Newhouse Farm

karena · Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 11:48 am Post subject:

i was brought up in the country on waste not want not and have almost always been surrounded by nature - my mum taught me all the names of birds wildflowers etc round here -and i was always rescuing animals as a kid (though i suspect they didnt always need rescuing) My step father was a chemist and he banned cfc type aerosols in our house long before it became a well known issue - but i did rebel against it -i was very much a member of the throw-away society for a good few years.
I went back to camping when we found an old tent in the shed and took it out for a laugh then i realised just how much i enjoyed being outdoors.
Before she died my mum spent a lot of time sitting watching the birds in our garden and i got feeders etc to encourage them and give her something to occupy her - that was the start of a sudden re-kindling of interest in nature -from which naturally springs interest in the environment and what i could do i my own little way.

janemiss · Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:45 am Post subject:

I too am like you Karen, it was only in my late 30's (im now 42) i realised where i was going wrong & what i was doing wasnt how i wanted to live, HFW also helped fuel this idea
My neighbours where we used to live thought i was very strange when i got the small greenhouse up & running, hardly went inside a supermarket, started recycling everything i could, started scrounging their old jars etc and making most of my own bread, jam etc. I too dont EVER go clothes shopping, i either scavage off friends/relatives etc, sometimes i'll buy from a charity shop but recently all my clothes have been from freecycle offereds which ive been lucky enough to get, and anything that hasnt been any use to me has been re-freecycled. Im still wearing a pair of black elasticated waist trousers i had when i was 22 stone and im now 12 !!, now thats a case of make do & mend.
The old neighbours would certainly think i'd lost the plot if they knew about margot & barbera

karen · Mature Oak Joined: 16 May 2006 Posts: 434

Although i said i came into it quite late ,when i was a little girl up to the age of about 13 i was always out with my next dooor neighbour walking the dogs in the woods. we would walk for miles and she taught me all the names of the birds and sometimes we would go out early or lateiish in the evening and watch the deers come out of hiding. we would pick blackberries etc,and i would help her in the garden,and we would sit and shell the peas and broedbeans etc. so it was always there,i just sort of got lost along the way !! i have always been a tomboy. my mum was a very clean person probably known these days as OCD she hated it when i came in filthy from ome of my many trips to the woods !!! my neighbour never had children but kids were attracted like magnets, she is in her late 80s now and i still go every week to do her cleaning, it brings back so many memories and we still talk about our trips. we were chased by many a herd of cows . and now im back in it all and i love it and cant think why i left in the first place,and i never forgot what she taught me.

FerrellFemale · Hazel Seedling Joined: 31 Aug 2009 Posts: 3

I was brought up in a small village in Yorkshire, and we never used a supermaket. My parents kept rabbits for meat and grew there own veg.
As i got older I started to get lazy, all my veg and meat now comes from a supermarket. I moved to a town center about 6 years ago and it feels like my soul has died.

We are now in the process of moving to the country. I can't say I'm a 100% eco-treeloving mum. But i'm no my way.

janemiss · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:13 am Post subject:

Where was that FF ? Im from yorkshire?

karena · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 2:52 pm Post subject:

me too.
We had visitors over the weekend - both from urban areas - They commented several times on how tasy the meat and stuff they ate here was,how when they made stuff at home they always felt they had to add salt for flavour - yet i dont have any in the house just use a few herbs - how amazing i just went out and picked the breakfast tomatoes and how they wished they could get hold of decent food at home.- This was all their observation not me banging on about it - i didnt even know theyd spotted me getting the tomatoes.I am an appaling cook so its the food not the cooking but It was so nice to finally not have the micky taken for not shopping in the supermarkets and growing my own and certainly encouraging me toward greater things next year.

janemiss · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:04 pm Post subject:

Doesnt that just make you swell with pride Karena, i know i would be, simple things like that always seem to be the greatest pleasures.
I didnt have any luck at all this year with my pathetic little greenhouse, nothing ripened and ive just left the peppers out on the patio & done away with the greenhouse after it collapsed for the last time a couple of weeks ago, since then the peppers have all flourished & even some of the toms are ripening. I took a dozen eggs to a workmate the other day as we had a glut, and some of the others who didnt know i had a couple of chooks were really interested in them & what else i do they werent aware of! One of the residents daughters is always telling everyone about me, about my 2 chooks, all my jam & bread making, & coffee roasting etc, stuff i just do without thinking but other people think its totally weird, when you can just nip to a supermarket some people will never lose the blinkers