Is a paperless wedding possible?

Ok, so forgive me. I've turned into some kind of Bride-a-saurus (I can't bear to think of myself as 'Bridezilla', honest, as I'm more of a dinosaur).  So, within this hectic mad cap modern life, we've managed to sort out a mutually family friendly date, a suitable wellie-clad venue which will be ablaze with autumn colour and even a venue, for our mini ridiculous-but-fun  ' wedding-rock-fest' (did I mention Mr F is a rock god?), 'Wellie-Fest 2013' is officially a go-er. And yes wellies are compulsory at my wedding, why not get married in the footwear you live in every day. I promise to trade them for a pair of something bonnie for the dancing.

Its very exciting, I actually did a wee dance. However, when you look at doing a marriage, the costs seem to go sky high, its crazy. So like any good girl, I'm cutting as many corners as I can, after all its fun, but shouldn't really cost the earth. Unfortunately we're already at over £1000 and no ones out of their pj's or even fed yet! Life it seems, is expensive.

So we're organising so much of this ourselves, the forest will do the splendid autumn colour thing, so all we need to do is get to grips with feeding folks, putting on the entertainment, which is all great fun. I might even have found a suitable frock for wearing with wellies, from a local charity shop.

Ever tried to organise an event like this without paper? I'm discovering its really not very easy.

OK so to stick to the principles we've had to get rid of paperwork/paper for...............

Celebrant (Humanist) organisation - by email
Venue contract/organsing - by email
Invitations, RSVP's etc (we've done it all online, postcodes and all)
Order of service (Blackboard)
Confetti - lovely Aunty C and her rose garden petals are a-drying as we speak.
Menu (Blackbird)
Napkins (Recycled cotton, handmade by yet to be assigned 'wedding slaves')

What am I forgetting? The photo's are the only compromise, a lovely chum is doing us a lovely candid album - photo's are not quite paper.........

As the NTS venue we've chosen has sent us a wad of a contract by paper in the post - I'm thinking that we can probably wear that - they do grow an exceptional amount of trees. And, I'll use my copy to make lots of notes on.

Ever organised an event trying to be 'green'? It seems there's so much where its hard to compromise and even harder to stick to a suitable budget and your 'no waste' intentions.

Its also hard finding the right colour, length and suitable Rock God material for your betrothed 'Wellie-Fest Cape'.

And, 'I'm' the brideasaurus..................:)

Hoping, probably rather naively, we can host a paper-free, (?waste free?) event.

Start as you mean to go on after all.

I'm sure you'll hear more about the wellie-fest activities as I try and get to grips with them all, be warned!

The Recycled Gardener.

Last years spring show of colour.....in a recycled container.

I'm what you might call, a bit jammy. Whilst I've not much in the way of garden space at the new cosy cottage, I have more than my fair share in the various places I work. So I can keep my hand in, and like today, spend an hour or two after my 'shift' pottering about with plants in our local composting and recycling garden at work. In line with all things exciting to promote recycling, at my 'main' job we try and find all sorts of way of using up containers and materials to inspire folks to recycle more. The case in hand above a lovely 'alpine' garden in a lovely  recycled container, in this case an old 'bidet'. I think its quite lovely. And, we sell 'recycled' plants, pots and seeds too.

Old bidet, new planter - old sinks, bidets and toilets make 'interesting' recycled garden planters.

Setting off these alpines and some 'Tete-a-tete' miniature daffodils quite nicely.

Daffodil 'Tete-a-Tete' in a recycled planter

Very cheerful and quite lovely recycling too. Given we're a community based recycling charity maybe you'll not be surprised that all the plants here were donations, given by those supporting our local project - so whilst we had many to sell on in pots (also donated) we like to demonstrate what they might look like in situ. A perfect combination of early spring flowering and early summer alpines (alpine strawberries, lady's mantle, thrift) and a nice purple toad flax giving a bit of height at the back later in the summer.  In the winter though, its a different story, whilst the recycled bidet looks great - there's not much in the way of inspired planting going on.

Recycled bidet container garden, perfect for alpines. Currently sleeping. Pop back in March.

At the moment there's not much in the way of colour going on - I think I must try and find something nice to pop in there, perhaps a wee primula. I'd hoped the daffies would be up by now, but alas they are very conspicuous by their absence! (And, I've looked...) Unlike the impatient alliums (Allium hollandicum 'Purple Sensation') who are up and nosing about in the remnants of the curly parsley and dropped nasturtium seeds.

Alliums and parsley ready for the off.

I'm sorry chaps but you're up a bit early. As for the daffies - well being the impatient type I am, I investigated some of the old pots of them beside the planter. And, sure enough - they're there but not up yet........still sleeping lazy monkeys. I didn't disturb them for long, they're tucked back up in a recycled pot for now.

I should really let sleeping daffodils lie in peace.

And so, here's a thought - for all us gardeners out there about to tackle dusty compost bags, sheds full of pot infestations which might attack us at any moment. For those of us with far too many seeds and far too many herbaceous perennials ready to split up......I'm proud to say our local community recycling centre accepts plants, pots, seeds, trays, compost bags, bulbs, vegetables, shrubs, trees and any gardening equipment. What about your local places?

 

I know that we'll soon be putting out an appeal for spring cleaning gardeners to think about us, and rather than compost extra plants, or put all those pots to the skip - why not hand them in here (or at a local place where you live). Many community groups can find the labour to split up plants, pot up strays and sift through seeds, making these available to the public and perhaps inspiring a few with wacky planters, or offering advice and engaging with the public in fun and exciting ways.

 

Who knows what might happen - like here - bidets turned into elegant alpine planters. Or one man band drums -

An old, worn one man band drumkit - full of holes, the perfect candidate for a bit of garden recycling

.............. turned into a lovely large container!

Recycled planter from an old drum/one man band.

If you're lucky to have a local community recycling centre like ours, or a community garden - why not pop along and see what they're up to. From self watering strawberries in old milk containers, garlic growing in old barrels or....the perfect small veggie patch....

Recycled planting containers.....

You never know you might just get inspired to look at recycling and reuse in a whole new way..... a novel one we were told about was turning untreated pallets turned into veggie gardens - perfect for a smaller space and limits weeding! So we had a bash at that too.....

Recycled pallet veggie garden.

Maybe, just maybe, you might get inspired, or think, its a bit whacky for my own garden, but that's an interesting use of materials........like recycling bottles for path edges......excellent for curved edges.

Recycled bottles and wood chip for those curvy paths.......

Or tin cans for path edges with recycled hedge woodchip.........

Recycled tins and woodchip for path edging.

So when tidying out the garden shed/greenhouse/seed box - why not think of a local charity or recycling place that might make good use of your extras. You never know what kind of garden mad person might be helping out at your local site (or if they don't have one why not volunteer?). Or if you find a group who knows what inspiring things they're getting up to and how you might be able to help support their work with something as small as a half opened packet of seeds or some old strawberry runners. Those of us who are more conventional, might just pick up a bargain boot load of pots, window boxes or containers if we need them, or let us find a home for our own surplus!

Gardeners are excellent recyclers and often quite inspired to think out the box when using resources......even making viking scarecrows out of old tins.....this one lives at my 'other' job, beside my 'other' work garden. Like I said, I'm jammy - two jobs, two extra gardens to play in.

So when tidying up during these months when the daffies are still sleeping, perhaps you can venture along to your local community group and have a nose at what they're up to.......there might be a home for all those pots you've been hoarding or a bit of inspiration waiting for you.

 

Like I say, I'm jammy I get to work in a garden at work too, means a lot to me when folks offer plants and seeds, pots and support. And, its always nice to hear folks saying, 'Oh I'd never thought about doing that.....' when they see what we're up to.

 

Time for me to stop blethering and leave you all to it.

 

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my waffles, happy gardening and recycling if you manage to find a local group to give a few bits too.  You might just find a 'recycled' gardener to have a yarn to, too and perhaps a few interesting tips along the way.

 

Our local recycling charity has a website here and a pretty active facebook presence here. Feel free to pop by, or 'like' us and see what new and exciting things we'll be getting up to in Spring.

I like parcels, I really like parcels, don't you?

Living as far north as we do, many friends and loved ones are 'doon sooth' - we rely on the post for lots of things - and those that come unexpected are always a bonus. This week, I've been lucky enough to receive, three cards, two magazines, a book (pictured above), a box of cake for a hearty welcome  (how cool a gift in the mail!) and a tub of home made garam massala spices (yum) and a packet of home collected seed! 

How utterly lucky am I. I also received a phone bill, a credit card bill and various junk mail. I've learnt to get rid of the junk I can stop the drop and get rid of any unwanted mail really easily (use that link for ideas). I don't think they help with the credit card bill  though........... My family insist we don't need any help with unsolicited welcome cake however............

How utterly delicious does that look, arriving in a lovely array of yumminess. Thank you very much to the particular folk at slow food for the welcome card and cake, more on that another time..........the kettle and the cake are calling, then feet up with a good book, or a magazine whilst I have a think about what I'll do with those seeds, I love 'nice post' - thank you guys! 

Ps -  to get rid of any pesky junk post visit here for a great advice.......or look for your local agency. Mail needn't be boring, lets enjoy getting post - if you fancy it, take a look at how you can reduce your junk mail  on here or online or at a local recycling site and if you fancy it leave a comment and if your name comes out the hat, I'll send you something fun in the post garden/food/recycling related - anywhere in the world - it might be a small something but it will be a 'fun' something in the mail. Mail should be exciting, helps to curtail those pesky necessary credit card bills etc. You've got until st andrews day - 30th November - and then I'll put all the posters names in a woolly hat and then pull out one lucky chap to post something fun too, if you're chosen I'll email you for your address, dont' worry I'll keep it very secret!

Toodalu!

Recycled or precycled strawberries (?), one careful owner

Forgive the question, but are my new strawberries good recycling or good precycling? I'm trying to decide if the strawberries (in my recycled fish-box) I dug up on Saturday  morning from a lovely lady on my local Freegle (thank you Caroline!!), are recycled or precycled. I'll tell you why, I've had my head in a book I got from the library called 'Precycle' by Paul Peacock. I've often my head in a book, its how I appear busy, when not really doing anything or avoiding hoovering. Read more, hoover less I say, much better for the environment and saves you electricity.

It is most excellent, and lovely to read with alot of great hints and tips. The art of 'precycling', is simply looking at ways to reduce/alter the initial consumption, thus eliminating/reducing the requirement for recycling, well, ultimately that is.

Hmm, how to explain, without you falling asleep. Lets see,  if you make a pizza rather than buy one, you don't then have to get rid of the pizza box as your home made pizza (Precycled pizza) won't have a box which you have to recycle, you wont need a bag to take it from the shops, nor a car to get there in the first place, you save energy in a whole load of forms. That's the ethos anyway.......its not really about doing without, (ie pure reducing) more about having what you want, but having it with less packaging, or if you like having it more efficiently. i.e. 'pre' the rest of the 'reduce, reuse, recycle, reclaim' mantra.........

Given the advice in his very good book, if you can borrow it from a library or a chum rather than buy one then do, its an excellent read. Now this might shoot him in the foot a bit, on the whole book sale front, but hey given the nature of the book, I'm sure he'll understand. He's a champion of this kind of thing afterall! Hmm, I wonder if he made any money?! I don't feel bad, the library bought the book, I borrow it, enhancing his ethos nicely.

Anyway, back to my recycle/precycle dilema. I'm always on the hunt for plants and if they edible AND are free all the better. At the weekend I met a lady who had too many strawberries rampaging around her greenhouse. Rather than throw them away she put a quick ad on Freegle and I got lucky and she picked me to help her dig them out of her greenhouse. Rampaging strawberries no more, she's now got room for her winter veggies.

And a lovely lot of strawberries I ended up with too, enough to drop some off to a chum on the way home. So I guess her strawberries were recycled to a new home, rather than 'reclaimed' through composting, but by growing the strawberries herself for food, think she was practising the art of 'precycling', that is to say by growing her own food, she avoids trips to the shops, plastic bags, packaging and disposing of it all. Hurrah! Therefore by growing her own strawberries, she's actively reduced her consumption of everything but the actual strawberry, very efficient if you ask me. By giving them to me to grow my own food, I guess she's recycling too. What a star.

You see this is the random thoughts which go through my head as I'm upto my oxters in strawberries, in a trusty recycled fish-(where on earth would we be without them)-box.  I'm not standing in the box you understand, (although that has been known) I'm just using it to dissect the lovely strawberries into various size plants.

After this heart stopping major surgery we have our cuttings, no fingers missing this end, so we can call it a success. Most of the old leaves are snippity snapped off, (a technical term), trimmed down to let them start again. I've left at least one leaf about to emerge, otherwise I've got rid of the rest, the plant doesn't need them right now, they will exhaust it,  they need to settle in and grow new roots and not worry about their leaves so we've trimmed them right down.

To avoid bringing in any pests, these plants have been subject to a dosing by the hose and are devoid of most of their old soil, just in case. Also, during these exploits its good to avoid introducing new weeds (or recycled weeds!) into your garden, therefore I'm avoiding the creeping buttercup, who's roots I'm now very familiar with, avoiding the bittercress, which I don't want in my garden, I've trimmed and sorted the little darlings down into new cuttings/rooted plants and have a goodly lot to start the strawberry patch in my tunnel. As the home polytunnel's not up yet, I'll park these beauties in soil, in a reycled fish box, in a sheltered corner until they can go into their permanent patch.

 Until they are planted, the new plants and cuttings will liberally dosed (again) wiht the hose, they will be parked overnight in a little purple trug (not recycled but very loved and well used) and covered with a recycled compost bag to keep them nice and moist. They will be OK like this for a couple of days, but I'm hoping to plant them before then.

 So there we are, I've a bucket full of recycled strawberries for planting, which are going to allow me to 'precycle' strawberries at home in the summer by growing my own. No packaging, no food miles, free strawberries and jam, yum! Well that's the theory anyway, I think.  Sovled that one. Phew I'll sleep well tonight. I think I rather like the concept of precycling - if I can avoid all the packaging in the universe by growing my own I'll be very happy!

Now,  I'm thinking of other things, like what on earth do they call a collective group of strawberries? I consulted Mr Google, who else? And this is what I found..............collective nouns galore.........'punnet' was the answer. Hmm and a few more for fun, who'd have know you can have a 'flourish' of strumpets!

A muster of storks

A punnet of strawberries

A flourish of strumpets

A class of students

A stack of suitcases

A flight of swallows.................

Wombling.......

A recycled toy, a fish, made from half a sock and a bit of a rattled down jumper.......

Rhoda at Down to Earth has inspired this post pop over there to see how much of her life is also reycled! Lately I've been experimenting with daft things to do with old 'hole in the toe' socks for the local recycling charity I sometimes help out with, which don't look too bad, maybe a cat toy or a nice afternoons activity for a small child? The innard of the silly fish is rattled down wool from an old jumper we've got, the perfect inexpensive way to fill a recycled home made soft toy. We've also made a nifty recycled snake draught excluder from your dad/husbands old tie - filled with sand worked a treat! I got a bit frustrated with the online suggestions for mking these things, they were always full of 'buy two eyes' buy red felt, buy capoc for the filling - hardly ever did it say: go forth and forage around the house for excitng things like...... old buttons (for eyes), rattled down an old jumper for a filling and find someone thing old and red if you like for a snakes tongue - I'm quite a forager when it comes to making things, I entirely blame the wombles who when I was little introduced us to wombling (recycling). I mean why 'buy' the ingredients for a recycled activity - surely that defeats the purpose even though the idea is brilliant.

Womble - from http://www.mikebatt.com/releases/wombles_info.html

Now those of you old enough and from the UK will instantly understand the art of wombling, thesedays we call it the art of recycling. Wombles, are semi-mythical creatures, known for their capability to reuse and recycle, their motto 'to make good use of bad rubbish'. In this household whether the rubbish is good or bad we attempt to make a go a recycling everything we can, in true womble style. Given my penchant for unglamorous activities, 'wombling' suits me very well, I've often wondered about getting my own suit made.............well it would be warm? I'll stop now! Back to the recycling, aside the garden, eating and the family (of course) its my other great passion.

Recycled hen home from an old meat cupboard

Recycling, well as I'm often quoted, most of our 'stuff' here at home is either recycled at home, found on freegle, foraged out in charity shops (of which there are 7 in Orkney), recycling shops (2 - steptOZe yard and Re-start Orkney), heard about on the 'Bruck programme' at BBC Radio Orkney or often offered in the paper or on notice boards in local shops. We do OK here for places to both recycle, most parishes have a recycling deport or area and offer/ask goods for reusing through Orkney Freegle and you'll all find a group near you. Brilliant for offering and receiving recycled delights, check it out if you don't already belong to a group. 



Recycled fishboxes brilliant for growing plants and food in

I have to confess, aside the children and the dog and half of the chickens, which are not recycled (although I often wonder about recycling the dog and or the children! (joking)) most of our life is powered by recycling.  The new polytunnel is recycled and the wood from it has been reused in the frame, the posts were recycled scaffolding poles, obtained from a local agricultural store and cut to length, so aside from the cover and the contrete for the posts the polytunnel is entirely a recycled delight.

A new life for an old recycled pole!

The ultimate efficient home recycling machine......

We've got hens, 6 new purchased ones and 4 given from a neighbour recycled hens all of which live in a myriad of recycled homes. Hens are to my mind the ultimate efficient household recycling machine, you give them your leftover food, a bit of grass from the lawn mowing and hey presto they supply you with eggs, free fertiliser for the garden, is there another 'machine' so efficient? I guess a womble is almost as efficent, as is a compost bin comes close or a wormery but they aren't so good for eggs! Therefore in terms of food waste, we simiply don't have any, anything left over gets given to the hens, although they don't get much from this house. Egg shells are also recycled back into their food - we bake them when the oven is on and crush them up fine, mixed in with their food to return some of their minerals to them.

Egg shells are really quickly recycled to the hens or great in the garden for prevenitng slug attacks by spreading under plants

Like Rhoda, all our jars and bottles are kept and reused - they get filled with things like home made pesto, jam and both glass bottles and empty plastic milk containers have been filled with elderflower cordial this year, yum! I'm also using the jars in the fridge instead of using clingfilm or foil, I've taken to putting fresh food (bacon, prawns, cheese etc) in jars with lids to save on using extra materials. It saves money and works well to keep things fresh. A tonne of garden stuff is also in jars, the workshop is also full of tins and jars with nails and screws in, we really try and use up everything we can, in wierd places like mushy pea cans in the laundry.

Home made in a recycled jar

One of the benefits of keeping jars is that it also lets you see what you've been buying, in our case I noticed we were using alot of pesto from the amount of jars saved in the box with pesto labels on them, so I tried growing basil this year and making pesto myself. Pefect, I'm able to reuse the jars and by keeping them and seeing what we've eaten I've tailored my growing to include basil, which has now reduced my spending on shop bought pesto and I'm a happy bunny. The waste hierarchy mantra is 'reduce, reuse, recycle' by keeping my jars to recycle, I'm able to reduce my consumption of shop bought pesto, reuse the jars and effectively eliminated the requirement to recycle them outwith my own home. Brilliant, even if I do think we've done well! I think folk who are gardeners or cooks or at home alot, often have innoventive ways for using things we've got lying around, for instance a well washed out plastic dish (this was a meat tray) make excellent plant pots............recycling plants, seeds and propagating plants is of course a mainstay of each gardener, so I won't witter on about that!

We tend to try and keep and reuse all the tubs/containers which come into the house too - mainly as plant pots. Now don't they look pretty? We use milk cartons for stock in the freezer, cordial in the fridge and even to make plant labels - cut to size........

Egg boxes (cardboard) are a treasure for selling eggs in but also work as handy things for drying onions, seeds and lord knows what else. You can happily start off plant seedlings in either egg boxes or the inside of loo rolls and then just plant them straight out in to the garden. The paper will add fibre to the soil as it slowly decays leaving the plants to grow through their papery layers. I'm lucky everyone I sell eggs to always recycles the boxes back to me, when I get overloaded with them, I distrbute them to a couple of local shops which are also on the look out for boxes. Perfect.

As to the paper stuff we get in the post and that covers packets like cereals, hides inside loo rolls etc - most of that which comes in this house is kept for posting things away, lining the hen house floor, wrapping stuff in shredding for hen bedding when we run out of straw and so on. When I'm selling plants via the internet, I send off my little darling plants inside loo roll innards, they are the perfect size to not only grow plants in but in my case to send off a lovely little plant through the post - the recycled cardboard tube keeps the plant upright and safe whilst it tumbles through the mail. Envelopes and bubble wrap have thier own cupboard in this house at the busiest time of year for selling plants, that will all just vanish, as if by magic. Thankfully a few of my lovely pals keep loo roll innards for me - I'm always running out, its not uncommon for us to leave our lovely friends we've visited with a couple of bags of loo and kitchen roll innards - nor is it uncommon for them to arrive when they visit us with a bag full of them. I don't think that aint anything but inviting communal recycling  - how cool is that?

Clothes, crockery, candles, shoes, plants,  hats and many other delights are something in this house that generally arrive from the charity shop - as a child I hated every minute of the skulking around the charity shops that my mother did, we were on a very low budget and with a family of 4 kids, she got alot of our clothes there. These days the stigma around charity shops has vanished and rightly so, they aren't the vestages of the poor, they are now very fashionable and eco-trendy. Its very green to make sure if you need something new to wear you go on a focussed  'green recycled forage' and check out the selection in the charity shops first. I love them, my weekly treat is a gad about the chairty shops, where I got my rather fetching new hat (!) and I'm not alone in that one - many folk like my friend at this cheerful blog do this as a weekly event!

I've also recycled the childrens clothes and my own wedding dress into mini blankets for us all - we've each got one covered in recycledcut out and embroidered on hearts, made from things like old shirts, pyjamas and favourite things, the blanket part is a on old duvet with an old blanket sandwiched inbetween, we use them all the time - and they go on many adventures with us!

My sons blaket which I  always 'borrow' made from his dads shirt (the blue tartan), my wedding dress (the white lace, which was also recycled from a £5 charity shop buy), a favourite old table cloth (pink) and his first pair of trousers (navy blue)

My favourite boots were second hand or recycled from ebay........

Wellies are a mainstay of our life and these also get recycled only when the develop a leak - into inexpensive recycled garden shoes - perfect!

And, I'll be quiet now, (I can witter on about recycing more than gardening (!)) aside recycling from shops, borrowing is another great way to find what you're needing. I think the art of borrowing is a tradition which with the way we live these days is often lost. I'm lucky I live in a rural place where its not uncommon to ask your neighbour/friend/colleague for a 'shot' (loan) of an item you only need for a while. The ladder we used for the polytunnel were both 'borrowed' and now kindly returned to their rightful owners. I didn't want to spend an excessive amount of money for step ladders I maybe use once of twice a year. Borrowing I think is a big method of 'reducing' our consumption, if we borrow, we've no need to recycle, we simply give it back with a polite thank you and maybe half a dozen eggs in a recycled box......

Thank you to Rhoda for the thought behind her blog which often inspires not only me but so many other folk - pop over and see her at http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/

What recycling do you do, why not join in?

I'll leave you with a lovely recycled tune....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ2mJPSccvo

I'm off to find a recycled womble outfit from ebay.......!

Our beautiful recycled life

 Can you see it yet? A new part of my brilliant, beautiful, amazing reycled life? Look to the right, squint in hard, can you see the hoops nestled in by the right of the house? Not quite finished but another day of work and it should be secure until its covered.

 A little clearer now really, the view to the homestead is now very much altered. I've such hope for this gorgeous recycled structure and such dreams to create in it. To stave off the harsh winds from the sea and grow our own version of heaven, what will it contain? An orchard? A garden? A fistful of hope, hard work and sweat no doubt, but it will come. As will visits from the maurading the chickens..............they will have to inspect it after all.

What was surprising about today was latterly the sun shone and shone and shone as we worked and the sunset on us, after a hard days graft by all. The first of many, I hope. Now we save, we obtain a cover and wait patiently for a still day, it might be a while (anything from 1-6 months to find a weather window to put a cover on it) but we're patient enough. We'll at the moment! You have to work 'with' the weather here - no point in trying to get in a stramash (argument) about it, the day will come.....

 What a delight of kindness put us in touch with a heartful person who had bought a new home with two of these tunnels as part of the land. They only needed one, they offered the other for free if removed and recycled. How fortunate are we, we had no idea how big, or small it might be, but were happy to help for the offer of sheltered growing on our island? And, to find something here to be able to use and be helpful for someone else, how lucky we are indeed! We've the opportunity to have something we would never have afforded, for a little labour and kindness its now going to be a huge asset to our lives. We'll make great use of it, all 148 square metres of its indoor shelter. We'll make sure we 'give' from it into our community, somehow, to recycle the kindness. And, fill our bellies from it! 

Our beautiful recycled life. 

Thank you to the kind donor, we're very grateful and will use it well.

The 'ice-cream - botanical' balance - life in perfect harmony

I love plants and all things botanical and have a passion for recycling, my family love ice-cream, Orkney has AMAZING ice-cream, which comes in handy recyclable pots - could life get any better?  I can eat a bit of ice-cream, I'm so not a sweet tooth. No offence Orkney Ice-cream you do a grand job - but I'm happy with just a peedie (small) bit of ice-cream - whilst my family I think would be able to compete in the ice-cream olympics (if there were an ice-cream eating olympic category) so I leave the ice-cream munching to those olympic at it in my family.  There you are, many of my passions (family, plants, local food and recycling) in perfect harmony! The plants and the recycling I do, the family and the ice-cream are clearly in a harmony on thier own!!!

Anyway enough about ice-cream!!!!! How cute is that little rosemary in its recycled pot - I've never grown it from seed before and the whole lot came up - an old packet of seed, gave it a go anyway - why not whats the worst that could happen, an empty tray?  And here we go, a whole pile of baby rosemary plants. I sometimes help at a local Orkney recycling charity - and these are potted up to help with a bit of fundraising, hope they go well. By potting up in recycled tubs, after they've been well used in the house hopefully my recycling will leave my house! And, the merit of putting things in nice pots means they get a double life.

The rosemary has done me proud - old (ish) seed up in a tray, then into these pots, I don't prick out - I sow seeds thinly (half rate) and then pot straight from a seed tray to a 9 cm pot (well in this case an ice-cream tub - but you get the general idea - I skip a step, makes life a whole lot easier for both plant and person!). Long story, a guy taught me that way, despite my protestations, hair tearing out, denial etc it works! I will get that out there in blog land one day when you're very bored! And if he ever reads it - I'm sure he'll have a chuckle - I was so vocal about why it wouldn't work, and here I am, doing the same!

For now enjoy the view and the ice-cream and the plant and the recycling, no more blethers from me! We're having an open day at the weekend - I can't wait!