Green Rosie Life Blogging Break

I am taking a small blogging break and will be back writing again in due course.

That said, I am still posting my Daily Green Tips over on Facebook so please do visit the page every day to see them: https://www.facebook.com/greenrosielife/

And I am still blogging regularly over on my Eco-Gites of Lenault website where I am writing a blog a week in a series called 365 things to see and do in Normandy.  The first one I wrote was all about Eco-Friendly Normandy.

The gite is back open again after lockdown with Covid-19 protocols in place.  We are booked all summer but if you are looking for an autumn break in Normandy, France come and stay with us!  More details about the gite can be found here: https://www.eco-gites.eu/.

Oh and I am also busy with a Facebook group I help run called: Book Your Holiday Direct with the Owner: Book direct so you get the best service and pay NO booking fees!

Finally just time to say .... 

What you might think I'm doing over the summer ...

What I am actually doing over the summer ...

and some of this ...

And maybe rather too much of this:

Do drop me a comment with what you are up to over the summer or just to say hello!

My kitchen table - my life

This was my kitchen table yesterday and I realised that it summed up my life so well and what I hope to achieve on a daily basis.  Let me take you on a journey round my kitchen table/life ...

Starting top left and going clockwise:

Bowl of bread dough rising - this one is pumpkin bread and it turned out really tasty.  The sharp eyed among you may notice the dough is covered with plastic and you would be right.  It is a bag that had tortilla wraps in it and after being used several times to freeze things it split so got downgraded to a bread cover.

My 13 year old Nokia phone - yup, I really do have an original Nokia and it is at least 13 years old.  Dare I ask how many phone upgrades you have had in 13 years?

2 tea towels - these came from my Mum's house after we cleared it out.  We tried to salvage as much as possible of things that could not be given to charity or sold on/recycled.

Is it Weird to be Green?

Weird

/wɪəd/

adjective

1. Suggestive of or relating to the supernatural; eerie

2. Strange or bizarre

Source - Thesaurus.com

I ask this because several times recently I have been reading green blogs where the writer has used the word weird.  There was Susie's Weird Green Christmas and Ness mentioned that you could still be green at work without being branded the office weirdo.  But both these are lovely ladies and they are most definitely not weird in my book and they were writing about things that should be totally normal - about reducing and reusing, about taking steps towards a better world.  So why should these ideas be seen as weird especially when you realise that the first antonym given in my online dictionary for weird is NATURAL?  And look at all these other antonyms from the thesaurus ....

weird. (n.d.). Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition. Retrieved January 24, 2017 from Thesaurus.com website http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/weird

Being Green might be perceived as being weird but in our weird world it is really the other way round.  Being Green is genuine, good, natural, usual and I hope, it time, it will become normal and ordinary, what everyone does every day without even thinking and not doing these should be seen as being weird.  I, for one, am proud to be green and if that means I am also labelled weird then I am happy to go with that ... but I do hope in time the tables will turn and it will be those who do not embrace green principles who will be seen as being weird.  In a time of great environmental uncertainty under the current leadership of America, we need to work even harder to make green normal.

Are you proud to be green and by association also proud to be the one of the weird ones?

Violence and anger are not the the way forward. Choose kindness

Today the world enters a time of uncertainty.

A lot of people are scared.

My social media channels are full of disbelief and a feeling of helplessness.

Whilst we cannot change the bigger picture we can all make a difference.  We need to show the world that we are decent people.  Yes, we are all different and we all have different views.  For goodness sake there are some pretty big things that my very best friends and I differ over but we respect each others' opinions.  If we have nothing nice to say we don't say anything but overall we agree to disagree and move on.  We never resort to name calling and certainly not violence.

Violence and anger are not the the way forward.

Choose kindness.

So today I write this to you.

Today, be nice to people:

Smile at a stranger.

Help someone with no expectation to receive anything in return

Build bridges not walls

Help those less fortunate than yourself

Contact a friend you have not heard from in a while 

Hold the door open for someone

Check on an vulnerable neighbour

Choose kindness today and every day.

Why the public should never have voted in an EU referendum

Tomorrow Great Britain will wake to the day after the EU referendum with the majority of the population possibly nursing a hangover but for such different reasons.  I wanted to take a moment to think about the referendum and why I think it should never have taken place.

Every British citizen in the UK from the age of 18 upwards had a right to vote, including those who had left the UK less than 15 years ago - so that included me as I left 9 years ago.  Democracy is a right not afforded to everyone in the world and for that we should be grateful.  So why I am I saying we should not have had an EU referendum? 

This is why:

The public was been given the chance to vote on something where the outcome would have far reaching effects on the social, political and economic future of Great Britain yet I fear many had no understanding of what remaining or leaving would actually entail.   The information fed to the public, on both sides was, in a mixture of half truths, misinformation, confusing statistics, propaganda with just a spattering of good factual information tucked underneath if you took the time to hunt it down or even knew where to look.  Add then add to this a scary amount of hate propaganda to really spice things up.

So what if you based your vote on the half truths, misinformation, confusing statistics, propaganda or hate? 

A few days ago I was talking to a friend, a lady in her 60s who has worked hard all her life in low paid jobs and brought up 3 children (one with learning difficulties) without state help. She was thinking about voting out because she believed Great Britain puts far too much of HER money into the EU and this will only increase as other countries are allowed to join who she believes are in financial difficulties. Immigration was not an issue to her and she is not a racist.

Our EU contributions amount to just 0.6% of the UK's annul total expenditure and the amount each person pays per day is less that the price of buying The Sun every day.   Her husband reads The Sun. She has no internet and her only source of information will be The Sun, the ITV news she sometimes watches and her friends.  She admitted she didn't know the effect of voting in or out but she was swaying towards out for financial reasons. 

Already since the result we have seen the pound fall by the single biggest amount in 31 years thus making goods imported into the UK more expensive.  Look around and tell me how much of what you can see around you was imported?  Clothes from China, car from Europe, food from around the world?  I would hazard a guess and say not many British made goods.  With a weak pound I now reckon the higher price of imported goods will cost each citizen more than the money the UK puts into the EU per head.  I hope I am wrong but I fear I am not.  Oh and as for £350,000,000 per week (or 78p per person per day), apparently that was a half truth as it did not make any mention of the money we got BACK form the EU.  But hey, who needs the whole truth when you are voting for your country's future?

My friend thought she would be financially better off out of the EU and on that issue alone she put a cross in the leave box.   Her vote counted towards all the votes and now the UK is leaving the EU.

I very much doubt she was alone. 

Some, it would seem, did not even know what the EU is and Google reported that 8 hours after the polls closed searches for the term "what happens if we leave the EU" had more than tripled.   A woman was also reported on the ITV news as saying she is:  "very disappointed" by the results.  The woman continued by saying that "reality" has now hit her and that given her chance again she would vote to remain.  She based her decision on the (mis)information she heard and saw up to the time of the vote.

The public was asked to vote on something that will have long and far reaching effects yet many people had no idea which way to vote as they did not understand the implications of either staying or leaving.  In a general election if you vote in a party you don't like you get the chance to chuck them out again in a few years time.  There is no chance to return to the EU now we have voted out.  Is this really something that was fair to ask the public to vote on? 

And I have not even discussed the hateful xenophobia whipped up by certain right wing parties and individuals nor the fact that the greatest percentage of leave voters were in the over 65 age bracket and will not be around to see the long term effects of their vote because there will be repercussions for many years to come.

I did plenty of research before casting my vote and my feeling, based on what I read and what I saw in this video leads me to feel that the future may not be as rosy as many leave voters expect.



But I will finish on one note.  The decision has now been made and whilst there are calls for a second referendum the British public must live with the future they have voted for.  Like fledgling chicks thrown from the nest by parents who no longer wish to feed and look after them, the UK is now on its own.  Some fledglings flourish and fly high.  Others tumble downwards to a painful end.  How the newly fledged UK manages over the coming years rests, not only in the hands of the politicians, but also in the hands of the British public ... but do they know what they can do to help their country fly high?  Let's hope some-one feeds them facts from now on and not that diet of half truths, misinformation, confusing statistics, propaganda and hate they have been fed to date.

Influence, Indoctrination and Murder

Jo Cox and the man who killed her had 2 things in common.  The same 2 things that we all have in common no matter what the colour of our skin, our gender, religion, lifestyle, sexual preference etc.  We all came into this world with nothing and we will all leave with nothing.  What we choose to with our lives between birth and death is what makes us the person that we are and what makes us all different.

Jo Cox chose to work for people she saw as in desperate need of help and worked to make an equal society.
Her killer chose another path.

I have no idea exactly why he killed her, whether it was for political, personal, religious or other reasons.  I do know that the idea to kill another human is not something he was born with but something he learnt as he went through life.  Things he heard and saw poisoned his mind and led him to have so much hate within that it became acceptable to him to kill a fellow human being.

When I was at University a friend asked me to get him some paracetamol when I was in town.  Later that week, with all the paracetamol he had asked all his friends to get him, he killed himself.  If I had said no, if all his friends had said no, he may well not have killed himself.  He used each of us to help end his life and our help, whilst well meaning resulted in his suicide.  We were all, by default, connected to his death.  Our one small action led to a far greater negative action.

The same is true each time someone says something that berates another human being for simply "not the same as us" - each statement on its own may have no discernible effect but add all these voices together and it is enough to turn to hate.  And hate can lead to a man to take the life of someone who simply stood up for everything he was indoctrinated into believing was wrong.  And why did he believe she was wrong?  Because enough people had told him what she stood for was wrong.

And this is true of any fanatic.
Muslim extremists were not born that way.
Misogynists did not come into the world hating women.
Gay bashers didn't hate the gay community from day one of their lives.
No young child hates another just because they are not from the same country.

For every one of you who has ever railed against immigrants or Muslims or anyone who simply is different, I say that your hands now bear the blood of victims, of whom Jo Cox is the latest in a long line.  You didn't pull the trigger, you didn't plunge the knife but your rhetoric led others to believe it was right to kill.

Each murderer comes into this world with nothing and each will leave with nothing but in between they grow to believe that not all humanity is equal and as such they can kill those whose views differ from theirs.  They would not have come to that conclusion on their own but through what others said and did.  Influence and indoctrination can lead to murder.

Today Jo Cox leaves behind a family who could not have believed yesterday that she had seen her last tomorrow.  And for that I ask you to stop and think about this one thing - YOUR influence.  Murderers are influenced by what they see and hear and for that reason some people will murder tomorrow and the next day and the next or for as long as they are influenced and indoctrinated by others?  And this influence covers everything - religion, race, sexual preferences, gender.  When will it end?  Please do not be part of that influence.  Hateful words breed hate but words of love, understanding and acceptance breed a society that does not kill those simply for being different.

My friend at University may well still have killed himself, even if we had not all bought him the means to do it.  Jo Cox's killer may still have committed murder but I say this: if had had not been fed the far right wing propaganda and instead he had had a life of support, understanding, tolerance, kindness then maybe Jo Cox would be alive today.

Without knowing it, all of us who bought our friend a packet of paracetamol were in each a bit responsible for his death.  Anyone who has talked about hating Muslims or gays or immigrants or women helps to fuel murder.  Do not be part of that hate. Do not be guilty of helping others believe it is acceptable to kill.

Harley Davidson Motorbike for sale

Sorry - Now Sold

OK this is something COMPLETELY different to what I usually blog about but a friend has asked if I would help sell his motorbike.  It is a Harley Davidson Dynaglide FXDS Convertible 1340cc.  It is sold with a camping trailer, transporting trailer, wheel clamp and paniers.

30 Tips to Survive a Power Cut

Twice recently we have had power cuts.  A few weeks ago the hedge trimming machine cut through the electricity wire in the village and earlier this week we had a planned outage whilst EDF did some vital maintenance work on the line.  Both times we quickly realised how reliant we have become on electricity and to not have it can be a right pain in the whatsit.  However there are things you can do to make it easier to survive when you are plunged back into the Dark Ages!

30 Tips to Survive a Power Cut

At any time

• Know exactly where you can find torches/camping lamps/candles.
• Keep in a supply of the correct torch batteries as well as lighters or matches.

Before a Planned Outage Occurs 

• Get torches etc out and ready to use - our electricity went out when it was s till dark!
• Charge up phones etc and back up all your work on the computer.  I spent an hour yesterday uploading the gite to a French booking website taking ages to translate everything only to have the power to blip out for a second and I lost the lot.  When I started again I saved every 5 minutes!!
• Freezers work best when full so, if necessary, a few days beforehand fill them up with plastic bottles filled with water (with head space to allow for expansion).
• The day before the planned outage set your freezer and fridge to a slightly colder than normal temperature
• As the power goes out add some pre-frozen freezer blocks into the fridge to help keep it cold
• Think about how you'll cook if your cooker is all electric - get in some food supplies that don't need cooking i.e. cake - a power cut is no time to be dieting!
• Check that elderly and infirm neighbours have everything they need
• Boil up some water and keep it in a flask for hot drinks.

When the Power goes Out

• First check it isn't simply your trip switch that has gone
• Check on elderly and infirm neighbours

Heating - If yours isn't working:

• Keep doors and windows closed to retain heat
• Wear several thinner layers rather than one thick one to keep warm
• Wear mittens, extra warm socks and a hat - most heat is lost through your head.
• Do something energetic to keep warm
• All snuggle up under the same duvet for an evening of spooky story telling

Cooking

• If your oven is gas you can cook but any automatic lighting systems won't work so you'll need  a lighter or matches.

If your cooker is all electric you'll need to find alternatives:

• Use a camping stove but ONLY outside
• Light the BBQ
• Eat out or get in a take-away if local restaurants have power
• Eat salads - possibly a better option in the summer!

Generally

• Play games by candle-light
• Read a book - head torches are good for this.
• In the daytime move closer to the window to get the best light
• Open the fridge and freezer as little as possible
• If it is cold, store food outside in covered containers but not if it is below freezing.  
• Carefully check that food has not gone off as it may well not store as long as the temperature inside the fridge rises.
• Enjoy the technology-free time.
• If all else fails and you can, debunk to friends and family who have power or the local shopping centre, café, library etc.

Electricity always seems to go off at the most inconvenient time although to be honest I am not sure there is ever a convenient time.  With luck these tips will make your time in the dark ages a bit easier to cope with.  Have you any other tips to add or have you any interesting power cut stories to recount?

 

Holidays booked via an online travel agent - How much more are you paying?

I am sure you would all agree that booking a holiday can be a touch stressful.  You need to find the right place in the right location, providing everything you want for you and your family,  with availability when you can go, you also need to arrange to get there and all within your budget.  It's quite a big ask.  Thank goodness for large online travel agencies that list hundreds of properties, enabling you to find just what you want - so much more convenient than having to head off to the High Street travel agents as we did in the past ... or heaven forbid, trawl through the adverts in the back of a magazine with so little information available.  

Now, in the comfort of your own home, you can search through the listings, check amenities, availability, price and as soon as you find the place of your holiday dreams click on the instant book or book now button and pay by credit card.  Job done and dusted.  Within 24 hours the owner will have agreed to your booking and except for the packing you're ready to go .... 

Hopefully you'll be able to sort out all the transport details in that time and I sincerely hope your boss really can agree to the days off you have asked for ... which of course becomes even more complicated when there are more people in the party going.  

But I digress a little - what I really want to focus on in this post is the cost of booking online with a large booking agency.  Have you ever, for one moment, considered how much you are paying for this ease of booking online?  Online travel agents need to make money and they are also keen to make as much money as possible for their shareholders so are you, in fact, paying more than you think for this instant booking "convenience"?  

When the internet first took off owners were able to advertise with online travel agents who simply listed properties leaving you to contact the owner and book direct.  You could have a conversation with the owner, checking everything they offered was what you wanted and pay direct when you were happy with your choice.  To advertise, the owner paid an annual subscription to the site and you, the holidaymaker, would only be charged the price the owner wanted for the holiday with no hidden commission or booking/service fees.  

Not so with online booking.  Now the holiday home owner lists, often for free, but one or both of you is charged commission and/or booking/service fees by the online travel agent.  But has anyone any idea how much these fees are?  You might be surprised:

Airbnb:

Guest - 10-15%
Owner - 3%
So for a property charged at £1000 for a week, Airbnb will take £30 from the owner and will charge the holidaymaker up to an additional £150 for the week.
There is no owner subscription option available on Airbnb so owners and holidaymakers will always be charged.  There have even be cases reported where a 20% fee was levied to the holidaymaker.

HolidayLettings 

This is a  subsidiary of Trip Advisor:
Guest - 10-17%
Owner - 3%
Here you could be paying an extra £170 for that £1000 holiday.
On HolidayLettings owners can also advertise on a subscription basis where you should pay no extras but is is not always clear which owners are which.

Booking. com

Guest - Nothing
Owner - 15-18%
You might think that you will not be charged extra using booking. com but think again.  Owners may not be happy losing up to 18% of each holiday booked and many will add this on top of the price that they would normally charge if you booked direct.  Now you could be paying an extra £180 for your week.  
There is no subscription option and all holidays booked are charged a commission.

HouseTrip

Guest - 10-21%
Owner - 3%
OUCH - here you could be charged a whopping £210 extra when booking through Housetrip. 

HomeAway/Owners Direct/VRBO etc

Now a subsidiary of Expedia which includes many companies based around the world such as Abritel (French), FeWo-Direct (German) etc.  All these companies have now been changed to look the same and to charge the same fees which have recently been changed to add a "service fee" to the holidaymaker if they book online rather than direct.  They are also making almost daily changes to the website and terms and conditions making it hard for owners and guests to know what they are paying and to whom.  At the moment it is like this ...

Guest - 4-10% service fee if booked online via the company. 
Owner - 8%.  Again, the owner may pass some or all of this 8% charge onto the holidaymaker. 

UPDATE - The website Owners Direct has now been removed with all listings moved to Homeaway. Anyone searching for it will now find themselves on HomeAway.

Accurate Prices, Discounts etc

There is also an additional problem for owners using the online booking systems via these travel agents.  Not all the companies they advertise with allow them to price their holidays accurately so they may not be able to pass on low occupancy discounts, reductions for longer stays etc.  Also, as nightly rates often vary depending on how long a holidaymaker wants to stay, the price quoted may not always be the best price as owners struggle to correctly quote with limited pricing structures available to them.   Six nights in a cottage or gite will generally be less per night than two nights per night but the owner may not be able to show this on instant booking sites.

Going on holiday is an expensive business and no-one wants to pay more than is absolutely necessary.  I think everyone would agree that hidden fees are the worst so if you want to make sure you are not paying more than you should then consider booking direct with the holiday home owner and not through instant booking on a large online travel agency.  By all means look on the sites but if you find something you like and it is only available with instant booking then use the power of Google to track down the owner's own website and book direct.  To do this look carefully through the listing as they may mention their name or location or see if any photos have the name of the property on them.  You might have to be a bit of a detective but you could save yourself a small fortune by booking direct. 

Owners are now also clawing back some of the internet from the online booking companies and there are Facebook groups where members can find cottages/gites to book direct.  Why not come and join the one I am an admin on - Book Your Holiday Direct with the Owner.

Oh and our website? No need to be a detective!  Just visit Eco-Gites of Lenault.

What do you think about instant booking fees?  Are you happy or would you rather pay a lesser amount or book direct?  Do let me know in a comment.  

 Please pin me!

Add caption

The percentage figures were kindly supplied by Steve Robertson of Essar Holiday Lets

Camera Skills - January 17th 2016

As I mentioned on Thursday I am not good at sticking to New Year Resolutions so I tend not to set any.  However I have set myself a goal for 2016 (which is different) and that is a goal to improve my photography skills.  I have a pretty good (if slightly old) digital SLR camera with all the knobs and buttons you would expect but I don't really use them, relying on point and shoot and sometimes getting the image I want!  So I have bought myself this photography book and plan to find out how to get the photos I want by using those knobs and buttons rather than relying on chancet.  Once I have worked out what I am doing I might even treat myself to a new camera with better macro and zoom.

Have you got any tips for me to improve my photography?  

Nepalese Prayer Flags - January 3rd 2016

Today I give you something that would probably be more at home half way round the world ... in Nepal.  We were given some Nepalese prayer flags from Simon's sister who travelled there earlier in the year.  We have some in the house as part of our Christmas decorations and these ones are fluttering outside in the wind.

The flags come in sets of five, one each of the following colours from left to right: blue, white, red, green, and yellow and the colours each represent something. Blue for the sky and space, white  for air and wind, red for fire, green for water and yellow for earth.  Prayer flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom with these positive feelings being blown by the wind from the flags across the world.  Ideally the flags should be left to fly as high as possible and whilst I am not sure our washing line in Normandy can compete with the Himalayas in altitude I am hoping they are doing well spreading good feelings far and wide.

Happy New Year everyone and I hope our Nepalese Prayer Flags send some of their good wishes in your direction.

The Eco-Gites Top 10 of 2015

As 2015 draws to a close I thought I'd do like all the best (and worst) TV programmes and have an indulgent look back through 2015.  I've already had a garden look back but here are some my my other favourites from last year and those that were popular with you lot, my readers!

Top 3 posts (by views)

• 8 reasons to take your toddler to Normandy
• 8 reasons to visit Normandy in Winter
• New French Driving Laws 

So it seems you like France posts!

Top Silent Sundays (by views)

Silent Sunday is possibly my favourite post of the week so which images did you like?  These two apparently ... 

• This foxglove
• Me!

And most talked about Silent Sunday (by comments)

• Our apples

Sometimes I get the bit between my teeth and have a good rant on posts I often call Wednesday Wonderings.  I think this food waste one was one of my favourites from 2015.

I also enjoy writing poetry and prose from time to time and these 2 were inspired by things that happened in 2015 - the sad loss of another of our dogs and homage to our wonderful autumn sunsets.

Finally a bit of a cheat.  

Would it be OK to include ALL the Animal Tales posts of 2015?  I have so enjoyed running this linky and have met some great bloggers  and their animals. 

I hope one or more of your favourites were here.  Thank you to everyone who has read and commented on the blog over the last year, I really appreciate it and here's wishing you all the very best for 2106. 

Internet/Phone Problems

Since a recent storm our internet has gone to almost non existent levels meaning, in effect, we have no internet. This is why I've not been able to reply to Animal Tales comments etc etc.

I'm not ignoring you, just not able to connect with you!

Hopefully a trip to the Orange shop on Monday will sort all this out.

How do you book your holiday?

Posted by Rosie

With some big changes currently occurring in one of the main sites we advertise the gite on I feel that we need some feedback about how people book a self catering holiday, such as at Eco-Gites of Lenault.  I have therefore designed a survey and hope that the results should help us decide the best way to market ourselves over the coming months and years. 

I would be really grateful if you could fill in the survey below and point any friends or family to this post, if they, too, book self catering holidays.  The survey take no more than a couple of minutes to fill in and is totally anonymous ... although if you want to add any more points or feedback you can do so with a comment here.

Many thanks in advance.

Survey Now Closed

Thank you to everyone who filled it in

 

Update on my Home Alone Week

Posted by Rosie

So, I am nearing the end of my home alone week (actually it was 10 days) so I suppose I ought to see how I got on with my "Home Alone for a week [10 days] List".

1. Grand spring clean of the house

I started well then other things got in the way* but if I am OK tomorrow I should be able to tackle the last bedroom and give the kitchen a quick once over.  Very quick!

Clean and tidy front room

2.  Sort the dreaded food cupboard

Oops - foodie explorations will have to wait for another day unless I feel totally inspired on Sunday.

3.  Gardening

Dealing with seed stealing mice was discussed at length with a friend and strategies have been set out.  An old fridge, traps and storage boxes will all feature in the war against mice.  In other news I did get some gardening done but other stuff* got in the way of more!

4.  Make some pickle and jam

Another fail here but this might be a more appealing option than clearing the food cupboard ... or in fact I could combine the two on Sunday.

5.  Investigate using Hootsuite or Tweetdeck

Fail but I did make use of Twuffer this week. (that's a way of scheduling tweets for you non twittery readers).

6.  Sort the gite toys and games

I did some but have more to do.

7.  Get some extra blogs written

I've got a few notes and ideas down so that counts as a start.

8. De-clutter my bookmarks

Yes .... well some of them anyway ;)

9.  Make a date and walnut cake

Nope but I did make oat cookies and meringues.

10.  Catch up with friends

Yes which partly explains why I got behind on other things on this list.  

* So what were the other things that got in the way?

1.  Gite Booking

We got a late booking in the gite so that needed preparing, ironing needed doing and the outside garden area cleared up AS THE BOYS HAD FAILED TO DO THIS BEFORE THEY WENT SKIING.  Yes,  I was a little miffed about the latter ...did you notice?

2.  Hospital trip

No not for me but I needed to help translate for a friend who needs a big operation and the whole thing took rather a long time.  

3.  Trip to the osteopath

Yes this one was for me and my back was a right mess.  That sort of put paid to gardening for a while.

4.  Extra dogs and animals to feed

I had forgotten when I wrote the post that I would be dog sitting a friend's dogs for half the week and also feeding her animals. That all took extra time.

All in all though I reckon that counts as a three quarters success rate.  The days have certainly flown by and it'll be good to have the boys and Simon back on Sunday .... although it may possibly be messier!  And anyway - I didn't want to spend ALL my time cleaning did I? ...

10 random ways to save money

Posted by Rosie

There are literally hundreds of pages on the Internet giving you ways to save money.  Here's the first one I picked from a search engine: The Telegraph's 50 ways to save money in 2015. Now I don't know about you but I have already implemented many of these or they just don't apply to us.  What I need are some personalised money saving tips that work specifically for us.  These are 10 random ideas that I have come up with.

1.  Reduce Ben's penchant for chucking clean clothes in the wash

And bearing in mind we live on a smallholding it is not a problem wearing his old tracksuit bottoms again if there is a slight bit of mud on them.

2.  Cook faster meals

We like stir fries so that's good!  We do have the advantage of the woodburner though so I am cooking on top of there whilst it's alight including making lots of stock from bones I have stockpiled in the freezer.  I am also cooking dried beans on the woodburner which I then freeze in usable sized portions.

3.  Batch cooking

4 loaves of bread in the oven is far better than one and if I bake one cake I might as well shove another one in the oven at the same time and then freeze it.

Batch cooked bread

4.  Try to get one freezer turned off

We actually have 3 chest freezers and a fridge freezer but as we produce so much of our own meat, veg and fruit they are often all pretty full. And adding lots of cooked beans and bread isn't helping.  That said though, stock takes up less space that the bones and at least half of each batch I make gets turned into soup that we eat straight away. 

5.  Lights off and switch items off standby

In other words keep nagging the boys to turn off lights and the X Box when they have left the room or finished playing.   How hard can it be turn the DVD player off?

6.  Mend things

Hmm - this is not my strong point.  I am a failed seamstress and was the only girl at school who regularly sewed what ever it was I was supposed to be making to her skirt. BUT, I do have a lovely friend who is currently laid up with a broken Achilles tendon who can both sew and has the time at the moment. Torn trousers will be delivered this week ... I wonder if I can tempt her to sew new ties on my apron too?!

7.  Reduce wine consumption

Gulp .... in my defence my favourite wine is only €1.99 (that's £1.50) but it all adds up over a year. 

Wine at €1.99 a bottle

8.  Drive more economically

Our car is now a petrol rather than the very economic diesel that we did have before it died so trying to drive more economically would be a good idea as well as combining journeys where-ever possible.

9.  Sweep rather than hoover

With a wood burner, 2 children, 2 adults who will have tramped through muddy animal pens and several house pets, the floor downstairs really does need regular cleaning. But if I sweep it rather than hoover every other day that'll save a bit of electricity.

10.  Take fruit bush cuttings for free new plants

One of my jostaberries has died and I have more space for more fruit bushes.  It is getting a little late to take cuttings (late autumn is best) but as I also still need to prune my bushes I might as well do some cuttings and hope they take. 

Well I did say it was a random list!  Feel free to share it or simply pinch the ones that fit in with your lifestyle. I'd love to hear your personalised money saving tips, maybe some of them would work for us too.

Wednesday wonderings - should we microchip our children?

Posted by Rosie

Image from the BBC

I saw a link recently on Twitter that led to a BBC 5 link relating to some-one who has developed a chip that could be implanted under the skin enabling the wearer to be tracked.  The wearer in this case is children.  The blurb with the clip said that the developer acknowledged that :

"an implant would be “invasive,” (but) Stephen said “over 95%” of people on social media had responded positively to the idea." 

That puts me very much in the minority then.

So I did a bit more digging and I came up with this discussion site where 57% agreed it would be a good idea.  Seems like I am still in the minority then as I absolutely and totally disagree with the whole idea.  To illustrate my point I have taken some of the "Agree" points and explained why I disagree them.

"There are too many filthy child predators - I believe micro chipping your child would be an excellent idea as when and if god forbid, a child goes missing it would be easy to locate them. There are no guarantees of course, but have a gps tracker inserted into children would mean that parents have have a better chance of getting their child back, and children might not be raped and tortured by these sick monsters."

So ALL children have to be chipped just in case they get kidnapped. I don't know figures on kidnapping but I suspect it is a very low percentage of the whole yet all children would have to have this implant - just in case.  Many sex offenders and kidnappers are known tot he child (close friend or family memeber) and a chip would not protect them in these cases.  I am also quite sure that it would not take long for the worst predators and organised gangs who do traffic children to work out how to either deactivate or at worse remove the chip.  The possible gains from this sort of procedure are, in reality, minuscule.  

"Do you value your pet and your vehicle more than your own child?"

I value my children above all else and that is exactly why I would not invade their human rights to have them chipped.  The chip that my dogs have is not traceable, it is simply there to identify a lost pet who cannot say who their owner is. A child over a certain age can talk and even before then there is DNA should that be needed.  My car does not have a tracker but if it did it would not be invading it's human rights. End of.

"The option should be available - So long as you think parents should be able to have infants ears pierced or genitals cut then I really don't see how this is any worse."

Well actually I am not too happy with ear piecing of young children and as for genital cutting I believe this too should be outlawed other than for medical reasons... as should inserting a microchip.  Would you be happy if I was to chip you and be able to track your each and every movement?

"A parent's choice, in case they go missing - There are many children that disappear, never to be found again, and no way to track them. Dental records and DNA are used to identify the dead. Parents should have the option, in case their child disappears."

It's true, a certain number of children do disappear but I believe that if the perpetrators knew they would chipped they would simply act quicker and be more likely to kill a child than hold them prisoner. A dead child cannot identify their kidnapper.

"Children are the legal and moral responsibly of parents until, at minimum, they are legal adults. It is time that we take responsibly for our children and help monitor for their safety."

And who would  be monitoring our children's movement?  Do you trust a large corporation to be watching each and every move your child makes because that means they are watching you too? Who would retain this information and could you be sure it would not fall into the hands of the wrong people?  Maybe you would have a phone app for just you to track them ... until your phone gets stolen of course ...

"Kids are quick - As a mother of a child with Autism, I am constantly on edge worrying if my child is safe. He has escaped twice, once under my watch (I took my eyes off him for a second and he jumped the fence and got hit my a car) This would give me peace of mind knowing if he ever escaped again, I could find him quickly and hopefully safely."

I understand that there are some children with special needs where being able to track them could  be an advantage.  So give them a bracelet.  Even then it would not have stopped this child being hit by the car.

"When they turned 18, they would be able to remove the chip if they desire."

So an invasive medical procedure that has done nothing to make vast majority of the children who have the implant any safer will need ANOTHER medical intervention to have the chip removed.  2 medical procedures by the age of 18 for absolutely no gain.  And what about those children who run away ... how many of those will try and remove the chip themselves?

Maybe I have judged the popular mood completely wrong.  Maybe I am completely out of touch with the modern world.  I would be very interested to know your opinions on this.  I shall not jump down your throat if would use such an implant as I also believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.  Do 95% or even 57% of you think micro-chipping children is a good idea?  What would be your reasons for chipping your child?

The day our modem went pop ...

Posted by Rosie

... or rather it stopped working except for lots of pretty flashing lights that should not have been flashing.  

So no internet.  With no other easy way to access internet this meant silence on the blogging front.

Luckily we were able to dash to the Orange shop this afternoon but the technician was unable to test the modem as it was so old so he simply gave us a new one. Yay!

A bit of fiddling and maybe just a bit of swearing later we are back online. Just don't ask us to print anything at the moment as the printer is now refusing to talk to the printer.

Oh and the phone isn't working.

Technology.  We moan when it's working but realise how much we rely on it when it goes pop.

Most popular blog posts of 2014

Posted by Rosie

Over the last year this blog has hosted over 330 posts on quite a wide range of subjects - France, green issues, gardening, cooking, parenting and animals being regular topics.  Our readership has grown steadily and there was a peak in early summer when the blog was featured as Sustainable Blog of the Week in The Guardian.  As we draw to the end of 2014 I have had a look at a few statistics and come up with the 12 most popular posts (by views) over the last 12 months.  In no particular order these are the most viewed:

70th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings

2014 was 70th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings which saw the beginning of the end of World War II.  There were many events and exhibitions all through the year and although you may have missed these there are still loads of museums and sites to visit to learn about this important time in our history.

Our Social Media Pages and a Grumpy Pig

A popular blog that gave you links to all our social media pages and explained why Coco the pig was in such a bad mood!

Coco The Grumpy Pig and Peardrop

Word of The Week - Annoyed

So what was it that got me annoyed back in June?

Teaching an 11 year old the value of money

When Ben wanted to buy a large Lego kit we helped to explain to him why his money might actually be better spent elsewhere.

Kitchen utensils to save you money

5 Kitchen Utensils that can help you save energy costs in the kitchen including one you may  not have heard of.

Chilli Courgette Pickle

This is my absolute favourite pickle recipe and by the number of people reading this post it would appear to be popular with other people as well!

Making Chilli Courgette Pickle

50 Shades of Green

A post to get you thinking about the best ways to be green - it's maybe not as straightforward as you might think.

Driving in France

If you have never driven in France this post is worth reading as it gives details of those aspects of the road and what you need in your car that may be different from other countries.

Let the Children Play

Following an article in The Telegraph I wrote a post about how I believe children should be given as much time as possible to simply play - the sort of play that involves mud, some risk taking and time alone.

Independent Play

20 Facts about Me

A fun blog post where I listed 19 true facts about me and one false one .... that very few people worked out. Can you?

Protecting yourself when making a booking

With holiday booking sites and holiday makers suffering at the hands of scammers I blogged about how you can make sure your holiday is genuine and your money is safe when you book a holiday online.

Poppy and Saari

Our canine friends really are the best of friends and now often feature in the Animal Tales linky I run on a Tuesday.

Poppy and Saari

I hope you have enjoyed this little round up of popular posts from 2014, it's quite an eclectic mix! Here's looking forward to writing more in 2015.

I'd love to hear which was your favourite blog post of 2014.

A final few black and white photos

Posted by Rosie

Here is my final selection of black and white photos that I wanted to share with you.  For other black and white photos I have blogged about click here for plants and here for urban France.

Today I gave you  bit of a mixed bag.  First up one of our cats, Henry.  Could there be a better subject than a black and white cat for a black and white photo? (and such a very clearly defined one such as Henry).

So what about one of our other cats?  His name may give his colour away so I will leave him anonymous (or should that be anonypuss?) for a while to see if you can correctly guess his colour.
 

These final three are possibly some of my favourite photos of 2014.  I love the cobwebs we get in the early mornings of late summer/early autumn and the sun shining through this photos, in my opinion, makes it all the more special.  Do you agree?

This unusual sculpture was take at the Museum of Fine Art in the grounds of Caen Castle, Normandy on a wet day that was very much devoid of colour.  Even the full colour version almost seemed black and white so it seemed a perfect subject to turn black and white.  There were about 12 of these sculptures on long poles in total, all rather weird, but this was my favourite.

I do however think that this final shot is one of my all time favourite black and white photos.  I was driving to Condé in late winter and the mist was hanging in the valley giving this scene as a I rounded a corner.  I pulled the car into a gateway and ran back up the road to get the shot.  Those driving past must have wondered what I was up to yet I was so glad I went back.  In a similar way to the photo above there was so little colour anyway that it made an ideal subject as a black and white photo.  I hope you like it as much as I do.

 

I have mentioned in the other posts I have written on black and white photos that I am no expert but I have enjoyed playing with photos to see which ones I like.  Certainly good contrast is important as well as texture, focus and a good depth of field.  However ultimately, as with all art forms, everyone will have different pictures they like.  Which is your favourite from this small collection?  Please do tell me and why.