Free-Range Living

 
 'Small stuff --- '

 'Small consumers ---- '

   Coming now at the end of November to the end of the season on the organic micro-holding (small smallholding) here in the UK midlands, to look forward to some semi-hibernation downtime for a few mid-winter weeks. Always good to have something to look forward to, the next delight here being to shortly trawl through the seed catalogue that arrived here a week or two ago, to then send off for next season's veg seeds, bar peas and beans which mainly use home-saved seed. This seed supplier is a no-fuss outfit, providing good value and sound seed at reasonable prices - often around half the cost of the larger garden centres - and with no pressurised 'hard sell' tactics (don't these rebound in the end in lower long-term 'repeat' sales - ?).

A good outfit to deal with, unlike the electric supply company, a relatively small affair, which used to be ok but seems now though to have gone the self-interested 'we're the big boys' way of the oligopolistic (few powerful sellers) 'big beast' suppliers. The current tariff will finish in a few weeks so this outfit is currently sending repeated e-mailing urging a switch to an alternative tariff but providing zero information as to the cost of it (?) - not too easy then to make an informed decision, and so too not maximum respect for their customers - those 'small consumers' - ? And when more details of the 'new' tariff were looked at, it transpired that it only applied to 'dual fuel' (gas and electric) customers, whereas here in the country there's no gas supply - perhaps they might have worked that out having supplied electric only for several years - ? With a policy now of aiming to try to do business with firms which do seem to have a reasonable respect for the 'small consumer', the upshot will be a definite move to another supplier, the initial search for which already showing huge disparities in price, the highest of which is at precisely double that of the cheapest - it surely 'does pay the small consumer to shop around' ---

'Small production ----- '

 'It's the small things that make life good'    (Sebastion Vettel)

There's still produce for use in the veg patch - celery, beetroot, lettuce, turnips, land cress, winter greens and swedes, along with a few leeks growing apart from the disaster area that is the main leek bed, after its savage alium leaf miner fly attack. Amazing that a small fly can suck the goodness out of a strong and vigorous plant - it was a fine looking bed of leeks - and leave a mis-mash bitter and twisted mess - and the grower 'bitter and twisted' ----- After 30 or so years of leek growing without a problem, suddenley - wham! Last year most of the leeks did in fact recover, helped no doubt by a couple of nettlejuice applications, which in itself was slightly amazing as deep mid-winter is hardly a peak growing period - fingers and everything crossed that there's another nettle juice-induced 'miraculous recovery' this year --- Yesterday lunch was a passable salad from the veg patch - lettuce, land cress (like watercress) and turnip, which was ok for December - surprising, for instance, how hardy lettuce can be.

'Small wood ---- '

 On closer inspection of the paddock, more lopping was the order of the day, several branches within the tall hedge having grown quite heftily. What with the normal trimmings plus the extra heavier loppings, the paddock now looks like a trash area, but no doubt once mid January comes around and after a suitable rest period over December and Xmas, motivation will surface to sort and 'process' it all - there should be quite a bit of burning wood of the smaller variety to be had from it, which won't go amiss. Good too, to have something productive to look forward to, but after that rest ----  The other November job was to use spare stuff around the place to construct a fence and gateway into the paddock area wherein 'The Retreat' do lie ---- Just then makes it a bit more of a 'retreat' area especially when the gate's closed and fastened. The paddock, although small, has high hedges and trees all round, so fits Bette Midler's bill of being 'a green retreat'. It's a quiet area too and does feel like being far away from 'civilisation', sitting there in the 'converandory', contemplating the navel and such ---and pretty relaxing it is too.

'Un-small ---- '. 

  ' Big is best' and 'might is right' might be apposite slogans in today's 'largist' world, but with some saying that the warnings about over-large power groupings in the world posing a threat to democracy that people like George Orwell (1984) and Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) were giving awhile back now, are maybe even more relevant these days - ? Interesting days here in the UK, it having voted to leave the big power block that is the European Community. Maybe if it was, 'as it says on the tin', i.e. a proper 'community' , independent nations coming together sensibly for joint operations in defence, commerce and suchlike, rather than aiming to be a non-community 'conglomerate' one state, which is its seeming direction (politicians calling currently for the creation of the 'United States of Europe), then both 'independence' and 'collectiveness' could both be at the same time well served - ?  At the moment it might seem to many that only the 'power block' option is available, which could be one of the key factors as to why the vote in the UK was to come out of the EC - ?

One of the fears that might well exist could be that leaving a 'power block' whilst living in a 'power block' world, could then lead to being put in a vulnerable position, which presumably is a valid concern, the ' baseline fault' then being the existence of a world organised on 'power block' lines, and which though is probably  unlikely to change anytime soon - ? Ironic really, in that those that have heaviliy espoused the 'free market' laissez-faire approach (which needs a 'many buyers and many sellers' condition to be maintained), appear to have in reality created more of a 'power geared' 'free-for-all' market in which the 'big beast' predators predate on 'small' - not the greatest news for small firms, individuals or even then in the longer-tern, democracy itself - ? One author was issuing just such a warning a little while back, and maybe it wouldn't be too bad an idea to remember brave people in the past who fought for freedom and for rights, quite a few even giving their lives to that cause - ?

 There are though still many smaller, independent countries in the world, so the UK leaving the EC - brave --- or foolhardy - ?  Time will no doubt tell ----

' Small pleasures ----- '

 'Appreciate the small things you normally take for granted : one day you may realise that they were the things that mattered'    (Melchor Lim)

Using 'the retreat' on a daily basis for 'r and r' has lent itself to practising a bit of 'mindfulness', which seems to be quite a movement these days. Here it's a bit of 'individual self therapy' but which can be surprisingly beneficial in terms of gaining 'other takes' on things and getting more pleasure from life. The general idea is to 'watch' what comes up - say, a tendency to 'rush' at things a a bit - but then resisting the apparently common temptation to get self-critically judgemental about what's coming up (recent reports suggest adult females in the UK 'beat themselves up' on average eight times a day). The theory says that this then gives just that bit of time and space for the individual to be able not to 'auto react' to what comes up, i.e. not to automatically go down the 'must get on', rush route - to rather be able, for instance, to choose not to react at all or to respond in a different manner, thus effectively changing automatic response patterns whilst generally increasing 'awareness' and also gaining increased 'inner core strength' ( useful to 'freerangers'? - more on 'mind watching' in Wising Up or Dumbing Down Pt. 2 - coming shortly on book page of freerange living website).

The process does seem to work in practice, with one of the effects here being then able to give more attention to and consciously enjoy more just the small everyday activities involved in 'micro-holding life' (i.e. mental processes now not automatically 'rushing on' to the next thing). Can't be bad, getting more 'output' out of the 'input' - ? It can be surprising how much enjoyment and satisfaction can then be gleaned from relatively small, day-to-day events and activities. Take 'digging in' green manure, for instance, in this case weeds left to grow in the onion bed. The process turns a 'trash' area into pristine 'virgin' soil, it fertilises the ground, it prepares the ground for next planting/sowing, and it exercises the grower - four benefits from one operation - how much satisfaction can one person take - ?

  Oo -ahh - just a thought, could too much enjoyment though, be not a good thing ---- ?!