Free-Range Living

'Taking a longer view'----

Time passes and things develop. Strange to think that back along, if 'ape men' hadn't battled for survival, modern man wouldn't probably be here now, all part of a long chain of events, the fact of which the force of 'current culture' can sometimes tend to obscure.

Even in something as small as on the eco 'micro' holding (small organic smallholding) here in the UK midlands, there can be tiny reminders of the past; only this morning a couple of bracken sprouts were spotted in the veg patch - throwbacks from when, maybe two-three hundred years ago, the land the eco micro-holding sits on was all heath land, as indicated from one of the local place names. Indications of more recent history surface too, in the changing nature of the earth after thirty-odd years of organic treatment, now with high organic matter and fertility, and an evident much stronger ability to counter common pests and diseases such as club root, white onion rot and cabbage root fly, which are no longer problems. Might such longer-term benefits, though, probably be foregone in modern cultures seemingly more geared to fast pace, change,  commercialism, quick profits and short-termism - ?

'Bee happy'-----?

The recent ten days of sun and warm weather here have encouraged compensatory growth ('catch up growth'), much needed after the cold and wet non-growing conditions of April/early May.  20% of the seed potatoes were lost, though, just rotting in the ground - something that's never happened here before. Fortunately a local nursery still had a few to be had cheap, so some re-planting was the order of the day. Another 'never before', was the patchy germination in the beetroot bed, a favourite crop, with high taste, dark flesh varieties such as 'Pablo' & 'Action' grown. Planting out 5-6 inch beetroot plants had never featured here, until the very same were spotted for sale in a Normandy small town market last year 'en vacances'. So some were grown in pots and have now been planted out to fill the gaps -looking a bit sad yet still, but, fingers crossed. So all-in-all, could have been worse.

'Two bees--- or not--'

One recent TV programme documented the decline of bees in the countryside, with potentially serious implications for pollination of plants. Apparently they're doing better these days in towns and cities, due to garden flowers, the changes in farming practices being the culprit in the countryside. The decision was taken here to dig up a section of the lawn to make a mini wild flower 'meadow' to make a tiny contribution to their cause, which has come on in leaps and bounds and started to function by flowering, although bees not yet too abundant,  spotted two, though, working the bed just now. In fact, though, a wider check just now over two-three flower areas, revealed 20+ bees hard at work, particularly on some plants such as hibiscus which seem to be a magnet for them.

'Wayfaring freerangers-----'

Meandering through the country and countryside at leisurely pace and with no particular schedule to keep, may not be everybody's cup of tea and again, might not quite 'fit' with any frenetic, fast-paced cultural trends, but it probably isn't too bad an antidote to them, which is what a couple of such freerange wayfarers were saying on chatting to them sitting outside a cafe in a local market town in the pleasant sunshine the other day. They found modern worklife getting too pressurised and demanding for them, so jacked their jobs in, in effect taking early retirement, selling their house, using half the capital to buy an apartment for rental income, the rest invested to supply income via interest and  buying their narrowboat with savings and by also cashing in an insurance policy.  They live at a mooring for the winter, then leisurely travel the UK canal byeways in the summer. living 'simply', more independently and adopting a slow pace of life which has brought them a harvest, they reckon, of more appreciation, especially of nature, of which they now see quite a bit on their travels.

'Give us the geld------'

The freerange wayfarers above now live relatively low-cost lifestyles, but of course they had to organise things to suit, and particularly to cover their on-going (lower) financial needs. They identified these and then found a way to cover them, and in effect 'freed' themselves from the need to chase money. 'Chasing the dollar', though, appears to be a mainsteam facet of today's culture, which may or may not suit. The couple above certainly had to use 'individual strength' to get off the money-chasing treadmill, and working within a certain money level does offer an alternative strategy. It may too mean a certain degree of 'cloth cutting', which to some maybe worth it to feel such a degree of 'money freedom'.

 Operating within a (tighter-?) budget can also offer challenge, and therefore achievment and satisfaction, which may be benefits that money-rich folk could tend to forego-?