Happily still being green!

Afternoon

Funny how so much from my old life has seamlessly joined with my new life. I've always been a bit of a green/hippy/eco-friendly sort of a girl.

If you follow some of the labels in my sidebar you can see mention of recycling etc going back to the beginning of this blog - and before that to be honest. 

As a teenager I spent many a happy afternoon at a jumble sale with my friends - buying clothes which we'd alter to suit our tastes - making jeans skinny before the invention of lycra and turning old mans shirts into trendy collarless ones.

My first home certainly contained many old and upcycled things - a book case made from wine boxes - a Christmas gift in 1969 for my ex-husband. I delivered it back to him the other week when furniture came out of storage - whilst I loved it there is no room for it here so it needed to be back with its original owner.

This house is certainly full of recycle and upcycled things - along with those collected from charity shops, car boot sales and junk shops. Both S & I can't resist a good rummage through others peoples old junk - our little town contains 11 charity shops and we often do a full tour when we have the time.

The latest upcycling project - our old wooden bed into a garden bench!!

Made from about 95% recycled wood - the old bed and some pallets - only the front posts are from new wood!

It's almost built now - and partially painted - just need summer to return so we can get it finished!

Another project this week has been getting my bike roadworthy again. It spent 18 months in an outbuilding as we had no space at the flat. S has repaired the brakes and checked it all over. I have tidied the basket up - the wicker has got caught on stuff on many occasions and it was looking a bit sorry for itself - I decided to repair rather than replace;

I need to use my bike tomorrow - most days I can get to where I want on foot but I need to drop something off a couple of miles away. Am a bit apprehensive as the roads are busy here and my cycling skills a bit rusty!!

With the house we inherited two greenhouses (one full of tomatoes) and 3 raised veg beds - 2 of which were planted!! We have ended up with a glut of tomatoes and courgettes - time for inventive cooking!!

A rummage in the freezer for some mince and hey presto - the base for a lasagne!

We also inherited some squash plants - these were really quite tiny and seemed to struggle at first - however a bit of rain and some attentive watering and boom they grew like crazy. It was only after a veg gardening book was acquired on a recent charity shop trawl we discovered they like to climb!! Fortunately when the large bamboo plant was removed our friend saved the canes - more upcycling!! These now are supporting the ever growing squashes - come the autumn I will need some new recipes I think!!

Another step to becoming a proper blogger again is taking place as I type - my little camera is being charged!! Going to try to use this as well as my phone to get photos as it does take rather lovely pics.

Right I had best go and hunt down our camping gear - we are off to FolkEast later this week - to celebrate one year of being married!!!

See you soon with plenty of festival photos!

xxx Vicki xxx