Leaving London and downshifting to become a full-time parent and rural homemaker
Until recently I was always the one cursing under my breath each time I parked at the supermarket and yet again FORGOT to make sure I had brought a 1 pound coin with me for the trolley deposit. Acres of trolleys waiting for me to put my two little children in and do my weekly [...]
I was incensed today from just a quick 5 minute visit to the local recycling centre in our new Worcestershire home town. We just had a few lager cans, bottles and some cardboard to recycle and I didn’t want it hanging around the house so my daughter and I went to get rid of it.
We [...]
Because we radically downshifted three months ago we are on a long-term aim to reduce the amount of ’stuff’ in our house, to minimise the amount we spend as a family on thngs we don’t really *need* and to make sure we home cook healthy family meals twice a day I have become a frequent [...]
We make bread using our breadmaker most evenings so that we have a nice fresh loaf in the morning and it is very cost effective as each 53p bag of flour makes about four loaves.
Because the bread is preseravtive-free we find that we often have chunky stale ends of loaves to use up.
One of the [...]
Whilst on the way to taking the kids pre-school yesterday I saw a group of three people who appeared to be looking for something on the ground at the edge of the village field by the car park. ‘Oh look’ I said to the children ‘that man must have lost something very small and he [...]
School becomes one of many resources, such as libraries, computers, television, etc., to be used when the child and the parents choose, according to a contract between them [...]
A lack of landfill space is reaching a crisis situation. By composting our own garden and kitchen waste we are each able to do our bit towards reducing the amount of landfill space needed for refuse.
We’ve never had a garden as big as the one we now have. When we lived in London we had [...]
Janet, my neighbours gardener, is a good person to know as she has a head full great countryside knowledge. Last week when she came to have coffee with my grandmother and me she very kindly brought me a jar of honey from her bees and a newly planted Aloe Vera ‘puppy’. She told me that [...]