A busy couple of days

The last couple of days have been a rush. I had planned to leave work early on Thursday, to get organised and away early on Friday for the drive up to the West Country, but typical of things in local government (which for my sins, I have the privilege to work in) I was called upon at the last minute to produce a pointless paper exercise. This meant that when I got home from work at nearly 7pm, I had the start of a headache and a total loss of energy. So I ate a big bowl of my patent homemade vegetable soup and went to bed early.

Up at the crack of dawn on Friday morning (thankfully without the headache), I cleaned out the rabbit hutch and run (doesn't need much cleaning - our two bunnies are quite the cleanest rabbits you could wish for - they are perfectly litter trained, and no trouble at all), did washing, ironing, cleaned the house from top to bottom and shopped for favourite and manageable meals for AS who has college on Friday and didn't want to make the journey to Bath and Bristol. I am learning to give him a bit more freedom and let him stay home if I go away overnight. As big as he is, it is very hard to leave him on his own, particularly knowing that I am a three hour drive away. It is amazing to me that I can do this at all, when he was a toddler and didn't (or couldn't speak) I never knew that he could be as independent as he is. Being autistic is not something you can measure, and some people might not even notice that he is different. He doesn't have any "Rain Man" skills (unless you count encyclopaedic knowledge of Transformers!) and he struggles with the concept that he has any kind of special needs. He daily claims his right to self-determination and it gets easier every time to give him the chance to prove that he can look after himself. His most enormous step was taking the train to Colchester - alone! Now it is a daily journey for him - including the long walk to the station (although he can catch a train the bus is out of the question - there are too many pitfalls and he doesn't want to even try).

So with my amazing son taken care of, I set off for Bath to see my amazing daughter. I picked her up from the University, we grabbed a bite to eat and I left her at the stage door where she has a chorus part in an amateur production of Hello Dolly. She loves musical theatre so much, and has been involved with a local group at home since she was about 10. During her first year at university, she missed it so much she just had to find a group in Bath to join and so she auditioned with Bath Operatic and Dramatic Society and was really thrilled to join the chorus. She loves dancing (she is in the Latin and Ballroom Club at University) and music, particularly from the shows. Although she loves the theatre, she is also very conscious of exams rapidly approaching, so next week she'll be back with the books!

I paid a flying visit to my sister in Bristol (at 6.00am Saturday!). We went to walk her dogs in the local park - but found a rave still in full swing. Neither the police or the local council were particularly interested when she phoned them, and the drum and bass line could still be heard at 9.00am when I left. I am SO glad I don't live in a city any more....

Mum and I then went to have lunch with AD in Bath and then to the theatre for the matinee. It was a lovely show (though if I am honest, I am not a huge fan of musicals, despite supporting my offspring on many occasions, and even taking her to the odd West End production - I did fall asleep once in Les Miserables to her everlasting embarrassment!). The costumes were lovely, and the dance routines were spectacular. I actually had a hard time recognising my own daughter what with the big Edwardian hats, wigs and stage makeup!

Then back to Mum's (with Mum singing Hello Dolly the whole way home) to load up my car with half the contents of her shed - we are giving away all her old garden tools, a manual typewriter and assorted other items on Freecycle and to a charity that takes tools to Africa. Then I drove home and was back around 10.30pm to find amazing son was absolutely relaxed about being alone for 36 hours. I shouldn't have worried. He'd baked himself a batch of cookies (from a packet mix - I am working on teaching him how to follow a recipe and this is the first step - following the instructions on the box) and even washed up some the dishes! (The slightly burnt baking tray was left for me).

Today, I plan to put my feet up for a couple of hours and finish my current read, Mr Golightly's Holiday by Salley Vickers, before I mow the lawn and tidy up the front garden.

Reduce Reuse Recycle

Like a lot of other people, I am trying really hard to reduce my "carbon footprint". I do all the usual recycling - paper, glass, cans etc. Most vegetable waste and peelings goes straight into the compost bin, or if suitable we feed them to the rabbits (though they are quite picky eaters!). All our lightbulbs are low energy (except the ones that operate on a dimmer switch). I'm lucky enough to be able to cycle to my office (though I do have to drive all round the county for meetings and am really conscious of those miles - Essex is a big county). I always take my own shopping bags with me - I used to use the "Bag for Life" type all the time, but am moving towards non plastic - I have about 8 calico bags, but am planning to make some more heavy duty ones out of remnants of upholstery fabric for heavier items. I try to buy food with less packaging. I'm the annoying person in the office who goes round other people's desks turning off their fans, lights, printers etc when they've gone home. Sad - I know.

So what else can I do to make a difference? I have registered with the mail preference service, stuck a sticker on my letter box saying no junk mail, told the post office to stop delivering leaflets (they make a lot of money out of getting the postman to deliver leaflets with the post - but that means it takes him longer to do his rounds!). I've told my credit card companies not to keep sending me credit card cheques (I hate them - it's such a worry that someone could intercept your post and use those cheques and you wouldn't know until your statement arrives). But I still receive lots of mail I don't want. So I have started returning junk mail to the companies that send it to me. You know the type of thing - somehow they know when your car insurance is due for renewal and you get six brochures offering you a "deal"; your credit card company sends you a letter reminding you that you can transfer a balance; your bank or building society writes to offer you a loan at a preferential rate... Everything I get that I don't want I put a sticker on that says "Return to Sender - Junk Mail - Sender: Please remove me from your mailing list - Save Money Reduce Waste Save Trees" and put it back in the letter box.

Gosh - that was a bit "Grumpy Old Women". I'm not normally so grouchy, but I do feel quite strongly about these issues. Other ways I am trying to make a difference: I use Freecycle (local groups can be found at www.Freecycle.org ) to give things away - the idea is to save putting so much stuff into landfill and this helps match up people who have something to give away with people who want it. So far I've given away 5 bikes, a sofa, an artificial Christmas Tree, lots of childrens games and videos, a big mirror, and lots of old garden stuff (plant pots, seed trays etc). I really want to have less stuff so although I read the local notice boards regularly, I don't often ask for anything. I also release books into the wild with Book Crossing www.bookcrossing.com.

I've been listening to Prof Jeffrey Sachs giving the Reith lectures on Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2007/ but find the scale of the problems he outlines quite terrifying. I feel that all the little things I'm doing to reduce my impact on the environment can't have any effect on all the huge problems the planet is facing - but I can't stand by and do nothing. How can I expect the people in positions of power to take action if I don't do something myself? When I read blogs by other people around the world who are also trying to do their bit, I feel there is some hope for the future. I like this quote attributed to the anthropologist Margaret Mead "Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has". The great thing is that due to the availability of information via the internet, people don't need to even meet each other to get ideas across.

Unrelated comment:
I'm new at this blogging game so I don't know if the etiquette is to reply to comments but I wanted to say thanks for the couple of nice comments I have received. I rarely comment on other people's blogs; though most people seem so nice and friendly, I feel a bit like a person who's gatecrashed a party and tries to join in established conversations between friends. I feel comfortable with continuing to "lurk" but may eventually build up enough confidence to comment and let other people know what I think!

Keeping busy

The work on the garden hasn't been progressing as well as I hoped. After putting up the fence, the next part of the plan was to remove the ugly crazy paved path. Unfortunately, when lifting the slabs I found another (very solid) concrete path underneath. This means a lot more work than I had bargained for; it will involve either breaking it up - which will be very difficult, or altering my plans and paving over the path. My garden is very small, and this will mean a rethink about where the main elements (hard surfaces, planted areas etc) will be. So, it's back to the drawing board.

Not much knitting got done over the past week, but I did get in plenty of reading. This week I have read Small Island by Andrea Levy, The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly, Promise Me by Harlan Coben and have nearly finished Coastliners by Joanne Harris. I have a lot of books on the shelf waiting for their turn, maybe something by Minette Walters or Anita Shreve next. I need a gadget that turns pages so that I can read and knit at the same time....

My daughter is in an amateur production of Hello Dolly at the Theatre Royal in Bath this week - I'm planning to drive up on Friday and to take my mum to see the matinee performance on Saturday, so very little hope of doing anything to the garden this week. I'll have to take a few days off work and make some progress or before you know it the summer will have gone.

Currently knitting...

My daughter is going to Romania soon to help in an orphanage for a few weeks, and I have started knitting things for her to take with her. Mittens (which are quicker to make than gloves and more practical for small children), hats, scarves and little knitted toys. The toys will be useful straightaway, the warm weather gear will come in useful when winter comes around again. A couple of years ago, she went to the Dominican Republic to spend a few weeks helping at a home for children with HIV and she took a huge suitcase full of clothes, toys etc, and in fact ended up leaving most of her own clothes, towels, toiletries etc for the children and staff at the home. I expect the same thing will happen in Romania but we can make sure this time to pack her suitcase to the gills with extra things like bars of soap, tubes of toothpaste, crayons, etc.

My mum had a second cataract operation a few days ago, which thankfully went well (better than her first op which had some minor complications and left her in pain for quite a time). I'm going to spend a few days with her, to do some shopping, vacuuming, general housework etc. I'll also get to see my sister - we talk on the phone all the time, but only see each other a few times a year as I live in Essex and mum and my younger sister both live in Bristol (which is where I'm originally from). The problem with a journey from one side of the country to another is that there really isn't efficient public transport available - it would take three times as long to make the journey on the train or by bus and it would cost three times more than the cost of petrol. I really try hard to use my car as little as possible - I cycle to work every day, though when I have to go to meetings around Essex I have to use my car. About a year ago, when my car was off the road for a couple of weeks, I tried using public transport to travel around the county but it was not a success. For example, the twenty or so miles between Canvey Island and Chelmsford turned into a major obstacle course. The journey took nearly three hours as the bus times didn't connect with the train times (there is now a regular bus service so it is not so difficult). To drive there and back takes much less time! The one real advantage of trains and buses over driving is the amount of knitting you can get done (or reading, or doing crosswords, or whatever passes the time best)!

The fence is almost finished

The work on the garden fence went well - I now have a lovely light green fence which I am very proud of. It was very hard work, but definitely worth it. This is the beginning of my 2007 garden makeover project, and a new fence is the first part of making a safer home for our rabbits.

It actually started because we had a tragic accident. We had two beautiful rabbits, Shadow and Boxer, but on 30 December there was a huge storm which blew the rabbit hutch over, the roof split open and they escaped. My son likes to believe they got away, but they are more likely to have met a worse fate (foxes probably). We decided to give a home to two rescue rabbits from the RSPCA, and in January we adopted Bramble and Clover, a pretty brother and sister (he is "Calico" - fawn with dark patches and she is black).

Sorry - the photo is taken through the wire mesh of their run - they rarely sit still long enough together to get them in the same photo.

Since the previous accident I really wanted to make the garden more secure, and also to provide a better storm-proof home. We bought a second hand wendy house - when it is painted and cleaned up, it will make a fantastic spacious home for them, which will not only give them plenty of space but will be totally fox proof. We may even adopt more rabbits... I hope to post photos as my project progresses. As I can't afford to pay someone to come and do all the hard landscaping, I will be doing it all myself; I built the fence myself, and the next step will be to lay a new base to stand the wendy house on, and lay a path, etc. It's a bit of a learning curve but I'm very pleased with what I've achieved so far. The only real disadvantage is that my hands are in a bit of a mess (cuts and splinters and very rough skin) so knitting is a bit difficult!

I like the colour of this fence so much - I can't stop looking at it!

Easter Chicks

When my children were at primary school I used to knit little toys for Christmas bazaars, summer fetes etc. At Easter we used to knit dozens of these little chicks to put Cadbury's Creme Eggs in.

I was surprised to find knitted chicks on sale on EBay - so I knitted a few and advertised them - and what do you know, people are buying them. Wouldn't it be nice if more people could knit things like this for themselves? I know that there are lots of knitting groups and people giving lessons - but I'd really like to see children being taught crafts at school. I learned to knit and sew when I was quite small - I think the first thing I knitted was a dishcloth which was probably full of dropped stitches and unravelled on first use, but went on to knitting whole garments. I remember knitting my dad a hideous jumper using horrible blue bri-nylon which must have been a nightmare to wear; it was a bit on the small side and the static must have been terrible when taking it off but he stoically wore it on a few occasions. There is a lot of satisfaction to be had from finishing a project, however small it is. I lurk here a lot, and Julie talks about knitting as therapy. But it's not just knitting or other creative crafts that can help - growing flowers or vegetables, even weeding the garden or tending a window box can provide relaxation, and bring a feeling of relief from everyday stresses. I have a day off work and am going to use the day to complete my latest garden project. I've been replacing my fences - one was an ancient chainlink fence the other other was a crumbling wooden panel fence - both about 40 years old and beyond saving. It's been hard work but the job is nearing completion. Today I will be staining my new featheredge board fence a lovely light green. Photos to follow....

You have to start somewhere

I have wanted to start a blog for a long time, but keep hesitating; who would be interested in my ramblings and opinions? I lurk around in the blogsphere, reading blogs by knitters, crafters, recyclers, mothers, gardeners - people like me. Although I almost never post a comment I feel I am getting to know many of the bloggers I visit regularly and I really like the way people are getting together with people around the world, sharing their views, their achievements, their tragedies. I don't know yet how this will develop, but you have to start somewhere.

I'm a 50+ woman, living in Essex, UK, and mother of two adult children; (AD) my amazing daughter is 20 and away at University and (AS) my amazing son is 18, autistic and lives at home with me, and we have two beautiful rabbits, Bramble and Clover. I like reading, knitting, sewing, gardening and diy. I once imagined my life would be filled with these things, but bringing up children and working didn't allow enough time for these hobbies, but now I am making more time for myself. I am also interested in environmental issues, and wish I had more time for walking and looking at trees and birds.

I hope this blog will be a place I can talk about the things that I enjoy and what I am doing at the moment. I'm going to pick up my knitting now and watch Medium. See you soon.