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 13 August 2018

Injured knee.

As some of you may know, at the end of July I (well Cassi cat, really!) injured my knee. It's been over 4 weeks now and although it's improving slowly, I've found it very frustrating being unable to move around very much.

Initially I was on total rest for two weeks, on crutches, then allowed to move around, on crutches and started physio.

I managed to get to Green Gathering 2018 to do my usual workshops, with a lot of help and support from Compostman and all the lovely people in the Permaculture area.

But since then, despite now able to just mostly rely on a stick and doing my exercises every single day,  progress seems very slow. Sigh.

Wednesday 8 August 2018

Green Gathering 2018

Well, despite the hinderence of being on crutches due to my bad knee, thanks to Cassi Cat trying to kill me three weeks ago, I made it!

I had a huge amount of help and support both to get there, set up camp, do my workshops and generally move around on crutches at a festival for a week.

The weather was very hot and very sunny!

I had a fabulous time and really enjoyed talking to new people and old friends.

Seize the Day were excellent, as always :)

Tuesday 3 July 2018

A trip to Wales

I escaped to Wales, to St David's again, last week.

Had a lovely few days staying at The Old School house in Trefin, catching up with friends and generally having a good time.

Visited an open garden event and spent the afternoon watching @jackiemorrisartist paint and chat and gild stones with gold leaf. Fabulous garden, wonderful people.

Saturday 2 June 2018

Hay Festival 2018 visit #2.

I went again to Hay for the second of three planned days out, today it was to go on a walk and sketch with acclaimed author and illustrator @jackiemorrisartist.
We walked down to the Wye, where Jackie read from #thelostwords, and using ink and magic and river water, created an otter while reciting the otter spell from The Lost Words, written by Robert McFarlane and illustrated by Jackie.
It was a beautiful way to spend a morning!
And the otter came home with me, later :)

Wednesday 4 April 2018

Weeping Window in Hereford Cathedral




Part of the WW1 14  -18 touring art installations to commemorate the fallen. Beautiful.

Sunday 14 January 2018

Instagram update


Anyone who follows me as Compostwoman on Instagram, my account was  hacked in Nov 2017and I lost control of it . You may still see a load of my photos up there, but under another email and name :(

I have complained to Instagram but they have been utterly useless, so PLEASE do unfollow the imposter and follow me, instead on this link as thecompostwoman

The Instagram button on the LH sidebar takes you to the new Instagram page, as does THIS LINK to my instagram account :)

Thank you, and if you feel like complaining BEFORE you unfollow the imposter - do feel free!

Monday 8 January 2018

Polytunnel Damage.


Sadly the Polytunnel cover was damaged by the very heavy snowfall we had in Dec here in Herefordshire.

I hoped the House Insurance would pay for the replacement of the cover, as it is included under the insurance and was replaced when damaged by the Great Storm of 2002.

However the assessor has decided it wasn't snow weight damage but rather "fair ware and tear".

Am thinking about appealing this! 8 inches plus of  snow frozen on the top weighs a lot and I have photos showing how much the polythene was sagging under the weight.

If we have to do it ourselves, anyone up to come to a polytunnel cover party in April/May 2018?



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