As usual its been a while since ive been here and to be honest there isnt much to write yet, yet being the appropriate word, as tomorrow the first major step and investment to a greener life takes place .Our useless living flame gas fire gets removed ready for the install of our nice new Clearview 400 stove later in the week, and got to admit , with the weather as it is we may even get some use out of it.
One of the things im most looking forward to is the building of a log pile , strange i know but a log pile outside shows everyone you do care, you are trying to make a difference. This in turn may prompt questions and hopefully someone else may take it onboard thereby increasing my green effect

litter or recycling

Its been a while since my last blog but hey there has been much happening , including a spell of poor health but im back.As i was driving this morning in my so called greener car to drop off the family at school all at the same place i may add, i could not help but notice all the plastic bottles paper etc all over the roads verges and footpaths.all due to either poor filling of the recycle bin or just plain bad loading of the lorry, which i must admit seems to be the case, this also brought to mind my recent visit to a little village called Longwick , yes everything is divided , paper, bottles compostables and landfill, but in open little boxes, nett effect  open light articles blowing freely up and down the road, i ask the question again is this green or just a litter that's makes people feel better because they are doing their bit ?
On a more personal note all my new potato's are close to planting and seeds are in pots waiting to germinate including Portuguese greens which last 9 yrs and stand over a metre tall. My waste is still on the decrease, my landfill bin is only half full after 2 weeks and recycle bin looks on the way to half full after 4 weeks, not bad going with a family of 4.  Hopefully the log burner will soon be on its way too with the money almost here  from a road compensation scheme,, at least a new road will do some good even if it is to help my family become a little more efficient and less reliant on gas for heating. hopefully there will be more to write tomorrow .

inspirational Malmo !

Returned for a little passage, spurred on after watching a programme on discovery Science .Was all about we should not just be looking for renewable resources but multiples that act together, as not one alone will be successful .There were the non blade wind turbines that worked well in an urban environment , also a great piece on Malmo in Sweden where one area produces all the power it uses with solar and wind the buildings were inspirational with huge solar fins etc.as they said , if it can work there where sunlight is low in quantity it should work everywhere.This brought me back to an earlier post, even more solar roof panels are springing up , more each week in fact, just wish i could afford them as they are still over priced for the people who need them rather than using then as a cash investment.
Actually got round to making my own chutneys last night and successful they were too not only did i use reduced price tomatoes but used jars that i would normally have just thrown away. This does show yet again in the fact that my landfill bin is only half full after two weeks , before the new year it would have been full and with overflow into other peoples bins, i must be doing something right.

you know when its cold

Although not cold enough to now the weather has taken a chill with two hard frosts lately.These events are shown well  the compost bin,and with a family of 4 this can cause problems.On average we put at least half a carrier bag of compostables in the bin and the cold has slowed its workings down by quite a bit , even the worms have gone down into the warmer parts. We have a deliberation,get another composter on the go or cut down on our waste output, and as this stuff we compost is veg peelings etc. this is not what we want to do.If i turn the contents will the lower parts cool too much?  I will have to consult the oracle .

an interesting read

Had a quick look at the Green Choices website here there are some good articles One particularly about power used and standby  The fact that the average house uses around £35 to £50  of electricity a year with products on standby , even our tv watching costs us about £50 to £60 a year to run. It just makes you think about all your appliances really ,in isolation it doesn't sound much but add all your appliances together and wow!  look at your bill.

A day at home.......at last

This post will probably take all day in bits so excuse he bitty nature of it . After a much needed rest after a 9 day stretch at work its time for some comfort food, a wholesome veg stew, the reason for this is we took delivery of our organic veg box last night, this is my wife and my Christmas present from my wife's mother. We get a veg box every third Thursday from Pickering Organics, this is probably the most useful present we have ever had  Food Miles  about ten but as the owner of the company lives less than 3 miles away she can drop it off on the way home, a further reduction in food miles i would say.Its so nice to come home to a cardboard recycled box full of veg, veg for us peelings and box for the wormery, seems like a win win situation to me.
The stew worked really well with great taste as do all the organic meals we cook, its an old cliché but  the veg tastes like it did when i was a kid.

bin ratios

a week or so in and there are a few things that become obvious Firstly i will need bigger or more compost bins particularly in winter when composting slows down , rather than binning everything i can is composted.This has a knock on effect on the waste bin in fact it has half the amount in, compared to comparable weeks even the blue recycle bin has half the contents it did before  . This is probably due to me buying less packaged food particularly veg.How quickly these things make a difference has surprised me .