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!


Sunday, 26 January 2020

Make, do and mend


In an attempt to take my mind off the ever increasingly worrying situation in China with SARS CV 19, I decided to tackle the mountain of mending which has been sitting, waiting to be done, for several months. 

Most of them are items which are not urgent (pillowcases, a shirt seam where there are many other shirts which could be worn) but on delving in the pile I found my favourite tunic buried deep in there, that I honestly thought I had misplaced somewhere while staying in a hotel last year, or had been blown off the washing line never to be seen again! 

I have a shorter version that I also like, but the tunic version is my favourite



I was so pleased to see it, and immdiately got out the sewing machine and repaired the seam and darned the hole in it. 

Then did a happy dance, wearing it 😊

Wednesday, 22 January 2020

Treats and rewards, Vintage Teatime


I have never been very good at the idea of "self care", by that I don't mean haircuts or massages or manicures. 

What I am talking about are things which we do, or buy, which make us feel happy, just for ourselves. I often feel I should be "doing" all the time and feel guilty if I'm not. So for me, a cup of coffee and a sit down at home listening to the birds singing could be just as much a treat as buying and sitting down to read a much wanted book. 

One of the things I decided to do more of this year was to give myself "rewards" - treating myself for achievements when I've done things I'm either proud of doing (because they were hard and I didn't necessarily want to do them) Or something I did do, that was hard and I did want to do it, and I succeeded. Reaching a particular milestone, or, just because I deserved it. 

Some of these treats/rewards are free or very very cheap (A sit down, a hot bath, nice hand cream, 30 mins with a book in front of the fire)

Some, I've saved up for, and one or two were gifts for the Christmas just past.

So here is one of my "it cost money" treats, a gift subscription to Vintage Teatimes, there are different levels of subscription, this is mine. 

Each month I will get a cup, saucer, tea plate and larger plate, some kind of sweet item such as biscuits, various teas, another couple of treats (this month a book and a teabag saucer with hens on!). There are different levels of subscription to receive each month, depending on what you pay for. 



It cheered me up no end to get the parcel in the post, beautifully wrapped up using all recycled packaging, it was like an early birthday present! Certainly it cheered up another wet, dark January day. 

Thursday, 16 January 2020

16 Jan




A trip into Hereford, shopping. One of the things I did last week was to declutter my dressing table and sort through my cosmetics. All out of date, dried up or otherwise unusable makeup has gone into this recycling point.


It is a good idea!

Saturday, 4 January 2020

Cats




A triskelion of cats



Here is Cassi Cat, sitting on the bed on New Years Day, early in the morning, "helping" me with some crochet! 

Wednesday, 1 January 2020

A new decade


Happy New Year and New Decade, everyone .

I hope 2020 is a good year for all of you.



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