Owner: FInding Simplicity URL:http://finding-simplicity.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2008 04:34:59 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: One woman's quest to leave consumerism behind and return to a more simple, green and sustainable lifestyle. Site statistics:Click here
What's In The Freezer? 2008-03-11 03:01:00 Photo: jeffreywithtworfOnce upon a time I had a freezer full of food but absolutely no idea what was in there. Then I decided enough was enough. It was time to empty it out and get organised. I found food in there that I really didn’t know we had. I think they may have been there since OH actually lived here in the house with us because I can’t remember ever buying them. A half full bag of pilau rice; a bag and a half of ‘smiley faces’; a bag of mixed veg of the kind we don’t eat and a few more things. There were also several half eaten tubs of ice-cream, several half used bags of oven chips and an apple pie that must have been there at least a couple of years. Disgraceful! As this was before the wormery was even considered, most of the unwanted and outdated stuff had to be bi Read more:Freezer
Help! I'm All Boxed In! 2008-03-10 13:13:00 Photo: ahhyeah Every fortnight I have a delivery of medical supplies, and every fortnight I’m left with several large cardboard boxes that I then have to take to the recycling centre. Because I have limited mobility and sometimes just going from the living room to the loo is just about all I can muster, this is a chore I could easily do without. But I have to get rid of them and I’ve no idea what else to do with them, unlike some imaginative, inventive people. Take a look at this link and you’ll see what I mean. If only I had the talent (and energy) to put my boxes to some really good use instead of chucking them in the dumpster at the tip! I did ask my ‘daughter’ (not my natural daughter, but a girl I took under my wing a while back) whether she’d like some
No Spring Chicken 2008-03-09 08:40:00 Graphic: CarolitaJohnsonI woke this morning at about 6.30 to a deep blue sky, tinted golden in the east as the sun rose across the roof of the railway works that’s Crewe's only real claim to fame. Not the most picturesque view, granted, but watching the sky turn to a dazzling blue as the sun rose higher as I listened to the birds sing from the branches of the trees in the street brought a smile to my face. No matter where you are, if you look for it, nature has given us beauty to be enjoyed. Sadly, the weather soon started to change as thick grey clouds rolled in from the north, laying themselves like an old feather duvet over the gardens and rooftops. A cold breeze picked up and crept in through the open window; I pulled my own feather duvet tighter around me. I was snug as a bug in a Read more:Chicken
, Spring
I’m Thrifty But I’m Not a Cheapskate 2008-03-09 00:21:00 Photo: SilverspriteI’ve noticed that a good few people tend to think that being thrifty means spending the least possible amount of money but that isn’t strictly true. What it means is getting the best value for your money. For example, when our shopping arrived recently there were two large jars of powdered milk, half a dozen tins of mushroom soup, four bottles of shampoo and an organic fillet steak. “I thought you were supposed to be saving money”, DD2 said, pointing to these things. “Yes”, I replied, “I am indeed saving money. That’s why I bought them.” The first three items were all on offer, either 25% off by buying two or they were on ‘buy one get one free’. By ordering more than we immediately needed, I was saving money because I know that these Read more:Thrifty
Why Do I Cost You This Much? 2008-03-07 09:37:00 Photo: Big_Chocolate_MonsterThe only reason I’m able to write this today is because I’m kept alive through an artificial form of nutrition known as Total Parenteral Nutrition, or TPN for short. In early 2003 a massive blood clot led to me losing the majority of my bowel and as you no doubt know, without a bowel the body simply can’t absorb nutrition and without nutrition it's over and out. TPN is fed to me intravenously through a line in my chest that goes directly into my subclavian vein. I need to feed seven nights a week and each bag costs around £120. On top of that are various vitamin and mineral additives that need to be injected into the bags along with heparin to stop the fluid from clogging in either the line or my veins, the syringes needed to do so, giving sets, i
Bargains - Be Warned! 2008-03-06 20:39:00 Photo: WelshwitchI love a good bargain and if you’re a thrifty kind of person, I’ll bet my Sunday hat that you do too. Scouring charity shops, boot markets, eBay, closing down sales, collectors fairs and antiques shops is something I get a whole lot more pleasure from than browsing the rails in designer outlets or even lazing on the beach in some exotic, far off location. Yepp, that's true. And even when I am away on holiday I find myself looking for equivalent places there, too!But all this bargain hunting can have a downside, especially if you’re just starting out on your journey towards a simpler way of living. It can become an addiction. I know, because it happened to me. Thankfully, I’ve learned my lesson. Suddenly you find yourself buying stuff just because it’s cheap
I’ll Have Mine Medium Rare, Please - Sod The Greenhouse Gases! 2008-03-06 03:44:00 Photo: paige-elizI love a good steak. For me, tucking into a medium rare fillet steak is one of the great pleasures in life. It’s not that I don’t like cows and think they ought to be slaughtered and end up on my plate, it’s just that when they're chopped up and pieces of them are fried, they taste so damned good. Especially with dauphinoise potatoes, or rice and béarnaise sauce. Oh cripes, I’m starting to salivate just thinking about it and it's only 8 am! BUT… and here comes the voice of the little guy who sits on my shoulder and reminds me of the bad things I’m doing… aside from the question of whether or not it’s cruel to keep animals that a bred purely for slaughter and whether or not they’re transported and slaughtered in a humane way, there’s the fact that meat Read more:Medium
, Please
Tightening the Belt - 12 Ways To Save Money 2008-03-05 05:10:00 [photo: Bashed]I’m in debt.Until I started sorting my life out, I had bills coming out of my ears and no idea how I was going to handle them all. What with the maxed out credit cards, store cards, bank loan and catalogue payments and a drastically reduced income, I found myself struggling to keep my head above what felt like very stormy water. I had to tighten the belt, of that there was no doubt.I knew I’d let my lifestyle get out of hand and by simplifying things I was sure I could get a better grip on my finances. When it came to spending, my main priorities had to be to get rid of the debt and to get my kitchen remodelled and decorated (the latter's a practical need... my kitchen really isn't functional enough for me).Things I’m finding are really helping me save money are:1. Kee Read more:Money
Cross Cabbages 2008-03-04 17:28:00 Just a quickie that I thought might be useful for the veggie gardeners amongst you. If you grow cabbages, make a cross in the stalk that’s left in the ground and new, small cabbages will spring up from it. I don’t grow them myself but my mum said my granddad always did that when he grew his own vegetables during the war, and the little cabbages were often better than the big one. It must be worth a try, at least. Sharon J ~~+~~ Read more:Cross
Energy Saving Light Bulbs – A Conundrum 2008-03-04 08:23:00 I have a problem. Like most, I’ve long since switched to CFLs (compact flourescent lightbulbs) – the energy saving light bulbs that we’re all told we should be using these days. The trouble is, I’ve no idea how I’m supposed to dispose of the used ones. I’ve phoned the council to ask whether they have any special recycling facilities but apparently they don’t (I say apparently because the person you speak to doesn’t always know the answer, they often just think they do) and I can’t see what other options are open. I’d heard that US branches of IKEA take back these light bulbs for recycling so I checked with my nearest branch but no, the service isn’t available in the UK. The person I spoke to seemed to be surprised that I’d even asked about such a thing and had n Read more:Saving
, Energy
, Bulbs
, Conundrum
A Teacup 2008-03-03 21:14:00 I saw this beautiful cup and saucer on eBay last week and fell instantly in love with them. They’ll look just right in my kitchen when it’s finished and I can already see the cup filled with a bunch of tiny flowers from the garden or perhaps holding a little candle. If I wanted, I could even use it in my bedroom, filled with some gorgeous scented pot pourri or I might even grow a small plant in it, like a pink African Violet or a baby spider plant. From a practical point of view, I didn’t need it; it isn’t something that will make my life easier in any way so some would say that if I’m serious about simple living, I shouldn’t have wasted my money on ‘knick knacks’. But aesthetics are important to me. If my surroundings aren’t beautiful then I soon feel depressed, so I Read more:Teacup
Clog Popping 2008-03-03 02:01:00 I was talking to my mum last night. She wanted to discuss what would happen should she “pop her clogs” as she put it. She only 71 but as she said, nobody knows when it’s going to happen and these things need to be discussed. She also asked what I wanted to happen should I be the one to go first. Not a nice subject by any means but it’s better everybody knows what each of us wants so there’s no disputing it when we’re no longer here to have our say. Personally I want to be buried in a wood, in a cardboard coffin, preferably with a tree planted on top of me, although that isn't always possible. Mum said she’d honour my wishes although she felt the cardboard box bit seemed a bit mean and would have liked a proper gravestone but understood that I don’t have the same views a Read more:Popping
Social Bag Making 2008-03-02 12:49:00 Fed up with plastic carrier bags?Why not get together with some friends and make some 'morsbags'?The idea is to create a 'pod' of people, or join an existing one, who all sew these simple shopping bags and, when they have enough, distribute them free to shoppers in the hope that fewer will use plastic.Ideally they should be made from recycled fabric - old duvet covers, sheets, curtains, fabric from charity shops, etc.I won't be organising a pod because I can never really make arrangements in advance for things. I just never know what my energy will be like on any given day. I would like to make a few myself to give to friends and family though, so I shall be saving any suitable fabric I find. Apparently they only take about half an hour to make.Now, if only I could figure out how to use th Read more:Social
Mothering Sunday 2008-03-02 04:09:00 Today is MotheringSunday
, or Mother’s Day as it’s more commonly known these days, and the sun is shining from a clear blue sky. Always celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent since the 16th century, Mothering Sunday has long been the day where we give thanks to our mothers for everything they’ve done for us during the year. Back in the days of big houses with servants, the lady of the house would often allow the maids to take a cake, a basket of eggs or a bunch of flowers from the garden home to their mothers. Eventually, flowers became the traditional gift to give on Mother’s Day. Daffodils were the favourites because even when Mother’s Day came earlier, as it has this year, there was still a good chance they’d be in bloom. It was also customary to bake a Simnel Cake altho
March 2008-03-01 02:18:00 I can’t believe it’s 1st of March
already! Doesn’t time fly by? It seems only yesterday that it was Christmas! Yes, I know I’m starting to sound like my grandmother but time does appear to pass more quickly as you get older, there’s no doubt about that. Even DD2, who’s just 19, mentioned that fact a few days ago. She told me that a week’s holiday in our tent used to feel like forever when she was little whereas now a week away is gone before you’ve got there almost. I always think March is a good month. Spring starts to show her face around this time of the year and although the daffodils, periwinkles and primulas have been blooming in my garden for a couple of weeks already, other plants will start springing into life throughout the month. Birds will start looking for nes
Boiling Frogs 2008-02-29 04:57:00 Apparently, if you put a frog in boiling water it’ll frantically try to escape, but if you put it into a pan of tepid water it’ll feel comfortable and as the water heats up, will fall into a tranquil state, gradually allowing itself to be boiled to death without even noticing. We humans, as intelligent as we may be, are acting like frogs! When we first arrived (evolved) on this planet it was nice and lukewarm; a good, comfortable place to be. Everything we needed was provided for us. It seems to me that as we developed our intelligence so our ‘wants’ developed too; we were no longer satisfied to just cover our ‘needs’. We chopped down forests and woodland and killed more animals than we actually needed for food in order to satisfy our gluttonous demands and, perhaps worse, a Read more:Frogs
Home Schooling in England 2008-02-28 04:41:00 Because we’ve moved around a lot – by choice I may add, not by necessity – my daughters have been to a number of schools. Some people have inferred that I’m a bad mother for dragging my kids “from pillar to post” but when asked, they’ll tell you that they’ve lived an adventurous life with lots of experiences they otherwise wouldn’t have had, met lots of people and had a whole lot of fun. Sometimes, preconceptions of how things ought to be aren’t always right. People – families – we’re all different. Sadly, after moving back to England
, both girls were badly bullied at school. No doubt because they were Scandinavian and therefore different and we all know it doesn’t take make to stand out from the crowd and become a victim. That the lads were drawn to them didn Read more:Schooling
, Home Schooling
Worms 2008-02-27 08:38:00 Picture courtesy Stoke Worms
No, I haven’t gone and contracted a bout of worms, I’ve bought a wormery. So now I’m going to start vermicomposting.Basically, a wormery is made up of a base unit on which several deep trays sit, topped with a lid. You start filling the first tray with peelings, old fruit and veg, left over cooked food (but not meat or anything spicy or salty), old tissues and kitchen roll, shredded newspaper, bits of moistened cardboard, tea bags, coffee grounds, pasta, cereal, bread, cake, biscuits, hair (both human and animal) and even the contents of your vacuum cleaner bag. The only things you can’t put in (and we’re talking organic matter here, obviously) are citrus fruit and peelings, onions and anything that’s spicy, salty or has vinegar on. Oh, and poo, unle
Global Warming? I Don’t Think So! 2008-02-27 00:04:00 During the early hours of this morning, at about 1am, we had an earthquake. Apparently the epicentre was in Market Rasen in Lincolnshire but we felt it pretty violently here in South Cheshire. The house felt as thought it was shaking from side to side, the ceiling lamps were swinging and even the dog started barking. The wild birds all woke up and have been singing their hearts out since. Poor things probably fell off of their branches! I was upstairs at the time and at first I thought something had exploded downstairs. The boiler perhaps. I rushed down only to find everything was as it should be and realised that it must have been an earthquake. I’ve felt a few before but never one of that magnitude. According to the BBC, it was on a scale of 5.3 making it the biggest earthquake in the Read more:Global
, Global Warming
Mountain Life 2008-02-26 03:06:00 Did you know that I once lived up a mountain? I don’t know how high up the house was but the road certainly didn’t go any further and it was possible to walk from our place to the top without too much trouble. We weren’t there long, but it was an experience I wouldn’t be without. The house itself was a bit of a shack – you could look between the floorboards from the second floor and watch what was going on downstairs, the only heating was a wood burner in the living room, and when the wind blew it felt as if it would fall down. No wonder we found the midnight thunder storm exciting! It did have hot water and a shower though which helped a lot.The house we lived in It’s more redeeming feature was, without a shadow of doubt, the view. From the living room and patio it looked ou Read more:Mountain
An Important Confession – Please Read This 2008-03-15 03:01:00 Photo: **ste**Before I start, I just want to say that what I’m about to tell you isn’t easy but I think – hope – it’ll help me, so I’m going to do it regardless of how ashamed it makes me feel. The reason I lost my bowel was because for many, many years I was a heavy smoker. We’re talking about 50 a day kind of heavy. The smoking caused my arteries to fur and eventually led to a blood clot forming the artery that feeds the bowel. My bowel literally rotted away inside me leaving just a putrid mass to be found by the surgeons who saved my life. Another 24 hours, they said, and I would have been sent to the mortuary rather than HDU. Since that day, I no longer smoked. Until a few months ago. Even though I know it will eventually kill me. My legs have constant pains becaus Read more:Please
20 Uses for Vinegar 2008-03-14 14:05:00 Photo: FrankfarmI’ve been using vinegar for a good few years now and I don’t just mean on my fish n’ chips. It all started about 20 years ago when my ex mother-in-law told me how to get a real good shine to windows and mirrors using the stuff. Then came the eggs, followed by the fruit stains and… well, take a look at the list of uses that I’ve put together and you’ll see what I mean. Cleaning Windows & Mirrors – I use a 30/70 mix of vinegar and warm water to wash windows, followed by a dry and buff with old newspaper. It brings them up a treat. If they’re really dirty, then up the vinegar proportion, using undiluted vinegar on the really tough bits. Brown or white vinegar – makes no difference.Boiling Eggs – By adding a teaspoon of br
Life’s Not So Simple 2008-03-14 04:04:00 Photo: b3ni I had the most awful night last night. I alternated between feeling insanely hot, throwing the duvet off and allowing the fresh breeze from the window to cool me, and feeling as if I’d just been run over by a bus. Every part of my body felt weak and painful, and the fact that I kept having to run for the loo didn’t help. All I can say is “Thank God for Tena Lady”. I’m feeling a little better this morning, after finally settling down and getting a few hours sleep. Considering I first tried sleeping at around 8pm last night and wasn’t successful until about 4 this morning, I’m obviously still very tired. I’ll probably have a nap later. I was supposed to see my specialist doctor at clinic on Tuesday but because of the nasty cold I have, I couldn’t attend, so I Read more:Simple
Junk Mail - What a Bloomin' Nuisance! 2008-03-19 06:53:00 Photo: YanivGIf you’re anything like me, you’re probably fed up with the amount of unsolicited mail that’s delivered to you every day, and all those take-away leaflets and such that are regularly pushed through the letterbox.If I want a credit card, I’ll go online and apply for one. If I want insurance I’ll do the same. I don’t want to enter competitions to win luxury holidays in Tahiti or Brazil or buy a set of useless miniature china teapots. I’ve no intention of changing my bank and I don’t need another loan. I have a couple of take-away menus from places I know deliver decent food (decent as in edible, that is), the rest are of no interest to me. They can just go stuff their junk mail, but the place I'm thinking of having them stuff it most certainly isn't through my fr
Earth Hour 2008-03-18 07:12:00 Photo: GreekchickieHave you heart about March 29th? For one hour between 8-9pm, the World Wildlife Fund are asking everybody across the world to turn off all of their lights, including the light from the TV and computer screen. Our electricity usage has a huge impact on climate change so it’s import we start cutting back. If everybody over the entire planet were to participate in Earth
Hour, the impact would be equal to taking tens of thousands of cars off the road for ONE YEAR. Of course, not everybody is going to take part, either because they won’t know about it, because they don’t believe it really will make any difference, or simply because they’re too selfish to. But if enough of us do – and last year the whole of Sydney turned off its lights for an hour, including such
How Green is Your Lawn? 2008-03-20 22:22:00 Photo: CaribbLate March is generally the time when most gardeners start giving their lawns some extra attention and no doubt many will be out now, during the Easter break, tidying up and getting things ready for the coming seasons. They'll rake, aerate, weed and feed as they look forward to a summer where they can enjoy the lush, green carpet laid out before them. But just how green are our lawns? Environmentally green, that is. An average back garden lawn is actually one of the biggest culprits when it comes to the environmental damage we do whilst at home. In our quest for the perfect lawn, we use vast amounts of water, artificial fertilisers, pesticides and weed killers. Then there’s the energy used every time it’s mowed with an electric mower. Some still even use petrol driven law Read more:Green
Making a Mockery of Green Living 2008-03-24 05:51:00 Photo: BiggerPictureImagesThere’s a group of people out there who get on my tits. Who? Eco-Yuppies, that’s who! You know the type, twenty something female living a ‘successful’ life, clad in designer jeans and top whilst waving a hemp shopping bag in one hand declaring that she’d never accept a plastic carrier from a shop, and a Gucci bag in the other. Or the twenty something ‘successful’ male who drives his gas guzzling SUV home from the office to his solar powered pad in a new development that's been built on what was once beautiful woodland. You know the types, I’m sure. “Hey!” they shout, “we’re trendy, we’re hip, and we’re GREEN!” No they are not! They are doing a few things that are easily incorporated into their existing lifestyles because b Read more:Mockery
, Green
, Living
AWOL and Tweets 2008-04-21 07:32:00 My apologies for the recent inactivity here but a hospital stay made it impossible to post. I’m sort of sorted now although another bout as an in-patient wouldn’t surprise me. Fingers crossed that won’t happen. Anyway, in the interim, a black bird has built her nest in the clematis outside our kitchen window, amongst an abundance of blue flowers. It’s a bit too high up to take a look inside without climbing onto a patio chair but as she spends most of her time there, there are no doubt eggs inside. Once she becomes more active, I’ll try to take a look to see how many chicks she has. Hopefully there will be many and they’ll keep the slugs and snails down this summer. She's hidden herself so well that you'll probably need to click the picture to see a larger versionThere’
Man Cannot Be Comfortable Without His Own Approval 2008-04-24 18:28:00 The title of today’s post is a quote from Mark Twain, and one that I think is very, very true. No matter how much you try to live up to other people’s expectations, unless you approve of your life yourself, you’ll never feel comfortable and you’ll never be truly happy. For too long I found myself being a person I wasn’t. I came back to the UK and kind of slipped back into being the person who left 18 years previously. Obviously, I wasn’t exactly the same person – I was a lot older for one and therefore naturally acted in a way that a 19 year old wouldn’t – but my general outlook on life changed back. I couldn’t live the way I had in Norway and I no longer really knew who I was or what I wanted. I allowed myself to be influenced by others – which was only natural, I Read more:Approval
The Story of Stuff 2008-05-03 02:24:00 Some of you will no doubt already have seen this entertaining and thought provoking film called The Story of Stuff but if you haven’t, nip over there now and take a look. It’ll only take up about 20 minutes of your time but I can practically guarantee that it’ll give you something to think about. The Story of Stuff I thought I was reasonably clued up about ‘stuff’, but seeing things presented this way definitely gave me food for thought. Sharon ~~+~~
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