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 26 January 2016

Tax return done :)

Tax Return done andsmile emoticon I have a refund as well smile emoticon Thank you HMRC!
I *was*  panicking a bit yesterday having not got down to filing it online. Normally I get it done in October. But this year I didn't and then I prevaricated and left it until this week. 

Fortunately I had actually done all the work in July 2015 to do the CTC claim - so when I finally stopped prevaricating and sat down to do it I found I had all the info ready and it took me an hour in total, rather than the day I was expecting:)

smile emoticon I also checked a few on line resources and found I had not been claiming a few expenses so added them in - just hope HMRC  accept  I *am* self employed! Even though I make very little money from what I do, I am a business.

Thursday 21 January 2016

Welcome to Moley!


A huge welcome to Moley who was my surprise New Year Chokliteer Tribe membership creature. He has come to live with the rest of my Tribe and has already settled in and is demanding lots of choklit (Dark, of course! ) Thank you so much to the talented and creative Karin Celestine of Celestine and the Hare. Karin he is absolutely wonderful :) smile emoticon And I love his scarf so much as well! 

For those of you who have NO idea what I am on about - go and have a look at Karin's website and/or Facebook page and prepare to be entranced :) 







smile emoticon

Sunday 17 January 2016

Still raining!

I'm seriously thinking of building an Ark. Splish splash splosh out to the hen house I go!

Still splashing to the gym though, several times a week. I think my back is feeling the benefit ...

Saturday 9 January 2016

Getting fitter, but still raining



I have joined a local gym, golf club and swimming pool. I have done some Pilates classes, been swimming and today I had a lovely time swimming with Compostgirl  (athough, we might just as well have just stood outside, in terms of getting soaked to the skin!)

On a more serious note, it is STILL raining - apart from a few hours of sunshine on a few days this week we have had rain every day for more than 2 months and mostly overcast skies. I am SO fed up of mud. As are the chickens.

I cannot get out to do ANYTHING on the land or in the wood as the ground is so sodden ( standing water on the surface) ; the Seramas spend most of the day hiding in the polytunnel; the big hens hardly bother to leave the Mega Hen Pen and if they do - they leg it to the shelter of the barn and hide in there all day, moaning. This meand I find eggs laid in very odd places some days!

Roll on Spring.
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