A little catch up

Do not fear, readers, I have not forgotten about my Trying To Be Useful project. It's just that sometimes the things I am instructed to do are not enough to carry a whole post. So after I was asked in one book to go and de-litter my local park, my other book instructed me to pick up one peice of litter every day so I have been doing that for the past week. I then deposit the litter into a recycling bin, if it is recyclable.

Simon Gear, in Going Greener, also told me to "Support my bald-headed hungry friend" and to be generous when people I know are doing crazy stuff to raise money for a worthy cause. As luck would have it, my friend, Peter, is running the London Marathon in April for the Stroke Association. Easy peasy. I logged on, donated some money and had another day's good deeds done.

Other things I have been advised to do are more long term goals as they require more money and a trip to get them. I'm aiming to get either an owl box or a bat box for the garden, or both. I'm pretty sure I can get them in the Kew Gardens gift shop and I've been meaning to join the National Trust for ages, cause I love the idea of being able to swan into lovely places by just showing a card, like I live there, almost, kind of. So when the weather is nice enough, I will join the National Trust, spend my days off in lovely parks and buy a good owl or bat box, or both.

An instruction I received on another day was to take 5 minutes at the beginning of each day to drink my morning tea in the garden and appreciate the plants and animals there. I did it two days in a row. It was chilly but I donned a big jumper, hugged my mug of tea and admired the lavender lining the lawn. This morning, however, it is snowing. We haven't got it very badly, compared to other places, but I still didn't fancy standing in it shivering. So I stood in the kitchen and looked out of the window at the garden.

So all in all, it's going quite well. I'm still taking my own shopping bags with me to get groceries. I don't put my vegetables in plastic bags before I weigh them. I buy Ecover products. I'm getting there, little by little.

I had a total brainwave the other day and was like. "Danda! Let's get a chicken! It would be so amazing. We'd have eggs whenever we want them!"

A withering look from Danda answered that one. I'm still working on it....

P.S. Happy birthday Dad!