Quote of the Day 2

"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig."- Proverb

Aargh! Pigeon Attack!

Went out to inspect my small but beautifully formed veg. garden this morning. Could not believe my eyes - I had planted some purple sprouting broccoli plants a couple of days ago and they had been completely stripped. All that was left was a few sad stalks. At first I thought that I may have the largest slugs in the world but then Jim ( wise old local) informed me that it was pigeons.
My love for all creatures great and small has been severly dented - I am planning revenge.............

Green Money Saving - 1

I’ve taken my first steps to “greendom”. Today I received a box of 10 energy saving lightbulbs, and I have fitted them in every room, table lamp and lamp stand that I could find. It’s a little surreal to think that I’ll be 8 years older when I next have to change them – well, that’s according to the box!
I bought them from ebay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/) as there are several dealers on there who are doing some excellent deals. I had always avoided buying them because of the expense but these light bulbs only cost me £1.20 each. Plus they should save me £9 per year per light bulb in electric charges and cut down the use of energy in my home. They use 5 times less electricity than a normal lightbulb. Talk about a good deal!
It is true that when the bulbs are first turned on the have an odd dull light – but this changes quickly to a normal brightness, so I don’t really mind. They are also quite a strange shape – OK when hidden by a shade but look a little weird in a couple of the table lamps. I’ll have to investigate whether or not I can get a smaller bulb for these.

According to the Energy Saving Trust www.energysavingtrust.org.uk –
“If everyone installed just one energy saving light bulb the CO2 emissions saved would fill 2 million double decker buses. And if each house installed three energy saving bulbs, it would save enough energy to run the country's street lights for a year.”

What are you waiting for??

Recipe of the Day 1

I went into the local market and the fruit and veg guys had a seriously good deal on. A huge bag of bananas for 50p. Now - I don't even want to think about how many airmiles these little yellow buggers have travelled - but it did give me a idea for saving money.

Banana Chutney

2lbs bananas
8oz dates
Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
3/4 pint vinegar
8oz raisins
8oz brown sugar
1/2 pt syrup from any canned fruit
4 oz chopped crystallised ginger
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons curry powder

Chop bananas into small pieces. Chop dates - put in pan with bananas. Add rind and juice of lemon with the vinegar. Cover pan ad simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours.
Stir in raisins,sugar,fruit syrup, ginger,salt and curry powder. Simmer the mix for 1/2 hour or until golden brown.
Put into hot jars and cover.

This chutney is sweet and spicy and is great with curries.
Don't be put off - making chutney is VERY VERY easy - and cheap - and uses up fruit that is past its eating best.

Growing My own!

I live in a very small village on the edge of Exmoor. This has lots of advantages and several disadvantages when trying to be green. One of the main disadvantages is transport - or rather lack of public.... There is a bus - as long as you want to catch it on a Thursday at 10.00am and return at 12.00 - otherwise zilch. This means I have to have a car to get anywhere at all. This is not particularly "green" and the actual car I have is even worse as it is a gas guzzling 2.0litre Volvo. I'm saving hard to get a smaller car.

One of the advantages of living here is that I have quite a large garden ( garden is a little optimistic - large patch of overgrown land is more accurate) and this year I have decided to try to grow my own vegetables and fruit. As can be seen from the picture (taken in May)I have adopted the little known practice of digging small patches and growing one crop in each little bit. My next door neighbour, Jim, a well seasoned old Devonian, thinks that this is hilarious and doubts if I will be able to grow anything at all.

Quote of the Day - 1

Another good thing about being poor is that when you are seventy your children will not have declared you legally insane in order to gain control of your estate.

Woody Allen

Money Saving Tip -1

I've added some elements onto my blog that fit in with my overall philosophy. First I've added Adsense and I've put a link on my site to encourage all you lot to add it as well. Why? - Well its a fairly cheap and painless way to earn a little spare cash.

Secondly - I've added a link to one of my favourite sites of the moment. http://www.saynoto0870.co.uk/ If you have, like me, ever got REALLY REALLY irritated by having to ring a premium phone number eg 0870, 0845 etc and then had to listen to appalling music until somone can be bothered to pick the phone up - then this is the site for you.

In order to save money on my landline phone, I have an "inclusive calls" package. Unfortunately this does not include the premium rate numbers often used by banks, service companies, utilities, etc. However there is a way to find out what the alternative standard number is ( starting with 01, 02 etc) - log onto this site. Most of the larger organisations have 0800 (freephone) numbers as well and these are also listed.

So the next time you spend 15/20 mins listening to middle-of-the-road musack at least it isn't going to cost you anything!!