Guerilla gardening

Don't tell anyone but I'm becoming a subversive!

We had a Transition Town meeting and we've decided it's time for a bit of guerilla gardening. Suffice it to say, we are all armed with sunflower seeds, peat free compost and torches.

I can't tell you more because then I would have to kill you.

Mass murderer!

Oh help, I suspect we are responsible for mass murder!

Yesterday, the natural little pond that has formed across the stream from us next to the public footpath, dried up. Lots of little tadpoles were spotted gasping for life but before I could get out there with my little bucket, someone else had come to their rescue and had whisked them away to the Junior School pond.

But this morning, we had water gushing out of a manhole at the bottom of our drive.

It doesn't take much of a brain to work out that we have a leak somewhere on our property. That leak could have diverted the water from the natural pond and eh voila, we 'ave no water for the little tadpoles.

I would now publicly like to confess that we are undoubtedly responsible, albeit inadvertantly, for the death of thousands of tadpoles who may have breathed their last on account of our leak.

I am waiting for a call from the water people who are coming, hopefully, to mend the leak but I know that every time I see a frog this year, it will give me THAT look. I also have to keep my head down in shame as I pass all the small children who rush every morning to the pond to see how the wonders of nature are progressing in what was a really lovely natural phenomenon.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

Never mind the election, what about my veg plants?

There's a real sense of excitement and anticipation...no, not because of the election..but because I've put some veg in. I admit here and now, I have no idea what I'm doing with this veg patch but it keeps surprising me as it seems to be developing a mind of its own. I hadn't got round to taking out my purple sprouting broccoli from last year and lo and beyold, it's flowered again and was very tasty with mackerel, thank you very much! The curly kale has used hair straighteners and is reaching skyward and I suspect may be like cardboard and I have four leeks left that I'm saving for a special occasion.

The problem this week has been that, in typical style, I raced out in the sun to put in some veg plants only to hear yesterday that there was likely to be a frost at night, so in my pjs, in the dark, I raced out clutching 3 metres of fleece to tuck it in! Trouble is, I keep forgetting to take it off during the day so the "sun" can get to it. I remember when I get in from work--bit late in the day.

The transition town meeting was brilliant except we had an excellent but thoroughly depressing talk from local author and well known scientologist ( and a member of the Government's Cobra emergency group) Bill McGuire who wrote "Seven Years to Save the Planet. His words were so sobering, all our excitement and optimism plummeted. But despite our bravest efforts, we in Wirksworth can't save the whole world, only our bit of it, so we rallied.

Judith ( reduce, recycle, r-use) turned up looking very glam in "Cat Protection" chic, Glennie ( community and fun) urged us all to take our sunflower seeds and guerilla garden and I tried to persuade people to support our excellent, independent shops. Then we all had a drink and felt better.

That surely is the whole point of this blog. I know that millions will die in global warming; I know that we will all run out of electricity and that countries will disappear without trace, but I can't live feeling that life isn't worth while. The Sword of Damocles has to take a few days off in my life.

pedal power!

So, we've all strangely survived not being able to jet off on hols have we? Apart from the man who missed his son's wedding and one poor child who couldn't get to an operation, I found it hard to join the general feeling of crisis and disaster.

I did want to share this with you though: A hotel has linked up the exercise bikes in its gym to the grid and are giving a free meal to anyone who produces 10 watt hours or electricity or more! Genius. http://http//www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?src=nl&id=17946

Oh and the Transition Town movement in Wirksworth is gaining momentum. We're having our second meeting on Monday and it's really getting the town buzzing. As you can see from the photo, the only thing we need is some youngsters to join us!!!

Wirksworth clean up day. Hope our town stays sparkly and clean for a long time to come..do you know we spend £2.1 million a DAY cleaning up after 5% of the population who don't know how to clean up after themselves and their dogs. Dunt it make you mad?

reclaim the streets....with the sunshine

Yesterday, we had a clean up day in Wirksworth and about 35 people turned up to wear fluorescent jackets and make our town sparkling ready for a beautiful spring-- shouldn't have to if dingbats wouldn't drop litter--but it was a fun community event. As I handed back my jacket I passed this lot enjoying the sunshine and I thought I would share the picture with you. Wirksworth houses often don't have gardens and that's one of the things that makes it the close community it is. Once you sit out and people go by, you tend to talk to them--far better than hiding behind fences and hedges.

As the sun comes out, why not take your chair to the front of your house rather than the back and talk to everyone who passes. Try it, you'll be surprised what fun it is.

Find out whose policies you really agree with

Try this, it's fun and very revealing. You pick a set of policies without knowing which party it is.

http://voteforpolicies.org.uk

The only problem is that so much of the language is woolly and inaccessible...do they really want people to understand them? Why don't they speak in plain English?

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, I came out mostly Green Party which was slightly smug-making!

Let me know your results

PS: bought everyone the little Lindt bunnies for Easter..a sort of compromise on packaging cos they're only wrapped in foil but after watching the programme about chocolate and Nigeria, I wanted to buy Fair Trade but they were encased in cardboard..being a greenie is all about compromise and weighing it all up. Now I have weighed myself up and frankly, no chocolate at all would be the "weigh" to go this week!