Sunday blues

In the very best way.

Yesterday we went for a walk along the shore - the temperature was as cool as this sky, proper jumper weather. Why is it so cold in May?

Because I washed and packed away the winter coats last week of course. 

I'm a sucker for sea glass and broken crockery and already have quite a collection from various sources. This favourite beach combing spot is where an old landfill meets the shore.

I didn't bring all of this home, just a few pieces. I'm saving enough to make a wall display of some kind and will return the leftovers for someone else to find.

I would love to live in a era where everything is packaged in glass, and beautiful shades of it - so many aquas and blues and lilacs.

How have these transferware patterns lasted so long in such hostile conditions?

And on the walk home, some cornflowers, the loveliest blue of them all.

I hope you enjoyed your Sunday.

Back to Frugality

It felt like autumn would never arrive but the soft greyness outside my window suggests that it's here, and I'm delighted. Summer 2018 has been very long and very hot.

We spent almost two weeks of our summer camping, something of an endurance event with young children, fun but exhausting. The second week we cheated, we slept in a tent but had full use of the facilities in the house. The luxury option.

In complete contrast, the first week was spent at a small off grid camp site, a secluded pitch in the woods. Perhaps it was because we were back in my home county, but everything about it was completely enchanting. I began to remember things about myself long buried in the noise of plugged in city living.

We woke up with the sun every morning. The kids picked blackberries for their porridge and we ate that same breakfast every day. We foraged firewood. We swam in the sea. We used the composting toilet and had 'navy' showers to conserve the tiny amounts of propane heated water.  I stretched the clean clothing through the week and cooked everything one-pot. I made a single phone charge last 6 days.

It was an exercise in barebones living and conserving resources - and I loved it. I vowed that I would bring the experience back home with me. And then I got back to my regular routine, and also burned through the budget for school supplies, birthday parties and social activities.

I've felt discombobulated by it all. I know that that's not how I want to live; and I know that it doesn't make me happy. And so things need to change. 

Action then distraction

I don't know if I'm alone in finding the past winter grindingly bleak, but between the relentless bad weather and the relentless doom laden news cycle this one really took its toll towards the end. Still, as the news continues to plumb new depths, there are signs of good things to come. 

I have to remind myself frequently that I can influence neither the weather nor global events; and instead should dwell on the things under my control. Yesterday I took my attention outside away from the news, first to the garden which was given a thorough spring clean; and then for an evening walk. Action, then distraction.

We have two large city parks within walking distance of our house. One is more of a recreation ground but it does have a huge bed of rugosa roses and a huge mock orange bush, so I visit that one quite often in summer to sniff them. The other park is landscaped, popular with dog walkers and older folk, so it suits my temperament just perfectly. I go and sit and read a book or knit, sometimes I just watch the dogs play. Yesterday I took a stroll around the shrubbery because it's looking glorious.

Forsythia.

Japanese Quince working its way through the other shrubs. Did you know that it produces edible fruits? And that it grows in shade? It's one of my favourite plants.

Viburnum, smelling swell.

One of the cherry blossoms. There were plenty more, but I got distracted by a pack of Pomeranians playing chase with each other  ❤.

I hope that spring has reached your part of the world and that you can take some time out to enjoy it.

Walking for health, wealth and breakfast

Depending which experts you believe, millennials are the first generation that are either going to live routinely into their nineties or have shorter lifespans than their parents. We may need to stay economically active well into old age, so good health is a must.

I am not as fit as I should be at the tender age of 32. As a student, I walked miles every day by necessity and did frequent fieldwork in rugged terrain that saw me slim down and strengthen up. Walking is free (except for shoe pleather), low impact and lets you experience the world in a way that travelling by car or bus doesn't. It's also a great, environmentally sound way of getting from A to B without spending a penny. 

I've been making real efforts to get out of the house this month. So far this week I've walked 17.5 miles, not including the school run and a trip to the shops, not too shabby for a snow week. Today's mileage was a  solid 7.5 miles. We stopped halfway at a great little cafe near the harbour for a Full English (vegan of course) and made our way back via the wholefood store for a slice of peanut butter cheesecake. Life is good.

We saw this fella:

The blackthorn blossom is out and looking fine in the university park. I'm starting to pay more attention to my local flora and fauna once again. Did you know that blackthorn flowers before it leafs, whereas hawthorn leafs then flowers? I did not.

Street smarts:

 I feel most of my woes in life could be solved by being more like student me, she was a smart cookie.

A wintry walk

It's a bit parky here. The 'Beast from the East' propelled me along the beach this afternoon which was quite invigorating. The beach was deserted bar that lone figure in the distance, even the seagulls were sitting it out at sea. I realised that there was no turning back unless I wanted to lose my nose to frostbite, and so my mile long walk turned into a 3 1/2 mile winding route home that kept me perpendicular to the wind.

I nipped into a charity shop on the way and found these two Le Parfait jars for £1.50. I will be making jam later this week and now know for sure that I have enough jars. The lovely yellow cotton fabric was another £1.50, it's going to be a throw for an ugly burgundy tub chair.

Stay snug!

The run up

The festive season is upon us - the advent calendars are up, the weather is frightful and petitions to Father Christmas are being mentally written and rewritten.

Yesterday I made it to the my first ever 'Snowball Saturday', thrown by our exceptionally gifted hostess friend each year. I DIYed my own vegan advocaat for the Snowballs; which went down a little too well.

Mr PL ventured out to Lidl for provisions - their Favorina mince pies are vegan this year and were just the ticket for a hungover brunch - eaten in bed with a pint of coffee, because I just couldn't muster the energy to worry about crumby sheets. I reflected that I'm too old for this sort of thing, and vowed never to do it again.

This week will be a flurry of festive prep and for once I'm looking forward to it. A simple, thrifty and fun christmas that won't break the bank.

5 things that happened this week - local vegan edition

Today is (meteorologically speaking at least) the first day of spring. The heavens blessed us with a cold, rainy blast to celebrate; but I made it through the winter with just a mild case of the blues and my mood could not be dampened. It has been an uplifting week, particularly on the vegan front:

1.  On Saturday we went to a vegan festival at the Portsmouth Guildhall and had to queue for half an hour from doors opening because attendance was so high. We left an hour later for a lunch date, and the queue for admittance was just as long. I attended a similar event 18 months ago and this one blew it out of the water in terms of numbers and in variety of exhibitors. Fellow vegans, it warmed the cockles of my heart to see so many people interested in veganism. Also, there were Jaffa Cakes ❤.


2. At the vegan festival, I met a vegan spinning and dyeing mother-daughter duo. They let me try out some of their vegan fibres and I felt a pang of loss. I haven't spun since I adopted veganism over two years ago and I thought that my spinning days were over (I was scheduled to car boot my old spinning equipment last week but we held off). Plant fibres have a steep learning curve but I miss spinning so much, I want to take it up again. 


3.  The spinner lady told me that her mum had been vegan for over 40 years. I've previously met a 30 year vegan who took one look at a veal crate in the 1980s and immediately changed her lifestyle. There were lots of veteran vegans there, particularly on the campaign group stalls - healthy, happy, enthusiastic campaigners. I'm so grateful for all of those people who kept the faith when veganism was the difficult and ostracising lifestyle choice of a crack fringe - they must have been so happy to see a vegan event so well attended. I realise how easy I have it thanks to those early adopters.


4.  In the week since the festival I have overheard three separate positive conversations about veganism in shops - one was a young man telling his mum about the plight of male chicks in the egg industry and looking for soy milk for his pancakes. I felt a lot of love right then.


5. We celebrated pancake day with vegan pancakes. They were so simple and so good we made a second batch for a late night snack. I smeared spiced biscuit spread on a leftover pancake and rolled it up to make a frugal lunchbox treat for the small PL's. I'll post the pancake recipe later this week.

I hope you have all had a good week.

The Great Winter Nurdle Hunt

Last Saturday we took part in the Great Winter Nurdle Hunt. Nurdles are pellets of plastic that are the raw material of all of our formed plastic goods. Shipped around the world in vast quantities, they inevitably end up in the sea.

Predictably, the kids got a little bored of looking for lentil sized pieces of plastic - the beach equivalent of asking them to pick up their Lego I suppose. The sea has been wild this week, and had washed up plenty of inspiration to capture their interest, like this little fella:

I've never seen a hermit crab in the wild, and it took my breath away - a blast of that wonder I felt as a child when I found tiny fish in rockpools, or a squid washed up on the shore - and with it the realisation that I'd found something precious, and that I wanted to protect it.

We walked along the beach for around three hundred metres, and I scoured the shoreline for nurdles and other plastic waste; whilst the rest of the gang stocked up on shells, pet rocks and crab limbs. We ate our picnic, complete with individually wrapped crisps, yoghurts and punnet fruit - and made our way back up to the prom.

I didn't know whether my one bag of plastic rubbish was something I should be pleased about or annoyed. It could be worse, right?

Not ten feet from where we landed on the prom, stacked neatly next to the public waste bin, were 7 huge white sacks full of rubbish, collected earlier that day by an official beach clean event. I'd collected the scraps left behind.

Dani at Eco Footprint ~ South Africa shared this short documentary on her blog, and I think it is worth a watch. It is infuriating and frustrating - and yet, there is a small thread of hope running through it. 

I keep having moments of realisation regarding my plastic footprint, but in the same way it took me years to embrace veganism, it's taken me years to really feel like I could embrace a plastic-free or even zero-waste lifestyle. I've attempted it before, failed, and given up - not convinced that it is impossible, but rather that I am not up to the task; that it won't make any difference, that there is no point if the rest of the family won't come on board. 

I think I am just about ready for it.  I can't stand it any more, the damage I do that is completely preventable. First do no harm.

New year, new everything

Happy New Year!

Today is the first real day of my new life as a full time keeper of the home, garden, budget and younglings - however temporary it may turn out to be. If I can stretch it out until the youngest starts primary school, I will be happy.

Changes, even self directed ones, can leave you adrift. My routine is shaken up, my social circle fractured, the budget needs to be rewritten - and a chunk of my identity as an employee, a colleague - a 'productive' member of society - just calved off too. And I prepared for all of this - if you have had change thrust upon you recently, please treat yourself gently. 

I took myself for a solitary walk yesterday, to listen to my own thoughts. I find myself seeking the shore at times like this, and I usually return calmer or invigorated, or with answers - whatever tonic I need, a walk my the sea seems to provide it. It was a foggy, washed out day and the Solent was as still as a pond.

Somewhere out there beyond the mist and cloud is the Isle of Wight.

I returned home feeling upbeat, like the doubts had been washed away, at least for an evening. I took a notebook with me and jotted down a few ideas as to what my next move should be. I have lots to keep me occupied, lots of positive changes to make.

My very next move was to return home and cook Sunday lunch. We had an awful Christmas blighted by a nasty virus; Christmas dinner was over in ten minutes before everyone returned to their duvets.  It was nice to cook a hearty dinner and eat it together (even if I did cheat and use shop-bought pies!). I did whip up two apricot and raspberry crumbles and homemade custard for pudding, with fruit I'd put away in the freezer. A frugal win all things considered.

Life at home is going to be just fine. We have crumble.

Beachcombing - it's not what it used to be

Another trip to our lovely local beach, another haul of plastic crap degraded by the sun in the churn of the Solent. Today I found a small bag washed up and proceeded to fill it with wrappers and lids and straws, broken toys and polystyrene. Beer caps seem to be numerous now too, perhaps a downside of the craft-beer trend?

I can't walk past this stuff anymore; at the same time completely aware that my efforts are a drop in the ocean. I usually try to take 3 for the sea; and I obviously don't litter. But despite past zero-waste aspirations, our household still purchases single use plastics; and the kids receive generous loads of Cheap Plastic Crap ^TM throughout the year.

And at the same time that I, one small person, feel completely powerless in the face of such terrible waste; I know that this one small straw that found its way into the ocean had such a devastating impact on this beautiful creature:

 

And I can have more impact than one small plastic straw, surely?

Gardening in the dark

This entry was almost qualified with 'with a dinner fork'.

I have fought a lifelong battle against the estranged twins that are my nemeses - an impressive thriftiness with my time and energy (or as some might call it, laziness); and an intense urge to DO ALL THE THINGS - all the life affirming, life bettering, time and energy intensive things, and this battle probably explains quite a few of the questionable life choices I continue to make.

I was too lazy to undo my shoelaces (both when I first removed them; and then when I needed to wear them again) and so opted for flipflops over bare feet. I was almost lazy enough to eschew going into the yard with a torch to find the hand fork and found myself eyeing up the draining board (drying up is hard work). The pros and cons of using tined cutlery to dig soil having been weighed, the torch found and the raging internal diss-battle won, I skidded across the slick yard in my even slicker flip-flops and nearly landed on my arse. Apparently pressure washing the patio was too much of a fuss to bother with these past few years, but mixing my own experimental potting mixes on said patio was not.

And there I was, not quite lazy enough to not go out onto the street at 9pm, when the cooking and the homework and the laundry and bedtime were finally out of the way, and plant out a tray of violas and a couple of autumn blooming flowers that we bought today.

When we moved into the street, a few houses had modest pots but had resigned themselves to the obvious truth that one street over someone must be in bed with the City in Bloom judge, because One Street Over had won every damn year for the past millenium and had the wall plaques and slightly elevated house prices to prove it. OK, they put on a good show, but I don't know, THAT good?

Back on my lovely street, there is one lady who has an amazing year round display, and I've often wished we and everyone else were more like her. After a few years of having our own token potted offerings, Him Indoors decided it was time to go hard or go home. This year we bought huge troughs, fixed up the window boxes, threw in some pots and filled them all with as many plants as would fit.

Passers-by started to comment on them. Adults loved them, kids loved them, dogs loved them, the cats loved them in their own 'special' way, which is why I find myself regularly buying new plants. Neighbours came to me for gardening advice, because she with the biggest container-acreage is obviously the one with the greenest fingers. Over the next few weeks, more pots started to appear  down the street. There are hanging baskets, window troughs and planters appearing; and now I can't have anything less than stellar planters, because I can't be seen to be slumming it.

This is all wonderful for a city street; and it all started with one lady across the road and her spectacular pots. Whilst I don't like the creeping anxiety that we're helping to gentrify ourselves out of a tenancy, I like that people stop to smell the flowers, I like that the street is now a lovely pollinator corridor for the bees and hoverflies and I like that I have a bit of extra space for my herbs.

The RHS are running an awesome campaign right now, Greening Grey Britain, to encourage exactly this sort of thing - there are some helpful tips and downloads to help you get started.

My advice? Troughs can wait until next year. Start small or not at all. One pot, one or two plants - something you could dig over with a dinner fork in a pinch.

A walk in the woods

We took a bank holiday Monday trip to the Forest of Bere - beautiful, mixed woodland with patches of heathland; light airy glades puncturing deep dark wood. The closest you can get to wild in the Southeast.

Paths large and small wind through the wood; and though hundreds of people were there, we were alone for a good part of the trail we chose.

We found beetles and toadstools, cobnuts and orienteering markers.

The relative silence was a welcome break after 6 weeks of school holiday in the city. Everyone seems to be out and about, or holding barbeque's. I  could happily stay a few days in the woods, setting up home in one of the stick dens built by the kids adventure clubs. 

And then, as legs grew tired and midday approached, the whining started up. It wasn't just ours, it seemed that all the kids in the forest started to whine in a crescendo, like songbirds. Really whiny songbirds. It doesn't help that the first thing they see as they enter the woods is a purpose built adventure playground. Anything after that is just a mission to return to the playground, nature be damned. 

We had our picnic; and then made our way home to this:

Some days I can't envision myself ever leaving this city. Today is not one of those days.

Saturday work & play

The perennial bed in our local park looking glorious earlier this week

I have a weekend off, which I had totally forgotten about until yesterday. What a lovely surprise to realise that I have a whole day to put to my own purposes, though if I had remembered sooner, I could have made grand plans for an exciting weekend.

We had a very lazy breakfast whilst we watched old episodes of Count Duckula on Youtube. I loved that show when I was little and so I inflict it upon my own children regularly, along with Fraggle Rock. The youngest, who is about the age I was when I first remember watching them, gets as excited as I used to (OK, still do) when Duckula comes on.

The kids played Junior Scrabble whilst I attended to some long outstanding paperwork and online banking. This is one area I have really slacked off on. Being organised and on top of things does not come naturally to me and I have to work hard to make things work. If I don't stick to a system, things go to pot quickly. I'm going to reestablish a 'desk day', one morning a week, where I take time to deal with the finances, paperwork and calendars. 

I'm also trying to institute a tidy up hour on a Saturday to encourage the kids to tidy their rooms regularly. I've tried the daily tidy up approach and it leads to tears and arguments - a big weekly clean up will suffice, with some encouragement to keep it tidyish in the week. Today they are responsible to for tidying, hoovering and dusting their rooms, with a little help as required. I've bought a pack of superhero transfers and promised that they can each have one if they tidy up without tantrums.

That seems like more than enough productivity for a free weekend. The rest of the day will be taken up with reading, crafting, eating, and perhaps a film, topped off by the first England match of the Euros this evening.

Have a wonderful weekend.

A healthy, frugal packed lunch

Being both determinedly thrifty and a vegan, I try to be organised and take a packed lunch or dinner to work. If I forget, I'm forced to resort to those very unfrugal instant noodle bowls or chips from the canteen, topped up with Rich Tea biscuits. Unhealthy, boring and spendthrift to boot.

The past few weeks I have been bringing my lunch A-game. Here is yesterday's menu:

A few smushed falafel, salad, vegan mayo and chili sauce stuffed into half a baton makes for a very filling lunch main for less than a pound. I packed a small jar of nuts and and some cherries on the side for a nicely balanced lunch and resisted the urge to buy a pack of biscuits too. It was good.

My preferred option is to take in last night's leftovers. This was a lentil bake served over the biggest jacket potato I have ever eaten (that's a regular dinner plate, for scale):

Instant noodles or rice, bulked out with chopped veg and some cashew nuts or seeds are also a good frugal option. Noodles can be made with just a kettle if need be:

I work a 3 day week, around 45 weeks of the year, which is 135-270 meals eaten at work depending on my shift pattern. In my case, packing a lunch is around half to two thirds cheaper than buying it at work which means I save hundreds of pounds over the course of a year. I'd much prefer those hundreds or meals to be delicious, healthy and cheap; packaged in reused glass jars or simple baking parchment; rather than over packaged, over processed and over priced.

A beautiful grey day

Today was our first day of the holiday all together as a family - which meant celebratory cookies for breakfast (I amended this reliable recipe into fat double chocolate orange cookies), a lazy morning of watching Ben and Holly and Duckula; followed by a bracing promenade walk in the wind and drizzle. Today is the official first day of the British summer, meteorologically speaking.

Meanwhile, in Blighty:

Today's lacklustre weather aside, I am in complete awe of this stretch of coastline. It's such an odd contrast to the city on whose edge it sits that I feel I could just as well be in the coastal countryside of my youth.  Much of the vegetation was ripped back to the roots in the storms a few winters back; it's bounced back twice as bushy and strong since then thankfully. This end of the prom sustained far less storm damage than the bathing beaches further west, all thanks to this vegetated shingle habitat.

We stopped at a cafe for a warm drink, before heading back home via the newly revamped local charity shop. The eldest boy picked up his first Famous Five book which seems a fitting read for a bracing day like today.

We spent the rest of the afternoon colouring, reading and staying out of the rain. Hopefully the weather will take a turn for the better later this week.