Of Hearth and Home...

I have accepted that this year I will not be preserving my own personal harvest :( so I'm doing the next best thing ; buying in-season fruit and veg and processing it. There are some great pick-your-own farms and farm stalls close by to our new home in Devon so I have penciled in a few trips to these farms/stalls to bring in a different sort of harvest this year :)

In the mean time however, necessity calls. I mentioned a couple of posts back that I had opened my last jar of homemade chutney a few weeks ago. Sad that it is the last jar but WOW - it's the best jar so far! 7 months of the chutney maturing and I realize that the longer it sits in the jar the better :)

So - two batches of chutney were canned this past weekend. 

Caramelized Red Onion Chutney - I only got 3 jars out of this batch.

...and Peach Apricot chutney. I got quite a few jars out of this batch - 9 in all. I found some great DIY chalk board type labels on Pinterest. I love the simple, rustic look that the labels give. Happily my grocery cupboards are once again well stocked with chutney. There's something quite satisfying in seeing all those pretty jars filled with your hard work lining the shelves.

On the needles: a pair of socks, one down and half way through the second sock. I love hand knitted socks - there really is nothing like them. I have a good few pairs but some are getting old and worn so I need to restock the sock basket :)

In the past I have used the same simple sock pattern which get's kind of boring, so I am on a mission to try new sock patterns. This one is Hermiones Everyday Socks. For this particular pair of socks I have omitted the pattern and simply used stockinette stitch. I felt that the yarn was so pretty that I didn't want the pattern taking away from it's self-striping design. 

So a productive creative week at Moor View Cottage and hopefully more creativity to happen over the weekend :)

Getting Green About Water

In our previous two homes here in England our water consumption has been estimated. The reason for this is that both properties were well over 150 years old and there apparently is no legislation that makes it law to have a water meter fitted. Our current home however was built in the 1980's and these younger homes are required to have water meters.

Imagine my surprise when our first water bill arrived and it was double our 'normal' tariff. I was convinced that there was something wrong and had the water board engineers and then a plumber come and check for leaks. After my third phone call to our water supplier, the helpful call center lady explained how 'water' works in England. She was also kind enough to let me know that Severn Trent Water supplies FREE water saving devices and that you can order these on their website.

I thought that this was a fantastic idea as I am trying to 'green' up our home at the moment anyway and I'm sure we use more water than we need to so being aware is a good thing. Not only that but hopefully it will end up saving us a bit of money.

 After quite a bit of searching on their site I managed to find the order page. This page is not easy to find and nor is the information that you can get these devises free readily available as far as I'm concerned. Why it took a third rather irate call from me to get this information I have no idea. But for those of you who live in England I thought I would share the link. Please do pass on the link to fellow Brits who are unaware of these products.

Our water saving devices arrived on Saturday and I commissioned my DH to install the lot. The most interesting and eye opening little gadget is the shower timer. We spend much longer in the shower than I originally thought! Now we flip the timer and see if we can get the necessary done before all the grains have fallen into the bottom hour-glass.

Now all we have to do is wait and see if being aware of what water we use affects the water bill!

Frugal Housekeeping

This week I came across a great deal on apples. It was too good a deal to pass up, so a bought a couple of packets.. During winter, I find that the girls don't eat nearly enough fruit, so I have to be a bit creative in this area. I pop frozen berries collected from the hedgerows onto hot oats porridge,  bake apple crumbles, fruit muffins (apple, blueberry etc), and banana breads. With the extra apples I bought this week, I made a couple of apple crumbles for the freezer. There was enough crumble topping left over to freeze for future crumbles ;o)

Today I also got round to making my own laundry detergent. It was so quick and easy. I used a recipe from Rhonda over at Down To Earth blog. I'm looking forward to seeing how many loads I get out of this and how clean my laundry comes out.

I printed off a pretty label from the Graphics Fairy just to add a little happy whimsy to my laundry days.

In the upcoming week I want to mix up some window cleaner, knit a few more dishcloths, and stitch a few cards for birthdays that are on the horizon.

Hope you are all having a snugly week-end. We are expecting our first snowfall on Sunday night/Monday. Apparently we can look forward to about 4 inches, so the girls are terribly excited *smile*. Right now I am off to get a nice beef and red wine casserole on the go and then grab a nice hot cuppa tea! :o)

Frugal Housekeeping

This week I came across a great deal on apples. It was too good a deal to pass up, so a bought a couple of packets.. During winter, I find that the girls don't eat nearly enough fruit, so I have to be a bit creative in this area. I pop frozen berries collected from the hedgerows onto hot oats porridge,  bake apple crumbles, fruit muffins (apple, blueberry etc), and banana breads. With the extra apples I bought this week, I made a couple of apple crumbles for the freezer. There was enough crumble topping left over to freeze for future crumbles ;o)

Today I also got round to making my own laundry detergent. It was so quick and easy. I used a recipe from Rhonda over at Down To Earth blog. I'm looking forward to seeing how many loads I get out of this and how clean my laundry comes out.

I printed off a pretty label from the Graphics Fairy just to add a little happy whimsy to my laundry days.

In the upcoming week I want to mix up some window cleaner, knit a few more dishcloths, and stitch a few cards for birthdays that are on the horizon.

Hope you are all having a snugly week-end. We are expecting our first snowfall on Sunday night/Monday. Apparently we can look forward to about 4 inches, so the girls are terribly excited *smile*. Right now I am off to get a nice beef and red wine casserole on the go and then grab a nice hot cuppa tea! :o)

Greening Up...

Before leaving South Africa, there were many things that I did that I suppose you would consider 'green'. I made my own home cleaning liquids, used reusable shopping bags, knitted my own dishcloths, recycled, reused and reduced etc... With the big move so much of that fell by the wayside as other things occupied my mind and time. When I see how many of the things that formed part of my daily rhythm fell away, I realise how very disrupting and traumatic a major move is.

Recently I have been thinking more on the small things that were helpful to the environment and at the same time brought me so much pleasure. As I contemplated getting back into making my own cleaning detergents, I asked myself why I would want to do these things. Why would I want to make my own laundry detergent rather than buy it? Why make my own all purpose cleaner/window cleaner/soap etc... rather than buy it. I can't say that I am particularly motivated by the money savings as I have not yet done accurate costings of making my own, nor have I tracked how long it would last compared to store-bought. This may of course change over the coming weeks. What was it that I was going to gain by making my own? I want to do this for reasons that are real and relevant to me - not just because it's a craze sweeping the blogosphere or any group for that matter.

Am I concerned with doing this for the environment? Well - yes - I am. I do not believe that this world is going to end because of global warming, or pollution, or any of the other environmental horrors we are bombarded with. As a believer, I believe that the Lord will come before any of that can come to pass and that people should be more concerned with the state of their spiritual lives than with global warming!

But - as we have been given stewardship of the earth by God, then we should BE good stewards. That means being concerned with what I am pumping into the water system, with how many plastic bags I contribute to the landfills, with the amount of toxins that leave my home and seep into the air, earth and water table. How much water we use and energy we consume. All these things should concern me and I should do my best to reduce the strain on the planet. YES, I want to do and make all these small things for that reason.

Another reason is simply - because I like to. I get tremendous satisfaction from making my own. If I can, then why not. I enjoy consuming the fruits of my labour. I feel empowered because I know that I can be and am resourceful and frugal. I know a way other than the conventional 'store-bought' way of doing things. My grandmother would always use the phrase, 'store bought!' with much exclamation and horror if she found that we bought what we could otherwise have made. She was from WW2 era - enough said.

So, with my motives sufficiently scrutinised, I am returning to my Eco-loving, green embracing, frugal laundry detergent and home cleaning product making ways. I have ordered my supplies for my laundry liquid and I can't wait to get it all bubbling on the stove and into my very own, prettily personalised containers. (Graphics Fairy has a huge range of beautiful free graphics you can download to make your own labels).

It seems that 2013 is going to be full of greening up, growing our own, crafting, creating and of course learning at home. What exciting times ahead! I would love hear about your green living. What do you do? Do you make or grow your own?