Composting

Finally I have gotten around to adding to my eco tips page on my website. Here's how it goes.
Home composting can be done in rather exciting things called wormeries www.wigglywigglers.co.uk , wooden or recycled plastic compost bins or you can make your own if you so desire and are a bit handy at that sort of thing.
I have fond memories of as a child taking the scraps down to the end of my grandparents garden and throwing it all in the compost bin which in their case simply consisted of a big heap of all the usual compostable stuff (more of that below) with a bit of chicken wire or similar around it. I remember being fascinated by all the little bug things milling around in it. I don't actually remember if grandad used it on the garden though I'm sure he must have as he grew tidy rows of curly kale, cabbages, runner beans and other lovely tasty goodies.
I'm ashamed to say that I didn't start my first compost bin till we moved to our present home approxiamately 2years ago. At the time the council were subsidising the cost of composters so I bought nice big one only cost us £5, bargain! It's a big recycled plastic container with a lid and a flap on the front to remove the compost to use on the garden. The thought of a wormery fills me with horror as I'm squimish about wriggly slimy things, yuck but they do look like good fun so do have a look at the website above . When I started tipping my compostable waste into it I was convinced it would be full within a month or so and remember discussing with hubby wether we should order another one. I'm glad we didn't as every time I lifted the lid to add more it seemed that there would be even less in it than last time I looked!
I have to say I'm a very lazy composter and I don't turn my compost nor do I mix it with a fork or add accelerator and I don't worry too much about getting the balance of greens and browns right. My efforts at composting are more to do with keeping as much of my stuff out of landfill and less to do with making super compost to put on my garden. So really all the effort it takes is keeping a compost caddy in the kitchen to put scraps etc in and then taking it out to the garden every day or so. Really, that's all! And the difference it's made to how much stuff goes in the wheely bin is great. Did you know that compostable 'stuff' sent to landfill is unable to decompose property because, squashed under all the other waste, it doesn't have any access to the air. So instead, methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is produced which contributes to global warming.
But wait here's the fun bit. If you thought you could only compost things like veg scraps and grass cutting, think again. I have been astounded to learn that these are some of the more bizzare things you can compost
Toenails, hoover bag contents if you have wool carpet, used guinea pig/rabbit/hamster bedding, loo roll inserts, woollen socks and jumpers, human hair and animal fur, coffee grounds, lint from tumble dryer filter, wood chips, ash from the fire. In fact the list goes on. And urine is a natural accelerant! As you can imagine the last fact has been somewhat of a talking point for hubby when we have friends over for a barbecue.

Social invite for myself and the spotty ones

After several days of being confined to the house because my children look so scary with all their chicken pox spots I finally ventured out with them to my sisters house for a bbq. All her children and the guests children have had chicken pox and so were happy to be in the company of my infectious two. Yet they were all still visibly shocked by the amount of spots my littlest one has.
One of the families there had a 7week old puppy with them which was a real sweetie and the source of great fun for the children until it started nipping tender little ankles with it's needle sharp puppy teeth. Perhaps we wont get a puppy after all. I have to admit to having more than the occasional daydream about adding to our menagerie. The possibility of chickens has cropped up again though but more about that another time.
It was a super afternoon and so good to get out and about. My three nieces and nephew are so good with my younger children and amuse them so I can have some quality time (drinking and eating too much). It's very easy to take family and friends for granted so I always try to remind myself how blessed i am with my family and friends.

I've been taking my supplement from Natures Sunshine for about 5days now and have to admit I do feel pretty good. I've had the best few nights sleep than I've had for possibly years (raging insomniac that I am). I've also found that I haven't had that mid afternoon slump that I usually get and quite bizzarely my eyes seem brighter so you could say I feel bright eyed and bushy tailed. The main test for me will definately be with my pmt, so watch this space. If there is an improvement it would be fair to say that it would be pretty life changing for me as I can suffer horrendously for up to two weeks out of every four and I'm not talking minor pmt either.

Chicken pox!

Phewww what a shocking week. On monday the littlest one in the family who's 2 and half years old came out in a few chicken pox spots and I foolishly thought we might have escaped without too many spots but they kept coming thick and fast till friday so I decided to take her to the gp which I wouldn't normally do for chicken pox but believe me she was covered. She had spots inside her ears, eyes, nose, all over her scalp, face and body, behind her knees and in her mini and bottom. She was such a sorry state and all the homeapathic, natural rememdies just weren't stopping the spots coming, they were simply easing the syptoms. The gp said she had the worse case he had ever seen and prescribed phenergen (antihistamine) and liquid zovirax (herpes and coldsore treatment) so she started on them on thurs after a rather traumatic wait in the chemist which is another story.
At the same I started her on a rather strange product called colloidal silver kindly lent to me to try by Natalie www.herbsfromheaven.co.uk which I have been giving her mixed with her drink in the morning and also mixed with some organic aloe vera and smothered all over her spots after a bath of oatmeal, full fat milk and lavender oil. I have to say that by the next day there was a huge improvment but of course it's hard to say which worked best or whether it was a combination of everything.
At the same time the middle child also came out in chicken pox spots on weds but his have been much more managable and nowhere near as bad. The only downside is that he can't go to school till they all scab over.
So I have been under virtual house arrest since monday and going a bit stir crazy until I finally got a social invite from my sister who's kids have all had chicken pox. See above.

And all this on our doorstep.

I live on the coast between the New Forest and the Jurassic Coast. I am surrounded by beautiful countryside, historic buildings, award winning blue flag beaches and quaint villages. So why do I spend money taking the kids to indoor play areas, extortionately priced 'tourist' attractions and places of that ilk.

When my sister and I were little my dad and stepmum used to take us out with a picnic on sundays for walks in the forest or to hidden coves with rock pools and caves to explore. We collected fir cones and shells and didn't mind a bit of rain or wind. I have such fond memories of those sundays. When I think about it they were such simple daytrips that didn't cost dad much except maybe the odd ice cream or two yet we loved it till about the teenage years that is.

If it were New Year I would make it my resolution to teach my kids to appreciate and value the natural beauty around them by taking them out to see it.

Yay, I won £50

In the words of Victor Meldrew 'I don't believe it' but in a nice way. I never win anything!
A few weeks ago I emailed some green tips to this site http://mumandworking.co.uk/share-it-may I'd forgotten all about it and when I sent the suggestions I didn't really register that it was a competition so I was over the moon to get an email today telling me that I'd won! Yippeee!
So now I have a dillema, should I donate it to a worthy cause or selfishly blow it on things for myself? As it's money that I wouldn't have had I feel that I should donate it but another part of me thinks that doing that would be unfair to hubby as he is the breadwinner and he might be cross if I just donate £50 and then ask him for money for new shoes etc.
Help!!

Should I pee on my athletes foot?

On my relentless quest (see previous posts) to find a natural cure for my troublesome athletes foot I stumbled (excuse pun) across this rather bizarre and I think hilarious suggestion:
Treat Athlete's Foot with Urine: Human urine contains urea which is a main ingredient in many athlete's foot medications/treatments. Urinating on your feet in the shower should kill the fungus.
So aside from the weirdness of the idea, I'd like to know being a girl and all, how am I supposed to urinate on my feet in the shower? Impossible I think. So that would mean I would have to collect my wee in a suitable receptacle and then put my foot in!
I'm sorry but that's a step too far (another pun, see I'm getting good at this now) in the 'real home remedies' department.
Mind you that's exactly what I used to say about the mooncup so watch this space! ; )

This is the site I visited with the advice. Actually it's a pretty cool site so don't be put off by the urine advice. http://www.realhomeremedies.com/

The Virtues of Caravanning

Now camping or caravanning is either something you love or hate. I don't think there is anything in the middle. And as you can probably guess, I love it, caravvanning as opposed to camping which I haven't tried since i was a child but I do have fond memories.

Hubby and I made a conscious decision a few years ago that we would not take foreign family holidays but would instead have any holidays in the UK. Firstly we bought ourselves a cheap little two berth caravan that took me a whole weekend to clean to see if the lifestyle suited us. Our first mini break was in two nights in November in the New Forest (only up the road for us). Our middle boy was only 2months at the time and slept between us in his carrycot in the big king size bed that you had to make up each night. It was snowing outside so the heating was tested to it's limits. It was so cosy inside and we played board games, drank red wine and ate chocolate in the evenings. Bliss! We were pretty much hooked after that and did the little caravan up with new carpet and curtains and sold it on for twice what we'd payed!

Taking into account the money would save by not going abroad again we decided to really go for it and buy a brand new four berth van which was a real luxury.

A few years after that and with another baby and all the accompanying paraphinalea we went for a six berth which we have now.

We go away for regular weekends from March to October and usually have a week away somewhere further afeild at Easter and in August so we get our monies worth.

We manage to go away cheaply by going to the camping and caravanning club ralleys most of the time.

the weather has been so fab this year we can't understand why people would want to go to all the hassle of taking the kids abroad.

http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/