Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Friday 5 April 2013

Friday fabric sorting and dreaming of future gardens



Another very cold day here - but a good drying day and I got the last of the bed sheets and blankets washed and dried.

I have had a huge  sort out of blankets, sheets, pillows etc - given there are only three of us I am not sure how we have accumulated so much bedding, especially pillows? We do have a lot, far more than we need for us plus a king sized guest bed with spares!

I have sorted out the oldest and lumpiest ( is that even a word?) and they are in the "Going Out the Door" pile, along with some single and double poly cotton sheets (15 years since we last had a double bed!), some towels which we have had since we married ( 28 years ago!) and a couple of old fleece blankets. I have kept enough other old towels, bedding etc to use for crafting or with our animals and really do not want this stuff, so it is in two piles - suitable for charity shops and ...well... not.

I was going to separate it all out and do something different but after a quick trip around the web sites of local animal shelters I have offered it all to a local animal rescue centre. They have a charity shop and can sell what is good enough and hopefully the stuff which is too far gone can be used for bedding or drying animals etc. I have left a message on their phone and will await their instructions, I just hope they reply soon as we have a small pillow mountain blocking up the utility room! The pillows are sealed in bags but it does not stop Cassi Cat from trying to jump on them !
 
I've now signed up to Bloglovin', which is an easy way to read all your favourite blogs. Sorry that I have had to add another button, but apparently Google is withdrawing its Google Reader service in the near future.

If you have already followed me on Google you don't need to do anything else as I have imported you all across (apparently!)

So, that was my Friday. Lots of washing and talking to hens and cats and sorting out stuff and looking at rescue cats ( yes, I am tempted!) and looking at nice gardens and doing some writing work and drinking lots of hot tea.

How about you?


8 comments:

  1. Things are cooling down here at the moment in Victoria Australia but we have had some glorious autumnal days of which I have made the most. I washed had hung 8 loads of washing Thursday and just pottered around the garden moving bits and bobs and tidying up under a crystal blue sky and warm sun - a day you can only get in autumn. It was heavenly. Yesterday though I got stuck into building and filling 2 more of our raised garden beds and I emptied out the spud beds of their soil to fill them. DIVINE stuff. Our spud beds will either be filled with horse manure and such to rot down over winter in preparation for spring (they're those big wooden apple crates) or sit empty, I'm not sure. But we're preparing for winter plantings of garlic, broad beans and then a tonne of brassicas I hope. The cabbage moth caterpillars have decimated my purple sprouting broccoli this summer and they're also covered thickly in aphids. I'm wondering if it's worth keeping them in the ground or not. :( I emptied out my corn plants which never did reach harvest (several lessons learned there) and the kids and I picked a heap more tomatoes (the German Johnsons are just colouring up now) and ate some straight from the bush - love Tommy Toe marties! It was a wonderful day. :)

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    1. Hi Rlh


      I am finally hoping to get out spuds in the ground today _ fingers and toes crossed :-)

      I can't wait for our tomato season to re start ( drool)

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  2. Sounds like you've had a productive day...a good sort out is great for the mind and the charity shop!

    Animal charity shops are my favourites for some reason.

    Sft x

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    1. Hi Sft

      I try to donate evenly - Red Cross, Acorns, Sue Ryder and Mind (in Ledbury so near by) and PDSA and CPL (in Hereford)

      Bedding stuff goes to the local animal shelters direct.

      I think animal charities are really feeling the recession even more than people charities

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  3. There's something very satisfying about clearing out unwanted things and creating space. Thanks for the heads-up about the Bloglovin thing. I've added my buttons, but can't see anything about how to import followers - I am a technophobe though!!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Scarlet

      Go to your Bloglovin page and click on your username - you should see a drop down list of stuff. Click on "settings" then go to the bottom and under "other" you will see a button for importing blogs from Google Reader and more - click on that and all your blogs will be added to your feed so you can read them just like Google Reader at the moment.

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  4. Well done you especially for giving to the animal shelters.
    FIB. X

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Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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