Connect

No resolutions again this year.  Just another word.

Connect

... with my environment
... with other people
... with myself

Happy New Year!

Sustainable

I have succumbed to the recent trend of choosing a word to inspire me during the course of the year ahead.  I pride myself on not jumping on bandwagons but on this occasion I think it makes sense.  Traditional new year's resolutions can very easily, or at least in my experience, become hostages to fortune.  A word is so much more forgiving, especially if it's regarded as being more of an aspiration rather than a fixed goal post.

Anyway, my word for 2016 is 'sustainable'.

It has been prompted by recent events including the Paris Climate Change Conference and the floods in the north of England and Scotland.  The environmental aspect of it is fairly obvious but I'd like to extend it to other areas of my life.  Here are some of the ways in which I'd like to see it work out in practice:

• I'd like to eat less meat and more plants
• I'd like to cut down even further on my energy consumption
• I'd like to get rid of more 'stuff', preferably to other people rather than landfill
• I'd like to get more sleep
• I'd like to redress my work/life balance
• I'd like to make more time for people
• I'd like to grow more of my own food and prepare more meals from scratch
• I'd like to push sustainability higher up on the agenda during the coming electoral campaigns

There's plenty to be getting on with!

2015: A Year of Challenges

Two posts in one day!

Don't worry.  This is just a few lines to let you know about my January Challenge.  Inspired by the goddess of zero waste herself I will be dumping my junk; one item on day one, two on day two, three on day three ... until our house is 496 items lighter by the end of the month (and boy does it need it!).  Or at least that's the plan.  If you want to find out how I'm getting on or, even better, are tempted to join in, pop back and check me out.  I also hope to tweet @justgai under #DumpYourJunk.

PS  This January Challenge is the first of a series in 2015, all designed to force me to think, act, behave differently - and to make life more interesting.  The others may, or may not, include going vegan, giving up telly, reading poetry, growing food, exploring Bristol,volunteering ... I'm open to suggestions!

On the Eighth Day of Christmas ...

I made Celeriac and Bacon Soup from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Dairies II.

I received this recipe book last Christmas but have not used it much.  So this year I'm going to follow it (not slavishly as there's no point in setting myself up for a fall) but wherever possible.

Last night worked.  We had a celeriac lurking at the bottom of the vegetable box and a couple of soda farls in the freezer.  The perfect antidote to the rich festive fare we've been eating recently.

PS  Re New Year's resolutions.  I note the trend to choose a word to reflect one's aspirations for the coming year.  In the spirit of this I have chosen 'organise' as it's something I feel I could do with!

I've also resolved to be kinder on myself - and other people - when things don't always go to plan!

Out with the Old. In with the New.

Time for the annual roundup of the year's highlights.

Top of the list has to be our summer holiday in the Inner Hebrides, when we finally introduced our Iona to her island namesake.  I've been meaning to blog about it ever since we returned but have never got round to it.  But I'm determined to do so, so until then all I'll say is that the photograph is of the view from the living room of our lodge on Colonsay where I spent many happy hours reading and knitting (that's when I wasn't spending many equally happy hours exploring the island by bike).

On 6 January I attended my first Quaker meeting and have been going ever since.  After years of searching for somewhere I can continue my spiritual journey I believe I may have found it with the Friends.

My younger daughter was offered the university place of her dreams, at Falmouth, to study illustration.  After a year of travelling up and down the country attending open days and returning for interviews, this came as a great relief to all of us, although I did enjoy the opportunity to visit/reacquaint myself with several lovely cities.

In May I accepted the challenge to live on £1 per day for 5 days.  I am grateful for the generosity of the friends who sponsored me and the opportunity to raise the profile of extreme poverty in Bristol via two interviews on BBC local radio.

I continue to volunteer for the Bristol Pound and in the autumn was elected to the Board of Directors to represent the individual account holders.  The local currency is over a year old now and I'm really looking forward to playing my part in its continuing success.

Now that the girls have both left home I've been doing more singing.  In the summer I took part in the biennial Sing for Water on Bristol's harbourside and then I finally plucked up the courage to join the Gasworks Singers.  This is an offshoot of the Gasworks choir (of which I've been a member for many years) and is a much smaller group who sing more often at festivals and charitable events.  There was a fairly long list of songs to master before our first gig at the North Bristol Arts Trail but I managed and can now relax and enjoy the music, the friendship and the spectacular shared lunches.

There have, of course, been occasions on which to try and set the world right.  In April I paid my first visit to Aldermaston to protest against the obscenity of nuclear weapons.  In June I was in London to highlight world hunger, a week after I helped feed 5,000 people with food that might otherwise have been send to a landfill site.  It does sometimes feel as if we're bashing our heads against a brick wall but if that's what it takes to create a better world for everyone then I for one am prepared to carry on.

Fortunately there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful and that's what I plan to concentrate on in 2014.

I'm looking forward to:

• taking my elder daughter on a European city break (Prague?) after she sits her final degree exam and then to attending her graduation ceremony in the summer
• campaigning for the Green Party in this year's local and European elections and persuading people to consider the environmental impact of their vote
• getting my head around Quaker faith and practice and perhaps attending the Yearly Meeting Gathering in Bath (even if it's only for a day or so)
• helping to convince more individuals and businesses of the merits of the Bristol Pound
• listening to the debate on Scottish independence and (hopefully?) witnessing the birth of an independent Scotland in September
• carrying on baking, campaigning, composting, crocheting, gardening, knitting, protesting, reading, recycling, singing, walking,  ...

Happy New Year to all of you!

In 2013 I resolve to ...

I'm spoilt for choice.

I could resolve to bake all my own bread ... or do all the dishes before bed ... or read more books ... or lose some weight ... or stop stressing over silly things ... or grow something (anything!) in the garden ... or switch off the light before midnight ... or start running again ... or cut down my plastic consumption ... or spend less time on the laptop ...

While I fully intend to do most (if not all of the above) at some point during the next year, I'm reluctant to set myself up to fall at the first hurdle in a month, or a week, or (in the case of unnecessary stressing!) in a day's time.

I've been interested in what fellow bloggers have been posting on the subject of New Year's Resolutions.  Lucy in the Clouds directed me to Shinypigeon's sound advice.  Karen at A Quiet Corner has been inspired by Meet Me At Mike's resolution to make 2013 The Year of Interestingness.  Jen at Little Birdie has opted for 'plans' while Nancy at The Philosophy of Lists has simply chosen to eat more smoked salmon!  Now there's a resolution I wouldn't mind keeping.  Karin at Green & Generous quotes the Buddha: "The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, nor to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly."  Sue at The Quince Tree is swapping cakes for delicious healthy meals.  I hope she shares her successes.

So where does that leave me on this first day of 2013.

Well, I've decided to (continue to) be open to new ideas and opportunities.  Of course I want to be healthier, and tidier, and greener, and more productive.  But more than any of these I want to embrace life and all its possibilities.  Despite its various shortcomings this is still a wonderful world and I resolve to enjoy (and share) the best it has to offer.

Stir Up Sunday

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord , the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Thus reads the collect for the last Sunday before Advent, Stir Up Sunday, when tradition has it that preparation should begin for the feast of Christmas with the making of the Christmas pudding.

Many's the year I've been sat in the pew listening to this collect and thinking 'Drat. I've missed it again.' But not so this year when, for perhaps the very first time ever, I have stirred my pudding.

I adore Christmas pudding ... and Christmas cake ... and mince pies. One whiff of dried fruit, spices and spirits and I'm caught up in the mystery and excitement of the festival. It all starts today.

I've experimented with a variety of recipes but for the last few years I've returned to St Delia's traditional one. Today I measured and chopped and stirred. Tomorrow I'll steam.

Hothouse

A fortnight ago I bought a mini greenhouse (£17 from Asda) which kick started my return to gardening after a long cold winter. I was on holiday and the weather was warm and sunny - perfect conditions for pottering around in our back yard.

I dug out my collection of seeds but had to bin most of them as they were seriously out of date. So it was down to the Riverside Garden Centre and back to Asda to replenish my stock. I used the River Cottage's Veg Patch Handbook to guide me to the best varieties, but also came across a number of seeds specifically designed for containers.

We don't have a big garden. If I discount the narrow strip between the rear extension and the wall between the houses (which is too shady for most plants) then we're left with an area measuring roughly 15 feet square. Two thirds of this is concreted over, with a raised rockery taking up the remaining third. My dream is to dig the whole garden up and start again but, in the meantime I rely on containers.

Once Alan had erected the greenhouse I soon filled it with dozens of pots sown with my new seeds. There were four kinds of tomatoes (Super Marmande, Balconi Red, Tumbling Tom Red and Harbinger), dwarf broad beans (The Sutton), peas (Hurst Green Shaft), runner beans (Polestar), squash (Cobnut), salad leaves, aubergine (Orlando), courgette (Firenze), chili pepper (Prairie Fire), basil (Italiano Classico), Thai basil, flatleaf parsley, coriander, sunflowers (Giant Single) and butterfly flowers. Then I sowed nastursiums (Jewel Mixed), calendula (Art Shades Mixed), beet (Cardeal) and borage in outside pots. I sowed more peas (ordinary ones meant for cooking) in a window pots to be eaten at shoot stage. In a large pot I planted our first lot of salad potatoes (Vales Emerald). The front of the house was not forgotten either as I sowed three window boxes with salad leaves and radishes (French Breakfast).

I've been following the BBC series Edible Gardens presented by Alys Fowler, which has been a source of inspiration. Alys taught me how to plant an indoor microgarden (instructions here) and I've now got broccoli and watercress growing in ice cream containers on our bedroom window.

Two weeks later most of the seeds I sowed during the Easter holidays are showing signs of life, with the noticeable exception of any of the tomatoes. So I've sown some more of all of them and am hoping they'll germinate more successfully. Alan also sowed some spinach (Bordeaux), French sorrel and fennel (Romanesco) in the rockery.

I've really enjoyed being out in the back garden whether I've been planting, tidying, checking on the progress of our multitude of tadpoles, hanging out the clothes, helping the girls with their homework, relaxing with a cup of tea, admiring our neighbour's glorious forsythia or eating our meals outdoors (the first of the year being a chorizo tortilla with wild garlic and nettle pesto on sourdough bread - delicious).

Roll on summer!

PS This post is crying out for a few photos. I'll get my camera out tomorrow and remedy the situation.

The First Day of the Rest of my Year

I'm not a great believer in self help books but following a link from a fellow blogger (Mrs Green or Almost Mrs Average, I can't remember which) I bought a copy of One Year to an Organised Life by Regina Leeds. It arrived at the end of last week and I've spent some time this weekend reading the introduction before embarking on my journey to organisational heaven!

The first chapter deals with time management and the kitchen, two areas in which I could do with some inspiration. I can potter for Scotland and never find the walnuts I last saw on the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard. So I'm going to to reassign time spent on various activities and cultivate some good habits. (It apparently takes 21 consecutive days to establish a habit!) I'll be recording my progress in a journal with an cover featuring the famous Dr Seuss cat trying to keep half a dozen or so items in the air without dropping any of them (illustrated above). Very apt I think.

Despite it being Mothering Sunday I've received a woeful lack of encouragement from my daughters who have reminded me of all my previous (unsuccessful) attempts to impose order on the chaos that has become my life.

I'll show them!

A Guid New Year

Not having got to bed until the wee hours we slept in this morning and decided to have a (very) late breakfast in the Lounge. It was packed out but we managed to get a table. We were advised it would be a 45 minute wait for our food so I popped over the road to buy the Guardian to read over our hot drinks. The G2 section was given over to climate change and I was particularly taken by an article by Andrew Simms in which he quoted from EF Schumacher.

'We must do what we conceive to be right and not bother our heads or burden our souls with whether we'll be succesful, because if we don't do the right thing, we'll do the wrong thing and we'll be part of the disease and not part of the cure.'

I think I could do worse than taking being guided by this principle in 2010.

Essential Trading for a Greener Lifestyle

Yesterday evening I attended the inaugural meeting of a local food buying co-op. It's the brainchild of a local green shop keeper who has enough space to sort and store the orders when they are delivered. Members will pay an annual fee which will allow them to order from a catalogue and take advantage of the wholesale price plus 10% to cover expenses.

I'm very excited by this project as I'm hoping it will enable me to reduce my dependence on supermarkets. I've been trying to cut down on my visits to Tescos et al, in favour of local shops, markets and a weekly fruit and vegetable box, but I'm invariably forced to return to the supermarkets for store cupboard essentials. If the co-op can plug this gap then I shall be very happy indeed.

I can hardly wait to place my first order.

One & Other contd

Just to show that I harbour no ill feeling for failing (thus far) to secure my own place on the plinth, I am drawing your attention to the launch of this installation (?) at 9 am on Monday 6 July. More details here.

Meanwhile I've got my fingers crossed for the two remaining draws in August and September.

A Nation's Hope

This afternoon I rushed home from work to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama. It was an impressive ceremony and, judging by the numbers who turned out to witness it, a significant moment in their lives.

I couldn't help being reminded of 2 May 1997 and Tony Blair's triumphal arrival in Downing Street ...

Jam & Jerusalem

Well here's something I never thought I'd write. I have joined the Women's Institute. Seriously!

A couple of weeks ago, at the Best of Bedminster Show on North Street Green, my attention was drawn to the WI stall, not by the cakes, but by the relative youth of the stall holders and the retro leaflets on the table. I signed up to receive further details and a few weeks later I was invited to attend the inaugural meeting of the Malago Institute, which is where I was earlier this evening.

There were a good number of women present, most of them in their thirties. I went with a friend and her daughter and recognised a handful of others. The meeting was very informal: an icebreaker game, a short introduction, a chance for suggestions for future meetings and the opportunity to sign up - which I did. It seems to me to be a great way to get to know other local women, have fun and make a difference to our neighbourhood - and, of course, eat cake!

It wasn't long after we moved to Bristol that I had our first daughter. The National Childbirth Trust, with its local coffee mornings and amazing secondhand clothes sales, saved me from going stir crazy, and some of the mums I met at that time are still good friends. But life's moved on and so have I, and it's time to look for new friends and new challenges, and I think the WI might be the answer.

Anyway the next meeting is at 8 pm on Wednesday 10 December at Ebeneezer Church on British Road and will have a Christmas theme.

Oh and I voted that we sing Jerusalem at our meetings!

2008

I'm not sure how I feel about the beginning of a new year, except the fear that if I don't do things differently it will be the same as last year and the one before that .... Not that there was anything desperately wrong with any of the last few years. Apart from the death of my dad in March, which still makes me feel very sad, there were many good times. But the new year is the time to take stock and move on and I'm not sure how to do so.

One thing I would like to find, which may prove to be crucial, is a spiritual home. Somewhere where I can stop pretending to be someone else and feel free to be me, vulnerable to others and to God. My local church is full of some lovely people but there is no space just to 'be' with each other - body, mind and spirit. There's always too much stuff in the way.

I have no idea where, if anywhere, I am going to find this 'home' but I am resolved to try.

Happy(?) new year!

Advent

The first Sunday in Advent.
New year.
New beginning.
I do hope so.

New Year

It's obviously not a new calendar year, but today marks the beginning of a new academic year.

Returning to work after five and a half weeks' holiday is a strangely disconcerting experience. I can never remember my password and everyday routines have to be relearned. However I welcome the opportunity to make a fresh start, an attempt to do things better this year based on the experiences of the last. It's like being given a second go at a new year's resolution (or the opportunity to try out next year's possibilities).

Well that's the theory anyway.

Besides it's good to see everyone again and catch up with what they did in their holidays.

The Beginning

They say that you should never say never ... well I said I would never write a blog ... and here I am. Which only goes to prove that 'they' were right (are they always, I wonder?)

Anyway it may not last very long, so let's enjoy it while it does.

I do a lot of thinking, running things over and over in my head, and I thought that if I ran them over in a blog they might make more sense, and perhaps some of you might like to comment on my musings in a helpful manner.

So here goes ... except that I can't think of anything at the moment, so I'll have to wait until I do.

Meanwhile I'll go away and find out how to make this blog look more interesting for you to look at.