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!


Monday 29 June 2015

Things to be thankful for



Things to be thankful for. Flowers and family and health and cats and friends and books and wine and chickens and woodlands and gardens and, most of all, love. However and where ever it comes from. And just to let you all know, I love you all xxx
 

 

Friday 26 June 2015

Grateful :)

OK a year ago I was in the septic febrile delusional throes of septicaemia and in immenent danger of being hospitalised. And next day actually was :( And nearly died and was so grateful to the NHS for saving my life.
This week or two I have been spraying myself with "Incognito" and wearing long sleeved shirts and avoiding damp ish places to protect myself from the dreaded Blandford Fly! Am trying to avoid being bitten again!
Am so grateful to the NHS and happy to still be around in June 2015 to post here :)

And, of course am very happy I have been following The Harcombe Diet and have now removed 9 stone of surplus weight as well since last year :) I feel SO much better, now :)

Saturday 13 June 2015

Fox at 5 pm

RIP Nightshade, Ginger and lovely Aggie hens
Fox got them at 5 pm yesterday afternoon by the hen house. Blasted Fox.
So sad

Thursday 11 June 2015

Relaxing on the patio

Chickens all put away, polytunnel watered, all outdoor stuff done. Time to have a glass of Rose, light a candle and then listen to the nightingales and the quiet hum of bees in the foxgloves.


Wednesday 10 June 2015

Garden party

Today I hosted a social gathering at Compost Mansions, for fellow Master Composters and LFHW ambassadors, visitors from the Bisley Community Compost site, some MC's from neighbouring Gloucestershire and some of the various Council staff who manage the MC scheme.

It was a lovely day, we had 22 people visiting :) We had a "bring and share" lunch as well as a BBQ using the LFHW cooker and kit.

Before lunch I gave the party a tour of the garden, composting area, chickens and the Wood and we had many animated discussions about composting!

Wednesday 3 June 2015

Tiny Robin

One of the cats brought a very very young nestling in today and left it on the floor alive and unharmed but we have no idea where the nest is. So ..we have a nestling in the airing cupboard at the moment and are feeding it cat meat scraps with tweezers. It seems ok and unharmed but so tiny! Just contacted The Vale Wildlife Centre for advice.





After talking to The Vale we decided to take the Robin nestling over to them, as is had been in a cats mouth so would need antibiotics. Tiny Robin now safe and being looked after there

Monday 1 June 2015

I got to go to Hay!

After the excitement of the Archery GB Big Weekend have a go shoot on Sat, I hurt my back somehow moving stuff around and woke up Sunday  morning hardly able to walk.

I certainly couldn't drive over to Hay to see Jackie Morris and Ffion Rees talk at Hay. So I felt very sad as I had missed them at Solva Woollen Mill due to hitting myself in the face with a rake on Election Day and giving my self a black eye and concussion.

Then my lovely husband said he would drive me to Hay :)

And so I got to see Jackie Morris and Ffion Rees give their talk after all, about how the book Queen of the Sky came to be born. Wonderful story and fabulous paintings illustrate it. So moving to hear how Ffion rescued Hissthe peregrine falcon and built up her strength again then let her go free. If you haven't already, buy this book! It is wonderful.






I said hello to Karin from Celestine and the Hare and various other friends and looked in book stalls and chatted to people and ate a lovely meal and drank a glass of wine.

And then I went home on the double decker bus to Hereford! I chatted on the bus to two lovely Dutch ladies who were hiking around the UK for 2 weeks and a couple from Cardiff who had spent the week walking and wild camping. I love buses and trains

I was collected by Compostman  and my lovely daughter who has been in France all week with her school and has had a fab time by the sound of it.

So a day that I thought was going to be crap has turned out brilliantly



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