Free-Range Living

'Festooned with flowers --- '

 Nature 'makes' the profusion of flowers now flourishing at the eco organic micro-holding (small smallholding) in a quiet corner of the UK midlands, bringing a smile to the face --- there's something of a 'luxurious' feeling being surrounded by the multifarious colours that flowers bring, and something that speaks of 'nature's bounty' ----

Another part here of nature's bounty is the 'greenleaf growth' which again this year with its plentiful supply of sunshine, has been abundant, the small paddock now hemmed in by high hedge and tree growth, to make a quiet green oasis refuge. The micro-holding crops too have been doing well, with potatoes (fingers crossed) promising a good year, and the broad bean  crop doing ok/good. Of course it's rare that everything goes just 'tickety -boo' and just like the last couple of years the onion bed has been badly hit, presumably by the same foe - the dreaded alium leaf miner fly, which sucks the goodness out of the plant and leaves it withered and bedraggled -not exacly a heart-warming sight. After a couple of dowsings with good ol' nettle juice, though, there's distinct signs of revival - fingers crossed again --- . Salad stuff has come on well with good supplies of lettuce, spring onion, radish, baby carrots and land cress (a bit like water cress) - just the ticket in this hot weather right now (end of June). The changed strategy for organic potato growing seems to be bearing -- -well, potatoes. Half the crop was put in early - late Feb/early March under plastic - and have grown on well and are yielding a useful crop. The other half was put in quite a bit later - early June and has currently strong green vigorous growth, compared with the yellow-ing tops of those sown earlier, so hopefully will be able to 'beat the blight'. The variety is Pentland Javelin, of which a seed catalogue yielded the surprising information that although a first early, it can be grown on as an early maincrop.

'Making headway ----'

 North Devon in the UK was the recent travel destination for a nine-day break, and glorious it was, with stunning countryside, stunning coast, and stunning weather, and together with being also uncrowded and untrammelled,  mean't that a real 'restorative' rest break was enjoyed - just the biz after quite a busy spring. Nice to get away for a break, and then nice to come back to the little ol' homestead ----.

Travelling closer to home the other day in a favoured off the beaten track  'green' area, with its very own sense of 'timelesness', the car nosed round the corner in a green deserted lane to come accross seven wee ducklings sitting in a line over the road - no sign of Ma - ? An unusual sight - maybe enjoying the warmth of the tarmac in the road itself - ? The green-leaf lane here at the micro-holding has flourished producing a plethora of plants but with distinct differences between the two sides. Walking up it, the right-hand side has an eight foot high hedge fronted by a six-feet border, with flowers from red campion, mauve dead-nettles, white bramble, white and pink wild roses, off-white clover, tall red/peuce foxgloves, tall small white daisy-like and yellow flowers, tiny pale blue forget-me-nots and in profusion in the hedge itself, lots of pale yellow honeysuckle, plus lovely tall grass seed heads, all making a good show, along with grass, nettles and bracken. The other side of the lane, though, has very little honeysuckle and few other flowers, plenty of grass and nettles, and is virtually festooned with cleavers, of which there's virtually none the opposite side. Ah well, the mysteries of nature -----

' Making and doing ---- '

Kevin McLoud of lifestyle UK TV programmes renown, was on TV the other night proclaiming the benefits in terms of satisfaction and enjoyment of 'doing and making', over 'purchasing and consuming' - the former he was suggesting was the route to satisfactions, the latter the reverse - interesting.  'Doing and making' has been the order of the day since getting back from the break, with the builders having then created quite a bit of work on the re-decorating front for 'new' bedroom and utility rooms. Then there's been fitting the re-cycled kitchen units in the utility room, plus of course the normal micro-holding workload. The current 'to do' list looks quite full :

  cut more nettles for the nettle juice tub, plant out runner bean and leek plants, clear away unused kitchen unit type stuff, re-fix light to the understairs cupboard, re-fix bedroom curtain poles, hoe onion bed, pick and freeze broad beans, clear creeper growth off outside wall, more straw into chicken pen, soft fruit to pick, sweep woodstove chimney, hoe the onion bed, sort a row of peas, fix some guttering, trim roadside hedges, plant left-over onion sets, plant more salad stuff - then start painting the back of the cottage.

Ah well,  it's surprising how it all comes to pass, good to remember too the old Dorset farmer of some years ago : 'tek yer time, me boyo, tek yer time'. Keeps a body (mostly) out of mischief , and away from boredom, always having 'something to go at', not too much at the same thing though, rotating the jobs to gain spice of life via a bit of variety. Taking it steady - 'doing a bit and leaving a bit', as they say, and trying to remember to 'smell the roses along the way'. And then somewhere along the line - lo and behold, hopefully some of Kevin McLoud's 'enjoyment and satisfaction', which to be fair, is generally the case.

Making faux pas  - ?

Fairly abrupt service was the order of the other day on going to a large outfit to buy a phone, with the noticably uncommunicative assistant giving a good impression of not wanting to make too much effort or impart too much information , which reminded that although individuals as customers are miniscule small in the scheme of things, they do have that little bit of power at spending time, which actually may then translate to a bit of collective power when deciding that their treatment was not ok, the firm in question then suffering from lack of repeat and/or referred sales, then having to try to drum up business by ever more 'offers' and suchlike - -?

   'Doing the 'right thing' may in practice be actually doing the wrong thing' --- so said H, an aquaintance. When asked how he made that out, he related his tale. He'd bought quite a decent motor, after running 'old bangers', as he put it, up to then. He then thought he'd better upgrade the garage service he used, moving from his customary local small garage to a larger dealership outfit concerned with the make of his latest car - 'doing the right thing', or so he thought. Apparently the bigger outfit proved to be fine when the routine operations were called for, such as servicing, but there always seemed to be a hindrance when he had an emergency such as the car being stuck on the driveway not starting.

 'There was always a reason such as staff illnesses/shortages as to why they couldn't/wouldn't help me out when I needed urgent assistance', he said. The upshot of it that after such experiences, H went back to using his local garage.

 'Whenever I had a problem and needed urgent assistance, such as one time a dead car in the local supermarket carpark, the local garage guys would always come to assist, often within thirty minutes, so really, they are the ones as far as I'm concerned, giving the good service.' 

Maybe still after all and in spite of any fancy media rhetoric, 'actions do speak louder than words', as they say, people not always being necessarily gullible, and those that really do strive to meet customers' needs,  win out in the longer-run - ?

 'On the make ----- ?'
 
 Here in the UK the energy company regulator is reported to have embarked on another investigation into the practices of the few large energy firms, which an enquiry has recently also established that they've used their oligopolistic (few large powerful suppliers) power to over-charge customers . Apparently they've been busy putting quite a number of lower income clients onto a meter system, which then just happens to involve a higher rate tariff. Is this another wheeze of theirs to maximise their profits, but without much in the way of social consideration, considering the regulator appears to be concerned that they could be 'targetting' the poorer members of society - ? The 'not-so-white' record of these large energy outfits had them at one stage, for instance,  apparently  allegedly offering cheaper packages to attract customers, only for them to prove dearer in reality. But, it might be argued, weren't they just following the 'call of the culture', following the single-dimensioned track of 'profit maximisation', being 'on the make' - ? Perhaps another example of a too single-dimensioned culture, with then by default other dimensions (particularly maybe social, individual and environmental?) getting too short shrift -  the multi-dimensional reality in need of a multi-dimensional 'management' approach - ?

'Making, and --doing ---'

The aforementioned Kevin Mcloud's latest TV programmes have featured 'pioneer' self-reliant folk who've  made their own highly independent lives in far-flung out-of-the-way places in the world -their resourcefulness and developed skills have surely been nothing less than extraordinary. The same can be said for the 'pioneers' closer to home he has featured in programmes. One guy, Ben, had been living semi-rough for a number of years in the wood he owned and worked in, then, with the help of some friends, building a wooden house, lined with straw bales for insulation - a highly efficient 'eco' house at a fraction of the normal cost, and utilising the natural resources on hand i.e. his own wood and locally grown straw. Some people still retain awesome 'doing and making' skills and motivations --- bio-diversity applying to people as well as other areas of nature - ?

'Making ---mini waves ----'

The strength of focus for the 'heavy materialism' behind the 'purchasing and consuming' trend may well suit some - others may have reservations. One UK report indicated that it was official policy that future growth and wealth creation depended on a doubling of personal debt levels and rising property values, which some might suggest as not being a particularly firm foundation - ? (there is an organisation -'Debt Resist' - dedicated to challenging the debt driven basis to UK society). One recent UK TV programme featured the considerable level of loans from banks to local authorities (called 'lobo's') and the high rates of interest being charged, suggesting that this caused unneccessary cutbacks in community sevices, these loans apparently often being protected by stiff penalty clauses if the authorities wanted to re-finance their considerable borrowings, bringing the 'restrictive practices' question into focus - ? One well-known author, concerned at the potential dents to democracy and individual freedoms  of creeping commercialism and its effects, (including heavy  indebtedness), stated that it was important to be 'on guard' ----

 Back at the 'balming oasis' that is the micro-holding, it's quite interesting to culture watch, even if the feeling can be that a 'wrong road' maybe being taken - ? Talking of roads, that vehicle damage to the house border on the lane outside won't mend it self - better get at a bit of 'doing and mending ----'