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!


Tuesday 6 May 2014

Bank Holiday Blossomtime

#CompostAwarenessWeek  @TheBigAppleHfd #MasterComposter @gardenorganicuk 

We were up early and I loaded up the car with more plants and my bag with some lunch and water bottle. All else was left in the car overnight so I didn't need to do much else except put on my name badge and then off we went up the road to the Bank Holiday Monday Blossomtime event at our local village hall.

I set up my stall again in my usual corner, with lots of help from lovely Compostman who came with me to assist. I also handed in the Lemon trickle cake he had made as a contribution to the WI cake and tea stall. The WI do every year as a fundraiser and this year I think money raised will go towards new toilets in the village hall. Compostman was too shy to hand it in himself, but I made sure they knew it was his baking not mine as I wanted him to get any credit due!

 
 
Today is usually a different set of people from Sunday, on Sunday I usually see far more local people whereas Monday is often busy with visitors from wider afield - often people holidaying in our area who decide Blossomtime, orchard walks and cider tasting sounds like a fun day out  :) 

 

Yesterday I spent a lot of time discussing the compost making process. Today I talked to people about chicken keeping and free range eggs, growing vegetables and how to care for tomato plants, as well as how to use compost. This is one of the many things I love about being a Master Composter - every event is different.

 












I also handed out lots of leaflets, chatted to loads of visitors and sold more plants to fund raise for Garden Organic. On the stall I spoke to 20 people about keeping chickens,  25 people about compost related issues, and another 15 about gardening and plants :) I talked to lots more people as I wandered around the event as well.


After lunch Compostman arrived with Compostgirl. She immediately went off with a group of friends to have fun at the RSPB stall and pet the animals brought by Paul Hands of Bees and Trees. Compostman and I went for tea and cake from the WI stall - a welcome break!   Then at 2.30 the Leominster Morris Men began to arrive and the crowd suddenly swelled as more people came to see them dance.

I love our local Morris side but if you are not a fan of Morris Dancing scroll down to the bottom!







It was terrific to watch, as always, and so much fun :) 

After the excitement of the Morris dancing, we went into the hall and tasted a few samples of cider and chatted to some of our neighbours. Most of the fields around us are cider orchards and it is good to chat to our farming neighbours as we don't often get to meet up.

Finally at the close of the event we loaded up the car with all the contents of the stall - I try to do it so my stall is packed away ready for next time rather than just throwing it all in the car any old how- although sometimes if it rains that is what happens - today though it was dry and sunny so all was put away in an orderly fashion.

And then home, to sit down with a cup of tea - bliss! 
I feel very shattered after another very long day on my feet, but have had an excellent two days of talking compost to people

I hope you all had a good weekend, also :)






2 comments:

  1. I'm glad to hear people are interested, are a lot more people going down the organic route?

    ReplyDelete
  2. From the title I thought it would be a post showing flowers. :) Your area has interesting events to attend.

    ReplyDelete

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.

UA-40361266-1