Hug me I'm Organic

My dad was on to me yesterday. He had sowed 13 drills of organic potatoes. Not bad for a 72 year old! His spuds are always amazing; along with any other stuff he grows.

My parents always grew vegetables. Even before they moved to the countryside, they had a veg patch. We also had a dog that ate all the chives they had grown one year and then went on to the raspberry canes. We never grew either again.

I don’t grow veg myself but for about 10 years now I only buy organic. I know the veg are slightly more expensive but to go fully organic, ditching all chemicals such as household cleaners the bill balances out.

I started with a bag being delivered to my house by Rose and hiding her money under my bushes because I was at work when she delivered. Now, after a few take over’s, I am with the lovely people at www.absolutelyorganic.ie. I can honestly say I have always got the best of stuff from them week after week, and there is nothing to match the smell of a fresh organic tomato when you open the paper bag.

With cleaners the change from chemical sprays and potions to a stock of white vinegar, lemon juice, borax powder, and bicarbonate of soda and soda crystals is as much cheaper as it is safer. The best way I found to clean a manky microwave (when I used to use one) was slice up half a lemon and place in a bowl of water. Micro on high for three minutes and leave the door closed for the steam to do its work. Then open the door and wipe all the grime off with a cloth. It’s that easy. If it won’t come off easily micro the same bowl again for another 3 and them off it wipes. Smells so much better too.

Now I am not saying we need to do www.hotcrossmum.blogspot.com on her trip to the 1930’s housewife. I am asking do I need to be laced with chemicals I don’t understand.

Yesterday, March 26^th, at 20 different locations around the U.S there was a ‘Rally for the right to know’. These rally’s were to ask the U.S to clearly label food especially food with G.M, so a proper labelling would be in place to inform consumers of exactly what is in their food.

Food labelling is a mine field. As a consumer I feel as though I need a degree in food science. I went so far as to down load an iPhone app to explain some additives and what their safety level is. I know the aging hippie is a boring old fusspot, but I worry.

Pesticides are linked to so much and what G.M will do to future generations, I don’t know! Don’t start me on pictures I have seen of engineered animals and fish. It’s scary to me.

I have had it said to me ‘I don’t want to know what’s in my food, if I know I wouldn’t eat anything!’That‘s fine. I believe in choice, having the right to be exactly who you are. I am not here to preach or be anyone’s nag. I want a choice too. I am with the want to knows. When I have eaten non organic I have been able to tell the difference, I can tell exactly what each vegetable is in an organic stew no problem.

The thing is I want to live in full possession of my marbles until at least the age of 115, tearing up the roads in my electric wheelchair. If investing in a good chemical free existence now means I get to fulfil that, then it’s been a worthwhile investment. 

If you want to be my wingman, in the words of someone brighter than me, think on these things.

keep Smiling

spring has sprung

It’s the last day of Paddy’s weekend, and didn’t he bless us with lovely spring weather! It’s been great to get out and about in the sunshine and get into our gardens for the year ahead.

The aging hippie had a brainwave this year. When I got the use of my arm back I thought why not try to be a bit more ambitious and instead of buying bedding plants this year I would grow them from seed. So I immersed myself in the seed catalogues and websites, took to watching a few gardening programmes and made a few choices for this year’s garden.

The first one I picked out was based on my one first crushes. I bought a packet of dianthus Bagpuss. My other early crush was on Dougal from the original magic roundabout but he wasn’t mentioned in a seed catalogue that I could see. Anyway Dianthus Bagpuss is a pink striped flower in the colours of the cat himself. I can’t wait to see them!

You see, I love flowers, I always have. My favourite being pink roses of which I have a selection in my rose bed which is under the window I am writing in. I have a soft spot for the blue moon (on the right as you read this) she can be a bit delicate but worth the extra TLC.  I have a special deep red rose in one of the other beds which has been there since I was a child. It’s one of those special gifts you take on with the family home and he has never let me down with his massive blooms every year. Even when I landscaped the front garden he almost got buried under a load of builder’s chippings but like a real man he saw off adversity to shine again. I have a standard rose in the centre and she is taller that I am so caring for her can be like playing with a toddler who loves pulling at my long hair! I end up trying to free myself from her little thorns no matter how good a job i do tying my mane up. I end up looking like Medusa!

This year I have to finish my water feature in the back garden.  It looks beautiful but I need to get the stream of water running.  The lawn needs a feed shortly and my clematis’ are on the rise again, curling their way up their frames and away into blossom.

Anyway I have my dianthus, begonia, viola, pansy, busy lizzie, sweet pea and dahlias in the propagators. They are winding their way through the soil and showing themselves already. I put a few herbs in as well. I have basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme and mint. I plan on making my own mint tea from the leaves. According to my friend it gives quite the kick. Is that a good or bad thing for me, I ask myself?

As the frosts are nearly over it will be pruning time and my roses and lavender bushes will be undergoing a good haircut. This annoys the wild birds because while the pruners are out they can’t get to the feeders and as they hate their routine getting knocked about they sit on neighbouring trees and give out. They are funny.

So it’s back to collecting my eggshells and drying them again. I tend to shy away from slug pellets as apart from the obvious (hippie) the slug that has eaten a pellet and is then eaten by a bird can kill the bird as well. I have a few slug tricks that will appear in later blogs but dried eggshells are to a slug what walking on broken glass barefoot is to us humans so they avoid an egged up area. Clever them slugs!

So for now it’s caring for the propagators and watching the imminent arrival of my seedlings. It’s all looking good so far so I will keep you posted on progress.

keep smiling,

ing my mane up. I end up looking like Medusa!

This year I have to finish my water feature in the back garden.  It looks beautiful but I need to get the stream of water running.  The lawn needs a feed shortly and my clematis’ are on the rise again, curling their way up their frames and away into blossom.

Anyway I have my dianthus, begonia, viola, pansy, busy lizzie, sweet pea and dahlias in the propagators. They are winding their way through the soil and showing themselves already. I put a few herbs in as well. I have basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme and mint. I plan on making my own mint tea from the leaves. According to my friend it gives quite the kick. Is that a good or bad thing for me, I ask myself?

As the frosts are nearly over it will be pruning time and my roses and lavender bushes will be undergoing a good haircut. This annoys the wild birds because while the pruners are out they can’t get to the feeders and as they hate their routine getting knocked about they sit on neighbouring trees and give out. They are funny.

So it’s back to collecting my eggshells and drying them again. I tend to shy away from slug pellets as apart from the obvious (hippie) the slug that has eaten a pellet and is then eaten by a bird can kill the bird as well. I have a few slug tricks that will appear in later blogs but dried eggshells are to a slug what walking on broken glass barefoot is to us humans so they avoid an egged up area. Clever them slugs!

So for now it’s caring for the propagators and watching the imminent arrival of my seedlings. It’s all looking good so far so I will keep you posted on progress.

keep smiling,

Lost for Words

Hello blogsphere, I’m back. It’s been a few weeks I know but as my twitter friends know, I managed to wreck my right shoulder and arm and ended up out of circulation.  However, thanks to intense acupuncture and a session of bio energy healing I am back and so happy.
Due to the nature of this injury, I was laid up in a way that surprised me. There was so little I could do. I spent most of the time applying Chinese medical balms and the rest of the time taking twice as long as usual to do anything.

What I found hardest to handle was having my words taken from me. I couldn’t read anything. The injury meant I couldn’t hold a book up or bend my neck down to read. Even a newspaper was impossible. And if that wasn’t bad enough I couldn’t either type or hold a pen. My fingers went numb and I even had to eat with my left hand which meant by the time I negotiated each fork full to my mouth the meal was cold by the half way point! I was trapped in a wordless world. And there is no greater agony.

I missed books. I missed the joy that flows from the second you open a book. The smell of the ink, paper, glue combination followed by the anticipation of what this author is about to offer you in terms of their voice, their language and their beautiful story telling. I missed the debate, did I like the ending which character drew me, and drew me enough to stay with me long after I smiled at the last scene and the last page.

I missed writing even more. I could feel a Ferris wheel of words in my head but I had no way of getting them out.  A dam had been built when the energy blocked in my arm. I thought of the thrill of seeing the scene in my head, feeling the flow down into my hands and then this joy of seeing the same scene in my words looking back up at me, my creation.  This was taken from me.

Then I knew why. And there is always a why. I was doing so much in a way that was soulless.  I have to practice my calligraphy, I have a neck piece to make, I need to get the blog up by such a time so I can get on with this, I must finish this book and get on to another. In the midst of this speed I was losing something, I could feel it. I chose this point in my life’s journey carefully so I could write how I always wanted to.  But I erred. I started to befriend rushing around and in doing that I was losing my way.  So, I believe, I was stopped in my tracks and got the time to think, learn, see and love words again.

Well, lesson learned.  I have learned to love again. Words must be free to bring me to the place where maximum joy waits. The place where I appreciate how blessed I am to want to express what I see in my mind’s eye and hopefully someday soon share it and give back what I have enjoyed in reading what has danced from the creativity of a fellow lover of words.

Does time matter? Yes as long as I fill my time with what makes me smile, inside and out. Happiness is everywhere.  I have never been a sprinter. Now more than ever, I never want to be. If today brings me 50 words or 500 words or 5 words I will love them all. And I will stroll along with my words appreciating our path together. This is my journey and I am going to love every wonderful minute of it. I am back, but back as I should always have been, a smiling and happy aging hippie.

Keep smiling,