Slow Living Diary April 2012

Once again, I am joining in with Christine from Slow Living Essentials for a monthly reflection of slow living…

NOURISH: What can I say…I‘ve become totally addicted to popcorn and make it as much as I can using olive oil or coconut oil and sea salt..yumm!! Best snack ever ;-) Other favourites have been Vegetarian Fried Rice & Banana Bread from The Low GI Family Cookbook. Donna Hay’s Apple (but pear in our house) slice is divine!! We couldn’t stop eating it (though I added lots of oats and less flour to the crumble to make it healthier).

PREPARE: I know this should be about food but after a nasty wakeup call, I updated our first aid kit and made sure we have everything on hand for mini emergencies. I cut a bit of my finger off making soup (hello sharp new knives). Whilst I have first aid training, I didn’t have the things on hand to do it solo. A trip to the doctor led to a trip to the hospital. It had more bark than bite but they helped me dress it properly. Here’s a tip…always keep pads on hand they are the best thing to hold onto a wound to stop bleeding!!

REDUCE: We’ve been reusing old bubblewrap envelopes from Mr B’s work. They fold out into a decent size (see below). We reused some old fencing, locks and hinges to make some side gates – took a bit of match making but now our yard is fairly secure.

GREEN: I’ve been bubble wrapping alot of our windows and using door snakes as window snakes on our old sash windows. They leak pretty badly at the bottom but this solution works a treat!! Go fabric and sawdust!! I’m surprised how well the bubble wrap works as well. Our solar has finally been inspected so now we hope to get it officially turned on.

GROW: Have been eating copious amounts of baby spinach. I’ve never had it work this well, you just cut what you want and it keeps growing. Little B has also enjoyed eating peas straight out of the pod hand picked. Though I have to watch him as he would pick and eat them all if he could :-)

CREATE: Have cut down some old t-shirts of mine to make long nightshirts for Little B. He wears these as layers beneath his current pj’s to stop his back getting cold at night (a huge source of nightwaking).

DISCOVER:  I’ve been re-reading The Dirty Life and some secondhand copies of Good Organic Gardening. I’ve also borrowed Escape to River Cottage from the library but have only just started watching it.

ENHANCE: Have been helping out a friend who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer…she’s new to living green so has been picking my brains and checking out our bathroom, pantry and laundry for ideas.

ENJOY: The weather has been such a lovely mix this month of sun, wind and rain. Little B is loving all the autumn leaves and we spend a lot of time playing leaf boats, doing leaf paintings or just burying him in the leaves while I do some gardening!! LOL I’ve also enjoyed catching up with family before they went overseas for a few months and also our mini break in Adelaide. It’s been nice to just slow down and relax.