Showing posts with label permaculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label permaculture. Show all posts

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Back to Busy

OK, for the last post I was just having a bad couple of days- the last few days have been so busy they've flown by!
We've been out of the house every day, and that's included trips to fabric shops. I've had making a baby bag in mind, and found some gorgeous fabric. Bombay Stores in Bradford was nice for haberdashery side of things, and some very fancy fabrics to oggle, but for fabric choice Fabworks in Dewsbury just can't be beat (yet- happy to be proved wrong!). DH did the driving, which meant I wasn't too tired to wander around trying to decide, and failing miserably. My fabric stash is growing - which must be the same as the slugs in the allotment- as our plants don't seem to get chance to grow!

We fit in an educational trip to Ikea. It was going to be backup fabric shop, but instead it was lunch and discussions about Fire Regs, evacuation signs, sprinkler systems and alarms- we timed our visit to coincide carefully with the end of a fire alarm evacuation.

Big One saw the ironing board out (I only seem to iron fabric for sewing projects) and wanted a go, so who am I to stop her? The lowest height is just nice for her, so she was so happy ironing some sewing fabric we set off later to something she wanted to go to! Long may it last.... Little One was interested, but a bit too wary of the safety info- thankfully I reckon- she's a bit easily distracted so I can imagine her ironing fingers.
I inadvertently bought spirulina powder rather than capsules last time I shopped, and today my solution to that problem arrived- a capsule maker! The girls and I have got a bit messy filling a few dozens of capsules this evening, but its better than wasting a whole big bottle of powder (I really can't stand the taste), and a bit of interesting fun too.

The last few days have also included gymnastics, our regular weekly group and also fit in a trip over to Lancashire to have a look at a pushchair and carseat for bump- getting organised at last. If we're lucky we'll sort out the birth pool tomorrow... And so much for home ed being at home!

At Walsden there's an amazing permaculture place behind Gordon Rigg's- wow. We just had a quick look around, with DH telling me bits from the visit I missed a couple of weeks back, and I can see why he and our friends are so inspired. They've been there less than 2 years, have amazing (well made) raised beds, polytunnels- with passive heat stores, 100s of tree saplings grafted, a series of ponds (alas, a plethora of midges too)- its had some money invested in the infrastructure which really shows, compared to other places we've visited and is looking really, really interesting. I was a bit exhausted by the time we got there though, and Little One has been under the weather today, the others were hungry so we'll just have to plan to go back when we can ask intelligent questions/and/or get stuck in and work.

Looking forward to a few quieter days with the allotment and sewing- or whatever the girls come up with!

Saturday, 9 June 2012

Good Days, Bad Days

Right now it feels like my blog is a misnomer. I'm not busy. Well, I am, if you count sitting down, lying down and sleeping as busy. Watching family life happen around me, explaining that although we planned x, y and z I'm not up to even thinking about x at the moment.
I've finished work, and had a few days feeling great. Tired, but great. Then I realised I'd run out of iron tablets, and have had a few days of not taking quite as many (well, feeling great, busy, etc, it wasn't my priority). Oops. I'm hoping I'll go back to having a bit of bounce when I get more tablets. Loads of Spatone doesn't seem to hit the spot the same way.

The last couple of days I've been at my best just after the girls have gone to bed, after spending the mornings shattered, the afternoons napping and then slowly coming round from sleep. Its frustrating.

I know life slows down when pregnant, and I'm truly grateful I don't need to worry about being fit for work anymore- that really is a huge weight off my mind. My last day was Jubilee Tuesday, and I had my first pregnancy 'ohh, I know how to do this but I can't find the right button' moment.  My poor patient had to be very understanding while we swapped rooms so I could do my job, but at least there was a solution, and an hour later I could do that task just fine, without thinking. Glad that if it had to happen, it was on my last day.

I'm finding my head is going all over the place these days- I've had a few great days, full of plans and ideas, and considering 'big thoughts'. That ranges from when we'll plan to move again, and where we want to end up (DH has been to an inspirational permaculture place which has thrown in a whole new range of things to consider), to reading about Bobby Kennedy- wow, he sounded to have amazing things to say, especially for back in the 60s.
Here's a bit from wikipedia that caught my eye:



A good idea of his proposals come from the following extract of a speech given at the University of Kansas.







“ If we believe that we, as Americans, are bound together by a common concern for each other, then an urgent national priority is upon us. We must begin to end the disgrace of this other America. And this is one of the great tasks of leadership for us, as individuals and citizens this year. But even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction—purpose and dignity—that afflicts us all. Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product—if we judge the United States of America by that—that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs that glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.[48]


Wow. I know its all what ifs, but what if he had been elected president? What if he had actually been able to implement his words? How different would the world be today?

DH and I are very conventional compared to many our friends, but yet still have many who consider us a long way from mainstream, its a funny place to be. A friend mentioned to me this week  'Well, you probably even go to the dentists, you pay council tax- how unconventional is that?!' Good point. Anyway, back to Bobby, if the world changed the way he was heading with it (prioritising things I think are important!), we'd be completely mainstream.
However, as he mentioned above 'integrity in public officials' -I wouldn't believe a politician today who said anything like the above, let alone have any faith they could implement it. So it comes back to politicians who run entire countries yet you wouldn't trust them to care for your loved ones...when did corruption and manipulation become so acceptable?

On to other things- I've dug out an old sheet this evening that's ready for a new life, so have a few baby sheets to hem and finally getting around to starting to make some mama pads. I've got as far as considering a baby bag- specifically an Onbag, but it still feels a bit much. Some days it feels like tempting fate to prepare for baby- I don't know if I'm just having normal pregnancy paranoia, or if my perspective is tilted from work, or something else is going on. I know getting to this point doesn't mean having a live, or neccesarily well baby. Babies die at any stage in pregnancy, when they're born, or just after. Often with no 'reason' or explanation.
 With Big One I had firmly in my head 37 weeks, after that point I could consider having a live baby to figure out. That stage was from a young mum I scanned in my first year qualified, came in for a relatively routine scan, had felt baby move that morning- but I had to tell her that her baby was dead- a complete shock to her. I don't remember being quite as concerned when expecting Little One, but I'm sure I had my moments. Since Little One two bloggers I follow have had babies who died at birth/a few days old, and I sometimes it feels like tempting fate having a third child. This time around, well, I've felt so ill all pregnancy I've barely had the energy to think,let alone consider the future when bump lands- but I've talked to both girls so they are aware babies can grow fine inside mummies tummies but not always live when they are born. I really hope that I'm just having a gloom and doom day today. Thursday was a really positive day, and that wasn't long ago.