A New Chapter

Well, unbelievably, it seems that the wait is over - we've sold our house! It's for a lot less than its pre-credit crunch value, but it's great to have the liability of a mortgage I don't have the income to service gone. It feels like a tonne weight off my back.

Happily, we are all signed up for our new home , a rented cottage on a small sporting estate only 6 miles away. There is plenty of space for vegetable growing, chicken keeping and lots of other little plans that have been on hold for a while - everything from making mosaics through keeping bees to soap making.

I'm looking forward to a summer of pottering about and making a start at:

building a top bar bee hive

starting a "no dig" vegetable and fruit garden

putting up a polytunnel

trying to build in as many Permaculture practices as possible into my life

Breeding my favourite Croad Langshan poultry

Maybe even keep a few Abacot Ranger ducks

being able to do all this in a settled and meditative way, no pressure, no deadlines, but just pride in doing it all as well as possible.

Gentle Pursuits for the PWME - No 5

Greenwood working is an interest that I've been gestating for awhile, and that I hope to put into action after our move. I was watching demonstrations of greenwood working at the Big Tent, and was again struck how much can be done with few tools and little expense given some time and ingenuity.

Here's a good place to learn a little about the craft, and here's a good looking source for the requisite kit.

Gentle Pursuits for the PWME - No 4

Honey bees are having a very hard time at present, a fact that has some serious implications for those of us with rather fewer legs and no wings.

Here is the biobees site, which offers an alternative to the the chemical-dependent orthodoxy of beekeeping, using hives that can be made of cheap and easily-found materials such as scrap pallets. This is a project very high on my "things to do"list . A low cost, low input system, compatible with a Permaculture approach, and the limitations imposed by ME.

Gentle Pursuits for the PWME - No 3

When I had energy and money, I used to build electric guitars for my musical son. With a few short-cuts, courtesy of Warmoth, this isn't an insuperable task, and the results can be utterly stunning. I've built a Stratocaster copy, and a Telecaster. I've also modified an Epiphone Les Paul with completely new electronics, hugely improving the tone, and including some fancy switching so it can reproduce the sound of Peter Green's "out of phase" Les Paul of the original Fleetwood Mac glory days. The pickups for the Strat and the Les Paul came from the redoubtable Bill Lawrence, whereas the Tele has Wizard pickups. I'll know I'm feeling better when I sit down with Douglas, my son, to plan the next instrument.

Gentle pursuits for the PWME - No 2

Grow some food! Here's a video of how to build a keyhole garden: (Those of us who are feeling really shoogly could get Persons without ME to build it, and just do the aftercare)

Gentle pursuits for the PWME - No 1

Google Delia Smith's lemon curd recipe

OK - Here it is!

Use a bain marie, not the saucepan she suggests - you'll thank me for that tip come the washing up. If you keep bantams (and you should!) you'll need six bantam eggs instead of the four large eggs the sainted Delia proposes.

This is a quick and easy recipe - but it will put you off the shop bought stuff forever - it produces wonderful results.

Enjoy!