Thank you for your post flower - for all those who cannot understand it here is the translation from google - A world of sand, flowers and heaven, Palm grip is infinite, eternal moment ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... I do not know if it is a poem ???

I am back

Well I have had a year off but it is now time to start up again. A lot has happened during the last year. I was elected as a community councillor to Blaenhonddan Community Council in Neath Port Talbot in May 2008 and ever since I have been trying to bring sense to local politics which has been a tremendous battle. I started a craft group in January last year as I felt an urgent need to create, to create anything in a world gone mad. I started creating and took a few people with me who are now artisans in their trade, dog coats with welsh dragons embroidered on them, blankets for small boys beds with the sun, moon, stars and planets crocheted on to them with pride. Scarves for the homeless. We could do it so we did it. And what a year it has been. Credit crunch, tumbling stock markets, bankrupt banks and Peter Mandlesson joins a Labour Government after being made a lord. Whatever next ? What has it done to me and my bin ? First off , my excuse is, I had to move. Being no longer fleet of foot I managed to get a flat which is far better for me in my dotage. Living in a flat is difficult when one has amassed tons of stuff in a house. I squeezed in what I could and nearly one year down the line am still evacuating belongings out the door. Thank goodness for the local chapel who are raising funds to renovate the vestry and do car boot sales and coffee evenings where they sell on unwanted goods. Believe it or not I have not yet finished ejecting the treasures of sixty brief years.

Now down to the important bit. How is my recycling going. Well I slipped up. I must tell the truth and here it is. I moved, I did not have time to go shopping properly, completely in the market. The council wore me out and I took time out and used my bin again. I am proud of the fact I have everyone in the flats where I live now recycling lots of their waste. I now buy glass, paper and tins when I have to. I still will not buy plastic bottles. I still cook everything from basic foodstuff but I admit I have erred. But I will err no longer. I still use toiletries which come in paper, I still do not use washing up liquid. My fairy soap suffices very well. I still totally enjoy my food and my son comes home less and less as his university work intensifies. So why am I back. I am back for a specific purpose. I am back because I have been thinking, and acting, on certain principles which have come out of radio shows I have been on; specifically one where we looked at how Wales did so well last year and punched above it's weight with Catherine Jenkins, Only Men Aloud, Gavin & Stacey, the Olympics and the Paralympics. I had a realisation while debating this issue:- Entrepreneurship. The people who make money using other peoples skills. We are in a recession, which could ( if it has not already) slip into depression. The world has gone mad. As you will know if you have read any of this blog previously, I have an issue with self sufficiency. I have an issue with the massive consumption of fossil fuels, especially oil and gas. I lived a life without these commodities once and know it is possible to do so again. I have major issues with consumption, waste and now entrepreneurship because of commercialism. For the last 6 months I have been training myself not to think of anything commercially. This is a tall order I know but I am getting there. The worth of whatever I create is now to me worth what it is to me and not what I can get on e bay for it. I refuse to make anything to sell on. I only make what I need, if I can. I have to buy a new bed for my son as I had fungus spores in his bedroom which hopefully are now gone but the bed has to go. I cannot make a bed so I have to buy one. But I am capable of making all the bed coverings for this bed. I have a chest full of material. By the time the bed comes I will have made all the bedding. I made elephants in wool and stuffed them with pure fleece last Christmas. I am adding a photograph. I was asked constantly, please make one for me I will pay you for it, you could get £25 each or more on e bay for those. The elephants were made specifically for little people. I do not want to spend my life on the treadmill making elephants until my arms drop off to supply a market where e bay creams off some money, paypal creams off a little more and they get rich while I get tired and have to go spend my hard earned money on expensive food and bedding as I do not have time to make my own. Enough I said, elephants for little people when it is a birthday or christmas, bedding for the new bed because it is needed and out comes the wardrobe to be revamped for this summer. The ladies in the craft group are making fantastic progress revamping their wardrobes, I am now joining them. So my aim is not to allow entrepreneurship into my life, to allow only need and self sufficiency in as much as I am able to help support myself and mine. I am back. I hope I can drum up some interest for people to stop thinking in terms of money and think in terms of aiding and abetting oneself instead of helping others and being too tired to help themselves. Oh well it is worth a try and what happens when they start charging for the weight of your bin? l I for one will be paying nothing. How about you ?

Tuesday February 5th 2008

I have been neglectful. I have found other places to visit. I have found like minded people. The book will get written soon but it is not as easy as I had initially thought. I need to discipline myself to get it done but I am happy to report I am still bin free. I have been told 'the trouble is if you do it then they will expect us all to do it and then none of us will have a bin collection'. I have also been told ' you are doing people out of jobs'. The reasons I do what I do is personal. I feel happier not creating land fill. I know full well it is impossible for most people to achieve but I also know it is possible to get half way there quite easily and every plastic bottle counts. Other countries have tetra packs of milk. We desperately need to cut down on our plastic consumption and milk and pop bottles account for a tremendous amount of land fill. The onus has to be on the government and the supermarkets. No one asked for milk and pop in plastic bottles so find an alternative that can be disposed of by burning in a power station or something. Anything but the plastic bottle that will destroy our oceans and our land. We need our land, we need to leave it in good condition for future inhabitants of this earth, some of whom will be here as a direct result of our actions. I intend to start a campaign to dispose of plastic milk bottles. If it can be done it should be done. I will be back :)

Aftermath - January 14th 2008

It is January 14th 2008. I have still not used a refuse bin. I have some cans from Christmas and a few bottles in the recycling bin which I will put out for the recycling next week. I have had my weekly fire since xmas and thoroughly enjoyed the experience as usual. I shall continue for the foreseeable future without putting out a refuse bin as I cannot revert to the plastic life I left behind. Edwin still delivers my milk, the popman still calls and the market beckons me back without a thought for a supermarket. I will continue to tread the path I have for the last three months plus without even thinking about it. I also intend to write a book on what I did for the simple reason if I can get it printed it might help to pay off the legal fees we incurred fighting the gas plant in my village and lots of people have nearly begged me to put it in writing including a full list of what I avoided and what I purchased together with recipes. So lets give it a go. I have published two books in the past but both have been on History. Lets see how I can get on as auntieplastic. Who knows perhaps more people will lose their need for a bin. That I would love. I did not embark on this journey for anything other than to prove a point. I was on the welsh radio last week and was totally amazed at how people were so shocked that it can be done. I cannot stress enough how easy it is to do, how in control I felt during the three months and how I could not give it up for all the tea in china willingly. I can wealk around shops looking at goods and just writing them off without even thinking about what is inside thd packaging. No I cannot buy you I say to the shelves and I merrily walk on with a smile on my face. This is the life for me, guilt free and charges free if they start to charge for the amount of waste produced. I shall continue to get phone calls off my personal butcher. My quilt will be put together soon and I have materials out of my box for a skirt to beat all skirts. I saw on the '(INEBG) It's not easy being green' web site which I am now attempting to join a joint effort of some people not to buy anything new in 2008. I think I might join them and take personal satisfaction in creating things from thrown away items. We are starting a drop in centre in our village one day a week on Thursdays. Refreshments and crafts. We intend to teach one another skills to enable people to create, for in creating we find peace and contentment and control of the finest sort. I shall be back but lets get writing :)

Tesco's French Cauliflowers ?

Xmas quilts 2007

Wednesday 26th December 2007

My challenge is over. Now my challenge is to carry on going. I finished with 2 computer cartridges, one plastic tray, one plastic bag from around grapes and one empty washed tin of beans in my carrier bag after three months. I shall photograph them before taking them to the tip. I have no intention of putting out a bin. My microwave packed up on me just before Xmas and that is out side waiting to be disposed of. I think I will ask for a free collection from the Council to pick it up as that is the most carbon friendly way of disposing of it as the lorry makes lots of pick-ups on each journey. I am going to attempt to live without another microwave but will keep my options open. My son is not amused about that. I survived xmas with giving home made food and quilts which I just about managed to finish on Xmas Eve morning. I think everyone is happy and if there are any complaints I will own up. Only thing I will change next year is I shall start earlier with my xmas gifts and also will source throughout the year so I have more goods available. I also start right now not purchasing anything made out of the United Kingdom. I shall carry on this blog and list what I buy and where I sourced them. I have one major issue with Tesco's even though I did not shop there for Xmas. I was at my daughters. She had visited Tesco's. I am putting in here a photograph of the plastic wrapping which she purchased her cauliflower in from Tesco's. Who can tell me where this cauliflower was grown ? I asked my daughter who had frantically rushed around Tesco's in the crowds as had most people. She said, it is Welsh of course it says so on the packaging. I know I have bought plastic she said to me, but it was Welsh. Well it is not. It is French and surely this is misleading advertising. I will find out but would be grateful of feedback to see what anyone else thinks. This made me mad, how many people paid top prices for cauliflowers covered in bilingual messages believing them to be British at least. I rest my case of wine on someones toes, hopefully it will be Tesco's. I am appalled and I will be back.

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all who have troubled to read my inane titterings for three months, thank you from the bottom of my heart.