Another new post at the new location for TheMichaelmasBlog

I have just posted on the subject of simple living, ethical fashion etc - you can read the post at www.TheMichaelmasBlog.wordpress.com, which is the new location for this blog.  To continue to be notified of future posts, go to www.TheMichaelmasBlog.wordpress.com and enter your email address in Follow Blog Via Email.

Two new posts for you at the new location for TheMichaelmasBlog

Just a quick reminder that this blog has now moved to Wordpress, you can find it at www.TheMichaelmasBlog.wordpress.com and in the last few days I have posted two new articles.  One is a (possibly controversial) response to recent weather-related disasters in the UK farming sector, the other is a piece about a visit earlier this week to a farm in North Devon which has diversified in the most imaginative way - into vintage gypsy caravans!

This blog is moving to Wordpress!

For over two years I have been blogging intermittently at www.TheMichaelmasBlog.blogspot.com - this was my first attempt at blogging, and became my 'domestic' blog as I also developed the art blog, and subsequently two other blogs (of which more in due course).  However, I have been finding Blogger increasingly clunky, and as all my other blogs are now on Wordpress, and as I have been spoiled by the flexibility which Wordpress provides, I have decided to move The Michaelmas Blog over to Wordpress as well.  If you have been receiving emails to tell you when I have posted something new, I'm afraid you will need to follow the new blog in order to be notified of new posts - I may post in parallel for a few weeks, but after that I will only be posting on Wordpress.  Apologies for the inconvenience, but hopefully the increased ease of use will result in more posts for you!

My new blog is at www.TheMichaelmasBlog.wordpress.com
See you there!

Further musings on pastures new

Firstly – we seem to be spending a lot less.  Food is especially much cheaper.  Having been brainwashed for years that supermarkets are what keeps the average Briton from starvation as we would never be able to afford to feed ourselves from independent retailers, I have been shocked to find that my meat bill at the local village butcher (who specialises in locally-grown, outdoor-reared pig meat but seems to sell everything you could imagine including smoked chicken breasts and quails eggs!) is between half and two-thirds of what it was when I did my weekly shop in the supermarket.  My village Co-Op sells many basics at pretty much supermarket prices.  Two farm shops within a short drive provide almost everything else I need, often at startlingly low prices.  For a few treats I go to Waitrose in a nearby small town, and in over our first two months I went to the out-of-town supermarket three times (for things which I have since found I can buy locally for comparable or cheaper prices).  I am not planning to go again any time soon.

My food miles have shrunk.  Firstly because a large proportion of what we eat now is grown and purchased within a few miles of where we live, and partly because much of my shopping is done on foot, or just a short drive away, rather than going on an expedition to the supermarket.  I drove a total of 14.5 miles for all the shopping for Christmas and New Year, as against probably well over 30 last year.  And apart from the Christmas pudding all of my Christmas dinner was grown/raised/shot/made within 20 miles (the pudding was from the Co-Op which is literally round the corner).

I have not managed to get out walking much.  There’s just too much mud.  Despite my statistically-backed assertion in a previous post that the average rainfall in Somerset was half that of Wales, we had hardly unpacked before the region was plunged into floods of biblical proportions.  Serious consideration was given to building an ark on the lawn, or at least trading in one of the cars for an inflatable dinghy.  Fortunately, we did not flood here, although many of the fields we can see from the house were underwater, and the only direct impact on us was the wholesale road closures during the worst of the flooding, and the disruption to the Paddington to Penzance train line, which made travelling to London for meetings a little challenging.  However, we are not complacent – the ground is now so saturated that only a few hours of rain is enough to create giant puddles on most of the roads, making them impassable in places, and to send the brook back up over its banks and into the field next door, to the consternation of the resident flock of Suffolk sheep.

My fears that friends would think that rural Somerset is too remote to visit have not been borne out.  The diary is filling up nicely!  It would be even better if it stopped raining long enough to be able to show them around the area...

I seem to be relishing domesticity.  No doubt as part of the nesting phenomenon associated with a new home, I have been baking at least once a week, made my first ever chutney (having made improbable quantities of apple sauce and Dorset apple cake, I had to find something else to make with my glut of apples!  Actually, it’s turned out well – I used a recipe from Clivenden from a National Trust recipe book, and it went very well with cheese and cold meat at Christmas) and indulging in afternoon tea with home-baked cake most days (curiously, I have also lost half a stone...).  Since I finished work I have caught up with two years’ worth of outstanding mending and dressmaking projects (so I now have enough clothes to wear, for once!), and am only a few hems away from finishing shortening all the curtains.  I even decorated a wreath for the front door – bought a plain evergreen one from a local nursery and then decorated it with pine cones, bundles of cinnamon sticks, and toadstool ornaments (a traditional Dutch Christmas decoration from my youth).  Despite stout gloves my hands were shredded by the holly, but it was worth it!  Move over Kirstie Allsopp...

I have been making gentle forays into village life, including a round of craft fairs before Christmas, and going carol-singing, which I haven’t done for 25 years.  I was much impressed by the generosity of the people we sang for, both in terms of donations to the Children’s Hospice and in the lavish quantities of alcohol and nibbles we were provided with!  Touchingly, one family of Polish heritage invited us in for their children to sing Polish carols to us in return.  Lovely.

Although I have not yet got around to setting up the bird-feeders (if we get really cold weather this will become a priority), there has been a steady stream of avian visitors to the garden and surrounding fields – so far, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, jay, jackdaw, blackbird, mistle thrush, robin, miscellaneous species of tits, goldfinch, heron, pheasant (a very fine cock bird and his harem of three).  The pond attracts birds who walk across the vegetation to drink and bathe – one robin last week was in there for about ten minutes, having a very thorough splash around!  I am assured that there are also green woodpeckers and kingfishers nearby, and I have heard tawny owls.  Circling buzzards are a regular sight from the upstairs windows – very much a signature bird of the Quantocks.

Although (not entirely surprisingly under the circs) I am feeling fairly exhausted by the events of the last few months, I think this has been a good move.  I have found a home with the local Quaker Meeting, which has given me time and space to find some equilibrium in what has been in some ways a somewhat disorientating experience, and helps to keep me focussed on the idea of simplicity and being attentive to the essential.  I am meeting some very interesting people and making contacts which could result in exciting possibilities for art and life.  And above all I am making some time and space for myself, to re-connect with what makes me tick, which is at this point what I need more than anything else.

New life, new year

My lengthy absence from this blog has been due to something of an upheaval in the latter part of 2012. In the course of a few weeks we have moved house (from South Wales to Somerset), I have finished my job, been away on the first week of training for my new business venture, and survived Christmas.  We are very grateful not to have been flooded, as so much of Somerset has been underwater over the past few weeks, and every outbreak of rain on the saturated ground leads to another round of road closures and sandbags.

Moving house precipitated a new wave of decluttering, paring down, and addressing the issue of stuff versus simplicity, which has been a preoccupation in 2012.  Whilst I am not convinced that I managed quite to achieve my decluttering target in terms of volume, it was heartening to be able to unpack fully in less than a week (bearing in mind that we both work from home, so inevitably have considerably more stuff than if we only lived here), with pretty much everything having found a home.  The new house is larger, which means that it is easier to have demarcation of function in each room - no longer is my wool stashed in corners of the utility room, dining area, office and spare bedroom, but it is now all sorted and to hand in the studio.  Ongoing culling will continue, together with the implementation of a 'one in, one out' policy, but a great deal of progress has been made.

Simplification of other aspects of life is a little less straightforward.  I am currently juggling domesticity, art, learning a new trade (traditional upholstery and furniture renovation) and adapting to my new habitat, while sorting out what shape my paid work will take.  It all feels a little disorientating at the moment, but new opportunities and contacts are emerging on an almost daily basis, which is exciting.  Having a little breathing space is also proving fruitful creatively.  And Somerset is a very art-orientated area, which is stimulating.

For updates on the art and furniture aspects, please follow my blog at www.TheFabrikantBlog.wordpress.com.  I shall be back on this blog before too long with further musings...