Plant trees, it's self defence

I do not like labels, but I am definitely anti-fascist.

2011-12-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

I have been going backwards and forwards in my mind as to whether to post this for days.

I'd been recommended the book Endgame by Derrick Jensen a couple of years ago, following a passionate conversation. Finally, I've gotten to read it and my friend's recommendation was spot on for me.

This is not an attempt at a book review, just some thoughts about Derrick Jensen, Endgame and the so-called “Deep Green Resistance” movement in general – which has been accused of being a fascist, and/or misanthropic movement (the accusations seem to use the terms "DGR", "anarcho-primitivist" (or just "primitivist") and "green anarchist" interchangeably). I don't use any of these labels personally, but this accusation still both baffles and upsets me - from what I've read, which is admittedly little. I think it upsets me more because the accusation has come from anarchists - whose ideas I have also shared and with whom I would hope to not be 'arguing'.

I thought Endgame was great - (not at all fascist, and would recommend it - I wouldn't otherwise!) Of course nothing and nobody's perfect but some of the the things that have annoyed other people, from what I've read, are just pointlessly picky. People have moaned about 'Jensen's endless whining about the salmon' - which to me was just somebody doing what writers do: writing passionately about what they know. If it were me writing it might've been the otter - I live in Tarka country. At the risk of summing up before I've ranted though, to those people: please, get some perspective here - there's a world to save! (And if you don't give a shit about that then I don't know how you made it far enough through the book for the salmon repetition to be your only gripe.) I preferred the personal style of writing as I don't enjoy books as much when they're written purely coldly and intellectually. And as I've said before, I don't think that you should have to be that way to be entitled to be heard. (That would be fascistic, no?) As Howard Zinn said of the book: "Derrick Jensen is a rare and original voice of sanity in a chaotic world."

But his originality seems to have offended some folk who have taken it as 'traitorous'. I've read people complain that Jensen doesn't include "an anarchist critique" of his subject matter in the book. He hints at anarchism and the book has a definite anarchist tone, but he doesn't spell it out. Again – perspective? I personally have a fear of labels and maybe Jensen's the same? I hesitate to call myself an anarchist because although it is the closest thing I've found that matches my beliefs, I still like to remain open minded. (And I fear that sadly it will be an open invitation to be ripped apart by the anarchist intellectual elite*.)

Which brings me to the other complaint I've heard - this time I think it was about the book Deep Green Resistance, by Aric McBay, Lierre Kieth and Derrick Jensen. I've heard it said that because they suggest that in some - rare, cases a hierarchical structure of organisation might be adopted - in some cases only (and among others, including consensus) that they are not anarchists and therefore fascists. (I've also read that Jensen's personal, passionate style is a secret method adopted by the far right! Whoa there! Neither do I believe reptiles rule the world! But again, there's lives to save and you're not gonna get emotional? Go back to your ivory towers.) Technically of course, this is true - anarchists are opposed to hierarchical forms of organisation, but this does not make the authors of DGR fascists - not from what they've written in that book anyway. But, to get back to hierarchy - well I've never heard any ordinary patch-ridden anarcho punk complain about Sea Shepherd - far from it. And they get the job done (well after season 3 so I've heard)*. Paul Watson is someone who won't be distracted from his mission by endless debates and his experience has obviously told him that if you're a doer, you're never gonna win any popularity contests - (except with the anarcho punks.)* It is only the intellectual Semantic Pedantics who are offended – those who should be smart enough to know better. But then it makes sense for them to stay within their comfort zone. I particularly like this quote Jensen borrows from one of his friends:

When philosophy dies, action begins.

As for fascism, that's ridiculous. Did these people read either of these books at all? They couldn't be more 'right on'. Read them and see! And misanthropic? Baaadly misunderstood (I hope!) Talking honestly about the state of human life (inflicted by both poverty and riches) and our land base, and the current lack of any fight back (and I don't mean those who have finally lost their rags now that their pensions are in the balance – no offence to them, but I'm talking about the bigger picture.) is badly needed. As is the fact that if we don't do something to try to halt our unsustainable impact on the Earth, many of us will die. Not pleasant a thought to confront, but surely believable unless you are unaware that we don't have endless resources to exploit? Therefore a call for action to try and save the planet and those we share it with seems more human (and higher on any priority list: whatever problem/wrong/oppression you can think of that you'd prefer to fight for – it becomes impossible if we kill ourselves and the planet off. Surely you can't get clearer than that) than some philosophical / intellectual debate (which only ensures it will never get done of course).

Recently I was recommended by someone who commented on here** that I read the Anarchist Federation pamphlet entitled Ecology and Class: Where There's Brass There's Muck. I did and agreed with most of what it had to say. Most of the facts I already knew, but I would definitely recommend the first part about the problems facing us as a 'basic guide' (for want of a better phrase) to the state of the planet.

After that...well I'm undecided. There are a few bits I have issues with so I'll try and explain why. The following quote, from the section entitled 'Primitivism' could be (and seemingly has been) taken the wrong way through lack of further explanation, I think:

Some green anarchists believe humanity has become so corrupted by modern 'civilization' that it is humanity itself (all humans equally, whether they are road sweepers or the heads of corporations) that is responsible for the ecological crisis. They argue the planet would be better off with fewer people living on it, and this view has led to homophobia, racism and support for terrorism by some primitivists.

Okay, so they state 'some'(1) but there are definitely people who have taken this and made it a sweeping generalisation, saying the whole DGR (or whatever you call it) movement is fascist in nature. Fight 'fascism' with fascism, I like it.* And all muslims are terrorists too.*

Which makes me think – and as a bit of an aside - terrorism is a bit like violence in that humans could probably argue for all eternity (not that we have that long) about what exactly constitutes terrorism. My Oxford dictionary merely says:
The use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.
I don't want to get into that debate here, but it seems that 'terrorist' is the current favourite label for invoking hatred of a group and that if we're talking about taking human life as the worst possible definition, then never is it suggested by either Jensen in Endgame or the others in DGR to do so, or that all humans are to blame for the destruction of the planet - in fact, again, the opposite is true. And Jensen says that 'taking out' one person – ie the heads of the corporations that are more responsible, would be futile as they would immediately be replaced. (Okay so he doesn't say it would be wrong to do so anyway (this is an idea I find challenging, as I mentioned in my recommendation of DGR), but then I never heard anything but support for all the anarchists worldwide who went to fight Franco in fascist Spain - and I'm sure Stuart Christie wasn't the only one of them who wanted to (and tried to) blow him sky high!(2))

Jensen believes that, as industrial civilization is dependent on unsustainable practices (oil dependency, slavery and theft of land and other resources (imports), to name a few) that ultimately it will fail. He believes that the longer this takes "the messier will be the crash" and things will be worse for all life on the planet. As such, he also believes that there will be a reduction in population as we seemingly sleepwalk into catastrophe. Nowhere in the book is he racist or homophobic (and neither are the authors in DGR). Rather, they talk about how it is the poorer southern hemisphere that have suffered the most (and will possibly continue to) for our unsustainable way of life. Jensen also talks about a "class war culture" in western civilisation - and who could deny these facts apart from those who seek to uphold them?

To return to the 'misanthrope' accusation, when Jensen says "The culture as a whole and most of its members are insane" he is talking about the psychological damage that has been done to those members that allow them to continue being exploited by it. He's not blaming ordinary people, or labelling them “corrupted”. One example of a societal mass delusion is that 'the police are here to protect us', when, as many of us know and as Jensen puts so correctly,

“A primary purpose of the police is to enforce the delusions of those with lots of pieces of green paper. Those without the green papers generally buy into these delusions almost as quickly and completely as those with.”

We know many, many, things – from the smallest everyday details to the complex structures of our industrial lives - are crazy, or topsy turvy, but tend to never think seriously about them because what can we do about it (the biggest delusion of them all.)

But if a comedic style's less likely to freak you out, then how about good old Charlie Brooker?:

Just yesterday I read a news story about a new video game installed above urinals to stop patrons getting bored: you control it by sloshing your urine stream left and right. Read that back to yourself and ask if you live in a sane society.

Boredom. Even during a ten second pee. We live in a world where (when we're not working of course) if we're not endlessly watching people who are getting paid to pretend they're someone else on tv, then we're endlessly pretending to be someone else (gotta free humanity from those Templars though.) - I think we've been suffering psychologically for a long time! I also think Ted Kaczynski(3) was right when he said we'll end up like domesticated pets(4) and that this cartoon, by Stuart McMillen(5) should be seen by all. The fact is many people care more about trivial things than they do their own rights. But again, Jensen doesn't blame them:

From birth on...we are individually and collectively enculturated to hate life, hate the natural world, hate the wild, hate wild animals, hate women, hate children, hate our bodies, hate and fear our emotions, hate ourselves. If we did not hate the world, we could not allow it to be destroyed before our eyes. If we did not hate ourselves, we could not allow our homes – and our bodies – to be poisoned.

enculturation – photo by Jed(6)

I do believe most people have varying degrees of self hatred – probably a lot more than they do hatred for the natural world, (that's just out of sight, out of mind) but the cause and effect link that Jensen makes does make sense, so I'm not going to be fussy about the strong wording. 'Our' culture is inescapable.

I have been trying to read another book that the same friend recommended me for many months now but am still a third of the way through. I don't think I'll ever finish it. It is about the bloggers of Iran and how they are breaking the law and speaking out against the oppressive regime they live under. Which would be fine – I just find the western-culture-love-as-rebellion that has been a recurring theme so far too depressing for me to read for long, knowing what the effects are. As Jamie quoted from Soil, Not Oil, a couple of days ago, I don't want them to simply adopt an obsolete, outmoded, unsustainable model of development from us in the west.

Jensen talks about Stockholm Syndrome as one of the psychological effects that people in our culture display (I did too - craply as usual - on my sister's blog a few years back) But one of my favourite quotes of Endgame, I think really sums up both the Stockholm Syndrome-esque symptoms that even those who are opposed to many aspects of capitalism display - and my own frustration at this fact; that allows for every good, simple idea to simply get co-opted – usually via growth. (Naturally-organic growing turned to organic farming for instance, co-ops themselves for another). Anyway, the quote:

What is our solution? Probably the most common chosen solution, which is no solution at all, is to never upset those in power, that is, to use only those tactics deemed acceptable to those in power. The main advantage of pursuing this non-option is that you get to feel good about yourself for “fighting the good fight” against the system of exploitation while not actually putting at risk the benefits you get from this same system. (Have you ever wondered, by the way, why so many more people in the United States support third world rebel groups than participate in similarly open revolt here?)

(The perceived 'benefits' of our domestication here being another symptom of course).

To me Jensen makes a strong case for people – and what truly makes us human, arguing that we have learnt to identify more with the dominant culture than we do our own humanity. That in losing our connection with life – with the land, we have lost the knowledge and security of our true identities. It is the dominant culture that is misanthropic, killing these connections and our connections to one another - and - and I keep repeating myself on this blog, sorry - we all know that if corporations are people, they are sociopaths.

Charlie Brooker sums up society's obsessions in jest:

Fifteen Million Merits, co-written with my wife Konnie Huq and starring Daniel Kaluuya (The Fades) and Jessica Brown-Findlay (Downton Abbey), takes place in a world in which the population is apparently doomed to a life of meaningless toil enlivened only by continual entertainment and distraction courtesy of ominipresent gizmos and screens. So not really sci-fi at all, then. Your sole chance of escape or salvation from this world appears to be a talent contest called Hot Shot, where the judges are played by Julia Davis, the grime MC Bashy, and Rupert Everett.

So not really sci-fi at all then. Indeed. Just very...civilised.

So, industrial civilisation. Why is it so very bad? Well Endgame is 450 pages of explanation, written in a very human way. As such it has its flaws, but to me they are insignificant – especially compared to its overall premise(s in this case!) Aric McBay, author of DGR writes more succinctly about the subject in In The Wake. It's along the same lines as Endgame (only Jensen goes into much more detail - obviously, in 450 pages!) but until you can read it for yourself, here's what McBay writes:

Let me be speciﬁc about what I mean by industrial civilization. For many people, the word civilization calls to mind words like “reﬁned, safe, convenient, modern, advanced, polite, enlightened and sophisticated.” Of course, these words are the words that civilized people use to describe themselves. For example, if you look up the word “Christian” in the thesaurus, you will ﬁnd words like “fair, good, high-principled, honourable, humane, noble, right, virtuous” and other words that Christians might use to describe themselves, but which hardly apply to the Crusades, the Witch-Burnings, or other such atrocities carried out by self-described Christians.

For a more unbiased deﬁnition of civilization, we can consider historian Lewis Mumford’s use of the word civilization “to denote the group of institutions that ﬁrst took form under kingship. Its chief features, constant in varying proportions throughout history, are the centralization of political power, the separation of classes, the lifetime division of labor, the mechanization of production, the magniﬁcation of military power, the economic exploitation of the weak, and the universal introduction of slavery and forced labor for both industrial and military purposes.”

Anthropologist Stanley Diamond cuts to the chase, and says simply that “Civilization originates in conquest abroad and repression at home.

By “industrial”, I mean a society that is dependent on machines for the basics of life. A society that needs tractors to grow food, trucks to transport it, factories to synthesize fertilizers, and so on, is an industrial society. A society where people participate in the growing of their own food and other basics by hand would not be industrial.

Related to this, there is another line I dislike from Ecology and Class:

Extreme primitivists believe that the total destruction of civilization is a necessity and the inevitable rapid reduction in human population appears to be a price worth paying.

I'm surprised that an anarchist publication throws tabloid-esque and sensational statements like that around on others' behalf. ”Extremists”? What happened to “radical” - and anyway, every past civilization has eventually fallen - it's the nature of the beast - so it's not really that far fetched an idea. And 'Appears' where? – to whom? (I'd say that civilisation's destruction is 'inevitable' as well as 'necessary' and thus they are both inextricably linked. We need to look for alternative ways to live) This is a sensitive and complex area (hence 450 pages) of our current crisis and cannot be summed up just like that – unless you are trying to discredit someone? I have already quoted Jensen's urging people to action in order to try to avoid a 'messier crash' as civilisation fails in its unsustainability. I've defended Jensen's honest talking about subjects such as this that generally get avoided. I mentioned earlier how I have concluded that all other priorities must logically fall behind that of saving the only habitable world we have. Workers owning factories will not help in the bigger scheme of things... but please read some of the literature before you let one sentence put you off.

It can be difficult to quote Jensen as he builds in layers and I fear that singly, and out of context, his quotes sometimes sound harsh (and that this may be the problem with people taking offence – that maybe they've read a few quotes, but never the whole book) but I'll try here, with a few (each paragraph is a separate quote) and hope it doesn't close your mind to reading Endgame in full:

At some point, probably in the not-too-distant future, there will be far fewer people on this planet. There will be far fewer than the planet could have supported - and did support - prior to us overshooting carrying capacity, because the great stocks of wild foods are gone (or poisoned), the top soil lost in the wind.

My saying this doesn't mean I hate people. Far from it...what I'm proposing, startlingly enough, is that we look honestly at our situation. And our situation is that we have overshot carrying capacity. The question becomes: What are we going to do abut it?

...some ways of reducing population and consumption, while still violent, would consist of reducing the current levels of violence – required and caused by the (often forced) movement of resources from the poor to the rich – and would of course be marked by a reduction in current violence against the natural world. Personally and collectively we may be able to both reduce the amount and soften the character of violence that occurs during this ongoing and perhaps long term shift. Or we may not. But this much is certain: if we do not approach it actively – if we do not talk about our predicament, and what we are going to do abut it – the violence will undoubtedly be far more severe, the privation more extreme...

...When people tell me population is the number one environmental problem we face today, I always respond that population is by no means primary. It's not even secondary or tertiary. First, there's the question of resource consumption I mentioned earlier. Second is the failure to accept limits, of which overpopulation and overconsumption are merely two linked symptoms. Beneath that is our belief we're not animals, that we're separate from the rest of the world, that we're exempt from the negative consequences of our actions, and that we're exempt from death. Beneath these beliefs is a fear and loathing of the body, of the wild and uncontrollable nature of existence itself, and ultimately of death. These fears cause us to convince ourselves not only of the possibility but the desirability of not being animals, of separating ourselves from the world. These fears drive us crazy, and lead us to create and implement insane and destructive economic and social systems.

Our current population levels have only been made possible through large scale agriculture - and thus oil. We will not be able to maintain these practices indefinitely, but I personally get the impression of a gradual shift, but one that gets in motion the sooner the better – for the world population's sake as well as the planet's - because this is preferable to mass natural disasters, caused by all our many 'uninformed tinkerings', that will 'cull' our numbers. You reap what you sow, remember?

This means that we do need to start with working with whatever we've got (and we'll get called hypocrites for it, because some people would rather nothing got done: if we all go and run to the hills, (what sodding hills?) nobly turning our back on the civilised world we oppose then actually we do not have the moral high ground at all as we would be deserting our fellow humans and everything else and leaving it to its fate, just to stay 'true' to our 'beliefs'. Far better to work with what you've got – facebook if that's all there is for you and if that's what you can do to spread ideas. We are diverse and so can our actions be, but what we can't do is hide. Ridiculous.)

Did you hear about the South African DJ? Well his thoughts on labels and 'DGR' are my thoughts exactly:

Finally, I would like to condemn the words “green”, “environmentalism” and “conservation”. The word “green” has been stolen by industrial apologists. Calling an activity “green” now means “less pollution while keeping the economic machine running.” We call this a “greenwashing”. In case you haven’t noticed, we live on a finite planet. Perpetual economic growth is simply not on the cards.

The word “environmentalism” is used by industrial propagandists to dismiss things that scientists say. It is not just environmentalists who say climate change and tar sands are bad. It is scientists, you idiot. Environmentalists use scientific studies as their source of knowledge about ecocide. You civilised people worship science, remember? So I would like the media to stop using the phrase “environmentalists say” to ridicule and undermine scientific information. For the same reason, I would also like them to stop saying “conservationists say”.

I don’t particularly like the moniker “Deep Green Resistance”. You already know why I have come to despise the word “green”. Furthermore, every time that well-dressed industrial apologist Phillipe Cousteau Junior appears on CNN’s “Green Pioneers” to wax lyrical about wind turbines I want to punch the wall.

For a long time I have wondered what I should call myself. I realise that it’s a civilised tendency to always want to label things, but I’m just as much a victim of the pathology as you are. It is also a daily struggle for me to free my mind from the tyranny of civilisation.

I started with the label “anarcho-primitivist”, but then decided this term was begging for racism from capitalists. Then I was a “deep green resister”. Unfortunately, that sounded a bit like an eco-friendly kitchen appliance to me. Then I was a “deep green anarchist”. But today I am an “eco-anarchist”. I like this one. It doesn’t contain the word “green”. I also hate the term “environmental impact”. This phrase is also used by the civilised to make it seem like ecocide is acceptable as long as humans benefit from it in the short term. I reject the assertion that any form or amount of ecocide is acceptable.

I very much doubt I will ever label myself an anarcho primitivist (and neither does Jensen) but I am interested in these ideas and there are some aspects of this belief system that to me are undeniable: that industrial civilisation has been thus far, still is and will forever be, toxic to the minds, bodies and most other components of all life on this planet.

I do not wish to return to being a hunter gatherer (a gatherer some of the time maybe!) but neither do I wish the whole world to become vegan. Having moved around a lot, never owning my own home and with no possibility of doing so (as neither Jamie or I have rich relatives!), I'd love nothing more than to put roots down, to earn the simple satisfaction of building my own small shelter and plant trees (finally the blog title would not be a misnomer!) I don't have a clear vision, (and don't believe it's useful to as we are clearly living 'in the balance' here, much better to remain 'permaculture' - and flexible and diverse) but my hopeful imaginings of a future scenario that survives this mess is one where, as quality of life improves, many techno-addicts would desire that high level of technology less and less often. Because I guess I think, that underneath we are all like this:

It is the child, the subversive part, in all of us who longs for the moment when the weather brings everything to a standstill and we can go out tobogganing, sliding, snowballing or skating.(7)

Before industrial civilisation we were all anarchists – as Colin Ward says:

An anarchist society, a society that organises itself without authority, is always in existence...buried under the wight of the state and its bureaucracy, capitalism and its waste, privilege and religious differences and their superstitious separatism.

Don't we all want to be free really? (Or our children or their children's children at least.) Isn't that what all dependency on external (and usually harmful) things are about? Hmm, endless shopping opportunities and centrally heated screens with rooves or a chance to finally, and fairly, attempt to reach my full potential as a human being? (Whatever that may be!)

If we believe that we can all participate in attempting to halt the destruction of our world then we must believe that we all understand what we are fighting for. As we are not all intellectuals - most of us aren't - then it stands to reason that all these great truths are simple - so why shouldn't they be stated so. A child should be able to make the same plea, in their own language, to save their world, as a scientist in theirs. Our soil, air and water must be our priority if we are going to survive. Industrial civilisation cannot be upheld indefinitely. And so as I've said before, why do we waste so much time arguing about it?

I do not like black and white thinking and there is too much arguing based on the fact that just because you don't agree with every single thing a person or group says or thinks, that there is no merit to be found in it, or that the merit found is somehow discredited or lessened by those ideas that are not accepted. I have recommended lots of books on this blog, but rarely do I agree with absolutely every idea in them. I have been taking this understanding as a given, that surely everyone else does this, but it seems like I could be being very naive...

I'll still end up making flippant, angry remarks in the future no doubt; because the people who care are angry - and the people who care are people. Just people.

* joke/sarcasm. Now I know why Brad Warner does it.

** and Erik, if by any small chance you are still reading, I guess this whole thing is partly for you in the hope that you'll see I'm not in any way a misanthropist or fascist and that if I thought these books were in any way, I'd be recommending people bin them instead.

1 - I am aware that Green Anarchist was infiltrated by the far-right in the nineties, but don't know much about it – and do not believe it automatically renders all 'DGR' ideas as unacceptable.

2 - Christie does state at the end of his book (Granny Made Me An Anarchist) that he's now glad he failed in his attempt.

3 - No, I'm not trying to be controversial and this does not mean that I am a fascist – he just makes some good points in his manifesto – The Land magazine and Crimethinc have some good articles / quotes about him.

4 - Crimethinc say the same in Days of love, Nights of War – thoroughly recommended.

5 - Based on the book Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

6 - Jed was asked to write a pros and cons of gm crops for his science lesson and this was one of the books he was given (I bet Vandana Shiva's writings weren't handed round) He ended up getting told off because he only wrote a cons list. Good for him. I know, and I said I was open-minded – what a hypocrite! To me though, I am not (though we all are - not in this instance anyway!) The pros of gm crops are simply 'hopes' that have been voiced by the corporations (who stand to make lots of money from their mass adoption) and we have yet to see them solve world hunger, eradicate poor nutrition, etc, etc. Whereas there are already many existing (in the real world and not some shiting sales pitch) cons to be witnessed.

7 - in Notes from Walnut Tree Farm by Roger Deakin

Vandana Shiva passage - The earth is sacred

2011-11-28T01:04:00.000-08:00

I don't consider myself to be a spiritual person (religiously or otherwise). I've long struggled to describe the strong feelings I have towards the soil, the trees, growing plants, animals, the earth and environmentalism.

I have no interest in beads, chants, prayers or tacky imitation artifacts from ancient cultures that this dominate culture has destroyed. But I do feel a deep connection to the earth. A connection that is growing all the time.

I've recently read books by Richard Mabey, Derrick Jensen, Roger Deakin, and Julian Cope. I'm currently reading a book by Vandana Shiva. In these books I have found a resonance, a connection, an idea. A love for earth and it's defense. A connection so ancient but so very real and current. The earth is sacred and I feel comfortable saying it!

The following passages moved me this morning. From Vandana Shiva's book "Soil not oil". She is taking about the building of roads and the adoption of car culture in Indian:

"Highways are not lines on the palm (of the hand), they are more like tattoos - marks imposed by external design on the landscape. The violence of this imposition is shaped by the World bank and IMF. The redefining of India is a forgetting of Bharart*, Of India's history. By writing our fate in cement, we are erasing our fate from our soil, our land, and our ecology. In India, we have viewed our mountains and rivers as the "lines on the palm". They are our givens and our givers. We have been intimately connected to our land, our rivers, and our mountains. The earth has shaped our destiny. And through this connection we have connected as a civilization from Srinagar to Kanyakumari".

*Bhārata, the self-ascribed Sanskrit name for the Indian subcontinent

"Substituting sacred rivers with highways, substituting our connection to the sacred earth, her mountains and forests, with connection to automobiles, cement and coal tar, is rewriting India's ecology, culture and history. It is adopting an obsolete, outmoded, unsustainable model of development imported from the West, one with high social and environmental costs".

"It (India) derives it's inspiration from the forest and the living world, unlike the West, which derives its cultural characteristics from dead brick and mortar".

I feel deep grief, anger and yes, guilt, for India and her people. I feel a great grief for the West and for Britain. I feel great grief and anger for what has been inflicted on the mountains, rivers, ancient forests, heath lands, wildlife and beautiful red Devon soils. Western privilege aside, this is our universal heritage. For all that is truly sacred, we must defend it!

There is a part for us all to play, we just have to find it. I want the earth not development, I want broadleaved woodlands not motorways, I want the commons not car parks, I want Permaculture not nuclear power. I want to be a part of a culture of respect and dignity, not dead brick and mortar!

Grovember...

2011-11-21T23:47:00.000-08:00

...I don't know about November (or Movember!)

Everything is still regrowing / blooming away in the garden - including the echinacea our friend gave us back in March and which we thought would never:

Woohoo!

From New Scientist...

2011-11-14T01:27:00.000-08:00

Is it time to let some species go extinct?

12 November 2011
Magazine issue 2838. Subscribe and save
For similar stories, visit the Endangered Species Topic Guide

IS IT time to let some threatened species go extinct? The heretical notion is worthy of consideration, says a majority of conservationists contacted in a poll.

Of 583 questioned, 60 per cent agreed that criteria should be established for deciding which species to abandon in order to focus on saving others (Conservation Biology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01772.x). Murray Rudd of the University of York, UK, who ran the survey, says the subject has been somewhat taboo until recently. Most large conservation organisations, he adds, already have checklists for prioritising their efforts.

We will inevitably lose species, says Jean-Christophe Vié of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Geneva, Switzerland. "But there will be disagreement about priorities. We can't save all 17,000 species under threat, so we must choose, and that depends on many parameters."

Making that choice will not be straightforward. As Rudd puts it: "Should it be how unique a species is genetically, how useful it is economically, or whether lots of species can be saved at once?"

Jamie says he thinks there's one species that definitely deserve go extinct....I'd sadly have to agree. Can you guess which one? I'll give you a clue: it's the species that spends so much money on weapons that they 'can't afford' to save their own habitat, let alone the others that share it.

But as science is religion and we never even went to college, who are we to argue - obviously?

Jerusalem Artichoke Recipe

2011-11-08T00:31:00.000-08:00

As we've had a couple of frosts now, and because Sunday was lovely weather-wise, we dug up a couple of the jerusalem artichoke plants in the back garden. Yesterday we got to work using them up...

I love simple food and cooked the chokes in this way. Here's what I did:

Going in the wok:

as many artichoke tubers as you need, diced small
onion or whatever alliums you have
garlic or, again, similar
salt and black pepper
wholegrain mustard to taste
bunch of fresh parsley
oil for stir frying

Stir fry the chokes and onion in the oil, along with the mustard, salt and pepper. When they are cooked, remove the pan from heat and use kitchen scissors to snip in parsley and grated garlic, to taste. I use loads of fresh parsley for the vitamin C.

We were naughty and had this with rice, but it could be a side dish to go with numerous other things... hope you enjoy!

Gardens and Cats

2011-09-27T22:52:00.000-07:00

(No, it's not the rant you'd expect from that title on a (supposed) blog about growing!)

While we're completely rubbish bloggers, we have achieved one of our goals, which was to cut our laptop/internet use in half! So, we haven't posted about the garden or allotment in a long while...

I'm not going to do an evaluation of the growing year this year as we decided that, with Jamie's job, we don't really need to grow much of our own veg and so this year we've really focused on gathering herbs and perennials and getting more things in the ground (pretty much what we'd like to achieve anyway - if we could ever create a more permanent growing space that we weren't going to move on and leave in a few years' time).

So, we haven't grown much at the allotment and have planted lots of perennials and self-seeding annual flowers - all beneficial to wildlife. We also had our permanent strawberry bed, which gifted us over 7kg of fruit early in the year. Some friends who have just moved into Exeter city centre live two minutes from our allotment and have no garden, so we've decided to share it with them from now on as we don't need all the space. We'll keep a portion just in case we ever move into town once we're not tied to living near Jed's school!

The garden's still looking lovely (in my in my messy-loving opinion anyway!) I actually saw a pair of great tits (how the hell do you phrase that unsniggerinducingly?) taking seeds from the teasels and sunflower heads the other day, so have begun to prepare mentally for autumn and winter - no prep in the garden as the creatures like it messy too!

The jerusalem artichokes are flowering which also reminds of last autumn, although many of the plants are having that bizarre, spring-like 'second wind' that they did last year, only earlier this year - there are new green strawberries up at the allotment! I've harvested a tea caddy full of fennel seeds and we made good use of all the other herbs and unusual edibles we have growing that we can't get from the farm over the summer.

If anyone reads this and knows about our cat, Biffy, they may have noticed the cat in the photo there - and it's most definitely not our fluffy black beauty! We have a new rescue kitten, who was named Harry. He's five months old and was the last of a litter of farm cats, who had had no human contact - he was still absolutely terrified of us, despite having lived with his lovely fosterer for a while. We couldn't get near him and he happily slept in Jamie's sock drawer while he built up his confidence! Now though, he is maybe the cuddliest cat ever, as you can see:

He'll make contact any way he can, as often as possible:

and even tries to get close to our grumpy 'princess':

She's got 'er eye on him!

Because we've had him a month now, he's just started going out - he seems quite timid about it, much like Biffy, so we're hoping that because he didn't hone his skills outside early on, he'll be a rubbish hunter too...

We considered getting another cat for ages - especially as shelters and charities everywhere are desperately full, but knew Biffy wouldn't exactly be jumping for joy about it and are also aware of how unethical it is in many ways to keep pets. But, in the end, we decided that he's been brought into the world now, through no fault of his own, and we love cats and can give him a good home so that he doesn't have to suffer because of it. End of story really. Well, except, why don't people neuter their pets?!

So yes, Harry has kept us both busy and entertained. As we especially don't like to interfere with the garden at this time of year, we've been practising our uke playing and have now joined a local club too. Having amassed wool from charity shops, car boot sales and bargain bins everywhere, I'm now ready to start my next crochet blanket, in these colours:

It's my first use of green in a blanket and I've already begun to think of this as my cherry blossom blanket. It's going to be a first stripey blanket too.

As ever, we've been reading heaps and I want to post a book list soon as they've been such gooduns!

So be back in a few weeks ;)

Summer Butterfly and Moth Gallery

2011-09-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some pretty butterflies and moths to make up for my silly/angry post ;)

I'll try and give as much detail as I can as we've been practicing with the field guide and can now tell the obvious males and females apart!

April

Speckled Wood (female?) in the back garden:

Raggedy peacock, Mincinglake Park, Exeter:

May

Green Veined White (male?) on forget-me-not in the garden:

Not to be disrespectful to this one - it's beautiful even in death, poor bugger - the Brimstone Moth:

June

Large Skipper, by the River Otter - never before seen by me in my life! Pretty exciting:

July

Comma, on leek flower in the garden:

Common Blue (female) - coast near Norwich somewhere...I can't remember exactly!

Common Blue (male), same place in Norfolk as above:

Gatekeeper - my favourite butterfly of this summer - this was one of a pair that seemed to live permanently in the garden for about a month. They adored the sea holly:

We saw loads of butterflies at Hickling Broad, Norfolk - a less raggedy peacock for a start:

Red Admiral (I did find out what the plant was called, but have now forgotten - doh!):

Ringlet (again, first sighting ever for us!):

And lastly, some moths in our back garden; a magpie moth, on strawberry - with markings slightly different to last years', this confused us novices at first ;)

And a Large Yellow Underwing - never before sighted:

August
Female Silver Washed Fritillary, on the footpath between Leigh Bridge and Southill, Dartmoor:

Female Small Copper, on a lane somewhere between Hel Tor and Blackingstone Rock, Dartmoor - both of these seen on Dartmoor are firsts - we got embarrassingly excited...

Tiger Moth, seen whilst stomping along a road to Moretonhampstead:

First-time-sighting - Wall, on the coastal path between Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton:

Another, coastal-wind-battered, Silver Washed Fritillary - same coastal path:

Another first for us - male Holly Blue, Budleigh Salterton:

And lastly, this Orange Swift moth was spotted and photographed by Jed in his Nan's conservatory! It took us both ages to identify it!

"Tell us what you think in our two minute survey"

2011-08-26T00:31:00.000-07:00

I received an email this morning:

Clear on Nuclear? Are your views heard?

The Environment Council (TEC) has launched an online survey about the UK’s nuclear energy policy. The engagement charity wants to find out how much people feel included in decisions about the future of nuclear power.

Most of the UK’s nuclear power plants are due to close in the next 15 years and the government has identified eight new nuclear reactors could be established on the sites of existing nuclear power stations. The new Government national policy statement on energy comes in the wake of decisions in Japan and Germany to move away from nuclear power following the destruction of the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan by the tsunami in March this year.

The UK Government is still in favour of nuclear power because it is a low-carbon option and there is tremendous pressure for the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change.

But how much does the British public feel they have an influence in this issue? The TEC online survey is a short “pulse check” of the nation. It runs until the end of September 2011. Based on the findings, TEC will be making recommendations to the government on how to ensure there is an authentic engagement process for nuclear energy policy.

So, I thought I'd do my 'bit' and do some pointless clicking...until I got to the last question:

11. Do you have any other views on UK nuclear energy policy you want to tell us?

Upon which, this rant came out of me...

Nuclear is far from the sustainable option. Uranium mining and trying to dispose of toxic waste that will far outlive us should mean that it's a no-brainer to realise this based on these constants. Then there are all the variables associated with potential accidents and terrorism...

Yet no layperson is allowed to criticise scientific genius...the language of science is sacred and elitist and transcends mere common sense. But I think E F Schumacher puts it better than I ever could when he says that:

"The religion of economics promotes an idolatry of rapid change, unaffected by the elementary truism that a change which is not an unquestionable improvement is a doubtful blessing. The burden of proof is placed on those who take the ecological viewpoint: unless they can produce evidence of marked injury to man the change will proceed. Common sense, on the contrary, would suggest that the burden of proof should lie on the man who wants to introduce a change; he has to demonstrate that there cannot be any damaging consequences. But this would take too much time, and would therefore be uneconomic. Ecology, indeed, ought to be a compulsory subject for all economists, whether professionals or laymen as this might serve to restore at least a modicum of balance. For ecology holds:

'that an environmental setting developed over millions of years must be considered to have some merit. Anything so complicated as a planet, inhabited by more than a million and a half species of plants and animals, all of them living together in a more or less balanced equilibrium in which they continuously use and re-use the same molecules of the soil and air, cannot be improved by aimless and uninformed tinkering. All changes in a complex mechanism involve some risk and should be undertaken only after careful study of the facts available. Changes should be made on a small scale first so as to provide a test before they are widely applied. When information is complete, changes should stay close to the natural processes which have in their favour the indisputable evidence of having supported life for a very long time.' "

I would add that science is also treated as a 'religion' and that there has been no demonstration 'that there cannot be any damaging effects' - in fact demonstration has shown the opposite to be true every single time: whether we are talking about Fukushima or the waste produced that seems to always be conveniently forgotten about during claims of the cleanliness, sustainability and safety of nuclear power.

So, I feel the re-adoption of nuclear power amounts to 'uninformed tinkering' as it is impossible, with nuclear power, to ever reach the stage where 'information is complete'. We do not know the long term effects that having to deal with this waste will have, we only know that it will stay toxic for a very long time and the 'answer' to this seems to amount to the sheer brilliance of 'out of sight, out of mind'. There are truly sustainable alternatives out there, using wind, water and solar power, but most importantly we should all be trying to heftily reduce our energy consumption anyway - if the government is truly in favour of the 'low-carbon option'.

Bleugh! Out it came...and the funny thing was it didn't take much longer than two minutes. It's not a sophisticated argument, but I am not claiming to be a scholar and neither should I have to in order to share my opinion. They're gonna think I'm a crazy lady, no doubt, and I probably am, but it was quite cathartic and I urge you to do the same:

Complete the two minute survey

and have a good day!

Time Flies...

2011-08-23T23:36:00.000-07:00

We've been making up for last summer, when Jamie broke his wrist and we couldn't do any of the things we'd been hoping to, so this year the holidays are flying by quicker than ever and we've been away from home and garden a lot. (The garden has fared well - we even discovered that our fig tree IS alive! Haven't been to the allotment in a while...)

Jamie managed to get two weeks off work while Jed went back to Southampton to visit family and friends and go to punk gigs, so we immediately took the rare opportunity to head out to Dartmoor and wild camp. During our five days' stomping I reckon we covered eighty plus miles and saw some of the most beautiful places we've ever seen as well as some of the most densely antiquity-populated sites.

As ever, the camera can't possibly capture it all...

We followed the River Teign from Clifford Bridge to Chagford and it and the surrounding woods were just stunning, seeming to get more and more beautiful.

We took a detour at Steps Bridge, to go and see Hel Tor (with the row of stones like teeth) and Blackingstone Rock (above) seen here from the nearby lane. Hel Tor was surrounded by fruiting rowans and the sky was clear and bright: totally picturesque.

View over the Teign Valley as we stopped for a rest. We were climbing a very steep hill for about forty mins from the pretty Fingle Bridge to get to a place we were allowed to camp (near Cranbrook Castle, an Iron Age hillfort.)

We became VERY familiar with our OS map! We saw that our footpath crossed the river near Chagford, but didn't expect stepping stones - amazing! I was glad to borrow Jamie's stick though as these were the most mossy and treacherous of the stepping stone crossings we came across. Great fun!

From Chagford we headed to Shovel Down - a popular place with the Ancients. Here we saw stone rows, Kestor Rock, Middle Tor, Thornworthy Tor, a triple stone circle - and right in the middle, the Long Stone (above, with Kestor Rock in the background).

Sadly, we didn't have time to go back across the river to Scorhill Circle on Gidleigh Common (next time definitely) but we did keep heading south into Fernworthy Forest, where we saw the stone circle below. Again, we ran out of time and couldn't head over to The Greywethers, but if there wasn't reason enough already to come back to this area, there are a few more now!

Shovel Down also contains the remains of an ancient settlement, the most famous being Round Pound (below) which was believed to be an enclosure for vulnerable young animals in the days when wolves still roamed. The central circle is thought to have been the shepherd's hut:

Remains of a different kind - a badger, we think?

The sun begins to set on Shovel Down...

And a different day: Lustleigh Cleave, a beautiful wooded and mossy-bouldered valley, where the rocks get bigger...

and bigger...

and bigger! Some are the bottoms of tors on the above moorland and some are clitter (from Legendary Dartmoor: the eroded remains of tors that form rock streams around hillsides). The rocks above are known as Lustleigh Cave.

From here we went on to Bowerman's Nose (you can just see it in the distance behind the sign):

Our final resting place (for that day!): Grimspound, another huuuge enclosure, where we stayed for our last night - hastily putting up the tent as a wonderfully eerie mist rolled in...

It was amazing to wake up in the morning and know that Hookney Tor was just ahead of us on the hill, but we couldn't see it!

Till we got right up close!

We had a fantastic time and were soo lucky with many things... the weather being one as it didn't start raining until we reached our bus stop at Moretonhampstead. We also saw deer on several occasions, a shrew, which we sat and watched for ages as it tried to find a good spot to burrow, lots of birds of prey, several dippers, a woodpecker and a kingfisher. Oh and of course lots of butterflies - it was perfect butterfly weather. Summer butterfly gallery to come soon.

Bye for now!

Holidays and Herbs: Huzzah!

2011-07-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

In addition to the joy of the first blooming sunflower and all the bees they bring, Friday was the end of term, meaning I have six weeks off, (yay of yays). I already have an overambitious to do list; one of the things on it being to finally have a go at making some herbal tinctures or ointments. The holidays have already gotten off to an inspiring start though...

On Sunday we went back to the Agroforestry Research Trust forest garden once more (very excited because summer was one of the seasons we hadn't visited in before) for a medicinal herb tour, with Martin Crawford and Zoe Hawes.

The garden was as beautiful as ever. We'd never seen all of the herbs in their prime before. We didn't take photos though, as we were too busy scribbling. Zoe and Martin made a great team: Zoe was extremely and holistically (is that a word?) knowledgeable and also explained things in a way that were simple, interesting and thorough; Martin then provided practical info on growing each plant, dropping in other bits of fact and folklore along the way.

We weren't on our own this time, having gone with a group of friends (and in a car too! Saving us an epic, train/bus/walk medley!) and on the way back we were all buzzing as we thumbed through Zoe's book* and chatted. Jamie and I added many plants to the wants list in our heads.

Zoe talked a lot about plant signatures and whether you believe in the Doctrine of Signatures or not, it can't possibly be bad for your health to include a range of plants in your growing space and diet. As Martin reminded us: our closest relatives, the apes, eat close to 400 different varieties of plant and can differentiate between each and every one, whilst humans, with their monocultures have reduced the range of plants eaten to nearer 20. I can therefore justify that wants list ;)

And then on Monday evening we added vervain, perennial evening primrose, rugosa rose, st john's wort, motherwort, foxglove and borage to our garden. These were swapses with a friend and the little borage has flowered this morning:

Our borage from last year never self-seeded (an impossibility, I thought, but somehow we managed it!) and I had been really missing it as we also hadn't had much luck growing any from seed this year, with just one out of a row of eight germinating.

Also this week I have made a small batch of rhubarb jam, taken some rosemary cuttings and made two amigurumi cats (the ukulele needs a bit of working on and I haven't completely finished sewing all their bits on, but I still thought they looked cute. Jed thinks they 'look demented'. I might just make him one, holding a tiny skateboard, as punishment!)

*Laurel - I found out from that book that mullein is a biennial - which makes sense, as it grows very similarly to teasel. So how an already-year-old mullein got in my flower patch at the allotment unnoticed just astounds me! (I obviously need to work on my observation skills - or tidy the allotment!!) I hadn't seen mullein since I was a kid. I thought my seeds had grown, but they obviously hadn't :D

Some Up-To-Date Pictures and a Garden Visitor

2011-07-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

We cut the grass because my parents are coming to stay this weekend (my Dad's allergic to cats and has to camp in the garden!) and it always makes the garden look alien and posh in its tidy state:

As you can see, the fennel is now fully in flower. The sea holly is also starting to turn blue and the (literal) volume of hoverflies around it increases daily. The ox-eye daisies are sadly over, but the mallow (bottom left corner) is still going strong. The tall, yellow daisy-like flowers in the middle bed are edible chrysanthemums, which we have also been using a lot in salads.

They're also very pretty:

Our sunflowers, planted where the old hebe was, are steadily growing up the wall. The teasels have just started to flower. The hop has sent out side shoots, which are beginning to cover up the rest of the fence nicely. The goji is alive and has grown more than ever before, but is still being munched away to near death, we think by earwigs as we have millions of them - the downside of mulch? You can just see it to the left of the sea holly growing against the fence (and behind the clump of sage). The woody stems next to the day lily are the forget-me-nots, which don't usually come back until next year (we leave them to die down and self seed), but which are growing again already. What a strange year this has been weather wise.

We also had a most welcome first-time visitor :)

Not Allot of Pictures...

2011-07-09T01:09:00.000-07:00

Now's not the allotment's finest hour as it's in that transitory state where the potatoes have been harvested, the strawberries are over, as are the broad beans and rhubarb, and the onions and garlic have now all been pulled (earlier than usual due to the hot weather). So we have been glad of the flowers we put up there this year, some of which are beautifully in bloom, to brighten the place up amongst the new purple sprouting broccoli transplants and newly sown bush and pole beans and squash.

Yellowing rhubarb leaves that have been removed and laid down to protect the soil (our allotment in on a south facing slope and we use a lot of mulch!) There are a few good sized new crowns coming through which will expand the plant.

Newly transplanted psb, in the process of being mulched with comfrey.

Courgette and calendula

Pretty cornflowers

And mullein - for Laurel :)

A days' harvest. The black kale was actually from the garden, not the allotment.

Garden Gallery

2011-07-07T23:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted any pictures of the garden, but once again these have sat in a folder on my desktop for a couple of weeks. I am rubbish. The patch where we removed the dead-wood hebe is now full of courgettes, bush beans, sunflowers, cosmos, and calendula.

Very Tall Fennel - about to flower.

Welsh onion flower

Sweet cicely seed pods

Echinacea. We don't have a lot of luck with echinacea. We were really pleased because this one that our friends gave us is the best specimen we've ever grown on. (Jamie's that he grew from seed is smaller still!) Then Jamie stayed with them a night during his bike ride and saw Gill's in all its borderline-flowering splendour. He came home and repotted ours.

Furry, clover leaved oca and golden marjoram. We've been using heaps of this marjoram and one day I cut some and there was the oca behind it - it manages to come back each year, despite apparently not liking freezing conditions.

Mallow flower - we've been using a lot of mallow in our salads

Groundnut growing up the fig tree that didn't survive the winter.

Sweet briar rose, which is much happier in the ground: it has a new little shoot (this is despite it having begun to suffer from the drought). The plantlets in the background are baby teasels, which have self-seeded everywhere. The ones Jamie or I haven't taken to work we've pulled up and used as mulch. Their spiky leaves are also good slug deterrents.

Ken Fern's favourite - the day lily. According to his experience, women have rarely liked the taste of these flowers. I must be one of the rare ones!

Self-seeded nasturtiums, growing behind the raspberry. The paler green leaves are the fruiting cane, which has now finished (they were absolutely delicious!) and which we've now cut back. The others are this years growth.

Newly fledged house sparrow which kept diving to and from this perch on the bay tree, into the bucket of mint next door and then emerging with all sorts of things in its beak which I couldn't quite make out, but was astonished at the amount it was pulling out from there; it was like a magicians hat, I tell you.

I've got some week old allotment pics to post and then I'll try to be more up to date from then on...

A Project is Finished...and a New Love Affair Begins

2011-07-05T23:08:00.000-07:00

I finally completed my second ever granny square crochet blanket the weekend before last! It's a requested present for my oldest friend, who is getting married on Saturday.

It only took me eight months, as opposed to two years this time ;)

I then found a carrier bag full of lovely green wool at a stumbled upon car boot sale, which was taking place on Exmouth seafront as we were doing a coastal walk - and so it looks like a third blanket may be in the making. I hope three will be the magic number in this equation as there are things I'd change about both blankets I've made and I know I prefer the edging on my first as this edging here is too flouncy for me.

However it may not get started until the depths of winter as, having gotten a taster for them, we made our annual summer outing to the Exeter bootie...where I fell in love with, and made an extremely rare - and extravagant for us - impulse* purchase (actually Jamie gifted me half the money cos I only had a fiver on me). However, I think that it will - and in fact already has (not just for me but Jamie and even Jed) - provide many hours of fun: it's irresistible!

...Here is my new/old ukulele. It feels like posting a picture of my second child ;)

(My talented friend Debbie made the record cushion - coincidentally I found out she's just got a uke too. I do love a good coincidence!)

* I say impulse, but it wasn't totally. I had been thinking about asking for one for a xmas present since Jamie did his ride a month ago and I decided I wanted to learn a new song on the guitar - and Jed and me found instead a video of someone covering a different song by the same band beautifully on the uke. So it felt like destiny when I saw it there on Sunday, at the same time as Jamie pointed it out and Jed sent me a text saying 'Have you seen the uke man?'

So far I have learnt to play Blitzkrieg Bop by The Ramones and a handful of made-up chord change practice 'songs' and am very chuffed.

Jamie wants one now, so that we can aim to sound like this one day:

(although it is of course impossible as the best music, as this, is always Scottish!)

End to End

2011-07-01T03:58:00.000-07:00

I've been a cyclist and bike nerd for most of my adult life. The height of my cycling madness was about 8 years ago when I began planning a 900 mile ride from Lands end to John o' Groats.
As a cyclist this is one of the most famous and classic rides of all.
For one reason or another I never got past the planning stage until last year when, out of the blue my brother phoned me up and asked if I was still interested in doing the ride. After serious consideration and encouragement from Bek, I agreed and the saving and planning began.
We decided to ignore most peoples advice and ride from north to south (into a south west headwind for 12 0f the 14 days) and to camp for half the trip carrying all of our own gear. No cheating support vehicle for us!
Geographically the land does not slant downhill as your mind would like to tell you and in hindsight, camping, cycling into the headwind and carrying all our stuff was probably a mistake. But, we made it to the end when we said we would, so really, that's all that counts.
My left knee completely self destructed on the second day which had it not been for Steve's heroic efforts to carry nearly everything and break the headwind for me, the trip would have ended there and then.
A busted knee or not the ride was a lot harder than I imagined, One of the sayings of the trip became "wind farms are not good cycling territory". We rode by many wind farms up bloody big hills.

The stacks of Duncansby, John o' Groats. We saw guillemots, seals, and what we are sure were puffins. They are very small and were pretty far away!

Much to my deep shame, I've travelled more of Scandinavia, America and Australia than I have my own country. So, this trip gave me a chance to put that right without clocking up anymore air miles. I figure there ain't a much better way the see the place than by bicycle.
The Highlights were the Scottish highlands (especially Fort Augustus, Loch Ness, Ben Nevis and Glencoe), Wenlock edge in Shropshire and the Wye valley in Wales.
We decided to raise money (on our own terms, none of that corporate shameless shit) for the cancer charity that looked after our uncle Dave when he was dying. People where incredibly generous and we raised far more than we could have ever expected.

The beach at John o' Groats.

We laughed, we cried, sweated up big hills, howled down even bigger hills, got sun burnt on the first day, broken on the second day. Steve Snapped chains, I ate too many chips, we fixed punctures in the rain, picked the worst campsites ever, got saddle sores and laughed some more.

Sunset over the Orkney islands from John O' Groats campsite on our first night.

The highlands were a desolate place where we sang Proclaimers and Clash songs at the top of our lungs. A two man tunnel tent really means it will only fit one and half men and there is no such thing as waterproof socks.

Our company for most of the first five days.

We were awed by the beauty of this land and punished by the hills of Devon. Many amazing people did our disgusting laundry for free and cheered us on (I hope the Scottish bloke who punched the air and we heard shouting "Go on boys" over four lanes of busy dual carriage way made it safe and sound).
So the stats of the trip where - We rode 966 miles in 14 days. Our top speed was 36.8 miles an hour and our average was 11.5 miles an hour. The furthest we rode in one day was a 100 miles and the shortest day of 40 miles ended with us in the pub drinking Sharps Doombar at 2pm.

The coastline at Helmsdale.

This trip would not have been possible without the support of our amazing friends and families, both north and south of Hadrian's wall . I am eternally grateful. Brother Groats, I salute you.

What goes up, must bloody come down. Brother Groats dispelling the myth that land around lakes are flat. A big bloody hill along side Loch Ness.

River Moriston at Invermoriston.

Telford bridge over the Moriston river at Invermoriston.

Ben Nevis.

Water so clear you could drink it, Glencoe.

View from the carpark of the Clachaig inn, Glencoe. where, in the company of a hard drinking, hill walking Glaswegian called Guss, a few pints of Williams Bros 8/- washed away our aches and pains. Notice the rain cascading down the mountain. I think this could be one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

The breathtaking Glencoe.

A pint of Deuchars IPA for 2 thirsty travelers in one of Scotlands oldest pubs. The 17th century Drovers Inn at Inveraman.

Upper part of Loch Lomond.

Typical roadside view from Loch Lomond. I love ferns and lichen so was in heaven here.

422 miles after leaving John O' Groats we crossed into old blighty.

We decided last minute to ride through Wales and the Severn bridge as it was geographically a straighter route with less miles. This turned out to be my favourite days riding of the whole trip. The Wye valley (above) is incredible.

In the torrential rain we paid homage to the home of Northern soul, Wigan pier. We couldn't find the casino and actually it is a canal pier miles away from the sea. We got soul.

Dad and Jed made a finish line which was brilliant.

The end, Lands end after 966 miles with welcoming party.

Forest garden update June 2011

2011-06-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

Finally remembered to take the camera into work and get a few shots of the forest garden I began planting up earlier in the year. Things are kinda going to plan, it still looks more like a bunch random plants in a sea of plastic rather then a forest. The weather has been unbelievably dry (almost 2 solid months without rain) which has claimed a few victims and made establishing plants very difficult.
I don't get much time to work on it as we are crazy busy on the farm but new plants are starting to come in from friends, plant sales and other parts of the farm. One of things that most appeals to me about forest gardens is the long term-ness of it, so let the experiment continue.

Baby globe artichoke grown from a root cutting in the spring, Chuffed I am!

Borage, nettles, french sorrel, lemon balm, mint and comfrey planted around a medlar tree.

Lettuce, teasel, hispi pointed cabbage, sunflower and kale. There are other things in this bed but they are too small to see.

French sorrel, garlic mint and comfrey planted around a yellow plum tree.

Little marjoram in front of big horse radish, in front of a small rosemary.

Leek flowers, dill, sunflower and calendula.

Poached egg planted around gooseberries to be hopefully be joined later by chives as a companion plant to see off saw fly. Jerusalem artichokes in the background marching onwards.

A Tribute to the Corvids

2011-06-28T22:39:00.000-07:00

Jamie and I like crows, (Jamie's nickname is Jamie Crow, but don't worry, he's not a goth - it's because of his total punk rock squawk ;) ) and the corvid family in general, very much. Coincidentally, over the last couple of days, we keep coming across corvid related info that's really interesting...

It started with me reading Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees by Roger Deakin, which contains this sad little tale about a jackdaw's ability to mourn:

One of the books that inspired me as a boy was Konrad Lorenz's "King Solomon's Ring". My favourite chapter, which I used to read over and over again, describes how, beginning in 1927, he raised a whole colony of free flying jackdaws at his home in Altenberg in Austria, with the object of studying their social and family behaviour. By the time the book was published, I already had a tame crow of my own, so I felt a strong allegiance to Lorenz's work. Jackdaws, the cousins of rooks, also live socially, are highly intelligent and communicate with each other in remarkable ways. Unlike other birds, jackdaw young have no innate fear of their predators, so each generation must inform the next about what is to be feared. They do this by means of a harsh, aggressive alarm call Lorenz calls 'rattling'. Lorenz also observed that jackdaws form lifelong attachments, as rooks seem to do, and that there is a distinct, well-understood pecking order within the tribe to which all the members adhere without question. Lorenz gradually learnt the Jackdaw vocabulary: 'Zick Zick' is uttered by the courting male to mean 'Let's nest together' and, once in possesion of an actual mate and nest, 'Keep out'. Any act of social delinquency is immediately censured by the other tribe mmbers with a variation of this call, expressed by Lorenz as 'Yip, Yip'. Most interesting of all is Lorenz's discovery of the subtle distinction between 'Kia' and 'Kiaw'. The first is the cry uttered in flight by the dominant jackdaws to urge the whole flock outward to new feeding grounds. The second is to urge them hom. Thus 'Kiaw' plays a vital role in maintaining the integrity of the flock when one meets another.

Most birds seem to keep thier song quite separate from their language. The staccato alarm cry of a wren or blackbird is quite distinct from their sweet song. Jackdaws, however, incorporate their words into their songs to create, as Lorenz puts it, something more like a ballad, in which they can re-create past adventures or directly express emotions. Not only this, but the singer accompanies the different cries with the corresponding gestures, quivering or threatening like the lustiest performer passionately enacting a song. In a way, the jackdaw is mimicking itself, as a solitary jackdaw kept in a cage will come to mimic human speech, but it may also, Lorenz thinks, be expressing emotion. When a marten broke into the roosting aviary at Altenberg and killed all but one of his jackdaw flock, the lone survivor sat all day on the weathervane and sang. The dominant theme of her song, repeated over and over, was 'Kiaw', 'Come back, oh, come back'. It was a song of heartbreak.

I am thoroughly enjoying Roger's book so far and would definitely recommend it - although if you live in Exeter and are thinking about getting it out of the library, you'll have to wait a while as I am just over half-way through!

Yesterday, I read about, and watched this video:

which led me to this TEDtalk:

And then this morning I received this photo from my sister:

It was taken in Land's End, Cornwall, a couple of weeks ago. We were down there to meet Jamie and his brother Steve, who were returning from a two week John O'Groats to Lands End bike ride. While we were waiting for them to arrive at the finish, we went for a walk and this friendly crow hopped along with us some of the way.

And now I've just received a link to this article in New Scientist: Crows Tell The World Who's Bad - which made me laugh!

No to GM talk in Exeter

2011-06-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

Just on the vague chance that there is anybody living in Exeter or surrounding areas that would be interested, here is the flier for a talk we are involved in organizing. Sorry about the short notice, it only occurred to me to put it up this evening, What a crap blogger I am! See you there.

Forest School

2011-06-11T09:25:00.000-07:00

Today, for the first time ever in my life, I volunteered to 'work' on a Saturday! When my boss had sent round an e-mail a few weeks back, asking if anyone would be interested in going on an Introduction to Forest Schools course, I sent back a rather enthusiastic reply and had been looking forward to it ever since it was confirmed that three of us (my boss, another colleague and myself) could go. My boss had been on previous years' taster days and described how she felt on leaving at the end as being on a par with "falling in love". Them's strong words!

But I can definitely see what she meant.

It was flippin' ace. I smiled all day and wanted to hug the course leader - the wonderful Richard Irvine - when we finally left. It was one of those events that nearly brought tears of pure happiness to my eyes. I do not exaggerate at all (and I am a renowned sap!)

With just a bucket of simple tools and the forest setting, Richard proved that nature is the best for children when it comes to:

sparking their excitement and imaginations
preparing them to succeed
allowing them to take risks - and be fully creative; knowing there is no 'right' or 'wrong' way
teaching them about personal responsibility and safety
facilitating co-operation and sense of community

The day took place at the Wembworthy Centre in North Devon - a beautiful location, that is accessible by train. I didn't have a camera unfortunately, but there are lots of pics on the facebook page:

The weather forecast said showers and the course confirmation said "Wear wellies and waterproofs!" but when we left Exeter at 9am, the sky was stunningly blue and streaked with clouds; fluffy ones looking as though they'd been stuck on top of this background, like blobs of cotton wool. I had wellies, but have a bordering-on-phobia of waterproofs, having had a bad experience with one I found in a charity shop, which left me feeling like a sweat-log, whatever that is (I know, I should invest in a posh breathable one, but they're sooo expensive for what they are, it annoys me and I can't can't bring myself to on principle!) Anyway, I opted for layering up and hoping for the best. I'm well used to getting wet as a cyclist!

We quickly left the main site pictured above, and went to the forest, where we stayed for the whole day - and which was far colder. So, it was welcome that our introduction began with a campfire - a huge part of forest schooling. There was log seating arranged in a circle around the fire pit, and what I think I heard was an old parachute hoisted up in the trees, providing a roof. Richard showed us how to use fire steels (why have I never seen these before?! Richard said a child had described them as Little Dragon Sneezes - so cute and accurate!) and we had a little practise. Then we were introduced to a second amazing piece of kit: the Kelly Kettle.

These things are great! Richard's top safety tips for them were:

place the spout opposite the air hole when placing the kettle on the base
rest the handle on the opposite side to the spout
lift the handle using two hands (the wood prevents it becoming hot)
NEVER boil with the cork in place!!

We collected tinder (thin layers of silver birch bark make ideal tinder) and small sticks (no bigger than a pencil) for fuel and then started boiling our water for tea break! Newspaper and a ball of cotton wool were used as kindling (Richard uses the cotton wool balls and newspaper to aid the children when they are first beginning to start fires, in order that they succeed, as he feels this is more important than the pedantics of calling it 'cheating'!)

Early years children obviously aren't involved in starting the fires, but Richard teaches them a safe way that they can add fuel through the kettle's chimney. They must kneel (never stand) next to the barrier surrounding the fire pit. The kettle is placed in the fire pit and the children can take small twigs and hold one end, resting the other on the edge of the chimney. They then simply let go and it flips in - and in this way, their hands are never above the chimney or too near the kettle. (He also uses classic circle time games such as "Duck, Duck, Goose" to teach the children the rule of only ever walking on the outside of the seating area surrounding the fire.)

Zoe and I's fire was soon roaring and the whole process was so much fun. At one point I suddenly realised it was raining really hard, but hardly anything was actually penetrating the canopy of trees. After a hugely satisfying cup of peppermint tea Richard shared his essential toolkit for a forest school day with us, which consisted of the following:

secateurs
loppers
bow saw - with blade for cutting green wood - every fourth tooth is a 'rake' to pull out the bits that tend to clog up when cutting this type of wood
hack saws - with blades for cutting wood
hand drills of various types
a billhook
a mallet
string, rope and wool
potato peelers and sharpened butter knives (perfect for introducing children to knives - they are sharp enough to empower them to cut, yet don't have a pointy end!)
scissors
tent pegs

He showed us how to make simple wooden beads, by cutting sticks of elder and pushing out the large central pith with a tent peg. We then cut 'medallions' from a larger log of ash and drilled holes in the top of them to make necklaces. These things, even young children could do. We had to decorate our medallions with our 'Forest School Names'. (At the very start of the day we were told to think of an animal, and an adjective to describe that animal, that began with the same letter as our names, to introduce ourselves to the group. Hence THIS is mine (should've been Bek the Blingy Bird eh?))

We ate lunch under the parachute and Richard showed us how to make a mallet, and then used the wood he'd cleaved away to make some simple wooden bricks. He also used the first, semicircular piece he'd cut away to create a wooden animal and we quickly thought of variations on that theme! The rain stopped after a while and we went for a walk, taking our journey sticks and a small ball of wool. (I thought the journey sticks were going to be for sticking in the ground when you set off and using the wool attached to them to find your way back. Doh!!) These were to collect things along the walk and attach them by wrapping the wool around. This helps children to remember significant aspects of their journey and create something personal. Again, here is mine:

During our walk Richard pointed out and named plants and trees, sharing uses and tips for identification. We dug out our own clay from a ditch and make forest sprites and green men and left them in the woods and on the trees. Richard told us an African folk tale about the creation of the world and how it was shaped from clay. (The moss on my stick is how I dried my hands after washing them in the stream!) We then visited some amazing dens a group of older children had built. (Younger children often build smaller dens for their clay or wooden creatures). Richard gave us a choice here: we could either build dens ourselves or go back to the campfire and make tools and cook. We chose to return as we all wanted to make one of the mallets that he had demonstrated earlier - and we knew we could never compete with the childrens' dens!

We foraged for some small logs in an area where there had been some forest clearing going on and hauled our bounty back to the camp (we even took some logs back in the car!) We made simple mallets by sawing to the depth of the blade the circumference round and then using the billhook and a mallet to cleft the outer edge away up to the point we'd sawn, to create handles. Ta-da:

The demonstration mallet was made of ash, which is renownedly strong and which cleaves much more cleanly than mine - which is birch. I still love my mallet though!

We'd begun to overrun the finish time, but Richard said he was happy to stay a bit longer, as he really wanted to do some cooking - if we were. We definitely were! Thus we rounded off our day in the forest by popping corn on the fire, using two sieves strapped to a long stick to create a cage for the popcorn to safely do its thing in. We set it in the embers (the open flames are too much for the thin mesh of the sieves) and gave it a quick shake every now and again, and were soon passing round delicious exploded kernels.

Then it was time to leave - but not before we'd quizzed Richard on book recommendations. He had several copies of the book "I Love My World" by Chris Holland for sale and my boss, Sue, bought a copy. It looks great and I can't wait to read it.He also recommended all the books on this Amazon list by Liz Ambrose.

And so went went home; not a powerpoint presentation handout in sight, smelling richly of woodsmoke and with the question buzzing in our minds, "If we were this excited by today's activities, how are our children going to feel...?"

Some out of date photos - and an apology!

2011-05-31T01:24:00.000-07:00

We've not been on the internet much at all lately, but when we have Blogger has been broken and so these garden 'update' photos are already a few weeks old. As we haven't taken any since though, here are a few of them - with Biff in some, eagling the birds hopefully.

Everything's already doubled in size and we're not quite sure how much longer we'll be able to hold off watering now... we haven't had amazing weather or anything, just lots of dull grey days that promised rain and lied!

We've been exploring different woods over the last month and they've all been breathtakingly beautiful:

Yesterday we came across a rope swing...

you're never too old ;)

I heart Chop 'n' Drop

2011-05-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

We'd been getting the allotment guilts again, not having made it up there for easily a month - one which just so happened to be the hottest April on record. We'd made it to the beach, but not got our arses there...and were feeling lame and unworthy.

And maybe we are, but we finally got there today. We caught the train as we had a load of plantlets from home we wanted to plant out (mostly flowers - and one courgette) - and everything looked great. Our allotment, like good governments (what?!), will not check it's growth so easily.

So we were really pleased to see it and spend the afternoon there - particularly as the first thing we saw was a huuuge ripe strawberry, and then lots more. No doubt we'll go back to feeling guilty and stupid for having a very non-permaculture like allotment that's an hours' walk from home, but every time we go there, we just can't give it up.

After picking all the strawbs we could find, we got to work chopping and dropping: the laziest method of mulching imaginable, but one which seems to work - as the health of the plants on the plot tell us - so if it ain't broke...

We cut back the bramble and nettle border and cut down a few spinach plants that had gone to seed and used the nettles and spinach leaves to mulch as much as possible, then used comfrey (our self seeded comfrey had obligingly grown to mammoth proportions) to mulch the new plantlets:

poached egg plant

teasel

sunflower

We planted multiples of all these, as well as marigolds and cosmos flowers.

Elsewhere the broad beans and garlic (and the wall of jerusalem artichokes!) are looking good:

l-r: chokes, broad beans and garlic

broad bean flowers

The potatoes are getting there:

potatoes with yellow trefoil green manure

And the phacelia has gone from fern-like coils last time:

To beautifully stretched out:

Soo pretty and loved by the bees as well as me. The purple sprouting broccoli we left to go to seed also looks lovely, I think:

The mullein we'd seed swapped with nefaeria is coming along - this is the best one and I love its furry little new leaves:

Almost as much as Jed loved the sight of this when he got in from school ;)

Not all of them are fully ripe, so we are taking a tip from Emma Cooper's book and putting them in a paper bag with some dandelions - which contain the same ethylene gas that bananas do, which helps nearby fruit to ripen off.

Pointless Debates...

2011-04-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

My simple thoughts on two recurring topics:

Climate change
This subject is enough to make me get all conspiracy theory...

However, I'm actually a fence sitter on the subject - so my conspiracy is not based on having an opinion on either side. Having seen how successfully it's achieved the age old divide and conquer though, I could almost swear it's been deliberately made the focus of all things 'save-the-world' because it's arguable...endlessly it seems - and with every rotation of the 'facts' they become more tainted on both sides. Frankly the whole thing now makes me feel dirty and despairing.

What's the point of sitting/clicking around debating about climate change, when - and take your pick here - one species of plant or animal dies every ten seconds / three per hour / 150 a day. Has no-one considered the time factor when it comes to us humans saving the world. Obviously not. Because obviously none of the debate team really wants to? (Now even if you want to get pedantic and argue some more about the numbers there, surely no-one can try and claim that some dodgy scientists/activists made up the rate of extinction entirely. And we've all heard about the decline of polar bears, bees, birds?)

So, although I am inclined to think that climate change might be real and probably down to human activity in this instance, I would not argue about it with anyone. If the subject came up - and someone else would have to bring it up, I would end up saying that what did it matter? If we're sticking to concrete (pardon the pun) facts, the fact that humans are permanently (in a greater percentage if we don't stop now) fucking up the natural world for everything else we currently/did/might share it with just destroys me and yet that's not talked about (probably because it's not considered important enough to make it to the front, or other pages of the newspapers and because the change of lifestyle needed in the western world in order to try and amend the situation is anathema to most people.)

And while I'm talking about animals dying...

Veggie/veganism VS meat eating
Since moving down here to Cow Country, I've found I've had more in common with the meat eaters I've met than most of the vegans back home. This is because they're thoughtful about food - as I try to be. I don't see that there should be any argument between considered vegans and considered meat eaters.

I've been vegetarian for 23 years and vegan for 11, but I tend to make slow decisions, observing and mulling for ages (which is just one of the reasons that permaculture naturally appealed to me!) It took me years to become 100% vegan, because I wanted to do it 'properly', cooking from scratch, and wasn't going to throw out a good pair of boots because they were leather! In my mind, though, I have always remained flexible about it, realising that my veganism was what I considered to be an appropriate reaction to the here and now; namely that factory farming is unspeakably horrendous, and that even though I started buying my first organic veg box at 18, veganism seemed more of a logical conclusion to my vegetarianism that eating organic meat.

I don't believe that mass farming of veg is any more desirable than that of animals and it's still on my mind as to whether my diet might change as I continue my striving for an ethical and natural diet, but I don't see why some people are so het up about veganism being the new evil or something*. All we can do is do our best and you can't ever win completely. Go too far down the local, natural and ethical route and you'll end up trying to be a hunter gatherer or entirely self-sufficient - both of which are hardly empowering and achievable solutions we can all get started on today! And nobody's perfect**: I get a veg box from a small, local farm and have my imported rice habit to kick as a vegan, and you eat organic meat from a small, local farm and wash it down with coffee from Africa. We've got more in common than you think.

So I don't see why we can't leave the pointless debates to those that truly need to get out of doors more often - to see the wood for the trees.

*Although I have to say, I can see why some people are enjoying the vegan witch hunt, as many vegans were/are intolerably preachy and short sighted in their imagined moral high ground - it's just a shame as I've never had a problem with animals and meat in permaculture, yet feel increasingly snubbed in that world as soon as I confess my 'vegan sins'...

**and for those that consider they are, they must surely have to recognise their privilege in being in circumstances favourable to being a hunter gatherer - or whatever - and realise that it's not a possibility for most people at this time!

There goes the deposit...

2011-04-27T23:12:00.000-07:00

Well, hopefully not - and we can always dream, but we have been drastically altering the garden yet again...

This time the remainder of the lawn remained intact, but we removed one of the big hebe bushes that had outgrown its space and become mostly woody and unresponsive to any restorative pruning attempts!

It had self seeded freely and I've potted lots of the seedlings up, so that we can replace the bush when we move on again. But for now...

Looking stark at the moment, but hopefully not for long, as we've put in three courgettes, five sunflowers, a bush bean, marigolds, cosmos and poached egg plant. It's the sunniest part of the garden, so will hopefully make a good little veg patch.

We've had no proper rain for over three weeks now and temperatures hotter than any last summer. We've even been to the beach! We haven't watered the garden (apart from the hordes of seedlings - they've all germinated now - and trees in pots) and it's still looking lush so far, which is cause for celebration at the improvement to the soil.

The garden has been busier than us, who have been doing a lot of lazing in it, as well as walking round noticing daily something new poking up through the mulch. It's been lovely with no slugs around!

bush bean - 'Contender'

favourites from last year - the tall, multicoloured mange tout, and black kale in the foreground.

We lost the olive tree and one of the blueberries and noticed scale on the other, which we have been removing by hand - it's now looking perky again. There's still no sign of further life in the fig. In a way it's a relief, because we find things in pots very difficult to keep in optimum health - and water. The olive tree was passed on to us by someone who no longer wanted it as a house plant, would probably never have produced - and I hate olives anyway!! I am very sad about the fig though and live in hope that the buds will suddenly spring into delayed life, though I doubt it. It's made us want to minimise pot growing as much as possible and it'll make life easier when we move for sure!

The tree lupin, goji and sweetbriar rose that we planted out have all gone wild since having their freedom. The tree lupin has sent up lots of strong new shoots from the base and is looking splendid in its pre-flowering state:

I've come to dislike ants intensely, having had to fend them off alongside scale every single year. They also invaded my jade tree indoors one year and destroyed its entire root system - amazingly, it's still flourishing though! Anyway, I noticed that they were all over the sweet cicely flowers and immediately scanned for other pests, but couldn't see any. On closer inspection I saw that they were drinking the nectar. I don't blame them as the flowers are lovely tasting.

There are spiders everywhere and tiny solitary bees, loving the forget-me-nots.

The shutter didn't open properly here!

spider crouching in wait...

and sprung, alert!

But what emerged from here I don't know - and don't want to guess...

And the last creature...

Biffy - warming up the cold frame and hatching the seedlings!

Field Guides

2011-04-15T23:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, having seen a few caterpillars, butterflies and birds that we couldn't identify, we decided we might invest in some field guides to help us in our nerdiness.

We turned once more to our friend John, who is pretty much Head Nerd when it comes to these things, as he hosts wild flower walks, where, along with flowers, he names trees, butterflies and anything else he comes across along the way. He recommended the following books and so we thought we'd share his expertise:

I include links to Amazon etc so you can see what the cover looks like (NOT suggesting you use them, but you can)

Butterflies- THE book is "Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland" by Richard Lewington. You will not find better - illustrates every UK butterfly, both M and F and upper and lower wings. Every butterfly person carries this one. Also shows every egg, caterpillar and chrysalis of every species. And does fit in the pocket.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pocket-Guide-Butterflies-Britain-Ireland/dp/0953139913/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302424662&sr=8-1

Moths - Best field guide is "Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland" by Martin Townsend and Paul Waring, illustrated by Richard Lewington. ISBN: 9780953139965
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Concise-Guide-Moths-Britain-Ireland/dp/0953139964/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302425219&sr=1-1
It's bigger version (exactly the same illustrations but with a lot more text - and not for the pocket) is "Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland" - same authors. ISBN: 0-953139-92-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Field-Guide-Moths-Britain-Ireland/dp/0953139921/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1302425219&sr=1-2

Caterpillars - I don't actually have one (butterflies are included in book above) but this I know to be a good one. "Caterpillars of the British Isles" by Jim Porter. ISBN: 0-670875-09-0 Ridiculously expensive.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Identification-Guide-Caterpillars-British/dp/8788757951 >/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302425475&sr=1-1

Wild Flowers- If you can find a copy (now, for some strange reason, out of print after just one edition) go for "The Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland" by Blamey, Fitter and Fitter. ISBN: 0713659440
Covers all wild, introduced, escapees, etc - and has maps (makes it a lot quicker/easier to eliminate many species).
Also covers most grasses, ferns, etc as well as the flowers of most trees.

It's the only one I carry around with me, but if you can't find a new or second hand copy the next best is "The Wild Flower Key" by Francis Rose, updated Clare O'Reilly.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wild-Flower-Key-Revised-identify/dp/0723251754/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302426347&sr=1-1

If not either of these most other wild flower guides miss out large numbers of species - and are thus useless and/or confusing when you find a species not in the book. Look to see how many species they cover - anything less than 1500, many will be missing.

Trees - Don't go for anything other than "Collins Tree Guide" by Johnson and More. Available as hardback or paper back. You won't find better.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Tree+Guide&x=0&y=0
Can often be found in "cheap bookshops" - but looks like Amazon are discounting quite heavily.

Insects - I find a good all rounder is Collins Pocket Guide - Insects .. " by Michael Chinery.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Tree+Guide&x=0&y=0
Obviously can't cover EVERY insect but you will find most thing you see in there.

Hope that helps.

A couple of tips: -
1) Always try to get books that cover just the British Isles - those that also cover Europe or western Europe include more species than you need, which leads to ID confusion - especially true for insects, butterflies and moths
2) I have learnt through experience it is better to fork our a bit to get the best. In the end you find you need to buy the best anyway, so better not to buy inferior guides in the first place.

We'd experienced the second tip too, having tried to buy old guides from charity shops that when we actually tried to use were impossible! So we went for John's recommended butterfly and tree guides and they were delivered a couple of days ago.

The Collins Tree Guide, in comparison to our old charity shop one looks so good it's scary. There are even details of every leaf and every winter bud! It seems to be a comprehensive guide for sure.

The Richard Lewington book is ace and the illustrations amazing. We looked up the butterflies we saw last weekend and have taken the next step of beginning to distinguish between males and females. It also helpfully includes the most commonly seen daytime-flying moths at the back which allowed us to identify one of the moths from our Favourite Butterfly and Moth Sightings post last year.

Unfortunately the caterpillar we'd noticed on the comfrey turned out to not be a butterfly caterpillar and so we couldn't identify it from the butterfly book. We'd suspected as much as we'd only seen it at night (whilst slug hunting!) and had to use our torch in order to take this photo:

We've ordered the moth book, but don't think it includes caterpillars, (as the butterfly one does) which is a shame as Jim Porter's caterpillar book looks great, but is waay out of our price range!

We did however download a pdf - Caterpillars: A Brief Guide here and found out that it will hopefully become a Jersey Tiger Moth.

We didn't ask for a recommendation for birds as we'd got a second hand copy of the RSPB's Handbook of British Birds 2002 edition for a penny and it seems good so far. It has illustrations, rather than photos, which I prefer. Some of the info on the numbers of birds might be out of date, I don't know but we can bear that it mind.

We were naughty and ordered our books from Amazon by the way, as, having tried the second hand option in vain and not having an independent bookshop (for new books anyway) in Exeter, they were the cheapest option and seemed not a lot different to heading to Waterstone's in town.

At the moment the weather's not so great and we have our heads stuck in these books at home, but hope to take to the woods and fields from the sofa soon!

Landmatters Update

2011-04-13T23:54:00.000-07:00

I received a prompt reply in response to my e-mail to Mr Munday, from Landmatters' friendly designated Planning Officer, Dave Kenyon, who is working their case:

Thank you for your e.mail and hope the following information clarifies the current situation.

This application seeks to vary two conditions attached to a grant of planning permission allowed on appeal on 23rd August 2007.

Condition 1 states "The residential accommodation hereby permitted shall be discontinued, all residential accommodation and facilities ancillary thereto removed and the land restored to its former condition on or before the expiry of a period of three years commencing with the date of this decision"

The applicants are preferably seeking the removal of this condition so that they may be allowed to reside on the site permanently. However, because the application also seeks to vary condition 3, the applicants accept that the Council may wish to impose a further temporary condition to enable continued monitoring of the situation. If that is the Council's preferred option, the applicants request that such a temporary condition is for no less than 5 years which would not be too long for monitoring purposes but would be long enough for the applicants to continue with future business planning on the site.

Condition 3 states "Occupation of the residential units on the land shall be limited to members of Landmatters Co-Operative, their partners and dependent children".

The applicants are seeking to vary this condition by allowing volunteers to reside on the site. As members of the Worldwide Workers On Organic Farms scheme, the applicants would like to more adequately accommodate their volunteers and to make it possible for potential new
members to undergo a trial period living on site before any new members are admitted.
The maximum initial stay for the volunteers is three weeks, after which Landmatters discusses any extension of the stay if appropriate. However, the vast majority of volunteers do not stay beyond three weeks. It is stressed that permission is not being sought to increase the number of residential units on the site over the permitted total of 8. It is suggested that a condition could be attached to any new grant of permission limiting the number of those residential units to
temporarily house volunteers to 2 in total.

The Officer recommendation to the Development Management Committee is to grant a temporary permission for 5 years to enable a continued monitoring of the project and to allow volunteers to reside on the site, as well as Landmatters members, but such volunteers being
limited to residing in no more than two of the authorised 8 units at any one time.

Regards,
Dave Kenyon

So, although they would be back in their current situation again in five years' time, I've got to hope that they are granted this on April 20th as, with the help of volunteers, they will hopefully be able to push on with their plans in this time - and feel an increased sense of security (I'm sure I remember them saying at one of the open days that it is far more likely that they will one day be granted permanent permission if the council have in the past renewed temporary permissions - which makes sense).

I don't think I'll be putting myself forward as the public spokesperson though!

Thanks again to Dave Kenyon for taking the time to explain.

A letter I Received Yesterday

2011-04-13T00:14:00.000-07:00

I wrote to South Hams District Council some months ago, in support of Landmatters Permaculture Project and their application for permanent planning permission.

Landmatters had been previously granted a temporary three year permission, which was up for review last August and were seeking to gain the permanent permission that would increase their security and scope for educating as a permaculture model and contributing to the local - and wider community.

We've visited a couple of times and seen for ourselves how much has already been achieved. It's an inspiring place for many reasons, one of them being that here are a group of ordinary folk who have organised this themselves and are offering so much for the rest of us to learn from. Permaculture, wood management, self-building, consensus decision making, the list could go on, but I believe we need more practical examples of these things in action.

And so it wasn't hard for me to write a letter.

It was however difficult for me to understand the key part of the letter I received back - namely that of the proposed new proposal!

The letter:

Dear Sir / Madam,

Application Number: 13/1280/10/F
Location: Landmatters, Allaleigh Lane, Allaleigh, Blackawton, Totnes, TQ9 7DL
Proposal: Removal of condition 1 (three year occupancy condition) and variation of condition 3 (restrictions on occupancy) of appeal reference APP/K1128/A/06/2018778 pursuant to planning application 13/0217/06/CU

South Hams District Council is committed to giving people a chance to have their say about planning proposals. You have previously made comments to this department regarding the above planing application, and these will be reported to the Development Control Committee. However, if you want to take the opportunity to put your views personally to the Committee, then you may do this at the next meeting. Only one person will be allowed to speak in favour of an application and one against. Should more than one person wish to speak, then you will be asked to agree a spokesperson. The enclosed leaflet explains the process in full or view online using the following link.

The above planning application is being presented to the Development Control Committee on 20 April 2011. The meeting starts at 10.00am in the Council Chamber, Follaton House, Plymouth Road, Totnes, Devon. TQ9 5NE

If you wish to speak at the Committee or have any further questions concerning the Public Participation Scheme, please contact the Member Support Officer by telephone - 01803 861185 by fax 01803 866151 or e-mail member.support@southhams.gov.uk by 12 noon on the Monday prior to the Development Control Committee meeting date.

Yours faithfully

Stephen Munday - Head of Development Management

The explanations for how the meetings of the Development Control Committee - and Public Participation within them - work, are fine. It's just that I don't know whether I've received good news, bad news or no news as yet!

What I can discern:

the temporary planning permission is to be removed;
condition 3 is to be varied somehow.

But since I don't know what condition 3 is, this letter's not a lot of good to me! Maybe I'm stupid, but then I don't feel that it should have been assumed that I wouldn't be!! I have e-mailed Mr Munday asking him if he has time to explain.

That Time of Year

2011-04-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

The busy time's usually now, with the start of the school holidays for easter, but March was an unusually warm month and so we got to work on the garden a little earlier than on previous years. To begin with, the teasels that had stood all winter; proving food and perches for the birds, were finally cut down. I found ladybirds sheltering in them still and so I cut these bits away (mainly the old flower heads) and put them next to a small patch of nettles we have in the garden as nettles are a good early food for ladys coming out of hibernation.

Which they have been doing, amongst other things.

We're already finding (and having to remove some of them) new teasels sprouting in place of the old, as well as the rosettes that formed last year, ready for flowering this year (a total of four). There are also jerusalem artichokes and broad beans poking through the mulch we have everywhere where there's not already a plant (yet!)

mallow - front left, ox eye daisy - centre - and mulch!

Teasels, tree lupin, poppy, sage and shallots to the rear, and fennel and chives in the front right hand corner

The goji's looking healthy and has more new growth than it ever had whilst in a pot, but then according to our paper diary, it didn't start suffering and losing leaves until May last year. We'll still have to wait and see...

Goji - hanging on in there

The bat has been visiting - also much earlier than usual, and we relocated close to 300 slugs over a week following a rainy one. A friendly robin has come back often to the same dead sunflower stalk to survey for worms from this vantage point. We've watched him eat whilst sat at the table tucking into our own meal.

Today a pair of eddying speckled wood butterflies teased Biff as she tried to snare them (luckily she's rubbish at catching anything other than the biscuits in her bowl, but look at those blurry claws!)

Everything in pots has overwintered okay apart from our olive and one of the blueberries, both of which we're not sure will survive but haven't given up on yet. I'm also a bit worried about the fig, which produced buds about a month ago, which have since stopped growing or opening. Hmm.

On a brighter note the kiwi has flower buds on it and we bought a tray for its pot to stand in in order to help it not dry out this year. The sweetbriar rose we got for 20p has come back with a vengeance and looks beautiful. We've also actually got to plant trees (we often laugh at our own blog title and the fact that we don't own any land to plant trees on) as we found three hazel saplings growing where we'd mulched using some foraged hazel shells (and obviously not just shells!)

Small collection of native trees - three hazels in front of the oak

So, seeds. Here's the list of sown so far:

rocket
radish
two types of sunflower
courgette
tomatoes
buckler sorrel
red sorrel
cosmos 'seashells'
cosmos 'ladybird'
two types of lettuce
scabiosa
borage
lupin
calendula
leek
nasturtium
poached egg plant
tall, multi-coloured mangetout
normal mangetout
oregano
cucumber
cornflower

All have been sown into 'plugs' in trays in the cold frame and have all germinated except for the borage and scabiosa (though we haven't given up on them). We only sowed the last three a couple of days ago too. Our patio is once again filled - with the overwintered salad we took out of the cold frame to make room for the seed trays, courgette seedlings in pots and sunflowers and tall multicoloured mangetout that have already outgrown their plugs and been repotted.

We got given an echinacea by a friend who'd fought hard to save several pots' worth she'd grown from seed and which was much appreciated. Jamie's overwintered baby that he also grew from seed looks to be making a comeback at the moment, so fingers crossed! I think we've definitely learned form our mistakes with echinacea - and will be keeping watering to a minimum!

We also went to the second of The Harvest Project's Seedy Sundays - which are planned to continue on a monthly basis throughout summer - today. We took a carrier bag full of seeds to swap and came back with:

claytonia
sunflower 'music box' (a dwarf variety)
large, french sorrel
normal sorrel
lesser knapweed
birdsfoot trefoil
viper's bugloss
selfheal

With the front and back gardens, allotment and both of our work projects, we'll find homes for all these plants we're hoping to grow - we just need more seed trays!!

On the way home I spied some yellow dead nettle in a local country park, (which I'd coincidentally only read about this morning in Culpeper's Herbal and never seen before - thinking there were only the red and white flowered kind) The photo doesn't so it justice though, it was so pretty, en masse, with its variegated leaves.

Within the park is an old orchard - also amazingly beautiful on this lovely day:

We also saw loads of butterflies: peacocks, orange tips, commas, a tiny blue we couldn't properly identify and a marbled white. We're saving our photos for a butterfly gallery again at the end of the summer :)

Mulch To Do!

2011-04-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

After all that sun and then a week of rain showers, we finally had something to do up at the allotment!

The weeds, consisting of 90% goosegrass, were everywhere, but goosegrass is immensely easy to pull up and makes good mulch - which we did, using it in the bed where we've planted our early potatoes. The strawberries were lightly mulched with grass cuttings as they still have quite a lot of woody material surrounding them:

There's a corner of overwintered phacelia in with the spuds, that's starting to bud up already and which I can't wait to see in flower as we've never grown it before

Phacelia in bud

There's not much to see in the bed we've newly uncovered; there are small shoots of onion, garlic shallots and radish poking through and surprisingly no weeds. I put a load more cut nettles down as there is a huge patch conveniently nearby and they seem to work well.

The dormant blackcurrant bushes we were given in late autumn have all survived and are in leaf. A small amount of grass was added to the woodchip and old goldenberry mulch material:

Blackcurrants with garlic and onions

Jamie had heard that garlic and onions were good companion plants to soft fruit and so he's put some around the bushes. We'll get chives and some poached egg plants and marigolds in there too soon we hope.

We also hope to add comfrey to our mulchings soon, as we've put in some more roots (Jamie was given it and hasn't asked what type it is yet) which have yet to do more than peek through. Our self-seeded plant is looking good though:

Self-seeded, native comfrey in the foreground and garlic, broadbeans and a self-seeded spinach in the bed

The rain has also meant that the blackberry border is literally beginning to spring back to life aswell, and will hopefully soon be hiding our plot from the path to the railway platform (which is where the railings you can see in the photo below).

The jerusalem artichokes have started their comeback and are between the edge of the bed and the brambles, providing a second wall!

After an hour I had to rush off to work for the big easter performance, but just before I left I was compensated by seeing an orange tip butterfly on the strawberries. Jamie stayed for a while as he wanted to sow grass and clover into the pathways. He brought home some more rhubarb :)

"Twelve Months in Hell, Told by One of the Damned"

2011-03-29T06:09:00.000-07:00

On 3rd February Jamie's parents came down for the weekend and we visited Barnstaple on the Saturday. Despite a chilling wind like that I swear I've never known before, all was good in Barnstaple this time and no bones were broken! I can't remember where I'd heard of it, but when Jamie called me over to show me a copy of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists he'd found on a second hand book stall, I vaguely remembered wanting to read it for some reason (brilliant eh?). I decided to buy it for three quid and thus we brought home a much better souvenir from our trip than last time.

However I didn't expect to enjoy RTP as much as I did - mostly because the book had a cutting from an article in The Guardian tucked inside the sleeve, which had been written about the novel, by Tony Benn, and also has an introduction by Tristram Hunt. I feared the reasons the book had been adopted by New Labour.

Instead, the book promotes socialism - which I gave up on, (along with labels in general) almost as soon as I discovered it at fifteen - but I enjoyed the book nonetheless. Politics usually bore me, but this is the holistic version of politics: real life - and not just meaningless intellectual concepts. Looking up the author, Robert Tressell, on the interwebs, I discovered a coincidence: I'd picked the book up on the centenary anniversary of Tressell's death. Reading about his life, it would seem RTP is almost autobiographical and Tressell appears to have lived true to his principles. Refusing to live off of the family tradition of absentee landlordism he left them and became a painter and decorator - which is where the surname 'Tressell' comes from (as in trestle table). (There are many of these sorts of puns in RTP and it's the sort of thing never stops being funny; as Bart Simpson knows - characters are given names such as M. T. Head.) Sadly Tressell, like his character Owen, suffered from tuberculosis. He died at the young age of 41 and RTP was only published three years afterwards - in 1914.

It's amazing (and thus slightly depressing, as ever) how relevant the words are still today and makes me wonder what Tressell would think of society now? Would he still be a socialist? I'm not sure...although the socialism he describes differs to socialist ideas I've encountered: for example the socialists have plans to produce worthless paper money, (as opposed to using the precious metals that coins were once made from) with a use-by date, in order to stop people hoarding it. Because the book was written when it was, it's interesting to see how some of the ideas have been adopted and co-opted by masters - of all classes - since. It's history we should learn from - that it's not class that matters, but integrity and humanity, and we've seen again and again that these things are suspended once introduced to politics. Why do we keep up the same old experiment then? Since the book's publication those who might dare to dream of living their own lives have been subsequently pacified through 'reform' (a bite at the carrot) and, well, here we are..

In "The Great Money Trick" described in the book, the socialist character Frank Owen shows his workmates (with slices of bread!) how they are not justly paid what they've earned - for that (being the produce of their labour) instead goes to their masters - but are paid wages: at a fraction of their true earnings (in order for the masters to make huge profits) and meaning they have to instantly spend almost all of it back on the "necessities of life" - a frequent phrase in the book. The necessities of life; food, clothing and shelter are monopolised by the masters and are often the very things produced by the workers themselves - but they are forced to buy them back...and so it keeps going....

And is still going now. The masters have cleverly taken heed of the criticisms of the system since Tressell's time, even if the workers have been too busy being 'allowed' to part-buy into it themselves to notice that the "necessities of life" have now been 'generously' - and largely - bolstered by the addition of "the pointless consumable distractions of life" - but that they are still inadequately recompensed for their labour. The class divides amongst the middle and lower ranks are more blurred than ever these days, yet there are still people everywhere calling for "Plenty of Work" (the raison d'etre of the workers of RTP and another of its recurring lines). Take the supposed "March for the Alternative" which took place at the weekend. I just couldn't get behind the slogan, "jobs.growth.justice"* as a true alternative. Apart from justice of course, it sounded a bit too much like a bizarre plea for capitalism - which is currently experiencing chest pains - to be saved. I hope this economic climate is a sign that the fucker will die asap.

Myopia as a trait being one that I try my best to avoid, I particularly liked the way Tressell points out the short-sightedness of many people, who are unused to thinking for themselves: "Let those...carry their argument to its logical conclusion" he says, and it's one of those brilliantly simple truths applicable to many of the insanities of society today. One hundred years later, for me, when thinking about "the system" my conclusion is that to get to the root of the problem, governments must be abolished entirely and growth - stopped. Enough!

The co-op I used to work for are ceasing work at the end of this month which is sad in so many ways. But, as they said, they're glad they did what they did when they had the opportunities, rather than always wondering "what if?" Sometimes, they said, you've got to take risks. I may not know exactly what the outcome of giving people their true freedom and responsibility back would be, but I'd like the chance to see it get a fair go! With consensus instead of coercion, meaningful work instead of jobs, lots of co-operation, education...that's another rant for another day. But the reason I mention this is that I see people's attitudes in a similar way: they're too scared of a true alternative that they can't know for sure what it will be like - better the devil they know and they don't want to take a risk. The clever masters have ensured that they have too much at stake these days - unlike in Tressell's Victorian Britain (although Tressell well observes that the police exist to protect property, not people).

Tressell was also ahead of his time in describing the mental disorders of worker and capitalist - and doesn't forget that those who have clearly seen the problems in society (here, the socialists) are nonetheless often mentally challenged also! The masters, he diagnoses as "criminal lunatics", going on to illustrate their sociopathic indifference towards humans in favour of money in a similar way that The Corporation did. "...they had degraded their intellect" he writes, and finishes, "Devoid of every ennobling thought or aspiration they grovelled on the ground, tearing up the flowers to get at the worms." The socialists' problem, meanwhile, is their "delusion that it is possible to reason with demented persons".

Instead, Tressell holds up "the red indians...much higher in the scale of manhood. They are free! They call no man master...". Having just read Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience, it made me wonder if Tressell had read them too as they seem to concur on the points about the indians, their damning of 'philanthropists', England being "the great workhouse of the world" (as Thoreau puts it) and their frustration over their fellow men; Thoreau saying "I sometimes despair of getting anything quite simple and honest done in this world by the help of men. They would have to be passed through a powerful press first, to squeeze their old notions out of them..". Tressell is even more damning, yet poignant, as he perfectly captures reality in Owen's observations and Owen's workmates' opinions. Beginning, "They were the enemy. Those who not only quietly submitted..." Tressell has Owen seething quietly at his workmates' apathy - and then contrasts this with the simple point of view of those workmates of Owen's: that Owen takes things far too seriously - because of course you can't change anything.

How many times have I heard that one?!

Read the original manuscript of the book online

Download the book

Also:

The Robert Tressell Society

Page on Tressell

Liverpool Echo honours Tressell

*although my friend told me she was going to "March against The Cuts" which sounds better than 'calling for' "jobs.growth..."

Ourganics - A Permaculture Farm

2011-03-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

We were at a permaculture meeting the other night and somebody there mentioned that there were two permaculture farms in Dorset - not too far from us. We looked up Ourganics and found this great interview with Pat Bowcock, the founder of the farm. There's also a video:

Bug hotel

2011-03-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

They appear to be all the rage nowadays. Companies are offering to build them with people paying big money and there are a lot of home made ones on the internet. So here is my effort to keep up. I built this at work for the school trip kids. There is a hedgehog run in the bottom, logs for the frogs, hollow sticks for ladybirds and solitary bees and plenty of small stuff for the resident black bird to steal for a nest. It is not quite finished as I need to drill holes in the logs to make homes for more bugs.

A Song for Spring

2011-03-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

Mostly Sitting

2011-03-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

We went up to the allotment today - primarily to harvest the purple sprouting broccoli centres and encourage more side shoots. We ended up coming back with 300g (get us being all exact!) of it and the promise of more to come.

The large, central head of psb

It was lovely, lovely weather and tortoiseshell butterflies danced around in their dozens, stopping to soak up some sun, just as we did.

We found a few outer rhubarb stalks ready to come away as we gently tugged at them, which was an unexpected bonus - our first ever harvest from the plant. Rhubarb crumble this evening. Mmm mm.

The brambles surrounding the plot on the side of the public pathway are only just beginning to come back and as a result of their reduced height and density, we noticed some of what looked like raspberry canes, as well as a gangly little bay tree, (which had obviously been starved of sun) in among them - more freebies!

The strawberries are beginning to flower..it all happens every year, but it's never not exciting. I sat and watched a teeny solitary bee, loaded with pollen, bury its way into the ground - a sight I have never witnessed before - and that's just it, there's always something new to see and learn. I love it.

The Worst Inventions of the 20th Century

2011-03-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

When Jamie was back in Southampton last month he managed to get around to visit a few folk we sadly hardly ever see anymore - our friends John and Tim being a couple of them. John is the driving force behind the food co-op we were members of before our move and helped us to set up down here by providing us with a couple of documents which we could alter to suit Exe Organics. All we needed to trade with Essential and open a bank account with Unity Trust were these adapted documents: the (fake) minutes of a meeting and a constitution. You can read John's detailed - and much quoted 'How To' for setting up here. I really need to put the alterable docs up for download too...

Anyways, as you do when you're hippies, Jamie, John and Tim got onto discussing co-ops, vegetable growing, and simple living, among other things. Jamie mentioned our unusual 'ambition' to do away with the need for a fridge. John's instant reply was "Well, why don't you just get rid of it then?! I haven't had a fridge for fifteen years!" This was quite a revelation for Jamie as we'd been to John's house on numerous occasions and never noticed this. Jamie was inclined to think some leg-pulling was taking place but Tim backed John up instantly - they've been united in friendship and early retirement for years. "You're a vegan!" mocked John, "What have you got to keep in the fridge anyway?" Jamie mumbled that margarine (sadly - another thing we'd like to do away with...) was probably the only thing. "I keep mine on the side and it's fine." retorted John, "It's only if you get crumbs of bread off the knife in there that it goes mouldy - it's the bread, not the marg!" John then drove the point home by reeling off his Top 3 Worst Inventions of the 20th Century:

The chainsaw
The internal combustion engine
The fridge

"They're all bastards." he summarised sagely. What a legend!

John in his winter garden.

I might have to include nuclear fission...(is it technically an invention? - oh well)

What about yous out there...?

The Great 'Simple Living' Survey

2011-03-11T23:40:00.000-08:00

From The Simplicity Collective:

If you live a ‘simple’ lifestyle in one way or another, the Simplicity Institute needs your help!

The Simplicity Institute is an organization dedicated to research and policy analysis around the topic of simple living, downshifting, and similar lifestyles. This research is profoundly important as it touches the core of global problems such as climate change, over-consumption, work-life balance and a host of other social and ecological issues.

The Simplicity Institute’s current research project is focused on people who have chosen a ‘simpler’ lifestyle, including changes such as reduced or restrained income, consumption and/or working hours.

If this sounds like you, then you are part of the most promising social movement on the planet. Learning more about people like you is therefore extremely important, so if you can spare 4 minutes to answer some quick questions then please do! As an added incentive, if you participate you’ll go into the draw to win a collection of the finest literature on the topic of ‘simple living’.

To learn more and help build a better future, click below:

The Great ‘Simple Living’ Survey

Please spread the word to your friends and networks!

“As the world enters into another long consumer boom, the Simplicity Institute is a beacon of hope. Its research into ‘post-consumerist’ lifestyles will help to provide the empirical foundation we need to transcend today’s culture and politics of ‘excess’. The Simplicity Institute recognizes the fundamental importance of consumption that can be sustained and what it means to live a balanced life.”

- Clive Hamilton, author of GROWTH FETISH (2003) and co-author of AFFLUENZA: WHEN TOO MUCH IS NEVER ENOUGH (2005)

“We need more research centers of this type to help us find effective ways to escape the high-consumption lifestyle and create happier, healthier, and more sustainable cultures.”

- John de Graaf, co-author of AFFLUENZA: THE ALL-CONSUMING EPIDEMIC (2005) and Executive Director of “Take Back Your Time.”

Review - The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A-Z

2011-03-08T04:00:00.000-08:00

Emma Cooper's Alternative Kitchen Garden is a brilliantly simple book, which simultaneously manages tardis-like qualities for there is a wealth of information stealthily contained in its alphabetised pages. In fact it might be more appropriate to say that it is multi-layered - like a forest garden.

There's inspiration aplenty for all, written in a reassuringly practical style. Simple ways to get started in growing (including easy to grow unusual plants) and seed saving are shared, along with honest accounts of those epic FAILS we all have every year. Emma's love for plants is made perfectly clear and she also tells readily of growing things she doesn't even like 'in the name of education'. Which is a welcome admission to fellow seed-sowing junkies! Open-mindedness and the self-taught approach are constant throughout - with one of the Es standing for 'Experiments'. Nothing is set in stone and Emma writes of her garden as if it is a work in progress - which sounds obvious, as of course they all are: nature is constantly evolving. Yet not many books on growing are as down to earth. (That was a pun I was never going to escape!)

It's the kind of book that I wished I could have had on motherhood when I first had Jed. Full of the little, invaluable nuggets of information that 'experts' who write books often completely overlook, but which are often fascinating, not to mention highly useful to the folks without that niched knowledge! Emma shrugs off mouldy- looking courgette plants with comforting insouciance, as, "courgettes generally succumb to powdery mildew - but there's usually no need to take action as it does not affect the remaining fruit". She also explains why nitrogen-fixers may not and looks sensibly at 'superfoods' among other things.

The scientific explanations needed to provide a bigger picture for understanding are all there, put skillfully and succinctly. I enjoyed reading how dandelions might be used to help ripen fruit and how it has been claimed that certain bacteria in the soil can contribute to making gardening an activity which literally boosts seratonin levels. I also personally like an author with a sense of humour - which Emma clearly has. Her chickens' names alone: Princess Layer and Hen Solo, are reason enough for me to declare her genius ;)

So it's like having a conversation with a lovely, friendly, fellow-gardener you just met up at the allotment who's full of helpful advice and stories, but who doesn't dictate and instead lays out the options clearly. "My garden is largely fuelled by cardboard and comfrey" she tells us, dispelling the myths that expensive fertilisers and excessive digging are needed for a flourishing green space. The next minute she'll be reeling off organisations, events, practices, traditions, recommended equipment and doing plenty of musing, which you can nod and laugh in agreement with.

Having just flicked through the book again I'm off to look at The Real Seed Catalogue and hopefully track down some strawberry spinach, chinese artichokes and the welsh onions I should have, as an allium freak, had years ago... It's funny, Emma reminds us how we depend completely on plants for everything - including our vices, "tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol and many illicit drugs..." Often when you come to appreciate plants this much they've already become your new addiction...

Please visit Emma's website, where you can read her blog - written in similar chatty style, listen to her podcasts, buy the book and see more beautiful photos.

Plans for 2011 and Seed Swaps

2011-03-05T02:35:00.000-08:00

We haven't done a plan for the garden this year as we've planted mostly perennials and are simply going to fill up most of the patio and any other gaps with HUGE amounts of salad and various legumes that don't take up ground space, but rather grow up.

We've removed the raised bed from the patio as it was taking up too much space and soil - more than needed for growing salad. We potted up all of our winter salads that were there and they're now very happy in the cold frame. I also planted the tree lupin and goji out in the side bed - I figured I'd rather the goji live, and as we'd had to have a fence post replaced and subsequently the soil disturbed, it was an opportunity to plant it out at the same time - in a small nod to permaculture. The tree lupin grows from cuttings easily, so I can easily propagate another when the time comes to move again.

Below though, shows our plans for the allotment for this year (click for bigger):

Although, I have to add that these plans were drawn a good couple of months ago! But they always end up changing slightly anyway - and that's fine with us - we just enjoy planning over winter and it's good to get down on paper just what you want to grow, so that you can at least attempt to fit it all in!

Our first year was spent clearing a small area and mulching it for most of the year. Last year the focus was on marking out growing areas and mulching secondary areas that we will be able to put into use this year. So we now have more space than we've ever had - which is great as we've been swapping many seeds!

However, we've been sure to not clear more space than is absolutely necessary and have kept our huge protective border of brambles and nettles, which we find more than handy - having an allotment that's a quadrivium between train station, football ground, local-junkie hideout and worst of all - student housing!! *

But, to get back to seeds....

We attended what was (apparently) only the first of Exeter's seed swaps last Sunday. We were able to donate many packets of our own saved seed for the first time, which felt great. Our patience also paid off and we finally scored some poached egg plant seeds in return - really pleased with them! We also picked up some 'Ladybird' cosmos and 'Bells of Ireland'. Bells of Ireland were something I'd never heard of and so picked up out of curiosity. Apparently the flowers are highly prized by flower arrangers and they are also reputed to bring good luck. I've been unable to find any mention of bees and other beneficial insects, but I hope they may be our fair fortune if that's the case!

We also swapped seeds with our Canadian camaraderies nefaeria and now have small sugar pumpkins, acorn and buttercup squash and contender bush beans to fit in up the allotment, as well as radish, cosmos seashells and sunflowers for both garden and any gaps(?!) up at St James'.

The nefaeria folks also included lovely handmade tags and envelopes so that we can further pass on any spares. Huge thanks to them!

I may even plant some seeds this weekend...

*Just jessing - can't really hate students after their spectacular start to this year, can I?

Yeah, fuck Monsanto!

2011-02-19T01:10:00.000-08:00

Our friends over at nefaeria blog did a post a little while ago about what shit those evil fuckers at Monsanto are up to now. Over the past seven years they have be lobbying the USDA (their version of DEFRA) to deregulate controls on use of GM seeds for commerical growing and export. Having already won approval for GM potatoes, beets, maize, soya, Oil seed rape and cotton, they on the cusp of deregulating GM alfafra.
Britain is still virtually GM free due to the overwhelming public opposition and direct action against test sites in the past but test sites have started creeping back in and I don't trust DEFRA one bloody bit. I don't want to waffle on to much as the history, facts and current situation are better represented at www.stopgm.org.uk. Hopefully we are preaching to the converted here but please take the time to properly check this website out. We cannot afford to take our eyes off this issue. Feel helpless against Monsanto?, well if you get wind of a test site near you, get fucking busy. Campaign, educate, fight and tear that shit up before we have no choice but cross pollinated GM crops.

Ladys Who Overwinter

2011-02-14T01:16:00.000-08:00

Not long now my friends!

Greening The Desert with Geoff and Nadia Lawton

2011-02-13T02:29:00.000-08:00

We'd watched Geoff Lawton's "Establishing a Food Forest the Permaculture Way" a while ago now and loved it (and him!)

Today we came across these "Greening the Desert" videos and were keen to do a wee bit in helping spread their message as much as possible, as they are one of the best testaments to the use of permaculture practice we've seen.

If you're not local to Devon and yours haven't been already by yesterday's spring weather, lift your spirits now:

Henry David Thoreau - Walden quote

2011-01-31T01:04:00.000-08:00

We watched the film 'The Pianist' last night and it pretty much made me despair of what human beings will do to one another. What happened in the Warsaw ghetto in the 1940s is happening in Palestine and many other parts of the world right now. I find this a hard fact to reconcile.

I made a decision not to follow the news or read news papers as much as possible about two years ago and try to use the time to read books instead. Books, many by old people, ordinary people and fellow crack pots. Many of these books are probably biased propaganda, and a distraction from truly striving to live my life to the fullest and most honest potential here to today. But, I have found much inspiration in the stories of common people resisting tyranny - and heartbreak in the fact, that like the English, Russian and French peasants, the American Indians and so called "great radical thinkers" of ancient Greece who talked of the "freedom of man" but saw nothing wrong in the slave trade, they didn't go far enough, didn't question enough, didn't bring about real change. Instead opting for new leaders to become new tyrants of the same old institutions of power.

While today's news is full of stories about CIA backed regime change in Egypt, the tapping of government ministers phone lines and what today's chosen media scapegoat (could be immigrants, single mothers, dole scroungers, people who like eating oranges, me, you, my cat) is doing to undermine the moral fiber of society, I'd like to share with you my inspiration for the day written by some boring old fart*, fucking ages ago.

"One afternoon, near the end of first summer, when I went to village to get a shoe from the cobbler's, I was seized and put in jail, because, as I have elsewhere related**, I did not pay tax to, or recognize the authority of, the state which buys and sells men, women and children, like cattle at the door of its senate-house. I had gone down to the woods for other purposes.
But, wherever a man goes, men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions,and ,if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society. It is true, I might have resisted forcibly with more or less effect, might have run "amok" against society; but I preferred that society should run "amok" against me, it being the desperate party. However, I was released the next day, obtained my mended shoe, and returned to to the woods in season to get my dinner of huckleberries on Fair-Haven Hill. I was never molested by any person but those who represented the state. I had no lock nor bolt but the desk which held my papers, not even a nail to put over my latch or windows. I never fastened my door night or day, though I was to be absent several days; not even the next fall I spent a fortnight in the woods of Maine. And yet my house was more respected than if it had been surrounded by a file of soldiers. The tired rambler could rest and warm himself by my fire, the literary amuse himself with the few books on my table, or curious, by opening my closet door, see what was left of my dinner, and what prospect I had of a supper. Yet, though many people of every class came this way to the pond, I suffered no serious inconvenience from these sources, and I never missed any thing but one small book, a volume of Homer***, which perhaps was improperly gilded, and this I trust a soldier of our camp has by this time. I am convinced, that if all men were to live simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown. These take place in communities where some have got more than is sufficient while others have not enough.

* Henry David Thoreau. In 1845, Thoreau built a very small house next to Walden pond in Massachusetts, USA. As an experiment he lived an amazingly simple life for two and half years and wrote a book about it called 'Walden'. We got the book out of the library last week and I am about half way through it. Apart from the literary waffle, I am enjoying enjoying it a lot.

** Thoreau wrote an essay called "Civil disobedience". I haven't read it yet.

*** Homer was a bloke older than than Thoreau, you look him up.

Remembering Kathleen Jannaway

2011-01-26T06:31:00.000-08:00

Jamie: I'd been trying to grow my own organic vegetables for about a year using old gardening books bought from charity shops before I discovered "Growing our own" by Kathleen Jannaway. Unlike the other gardening books that were packed full of pesticides, soil digging and planting distances, "Growing..." was a simple, first hand, holistic overview of growing vegetables, vegan nutrition, soil nutrition and
food ethics.

I felt an instant connection to Kathleen's down to earth writings, the amazing insight and her vision of a tree based, sustainable vegan future.
This booklet was at loggerheads with much of the information that I had access to at the time. I can honestly say that I think it had a part to play in guiding me on the path that I follow today. A path of trying to live simply, happily and sustainably.

Looking through our copies of "Growing our own" and "Abundant living in the coming age of the tree", I realise that in this day of Wifi internet, blogs and glossy forest gardening books that these cheap, photocopied booklets might seem dated to most people. Kathleens' writings were a work in progress that we can all get started on today. Good ideas and honest truths will stand the test of time. Get out there and plants some trees.

Bek: I was introduced to Kathleen's writing by Jamie and came to really admire her independent and holistic thought - she had that clarity of sight that allows an inspired thinker to connect all the dots and continue to build on her ideas.

I'd sometimes felt isolated as a vegan - especially one who believed that veganism, in being an ethical choice, should extend beyond animal welfare to that of humans and the planet, and it was great to read the words of a woman who seemed to be on the same page as me regarding convenience foods, vegan substitutes and food imports.

It was also heartwarming to me to hear from an intelligent woman - also a mother (another rarity in my world) - living out her beliefs in a humble manner and quietly sharing them with others. She seemed to have the art of keeping things simple and the Movement for Compassionate Living she formed never became the sole focus of her life - she was too busy living it.

Kathleen passed away on this day in 2003.

More about Kathleen's life - tributes and interviews:

Kathleen Jannaway - A Compassionate Life
(You can find Kathleen's booklets here at MCL too)

Kathleen Jannaway 1915-2003: A Life Well Lived, by Harry Mather and Malcolm Horne, Vegan Views 96 (Spring 2003)

Interview with Kathleen Jannaway (Secretary of The Vegan Society) from February 1977

Monday blues and the Forest garden

2011-01-16T02:17:00.000-08:00

Decided to try and do a post in the face of what the radio is calling "blue Monday". Blue Monday is the day of the year that the general population are most unhappy. More people will supposedly seek counselling tomorrow than on any other day of the year. This is said to be caused by the miserable weather, the return to work, illness and Christmas debt.

Well, we've had our fair share of illness, the return to work was as soul destroying as ever, the weather is indeed miserable and poor we are. But on the upside, Bek has been busy crafting, I've been selling my heavy metal records on Ebay and we've both been making inroads into the mountain of books we found in charity shops last year and got loaned by friends.

Past winters have been spent thumbing through seed catalogues, planning crop rotations and figuring out which bit of the lawn is going to get dug up next. But there has been a lot less of it this year because of our shift towards perennials in the garden and the fact that we already have a box full of seeds for the allotment.
I did however, get the go ahead from my boss the plant a small demonstrational forest garden on the farm where I work.

Now, despite my very strong feelings about how "specialization and experts" are killing any sense of self empowerment and confidence that normal people may still have to just have a go at things, I got pretty damn scared when the boss asked for a plan and list of trees and plants to order.

I had starting clearing the ground using a second hand woven sheet mulching material called Mipex last spring. It has loads of holes cut in it where it had originally been used for growing strawberries through. I just doubled it up and will just have to deal with the small patches of grass and weeds growing through it in the spirit of using free stuff.

We already have apple, pear, plum, and damson trees growing on the farm so I was keen to try include other types of trees as well as the standard varieties the boss wanted to grow. I paced the the site out to get measurements and made a rough drawing including all the observations I had made of the site in the past months.
I talked with my boss and the head grower / salad bag maker on the farm about what they would like to see grown.

Using Jed's geometry set (much to Bek's amusement) I made a scale drawing of the site. The Agroforestry research catalogue, Patrick Whitefield's "the earth care manual" Robert harts "forest gardening" and the internet became my best friend for the next two weeks as to be honest, I know nob all about fruit trees let alone how to plan a forest garden.

After much agonizing and seemly contradictory information I decided to hit the boss with the shopping list of:

1 x "Nottingham" Medlar tree.
1 x "Aronia" chokeberry.
1 x "Discovery" apple tree.
2 x plum trees.
20 x "bocking 14" comfrey plants.
5 x gooseberry bushes.
5 x summer fruiting raspberry bushes.

Using the eventual spread of trees and bushes, their light and shelter needs, the site orientation (it's south east facing), Existing features (a hedgerow / tree line protecting the site from the bulk of the cold winter, north east winds), water needs (placing fruit bushes on the drip line of the tree canopies), nitrogen fixation (planting comfrey around fruit trees), companion planting (planting poached egg plants under gooseberries to see off pests), gut instinct and probably complete stupidity, I have cobbled together a drawing / plan.

The plants, fruit bushes and trees have been ordered and we have the seeds for many of the smaller plants that I hope will form the ,shrub, herbaceous, ground cover and climbing components of the forest garden in future.
Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted.

Voluntary Simplicity: A Poetic Alternative To Consumer Culture

2010-12-18T00:53:00.000-08:00

Somebody's given our way of life a catchy name!

This is a great video:

VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture (24 min) from NO WAY Productions on Vimeo.

Evaluating the growing year

2010-11-30T23:20:00.000-08:00

I've been really busy ever since Jamie's brother asked me to knit him a bad xmas jumper. But before my every spare minute was spent with squared paper, horrendously pixellated xmas cliches and the sound of clacking needles, I had begun to do a brief evaluation of our growing year. This was inspired by reading nefaeria's Crop Report 2009 and thinking what a great idea it was to summarise like this; both helpful to others and easy to glance back on for comparisons.

Having just read the 2010 report, I decided to post my unfinished summary anyway and finish it as and when I have time!

Update - Salads - I (Jamie) made Bek some big promises about growing tonnes of salad all year round after working on the farm last year. I think in honesty, the salad crop this year did not live up to that promise. We have had salad to eat most of the year, just not in the quantities we consume salad. We had problems propagating seedlings in spring with them becoming leggy and ill looking. I think this is due to a lack of good day light hours and irregular watering. Most of the salad was grown in a raised bed or pots on the patio.

Lettuce - We grew Batavia, Red Oakleaf and Grenoble red. The first two being traditionally grown summer lettuces and the G/R being a hardier winter lettuce. The G/R were a poor seed and germinated badly both here and in the farm plant house. But the plants that did grow have proved to be fantastic. All three we have eaten as cut and come again. Need to grow more in succession next year.

Salad rocket - A plant that even if you wanted to stop it growing you couldn't. Has proved to be a good quick space filler crop. I think it is impossible to have to much Rocket so again, next year we should sow a job lot more.

Coriander - A curry without fresh coriander seems immorally wrong. It goes to seed easily in summer and we never seem to be able to grow large plants. Looking forward to seeing what our plants do in spring if they survive the winter.

Rainbow chard - Bek is not that keen on eating small chard leaves in salad but I quite like them.* The slugs like them too and have beaten us to them most of the time.

*Not that I don't like them - I'm just concerned, as a nutrition nerd, about my iodine levels - bek

Land cress - Sowed this in pots with lettuce as an experiment and we were really impressed. I am a sucker for peppery leaves and this grows as prolifically as a weed.

Giant red mustard - perhaps my favourite salad leaf. Being a brassica, the cabbage whites massacred the plants in the raised bed. The plants have produced some leaves but again I hold hopes that these plants will go nuts in spring.

Winter purslane - The fleshy leaves of this plant constitute the basis of your winter salad in the hard winter months when even the hardiest lettuce refuse to grow. The slugs love this plant and ours have been massacred. We have had a handful of leaves and I hope that the frost kills the slugs and we get to enjoy there crazy Jetsons looking flowers next year.

Red sorrel - A perennial salad crop. After moving the plants into the sunnier raised bed we enjoyed the colourful lemon leaves all summer. Since covering the the raised bed they have come back to life. Next year we want the grow Buckler sorrel which is even more lemony.

Tatsoi - I would grow this plant just because I think it looks amazing. Ours haven't produced like the ones at work but I guess being in a pot might have something to do with that. I really like the mild brassica taste and firm texture of this leaf.

Green and streaky red mustard leaves - Again, didn't grow to much in spring but the plants I brought home from work a couple of weeks ago seem to be doing Ok.

Hairy bitter cress - Bek left this weed to grow and we ate it in salad at a time of year when there ain't a lot else around. You have to love plants that want to grow!

Fruit (number in brackets indicate how many years we've had the plant)

Strawberries - allotment: Produced okay, but didn't get to many before damaged by slugs / woodlice. We let them produce runners this year, so as to fill the bed, but next year we'll cut them off, hopefully so as to increase production.

Alpine strawberries - garden, in pot (3): Still no fruit. Flowers shrivel and die soon after blooming.

Kiwi - garden, in pot (2): Flowered for the first time this year, but blooms suddenly dropped off - have read could have been not enough water.

Olive - garden, in pot (2): Also flowered for the first time this year.

Apple - garden, in pot (3): First year we've allowed to crop. Had about 20 apples, 8 a good size. Loved by Jed!

Loganberries - garden, in ground (>1): Didn't grow as well as hoped. Soil is still improving though. Also perhaps not enough sun?

Raspberry - garden, in ground (>1): As above!

Blueberries - garden, in pots (1): Harvested berries for about a month. Good crop.

Fig - garden, in pot (3): Figs always appear at the wrong time of the year and have to be removed as they won't ripen before the frosts. One pea-sizer remains!

Goji - garden, in pot (4): Complete FAIL. Is still alive is all I can really say. Sprouts every year in Jan and grows fast and healthily until about May, then seems to get eaten (by what, a mystery - not slugs) / go yellow and lose all its leaves. It will probably be fine next year, now I have given up on it!

Rhubarb - allotment (<1): Doing good up there in that fertile soil. Looking forward to next spring!

Blackcurrants - allotment (<1): Ditto rhubarb.

Japanese Quince - garden, in pot (7): not much fruit - was hacked in order to move!

Veg

Tomatoes - Minibels, in garden, pots/growbag: Good small size for our limited space and fitted in the coldframe perfectly. No pests or disease. Taste bit bland, but picked good crop weekly for three months.

Courgettes - Soleil, allotment: Unstoppable. Had so many courgettes and marrows weekly, were giving them away. Tried in garden and slugs got to the tips of flowers before they could form fruit.

Kale - garden, in ground / raised bed: decimated by slugs.

Chard - allotment: Fantastic, huge leaves from late spring and is still going.

Mangetout - garden, in ground / raised bed: good crop as we planted a few more plants this year.

Tall, multicoloured mangetout - garden/allotment: Amazing. My favourite annual ever grown so far. Great for garden as made use of vertical space. Highly productive, tasty and beautiful.

Squash - allotment: good crop, no damage.

Goldenberries - garden/allotment, in ground: managed to get bowlfuls of ripe fuits this year but realised we don't like the taste of them very much!

Leeks - allotment: Most were torn out by whoever trampled our allotment, but what's left grew very well.
Brussels Sprouts - allotment: coming on well.

PSB - allotment: coming along very well.

Potatoes - allotment: Best thing we grew up the allotment: sackfuls of perfect skinned, tasty remarkas!

Jerusalem Artichokes - allotment/garden: Grew into giants. Provided late colour in garden (flowered Oct). Still need to dig up - though may have left too late as it snowed overnight.

Herbs

Fennel - garden, in ground (1): Did brilliantly and attracted lots of insects. Harvested seed to sow and for tea through the winter.

Dill - garden, in ground: Grew really well. Harvested lots for use, in soups mainly, through July and Aug.

Sage - garden, in ground (2): Becoming nice compact shrub. Survived being overshadowed by teasels. Used lots in cooking throughout summer. Flowers loved by bees and hoverflies.

Mint - garden, in pot (2): Ours prefers more sun than shade. Used huge amounts of fresh leaves throughout summer right up until Oct. Wish I'd dried some!

Lemon Balm - garden, in ground (2): Used fresh leaves a lot - as for mint, wish I'd dried for tea in winter. Flowers loved by insects.

Basil - garden, in growbags with tomatoes: grew well and we used it almost quicker than it could grow! Didn't seem to do anything for the taste of our toms though they remained disease and pest free.

Valerian - garden, in ground (<1): picked this up from a table outside someone's house on the way to Landmatters. Doing well in the shadier part of the garden.

Sweet Cicely - garden, in ground (<1): As valerian.

Echinacea - garden, in ground (<1): Late addition, remains to be seen!

Thyme - garden, in ground (two varieties <1): Under hebe bush doing well, covering ground. In bed was slightly overshadowed. Bed variety better taste.

Hop - garden, in ground (2): Preferred being in ground. Flowered for first time.

Others

Sunflowers - garden, in ground (mostly) / pots: Did really well this year - slugs too busy eating all our kale obviously. Harvested tons of seed and left a fair bit for birds. Host to many insects - especially ladybirds, which nestled around the back of the heads in nooks come Autumn. Used hollow stems in insect hotel.

Teasel - garden, in ground: <3 style="font-weight: bold;">

Sea Holly - garden, in ground (1): Loved by bees, hoverflies and a particular small moth! Just beautiful too. Next year, when a little bigger, will use some stems / leaves.

Borage - garden, in ground: Fantastic for attracting insects - saw lots of very small (poss. solitary?) bees hovering around it.

Marigold - garden / allotment: Neverending blooms and so easy to grow. Loved by insects.

Nasturtiums - garden, in ground: Again, one of my favs, cos has so many uses. Used flowers more than leaves in salads and used stems as mulch again. Long growing season, from spring to Oct. Good ground cover or use of vertical space.

Comfrey - garden, in ground (2): Did much better once in ground. Indispensable.

Oxeye daisy - garden, in ground (<1): doing well.

Mallow - garden, in ground (<1): Flourished. Used leaves a lot in salads. Dried some leaves and have crunched them up and added to stews.

Cosmos - garden, in ground: easy to grow and attracted lots of insects. Tall, but not bushy with pretty flowers and long growing season.

Daylily - garden, in ground (<1): Established itself well. No flowers yet.

Tree lupin - garden, in ground (3): Brilliant as ever.

Yellow buddleja - garden, in pot (3): much happier this year. Lots of blooms.

Poppy - garden, in ground (<1): Established itself well. Tried to regrow in Autumn!

Forget-me-not - garden, in ground: excellent early ground cover. Spreads very easily!

Trees
Bay - garden, in pot (3): grown from seedling, is now becoming excellent small standard. Used many leaves this year.

Hazels - garden, in pots (3): doing okay, have suffered scale. Not many nuts.

Oak - garden, in pot (<1): this was a leaving present from work, grown from an acorn!

A quick allotment update

2010-11-19T07:29:00.000-08:00

garlic and leeks.

Fridays have become post office and allotment day. I finally remembered to take the camera with me today.
The "Solent white" garlic I planted a couple of weeks ago is finally through much to my relief. I took a gamble and put them in early as conditions were dry and cold but then the temperatures got crazy warm and it rained a shit load so I was stressing that they might rot out before they even start.
The remaining leeks aren't going to win any prizes for appearance but they are a good size, taste good and will be there in our hour of need.

Fingers crossed the sprouts (horrible concentrated cabbages as Jed calls them) are still looking good for Xmas dinner. The plants seem to be acting as snail hotels but the sprouts themselves look undamaged. I might hate harvesting them at work but am looking forward to eating our own.

Brussels sprouts.

Two other Brassica transplants have also survived in the rhubarb bed, one is purple sprouting broccoli and the other has got me guessing. I thought it was hungry gap kale but am not sure now. You got to love the chaos growing.

Purple sprouting broccoli shoot.

we have some lovely self seeded spinach, chard, lemon balm, mint and most importantly, comfrey growing around the place. After all trying the golden latterns we decided they tasted horrible and we would not grow them again. But they were not a waste as they are great at smothering out weeds and together with the J artichokes stems, comfrey leaves and nettles they have provided lots of organic material to spread on the beds. Compared to the neighbours well kept plot with lots of soil showing our plot is looking a tad like a riot.

As well as surface mulching we have sowed one of the beds with a phacelia green manure as an experiment. Together with self seeded white clover and goose grass it seems to have covered most of bed now. Hopefully the early potatoes next year will benefit from the nitrogen fixation of the green manure.

Purple sprouting broccoli and Rhubarb.

The 3 blackcurrant bushes I put in a couple of months again appear to be alive with a little show buds on them. I gave them a mulching. We got given them so I don't know the age or variety. Together with my lack of knowledge of all soft fruit I decided to just leave them to get on with it till next year.

Phacelia in bed with self seeded Spinach.

Intimate Partner Violence

2010-11-11T07:01:00.000-08:00

Hindsight is a great thing, they say - and it's true. Looking back now, I can clearly see the mistakes I made from the very beginning of that relationship. For a start we spent far too much time together - right from the offset. We saw one another for five out of every seven days. The time - hours - we spent together was intense too - and only got more so as time went on.   It was intense, but it was also more fun at the start - as tends to be the way of these things. There were serious bits: we both had baggage from past relationships and there was a lot of talking...expectations...sharing what we wanted from one another, but there were carefree, happy bits in between these. I was introduced to new people and new experiences. (Though in these lay another warning sign I missed: the way these other people were treated... I guess I was just naive enough to think I wouldn't let that happen to me.)   Anyway, it must have been only a month into it when things outside of the relationship began to go wrong, forcing the two worlds to collide.

My cat developed a rash and started losing her fur. There were many expensive trips to the vet and talk of skin grafting when nothing seemed to work. I began to worry about paying the rent vs helping my cat. My son had also started secondary school around the same time as I had embarked upon my new relationship and was floundering and getting into trouble. I was unaware of this until called in to the school by his Head of Year, where I was then presented with a list of his misdemeanors…one of which particularly shocked and upset me.

My uncle finally lost his battle with cancer…

I was made redundant.

The relationship was making certain demands of me that, to be honest, I didn’t feel comfortable with after just one month. I didn’t feel able to say this though and so I was doing them - doing them badly - and consequently starting to feel like I’d gone back in time ten to fifteen years; to being a gangly, awkward teenager - with the lack of self confidence to match.

It may come as no surprise to know that I hadn’t mentioned the other problems in my life either. I was relieved when one of our ‘serious’ moments occurred and I was asked outright how I thought things were going in the relationship. I thought this might give me the opportunity to explain that I was starting to flounder myself – and perhaps mention briefly the other things that were occurring in my life, just to add perspective: I wasn’t not coping for no reason and maybe I’d get the support I badly needed.

Instead I was met with a cold and curt suggestion as to how I might improve my ‘performance’. The tattered flag of my self-confidence finally flew off the pole completely and to my shame my self control left too: tears ran silently down my cheeks,

“I’ve tried that…”

Despair.

I knew it was over at that point. Yet I sobbed an apology as I left the room to go and clean my face. I wasn’t followed. I half-heartedly hoped for a humane side to show: a message later…something. Nothing.

Maybe you’re now thinking I’m stupid and that maybe I deserved this?

I DID kick myself afterwards. Of course humane didn’t need to come into it - if I ended the relationship I’d have no money and a landslide of a life on my hands. Because my 'abusive relationship' was with my job.

How Intimate Partner Violence is identified

It strikes me as ironic that there are organisations offering support for victims of ‘intimate partner violence’, – which is characterised by, among other things:

a pattern of abusive behaviors; emotional abuse; controlling or domineering; intimidation; stalking; passive/covert abuse (e.g. neglect); and economic deprivation;

various controlling behaviours such as isolating a person from family and friends or restricting access to information and assistance;

threatening a partner or his or her possessions or loved ones, or harming a partner’s sense of self-worth. Examples are stalking, name- calling, intimidation, or not letting a partner see friends and family;

emotional harm. Victims often have low self-esteem.They may have a hard time trusting others and being in relationships. The anger and stress that victims feel may lead to eating disorders and depression. Some victims even think about or commit suicide.

increasingly possessive and controlling behaviour on the part of the abuser.

Yet I can’t ask them for help if my abuser is an employer -or job in general. If the legal personality of corporations can be likened to that of a sociopath then the working relationship as an abusive one is not a long shot.

Emotional Harm

From what or where do most people derive their sense of self esteem or respect? The fact that many people spend most of their time at work means that their sense of self worth and achievement is often tied up with what they do for a living, whether they are wise enough to prefer it to come from within or not. (Funny that I've seen innumerable individuals suffer low self esteem as a result of their demeaning and/or demoralising jobs, while politicians seem to bask in their ineffable wankery.) What ‘isolates (a person) from family and friends’ if not work? What ‘restricts access to information’? It’s not like we get to continue our wonderful state education in the workplace is it? As even Adam Smith acknowledges in Wealth of Nations, ‘The man whose life is spent performing a few simple operations…has no occasion to exert his understanding.'

If we have any personal interests or want to increase our knowledge we have to take responsibility ourselves. This is a good thing. But who has the energy or inclination to seek this out after the thirty or forty hour week? Fuck that, Imma go to the pub or buy a dvd box set of 60 hours worth of amusements to absorb, concentrated, over the weeks' evenings – like a couple of grammes of Huxley’s soma. Don’t get me wrong – these things are great, but when they’re all you can muster yourself up for, you’re in trouble, whether you realise it or not.

The lingering taboo surrounding intimate partner violence and its effects mean that sufferers are often too ashamed to seek help. This, too, seems to parallel the work situation. If you find yourself ‘not coping’ with your job - or even more shockingly, seem to have been playing truant when ‘work ethic’ was being handed out - you are often ignorantly judged to be weak, lazy or unintelligent for starters. It may be stated or insinuated that there is an even more serious character defect at work. Just look at today's news. Yet only those in the worst grips of Societal Stockholm Syndrome / The Socialist Worker Party (and I don’t know who I feel sorrier for) can deny the real truth about jobs and our (now close to being very literal) slavery. Even despite the "No-one likes their jobs*, but it's all part of being responsible, so grow up!" mentality.

*And I bet those who think they do would rediscover their imagination and desire to live their own lives if the financial pressure was removed or their sense of worth crept 'outside the box'.

Absenteeism

The ‘increasingly possessive and controlling behaviour on the part of the abuser’ has recently shown itself to me in a freaky trend I’ve noticed for it to be secretly / not so secretly frowned upon (as if bad etiquette) if you actually take your lunch break or leave the building during that time so as to enjoy ten minutes of sunshine. The same goes for finishing on time. More disturbingly is how this situation has come about because certain jobsworths have made the acknowledging of these tick-the-box concessions to the worker seem cheeky. (Closely followed by idiots who feel obliged to follow their shining example.)

The control extends, not just to telling us when we can eat and drink, and what clothes we’re permitted to wear, but also to what is considered a reasonable excuse for not attending work. For example you can’t just phone up and say you’re not coming in because you’ve got (insert emotional equivalent of a 24 hour stomach bug here). Common physical illnesses are (reluctantly) recognised - but not the slight, yet nonetheless significant, emotional sicknesses that can potentially infect us several times a year too. Who hasn’t had times, where, if we could’ve just taken a day where we needed it, it might just have prevented anything from a needless argument, or work error, to complete mental meltdown?

But people don’t like other people who have time off (even if it is for an ‘approved’ physical reason). I don’t know why…and I s'pose it's all part of that taboo. Is it because they then get dumped upon even more at work through short staffing? (Another fantastic tactic of the job) Is it because they perceive the person to be getting something (wages) for nothing (not really being ill) in these suspicious times? Whatever the reason, the abusive job rightly recognises absenteeism as useful: a scapegoat on a plate and division among the workers. If an employee was allowed time off to deal with personal problems (rather than spreading them round home and workplace) wouldn’t that be much better? But of course that’s far too holistic and sensible for our insanely progress-driven society.

I would say that recognising the emotional norovirus as valid would be a start in changing things for the better, but that would be to not follow my own thought through to its logical conclusion, which is that what would ultimately be most helpful, and more importantly, holistic, is indeed the complete abolishment of wage slavery. Until that day I'll make do with what hindsight has taught me about relationships: that too much time spent together is unhealthy.

Lonely Hearts

The natural thing to do when in a destructive relationship of any sort is to disentangle yourself from it, but the job doesn’t let you do that. It threatens you with the ‘economic deprivation’ and ‘social isolation’ described earlier, and, chances are that if you’ve reached this point with your job your ‘work self-esteem’ is so low - either because you've been set up to fail through poor or complete lack of training and support, or because your 'responsibilities' leave you with a work satisfaction akin to as if you'd spent the day heartily pestling your own brain, or simply because there are not enough hours in the day - that you doubt anyone else will ever want you, much like in a human abusive relationship.

Looking at the job ads also makes you feel like the most undesirable person in the world. Like a mutant leper with all the charm of Thatcher. Like you’ll never meet anybody... I know I’ve given up hoping to find The One. However, I now think it's the job descriptions that are unattractive, not me. (Society's view might be a little contrary!) Now that both Jamie and I have tried the ‘ethical’ job (and found it to be just as shite as all our others had been) what hope is there? For financial reasons only I'll settle for an okay job - 'okay' being not much to do with the job itself, but more the three day working week we've both managed to come by.

To add to my general non-appeal as an employee is that fact that I don't have and couldn't afford (and don't want) a degree. But I’m betting that even if you have one; if you’ve spent four years of your life financially asphyxiating yourself studying bat shit, you can bloody well bet that there won’t be the heap of vacancies in the sphere of Chiroptera Excrement there once was after the year of your graduation. There aren't 'plenty more fish in the sea' anymore. The degree is like the old OHAC though: it shows you’re a safe bet who can and will play society’s game. If you haven’t got one you just have to have hope in your GSOH.

The job should have to entice you ffs. It should have to perform a courtship display on par with the bloody bird of paradise. It is, of course, asking you to give up increments of your life in return for just about getting by. However, I once drunkenly let my guard down and shared these views with someone I thought might ‘get it’ - and only succeeded in making myself look like a weirdo: bizarrely, the job has many friends. Having recognised that I’ve been in an abusive relationship with one, I can only shake my head and laugh at how it presents itself as sociable and attractive: a reet good catch.

But maybe I’m wrong about people not ‘getting it’. Maybe, as E F Schumacher puts it:

‘That soul-destroying, meaningless, mechanical, monotonous, moronic work is an insult to human nature which must necessarily and inevitably produce either escapism or aggression, and that no amount of 'bread and circuses' can compensate for the damage done - these are facts which are neither denied nor acknowledged but are met with an unbreakable conspiracy of silence - because to deny them would be too obviously absurd and to acknowledge them would condemn the central preoccupation of modern society as a crime against humanity.’

Some notes on the ‘ethical’ job

Jamie’s ‘ethical’ job relies heavily on the goodwill of staff in short supply. The work is backbreaking, repetitive and in unsociable conditions at ungodly hours. The pay for all that’s a wallop in the face.

So to all those tokenistic ethical consumers out there - stop whining about the shape of your organic carrots, you rich tossers - get a job.

I worked for a social enterprise. The Social Enterprise Mark: a bit like the Soil Associations’ – will no doubt soon be in the supermarkets and on the high street. Like all these stupid logos it means very little and it actually makes me feel physically sick to look at it now…can I have the day off?

And if you've made it through my piler, please read this to address the balance:
“The Abolition of Work” Bob Black

3 days a week, fruit picking and fixies.

2010-11-07T03:09:00.000-08:00

After a couple of weeks of unseasonably warm weather with lots of rain during the nights we finally have the sort of late autumn afternoon I would expect. A Sunny, clear sky with biting cold winds and the tree leaves falling into yellow and ruby red piles. The weather service is predicting the first hard frost of the year tonight which will kill the regrown peas, poppies and flowers that are confused about the time of year. It will also mean that it is time to dig up the frost sweetened tubers of the Oca and Jerusalem artichokes.

We took advantage of the good weather yesterday to get out in the garden for some much needed sorting out. Harvested the last of the cherry tomatoes (which have been great) and mini peppers (which have been shite) from the cold frame. Dragged out the grow bag making more room for pots of winter salad crops and spread its soil onto the lawn raised bed before applying a good thick mulch of tangled nasturtiums and goldenberries.

Becky got to grips with felling the last sunflower and the Jerusalem artichokes which got chopped straight up and laid on the bare soil. The garden looks weird but I'm glad the soil is all covered up .This is the closest to forest gardening we've come yet and to be honest I bloody love it. When I first started growing the digging and dirty hands made me feel a connection the soil. But now the act of not digging, of not disrupting the hard working soil structure and just spreading a thick carpet of compost, nettles, decaying plant matter or whatever is to hand satisfies me on a holistic level I have trouble explaining.

Our garden center rescue apple tree produced its first crop after 3 years of us having it. We had a grand crop of about 20 Laxton's superb apples. Becky says they are too "eye winky" but Jed loves their crunchiness.

I saw the first blackbird for ages in the garden this morning which reminds me that we must dig the soil out of the hanging baskets which act as great water baths for the birds in winter and spring. We are hoping that the remaining skeletons of the teasels will be a good food source for the birds in winter. I have seen some starlins playing on them.
Crop wise, the cold frames are keeping us topped up with salad but i hope to fill them up to the rafters with aid of a few more mustard plants from work soon. The chard, mint, lemon balm, parsley and comfrey have all made small but valid contributions to our diets recently. We have beetroot, leeks and hopefully brussels sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli to harvest up at the allotment.

The seasonal nature of farming has meant that my boss has dropped me down to 3 days a week at work. This is going to mean us tightening our belts further still but does have the advantage that I will not have to cycle and work in sub zero temperatures for the next 4 months everyday and will have more time to get up the allotment and read books.
Speaking of books I finally got round to reading "Bound for glory" by Woody Guthrie. I have liked Guthrie's music for along time and I really enjoyed reading about riding freight trains and some of what went to make him the man he was.
While the lanterns got carved and the ghouls prepared for Hallowe'en I helped Jed build up his first fixed wheel bike. I think the frame is a late 70's Peugeot which he bought from the dump for a tenner. Anyway, I think it came out good and he's seems to be chuffed with it. Bike nerds for ever!!!

The Day The Pumpkins Died

2010-10-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

Jed chose a Subhumans design for his pumpkin, while I went for a cat inspired one. Predictable, no? ;)

Aww

2010-10-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

Jamie made a cute little 'polytunnel' roof for our salad bed this weekend, so that we can hopefully continue to eat our raw greens all winter.

It has little (old school tent-stylee) doors on this open end now, which are also made out of thick, clear plastic (we get a lot of that courtesy of the bulk food we buy from Essential!) so that hopefully our lettuces, rocket, oriental greens, parsley and winter purslane (and whatever else we end up putting in there) will thrive - well, if I don't eat it quicker than it can grow! (I think Jamie may have been trying to counter this as he's filled up the cold frame with more salad.) Jamie tried one of our apples and reckoned it was nice enough; not the tastiest apple, he said, but okay!

Speaking of food...I made my first stew of the season on the same day and I have to say it was a corker! I never follow a recipe, so each one's different, but I also have to say, I wish I'd written down what I did, it was so good.

The weather was also amazing all weekend (including our Monday off) so we all spent a lot of time in the garden, busying or reading. I cleaned all of the windows and the patio doors, which were pretty filthy - although we hadn't realised it. This will hopefully mean a brighter house in the colder months. Jed collected leaves and we put them into a net to make some leafmould.

Finally, our local pub had told us that they had a wintry ginger stout coming in (which just so happens to be vegan too) so we headed down there for another seasonal first. The best of both worlds. Proper!

My favourite butterfly and moth sightings this summer:

2010-10-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

1. Comma - on blackberry at our allotment.

2. Brown Silver-line moth - near Hound Tor, Dartmoor. Jamie took this photo. I love it.

3. Red Admiral - near Hound Tor, Dartmoor.

4. Purple Bordered Gold moth - on sea holly in our garden.

5. Tortoiseshell - on a clifftop between Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton.

The Comma is number one because it was my most wanted to see. Having now borrowed Jed's butterfly identification chart (apologies to the moths) I'd now most like to spot one of these:

I admit that this may be in part due to wanting to say "I saw a Grizzled Skipper today".

Frost - friend or foe?

2010-10-10T01:58:00.000-07:00

Our Jerusalem artichokes have finally flowered and look amazing - but are however best viewed from our bedroom window as they're so tall!

We'll dig them up after the first frost, as this is supposed to sweeten the tubers and make them more palatable - and perhaps more importantly in their case, more digestible!

The same applies to our oca tubers - the above ground growth of which is currently nestled in with the marjoram, providing great ground cover.

The frost will kill off our goldenberry plants, which need until November to ripen properly and which didn't quite make it last year. It hasn't been at all cold so far, so we're hoping they might make it - or that the nasturtiums which have taken over in the absence of the teasels will protect them...

(the goldenberry is on the far right)

As you can see the goldenberries are quite well 'protected' by the nasturtiums. We do have to keep chopping the nasturtiums back as they take over so quickly, but this does seem to only encourage them!

Our late apples are also supposed to ripen off by November. This will be the first year we have actually had apples from our tree though, if they do ripen off, so we'll have to see. They're currently looking ripe on the left hand side of the tree...

While still being green on the right hand side...!

Our Japanese quinces are looking ready:

Of course the frost will mean an end to the pretties of the garden. The cosmos still seems in its prime at the moment, whilst the last multi-headed sunflower is hanging on in there. I've dried some of the sunflower heads indoors, but have also left some as I've noticed our ladybird friends seem to love their nooks and crannies!

Last year we discovered that nasturtiums make an excellent winter mulch, becoming like straw and lasting the whole of winter and early spring. They can be composted when finally removed.
As we've been having to trim them so frequently, we've already begun the process, as things begin to die back and gaps appear.

I used to hate Winter. I dreamed of moving to Spain...Australia...anywhere where I didn't have to suffer being 'cooped up' for what seemed like an eternity. But since becoming more and more obsessed with growing, I've noticed that this has evolved into acceptance and even a liking of Winter. The growing season seems to get longer each year for a start and those short, few months of cosying are enjoyable, with plans made for the following spring - and a dvd box set or two ;)