colder, and I love magpies. If I were abroad and saw large black and white birds I'd probably stop to enjoy the exotic sight, here in the UK I still think they look exotic and I love watching them figure out where food is hidden on the roofs opposite our flat. Now I can have an ever closer view of these fascinating creatures.

Hopefully the regular visits from magpies will encourage the other local birds to check out the seed feeder, which is only a few feet away but is still as full as ever. We'll have to wait and see.

Gifts That Keep On Giving

Lat week I talked about giving bulbs for Christmas presents. Often these lovely presents flower beautifully and then die off and get composted. It's normal for these bulbs to be designed as one use only, but sometimes they can surprise. 

This cyclamen was bought for me as a present about 3 years ago. It looked lovely the first Christmas I had it, and then it was put in our garden in Preston, and forgotten, for about 15 months. It was rediscovered when we moved last year and although there were no leaves or flowers it made the journey down south with us. Since then it's been living on our kitchen windowsill and in the last few months leaves have appeared and then, slowly flowers too. It's been flowering for about a month now and it's still going strong, hopefully at least until Christmas. So who knows, those bulbs you plan this year and give to friends might give them years of enjoyment, surprise and pleasure, there aren't many gifts that can do that.

50 Days

I'm not sure where October went but we're now 50 days away from Christmas and it's time to start thinking about presents. I'm not particularly well organised with gifts but if you want to give things that are eco friendly or home made you do need to plan ahead a bit. Since starting this blog I've been quite successful in my green gifts; previous blogs are here and here.

The most important thing with presents (whether green or not) is that they're wanted. There's no point giving an organic cook book to someone who hates cooking just as there's no point giving a gift day at a race track to someone who doesn't drive on principle. Gifts should be something people want or need, and the green part should be an added extra, just like I buy washing up liquid and if I can find an eco-friendly type it's an added bonus. It shouldn't be a way of showing off green credentials!

Over the years some of my green gifts have been a bit hit and miss, but others have been a big success. I've been surprised by how many comments I receive through January and February about bulbs that I've given to friends and family. During those dark months it's nice to watch something grow, it remind me of the coming spring. So bulbs are something that I keep on giving, but with different plants each year. This is a present that can be planned last minute but the sooner you plant bulbs the sooner they'll flower and planting at the right time will help strong healthy growth. I'll be looking for bulbs (which are actually quite cheap) over the next few weeks and planting them up individually for family and friends before the start of December. A good money saver is to buy packs of bulbs and then pot them up yourself in decorated jam jars or recycled flower pots rather than buying the post bulb and vase/pot packs.

If plants don't do it for your friends and families why not have a hunt for local produce. Whether it's creating a mini hamper of jams, breads and cheese from the farmers market or buying a calendar from a local artist local often means unique and I definitely have more fun discovering unusual handmade items in little local shops than trawling through the high street. This gift idea works really well if you're travelling to visit people over the festive season. Our local supermarkets sell locally brewed ales and popping in to bulk buy for a variety of male relatives just before the long drive north saves hours of stress trying to pick a suitable pair of socks for each! They get interesting beers they enjoy and couldn't find near them; and I can give the same gift year after year as the local specialities change over time.

There's always the option of home made gifts which I have done a lot of in the past. The problem with this is you need to make sure you can create quality, but also that is likely to take a lot of time. I'm still deciding what to make or buy this year but I really like the look of these hand made notebooks. I often get notebooks from friends as gifts (and give them quite often too) and I always use them. It looks like a fun project which can be personalised easily to suite different tastes.

The last ideas I'm planning on trying this year is the themed goodie bag. Whether it's a kit of baking equipment or a selection of puzzles and games; collecting up lots of different little gifts to suit an individual's interests  is a fun way of making an original present. Presentation is everything so whether it's separately wrapping ten little gifts for a niece or pilling lots of goodies into a hamper and wrapping with a bow for a parent changing the wrapping to fit the receiver is part of the fun. It also means you can combine second hand objects with newly bought one to make up a much loved selection that will give enjoyment for months rather than minutes.

So those are my ideas so far. I'm sure by December I'll be rushing around the ships looking for last minute gifts still but if I can find a few well thought out eco friendly  gifts for those who will enjoy them I'll be happy. And still, there are 50 days left to go after all.

Autumn Feasts

This week has been full of autumn leaves, pumpkins and roast vegetables. It's feeling very autumnal in our Exeter flat!

The week started off with me watching a squirrel in Exeter city centre eating chestnuts and mushrooms in a park. I've never seen a squirrel eat mushrooms before, but it seemed to be picking the head off and leaving the stalk. The chestnuts were being buried all over the place under leaves, in holes in trees and straight into the ground. I wonder how many other people stopped to watch the squirrel in the middle of town before rushing on with their shopping.

It wasn't just the squirrel that was enjoying the bounties of the season. I've been to three different pumpkin celebrations this week. The one I'd been looking forward to for the longest was Riverford's Wash Farm Pumpkin Day last Saturday. As well as yummy local organic food and lots of pumpkins there was the first Big Worm Dig. What a brilliant idea! Worms are so important for growing crops and keeping our environment in good condition, but we don't know much about them. So this mass participation science study should help us understand more about these amazing creatures. Did you know there are 27 different species of earthworm in the UK? I didn't.

In timely fashion I had my first Devon Riverford veg box this week too. Peppers, squash, potatoes, apples and cherry tomatoes arrived full of flavour along with organic British cheddar and mozzarella which are both quickly disappearing from the fridge.

With autumn closing in we've started having roast dinners once a week too. This week's chicken made six portions of yummy food. Two roast dinners, two cold chicken and potatoes salad meals and a fantastic dish full of chicken, rice and cheese sauce; my favourite. Per person, per potion only £1 for the meat, which isn't bad really. I love making meals go further and seeing how far one joint of meat can stretch is a real challenge but it's fun!

While I've been enjoying lots of yummy foods inside the local birds must be enjoying the harvest that's out in the fields because they still haven't touched either of my new bird feeders. I'm sure once the hedges are bare and all the berries and seeds have gone they'll be back though.

bird feeders

Happy Wagging Tails

From my sofa I can see across the roofs of the flats opposite and it's amazing the amount of life that thrives on them. In any given day there might be three different types of gull, jackdaws, magpies, blue tits, sparrows or, my favourite, grey wagtails hopping around on the moss looking for food.

David Baird [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

These gorgeous (gorgeous is the only word) little birds like to be near water, and since the river is only on the other side of the rooftops it's no surprise we see two or three regularly hopping around on the skyline. Even at dusk their outline with long bobbing tail is unmistakable.

Watching them pick through moss and dirt looking for insects is fascinating and they seem to find quite a lot up there. I've never lived somewhere where I can watch this species from home before and I love it. It reminds me how close we are to the water's edge but also how colourful British birds can be. It may be grey on top but the beautiful yellow tummy and bright yellow and black tail feathers and stunning. Even the grey is a very pretty grey colour!

These lovely birds have kept me entertain over berakfast, lunch and dinner all summer, and they've had pretty good meals too by the looks of it. I hope the nice warm rooftops (much warmer than surrounding soil) will keep them full all winter and I hope I can keep watching their little tails wag along the roofs!

By Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK (Grey Wagtail 2  Uploaded by Magnus Manske) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons