Christmas game for grandkids = no/low cost

My crochet efforts have led me to my first make! A basket! It was actual a pattern for a storage  pot from my library book on mindfully crocheting but mine was so wide I decided it needed handles added.

I used some wool left over from an abandoned attempt to learn to knit years ago and it was really suitable for using "doubled up" as in the pattern instructions, pink and blue, as one was too thin to be much good.

What should go in it?  I was reading a book last week about re-wilding an historic farm estate in west Sussex and the author explained dealing with the conservation agencies was like trying to get a lot of frogs all to hop into the same pot. Which made me think of a bean bag game the little ones might like as an indoor activity when the weather was bad. So off to the sewing cabin to look through the fabric stash and to look on the WWW for a frog pattern.

Found an 80p bag of cheap rice in the supermarket to fill them and now we have a nest of frogs!

I will let the 6 year olds make up the "rules" of the game and find some sweet treats to be prizes. I was thinking if you get two frogs in a pot you could get a human sacrifice ie a jelly baby?  It sort of leads into a climate emergency theme! 

I shall pop it into the Xmas gift bag - made out of on old pair of their pyjamas!

Dog Poo digester

I was listening to Radio 4 today about the Malvern Hills (a super place that we have walked a few times) and as a non-dog person I was delighted to hear that there is a use in this world for dog poo!

Dog Poo Story  (web link)
Apparently this chap has invented a way to light an old gas street lamp from a bio digester that only needs a few bags of poo put in it.  Oh, and a little bit of physical effort by the dog walker.

Fabulous deal with litter, "sewage" sent to land fill, expense of having and emptying bins, and bring back the beautiful light given off by traditional gas street lamps.

Do you remember milk bags?

I was putting the last of the stored kitchen items into the backs of the new kitchen cupboards when I found this un-used Jugit for use with milk bags.

It was the eco idea of 2010 to replace milk cartons. You brought 1.5 lt bags and put in the jug where a spout pierced the bag.

When it first came out the price of the milk bags undercut cartons. After a few months the price crept up and the stocks became unreliable in supermarkets.  I remember I went over to 6 pint cartons about then - saving the number of cartons I put in recycling and getting a good unit price. Only once failing to use up the milk before it went off.

It was a good idea and if the bags could be recycled too in the UK (they can be, apparently it happens in Canada) because you can freeze the bags easily. 

I did see that the milk bags and jugs in use in a Costa this week - I assume it saves lots of space in not putting hundreds of big milk cartons in their commercial city centre bins.

Now I wonder what use I can put the jug too??  If I can't think of something soon I think hoarding it for 8 years is long enough!!

Replacements for those plastic bags wining!

I was reading a sewing blog (So Sew Easy) today (2/7/18)  which said
On my recent trip to Tanzania, I fell in love with the country.  I will share a post about that trip and the fabrics I brought back with me.  One thing I noticed is the lack of plastic bags on the roads, in fact, I was amazed to see a relatively clean country.  The reason: the government has completely prohibited the importation and use of plastic bags in the country.  

Wow, I thought that is good news,  when did they do that?  Apparently, in  November 2006 according to a BBC article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6135886.stm).   The article is a bit disparaging, so I am please the government stuck to its strategy So, come on UK, we can do it too!!!

By the way if you are like me into making fabric bags there is a free pattern and tutorial today on the So Sew Easy site.  In fact, I sold my second tote bag on Folksy today too!!!  So I may retire to my sewing cabin later and try out this pattern too!

Best bit of the budget!

20. Reducing single-use plastics waste

The government will seek views on reducing single-use plastics waste through the tax system and charges. Disposable plastics like coffee cups, toothpaste tubes and polystyrene takeaway boxes damage our environment

source:  www.gov.uk

We have reduced use of carrier bags by 85% apparently. I personally will welcome a countryside with 85% less of these things tossed in the verges!

Thank goodness for rag rugs

Last winter I spent time making a rag rug with cotton/polyester dresses, skirts, table cloths, old cushion covers, duvet covers, etc.  It is in the conservatory replacing an ordinary shop brought one my grandson had vomited on when he arrived for a visit at Xmas.

Luckily, most of this week's visit's vomit in the conservatory landed in the shoe tidy, missing my trainers, and only a bit on the rag rug. A quick sluice off and a quick wash at 30C in the machine and a hang on the line overnight in a Force 6 wind and the rug was back by lunch time!

That said, I will be glad when he grows out of this!

I have an idea for another rag mat. I have accumulated quite a lot of old fleece coats and tops which I am cutting into strips and joining into long lengths on the sewing machine.  These are very worn and thin, reinforcing the current eco concern that the fleece fibres are entering the world's water courses. (see  link to  Guardian article )
So I will not be washing the fleece mat; but how will I dispose of it if the fabric is so toxic?

Interesting stranger

We were having lunch in a cafe (cum shop cum community hall) in a small village on the coast of Skye last week when we and a holidaying Scottish couple got chatting to a young Swiss backpacker.

He is going overland through Europe to South America (via Japan/Russia) without using air transport. Apparently he runs a solor panel installation scheme in Switzerland so is very interested in being carbon neutral in life.  https://www.footprintless.org/


The Scots couple were trying to explain the idea of a Bothy (free basic shelter) and how he may find one by a lough somewhere nearby on a mountain trail.  My husband was trying to explain the weather forecast was for rain in the late evening and my (motherly) brain was trying to commute his route round the world if he was in Scotland having come from Ireland via France by hitchhiking. Was he sure he wanted to go via Korea?

We were talking about getting up to the Faroe Islands and going to Denmark by ship.  I was sure one of our neighbour's friends had contacts in Faroes so promised to get some information and introductions when we went home ourselves.

As a mother of similar aged young males - I am admiring and worrying in equal measures.