Creating a herb spiral July 13, 2008
Hey, not a great picture but a great idea we got from the Centre of Alternative Technology. Basically you build a spiral of earth using upturned bottles, wood, bricks, whatever as the walls. Wet herbs go at the bottom (you can even have a little pond with mints, watercress etc around / in it), dry herbs go on the top like rosemary etc and others go in appropriate places around accordingly as to how much drainage, sun etc it needs. It’s very space saving, cosmic-ly spiral and would be great in schools.
Get the tip sheet on it here for 50p
telephone tubes… March 24, 2008
… top idea we did for Science Week – take about 3m of garden hose (so a 15m length will do about 5) and make cone shaped card cone thingies at either end (preferably different colours so red can be the listening end and blue the speaking) and then attach with gaffa tape.
Get the kids to whisper down one end and listen at the other and they’ll have hours of fun. You can, if you feel confident, explain the basics of sound waves and telephone systems…
The Rubbish Diet March 9, 2008
It’s Zero Waste Week this week so check out this cracking site about reducing food waste – apparently 1/3 of food gets thrown away. The Rubbish Diet is an idea, all about slimming your bin and reducing all the rubbish that ends up in landfill. Also, to get kids in the spirit, have them listen to this Click here to listen
- Shopping with waste in mind get your kids to look out for products with little packaging and to be in charge of taking bags
- Cooking with waste in mind though you should give your kids new tastes, a radically new and different meal is likely to result in more leftovers
- No-Waste Packed Lunches try to pack the food in reusable containers, avoiding cling film if you can
- Reducing Food Waste through Composting, lots of fun for kids especially with a work composter
- Buying gifts with waste in mind If you are buying presents for birthday parties etc, look out for toys that have very little packaging, books of course have no packaging
- Get your school involved Healthy Schools or Eco Schools initiatives as well as supporting local Zero Waste Week campaign. Some schools plan Zero Waste lunches. All funds raised being directed towards sustainable products such as wormeries, which have both practical and educational value.
Thanks to Karen Cannard, the author of The Rubbish Diet blog, for those tips. Follow her progress to see if she can slim her bin in time for her local Zero Waste Week which starts on 10 March 2008. www.therubbishdiet.blogspot.com. All hints and tips from those with more experience will be gratefully received.
pesticides March 4, 2008
I have written on the topic of pesticides and fabric before, a pet subject of mine. But here it is in a nutshell – organic cotton clothing saves one cup of pesticides per item (e.g. top / skirt). Reasonably priced organic clothing can be bought from Tatty Bumpkin (yes I know you know this already), People Tree, Bishopston Trading Company, Hug, Seasalt and coupled with as many charity shop purchases as you can muster make for a not unreasonably expensive, reasonably glamorous and extremely environmental clothing option.
For more on this subject visit a multitude of environmental sites including Women’s Environmental Network, Friends of the Earth, Soil Association , People Tree etc.
STOP PRESS Yes Dan you’re right it’s a very destructive plant compared with hemp or bamboo for that matter (which Tatty Bumpkin’s children’s clothes are made from). There is a new range of underwear made from wood just out too – spun wood pulp which makes a fabric. Nice
ABC of your locality – an idea for kids March 2, 2008
If you haven’t been badgered by me to visit England in Particular’s site or it’s sister site Common Ground, go visit it! It’s all about your locality and celebrating the vernacular. I’ve just finished a booklet on storytelling and landscape / locality and the author put forward the idea that part of the imminent environmental catastrophe is that we’ve forgotten how to hold the land in any sort of reverance. From their website:
When you have lived or worked in a place for a long time you may cease to notice it unless something happens to jolt you. It might be the sun glinting on a stone wall revealing the fossils in it, discovering that the street name cheap indicates a market place which explains the wide pavements, the felling of an ancient and much loved tree which makes you look more closely at the remaining mature trees in the place.
Understanding what makes our place different from the next, what accumulations of story upon history upon natural history give it its uniqueness may help us to maintain a relationship which ensures a future for local distinctiveness. Attachment to place is a prerequisite to endeavour on its behalf.
Creating an ABC liberates us from classifying things as rare or beautiful to demonstrate what we care about in the everyday. It is useful in that it levels everything, it reshuffles things and juxtaposes them in ways that surprise and make you think. This can change what we see, disperse our complacency, make things we take for granted seem new to us and encourage us to action.
This week February 18, 2008
Last week was great, even better now we’ve hit half term. I’m starting to rekindle my social life now things are settling after starting school, hectic work etc. I’m even going to start guitar lessons which hopefully won’t fill me with the weekly dread my clarinet lessons used to…
We got a bike trailer which turns into a jogger (above) – £50 on ebay and proving very useful for my attempts at eco-friendly classes by pushing all my Tatty stuff around with the bi-product of getting fit and losing weight. The boys love it and it’ll be dead handy at festivals too.
We got a babysitter for the first time in ages this week, generally we’ve gone out on our own with friends or stayed over with the kids at friends houses. As I left the house slightly nervous I remembered a story from my childhood. I was 12 and my mum’s best friend’s son baby sat for me – a strapping 19 year old called Alastair.
When my folks had gone out he said, “bung this helmet on, we’re going for a spin”, so I put on the adult bike helmet (which didn’t really fit) and put a jumper over my pyjamas and we set off on his motorbike round town. We rode round until it was dark and he took me home, frozen, half terrified, half exhilirated (well mostly the latter actually) and I was told never to breath a word…
what’s in season… February 6, 2008
Fruit & Vegetables
Jerusalem artichokes, Purple sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts and tops, Savoy, white, green and red cabbages, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, chard, chicory, endive, curly, pink fir apple potato, curly kale, seakale, leeks, rhubarb (forced), salsify, seakale, spring greens, swede, turnips.
Signs of Spring
Join a Toad Patrol – The first warmish evening in February is often the trigger for common toads (now not nearly so common) to begin their journey to their ancestral ponds to breed (large and deep ponds preferred). In the process thousands get squashed by vehicles. But thanks to volunteer wardens at over 600 strategic crossings, many hundreds are saved. Further information: Froglife www . froglife . org
Lesser celandines – known as Spring Messenger in Dorset – begin to flower around the 21st (some were out in Shaftesbury, Dorset, as early as 27th January). Their beautiful bright yellow flowers reach out eagerly to the sun and enliven the dreariest of places – roadside verges, “wasteland”, dull gardens are transformed by their fast-spreading carpets. Gardeners hate them because they are successful. But what could be a sunnier and more welcome sign of spring?
Up the Ivy: “Up the ash-tree climbs the ivy, Up the ivy climbs the sun,” wrote John Betjeman in ‘Upper Lambourne”. Ivy berries are an important source of food for birds and small mammals from January to May when there are no other berries around. Blackbird, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Redwing, Fieldfare, Ring Ousel, Robin, Blackcap and Starling are all beneficiaries. Woodpigeons tend to take the fruit before it has ripened. (Birds and Berries, Barbara & David Snow, T & A.D. Poyser, 1988). Many small birds roost in warm ivy bowers when all else is leafless.
Daffodils are getting earlier and many out already.
For more about your locality and protecting local diversity visit http://www.england-in-particular.info/ or http://www.commonground.org.uk/
Wassailing January 18, 2008
** Saturday Wassail in the allotments behind the prison off Bishop Rd in Bristol 2-4pm **
Wassailing refers, among other things, to the practice of singing to trees in apple orchards in cider-producing regions of England. Wassail is an ale-based drink seasoned with spices and honey. It was served from huge bowls, often made of silver or pewter and often passed around the room to be shared – known as the Loving Cup. The Wassail bowl would be passed around with the greeting, ‘Wassail’.
Wassail gets its name from the Old English term “waes hael”, meaning “be well”. It was a Saxon custom that, at the start of each year, the lord of the manor would shout ‘waes hael’. The assembled crowd would reply ‘drinc hael’, meaning ‘drink and be healthy’.
As time went on, the tradition was carried on by people going from door to door, bearing good wishes and a wassail bowl of hot, spiced ale. In return people in the houses gave them drink, money and Christmas fare (special foods eaten during Christmas time e.g. mince pies) and they believed they would receive good luck for the year to come.
The contents of the bowl varied in different parts of the country, but a popular one was known as lambs wool. It consisted of ale, baked apples, sugar, spices, eggs, and cream served with little pieces of bread or toast. It was the bread floating on the top that made it look like lamb’s wool.
Apple tree wassailing is a ceremony which involves drinking to the health of the apple trees.
The Apple trees were sprinkled with wassail to ensure a good crop. Villagers would gather around the apple trees with pots and pans and made a tremendous racket to raise the Sleeping Tree Spirit and to scare off demons.
The biggest and best tree was then selected and cider poured over its roots. Pieces of toast soaked in cider were placed in the forks of branches. The wassail song was sung or chanted as a blessing or charm to bring a good apple harvest the following year.
This custom was especially important during a time when part of a labourer’s wages was paid in apple cider. Landlords needed a good apple crop to attract good workers. Wassailing was meant to keep the tree safe from evil spirits until the next year’s apples appeared.
Thanks to Woodland Junior School in Kent for that info!
