Long overdue!
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decoy
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pinkie
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decoy
Photos from Gran Canaria
Some photos from Gran Canaria.
Lovely sun, flowers, walks, parks, dunes and… naked golfers. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to photograph the last one!
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decoy
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dodman
Very nice. Such lovely flowers. What are those weird fruits (photo 4)? And where did you see the OrangUtans? I don’t remember a zoo. Shame you didn’t snap one of those stone shelters.
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decoy
Some kind of palm tree fruit i guess – not sure if they were edible. We visited Palmitos Park on the last day where there was a rather bored Orangutan…
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dodman
Squatting
While on the subject of humanure, it seems most compost toilets utilise the same preference for sitting, rather than squatting, popularised by Thomas Crapper himself. This is unfortunate, as the position is implicated in too many health problems to count. However, there is a movement afoot to circumvent this that doesn’t involvce ripping out your prize ceramic throne and replacing it with one of these (available for £50 on ebay):
Such as:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Welles-Step-Easier-Defecation/dp/B000Z03SHM
http://www.naturesplatform.co.uk/
Or, for those who like to make these sorts of thing themselves:
My own construction, based on the lillipad design, is still going strong:
Of course, what we really need is this sort of thing in our back garden (or yard) if we’re lucky enough to have the space:
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slightly
I have been unfortunate enough to have a composting toilet located in my hallway – right between my bedroom and living room. After much lobbying the aforementioned pit of cess has been moved to the downstairs hallway. I can report that due to the excellent quality of sawdust used, that only very rarely does my entire house wreak of doo-doo.
Our research has proved that you just need a bucket, a smattering of privacy and a compost which has a lid on it. Adding paper is good but not too much of the yellow wet stuff.-
decoy
the yellow stuff is good for watering the plants…
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pinkie
Ha ha ha ha ha heeeee heeee heeeee “doo-doo”! Childish I know.
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dodman
Hosepipe flam
Our water supplier hasn’t enforced a hosepipe ban, having plentiful supplies, but it seems what’s needed nationally is some other initiative that does more to stem the flow. According to these two pie charts, which I came across while buying wood in a timber store, of the 21.7% of water used domestically, only 7% is utilised outside. Assuming hosepipes account for that 7%, it means that if everyone stopped all outside water use, there would be an overall saving of 1.5%. Mmm.
Perhaps the most telling aspect of these pie charts is the extraordinary amount of water used in toilet flushing. Apparently, this works out at 6 flushes a day, per person. Possibly, the water companies might be better employed putting their energy into devising an alternative way of dealing with humanure – in particular, urine – that doesn’t involve using more four times more water than ever finds its way into hosepipes.
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slightly
I believe that in the less subtle English parts of the southern hemisphere they have a saying, which goes….ahem; “If it’s brown, flush it down. It’s yellow, let it mellow”. Perhaps we need to adopt the approach of our former penal colonies?
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decoy
there is often a “light” flush option with more modern toilets that uses some fraction of the normal amount of water. maybe this or using it to feed the plants is a better option as letting it mellow does tend to smell after a while….
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pinkie
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pinkie
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decoy
photo catch up
photos from the last two months, incorporating patty’s 80th, Easter and various walks
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pinkie
Awesome photos. Love the one of the leaves with the sun shining through them
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dodman
Mr and Mrs
After six months, some finches have finally found our niger feeder, just outside our kitchen window.
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slightly
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decoy
Some most expert walking:-)
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dodman
Not Spanish
Magnificant though the carpets of bluebells are, I have to say, individually, the brighter, paler blue of the Spanish interloper, as seen in our garden, outshines its smaller, darker British cousin by a country mile.
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slightly
The blue bell show not up to last years – I blame the weather but Nicky, Nicky, Nicky. British bluebells are fine and delicate. They are subtle not brash. They are test cricket not 20Twenty, they are a fine wine, not coca cola. I have never heard anyone say that they were inferior to the Spanish weed
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dodman
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dodman
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pinkie
Very cool. Could you build H a small wooden cottage one day, with little flower boxes under the windows?
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dodman
I certainly could. If you draw me a rough outline, and an indication of size.
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dodman
It’s not cricket
I was surprised to discover that Adam Hollioake had been declared bankrupt; and even more surprised to learn he had taken up a new sport:
http://www.adamhollioake.com.au/
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dodman
Treehouse
First and second storey completed; third still to go.
Although this may look like a couple of pallets crudely nailed together, in reality it’s a complex structure akin to a medieval Siege Tower.
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pinkie
Medieval Siege Tower or the right leg of the Wicker Man :-0
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pinkie
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pinkie
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decoy
Trying out hats in the supermarket
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pinkie
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dodman
Dorset
A great time was had by all, on our Saga “River Cottage Experience” mini break. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting my camera, so was unable to take shots of the Monkton Wylde bread making day, or the final evening River Cottage banquet, cooked by HFW’s right hand man, who everyone was clearly in awe of, from ogling him on the TV.
My favourite moment was seeing the kids from the Waldorf nursery returning from their ‘outdoor activity’ morning as we baked the bread we had made in an outdoor oven. The teachers and children were singing a slow, flowing song, and they were walking in slow motion, too, crossing the fields towards us as if in a trance. It was like watching the Pied Piper.
Butchery instruction at River Cottage:
Mixing chorizo:
Cookery school:
My belly of pork:
Michelle’s belly of pork:
My eclair:
Lyme Regis:
The Cobb:
Gardens:
Tea in Thomas Hardy’s conservatory
decoy 8:53 am on 13/05/2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
It took about 3hrs in the end!