And as the Big Green Blog Gathering enters it’s final day, here at the Emma & Pete Show we are thrilled to be hosting the Renewable Energy Cinema once more. Today we’ve got a fascinating nature documentary about honeybees and their hives:
And if you’d rather see beautiful, furry bumblebees, then we have a short film about those as well :)
Saving the Bumblebee from Jamie-Lee Loughlin on Vimeo.
Ever since Pete and I became self-employed (3+ years ago now), we’ve faced the same question – “What do you do?”. At the beginning it came from ex-colleagues we bumped into. Some of them were just being polite; I think others were hoping to discover our escape tunnel for themselves.
We see less and less of them these days, but we see more of other people. And our answer to date has been a kind of off-hand phrase designed to kill people’s interest: “internet marketing, it’s quite hard to explain”. It never does put people off, though, and they insist on more long-winded answers that they usually don’t understand. But what they really want to know is whether we can help them with their computer problems or tell them how to make the internet work for them.
There are various other professions it’s best not to own up to in public. If you’re a doctor then it means people shoving their body parts in your face and expecting a consultation. Accounts are asked tricky tax questions. Lawyers are asked for free legal assistance. I’m sure there are plenty more.
Pete likes to invent fantasy jobs that are far more interesting – but less prone to exploitation – than his own; I hate lying to people. I reckon I’ve come up with a workable solution though – job titles which are aspects of what we do, that we’re happy to talk about and that aren’t the kind of thing that usually involves offering on-the-spot advice.
From now on, I am going to be The Emma Cooper (someone called me that recently, which was quite entertaining), author. My first book, The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z was published last summer. When asked the inevitable question “is it doing well?” I shall respond with a simple and resounding “Yes”, as it’s actually very difficult to quantify. I am currently working on my second book and my articles appear in various magazines and newspapers from time to time.
Pete is going to be a Trainer. Also true, it was the last role he had before he became self-employed. Although he hasn’t run any training courses since, it’s something he would like to get back into and we are currently planning a pair of courses although that’s in the early stages and we can’t give any more details at the moment. Or maybe we can – you’d have to ask Pete :)
We’re back at the Big Green Blog Gathering today, hosting the renewable energy cinema. Yesterday we had a great film about one of permaculture’s heros – Sepp Holtzer – and today we have another: Emilia Hazelip.
As part of the Big Green Blog Gathering, we’re hosting the Green Cinema today :) It may be solar powered later on if the sun comes out (but we’re hoping for rain), but at the meantime it’s powered by 100% renewable energy from Good Energy.
This film was chosen by my friend Mr. H as one of his favourite films on permaculture, which ties into all the themes that are being covered by the BGBG this week.
It’s hard to believe, but I have been a published author for a year now. This time last year, The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z was hot off the press and we were preparing to take a car load down to the Big Green Gathering for a week-long signing fest. Alas, it was not to be. The Gathering was cancelled at the last minute, and so I put together an online version instead.
Due to last year’s problems, the BGG isn’t running this year either – so it’s time again for the Big Green Blog Gathering. All next week, over on my lean green, blogging machine, I will be hosting days of fun and frolics in the virtual sunshine.
There’s plenty of room if you want come along, and if you want to join in and give a talk in the virtual yurt, or help with the weeding in the permaculture garden then give me a shout. It’s so hip, it even has a Twitter tag. But no Facebook group. Not yet.
It’s nearly a year now since I have (mostly) given up cow’s milk. I can cope with small amounts now and again, but any attempt to have cow’s milk products on a regular basis makes me uncomfortable and isn’t worth it. I am fine with goat’s milk on cereal and in tea; when I cook at home I use goat’s milk and butter, and Pete is fine with that. It’s hard to taste any difference in cooked foods, anyway.
One of the few things we have struggled with is finding a decent curry sauce that is free from cow’s milk. They’re either too fiery or completely insipid and leave a lot to be desired. But that has now changed, after a spontaneous visit to a local farm shop uncovered the range of curry sauces and chutneys (achars) from Ghurka Fine Foods.
For our first encounter I choose the mildest of the sauces on offer – the Masu cooking sauce has a heat rating of 1 (out of 5) and of itself is vegan although they recommend using it with red meat. We happened to have some lamb mince in the fridge, so today we cooked that up with the sauce, two onions and plenty of peas (Pete loves peas in curry!).
The result was delicious. Although there is not a hint of heat in the sauce, it still has plenty of flavour. We both loved it, without reservation, and would happily buy it again. Our local stockist had at least one other flavour on offer (and several chutneys), which was a heat rating of 3, and we’re confident enough of the quality of the range to give that one a go next time as well. And we’ll be keeping an eye out for the Ghurka Fine Foods range on supermarket shelves from now on.
Dr Chris Johnstone, author of Find Your Power and all-round good egg, recently delivered a talk at the Bristol Happiness Lectures. Sadly, I couldn’t make it to the event (ironically some of my own gut-wrenching mental health problems made it impractical), but thanks to the wonders of the internets and portable recording devices, the talk is available on YouTube.
For your pleasure and ease of viewing, I’ve plunked them below.
Part 1 of 4:
Part 2 of 4:
Part 3 of 4:
Part 4 of 4:
I’ve started reading Find Your Power recently. It’s bloody good. Blissfully free of the usual self-help claptrap hyperbole, and it’s refreshing to see a Brit talking about mental health issues for once. Too many books in this genre are American imports written for the American market (which sounds terribly xenophobic when I don’t mean it to be), whereas this is very much a Brit writing style. Having a Brit chap write about brain health makes a big difference to me. Which is not to say I dislike American writing styles, it’s just something worth mentioning. Plus, I’m utterly rubbish at book reviews and recommendations. The mere fact I’ve mentioned it should be enough for you to work out that I like it.
‘Find Your Power’ by Dr Chris Johnstone (ISBN13: 9781856230506, ISBN10: 1856230503) is published by Permanent Publications and is available in paperback right now. Go buy it, chop chop.
I know that a lot of people think of the internet as a wild and scary place, but it’s important to remember that it’s not really made up of a lot of computers and cables, but people. Behind every website there’s a real person. It always saddens me that the first response of people who have a problem with something that has been posted on the internet is often anger and/ or aggression. Perhaps they would take this tack if they were dealing with people face-to-face, but I suspect not. I suspect most people are decent people and, in the first instance, would attempt at least a polite first encounter.
Those of you who listen to the show will know that of late, Pete and I have had to deal with a couple of people who were less than polite. I occasionally have the same problem over on my other website, which is why this morning I have taken the time to write a post about Japanese Knotweed.
To sum up, Japanese Knotweed was introduced to the UK as an ornamental plant, but unfortunately has become an invasive weed. The problem is so bad the disposing of this plant incorrectly will land you in trouble. If you have Japanese Knotweed in your garden then it pays to be a good neighbour and to try and keep it under control.
Foragers (very trendy right now) understand that one of the ways to control this plant is to eat it. Apparently (and I can’t comment, because I’ve never tried it, we don’t have this weed in our garden) Japanese Knotweed can be used as a free rhubarb alternative. Those in the know says it is actually nicer than rhubarb, and can be made into crumble, pie and fool in exactly the same way. I have links to more recipes in my original post, all provided online by friendly people who are simply trying to share information with other people who might find it useful.
So, in a spirit of cooperation, if you have a blog or website and can write something relevant, it might be nice if you linked to this post, or my original post on Japanese Knotweed recipes, so the information can be shared far and wide :)
Have you saved money using one of our Emma and Pete promo codes? We’d love to hear your stories – how much you spent, and how much you saved! If you can remember which code you used (for a vendor like GoDaddy, where there are several), then so much the better!
If you’ll get in trouble with your spouse/parents/bank manager for over-spending, then don’t worry – you can stay anonymous! Just email your savings stories to emmaanadpeteshow@gmail.com (or you can leave them in the comments) and we’ll share them here on the site and we might mention you on the show as well :)
The more happy customers we have, the more deals we’ll be able to bring you!
Pete and I have been making good progress with the decluttering. A few weeks ago we cleared out the shed and the sun room, which were mainly filled with my gardening clutter. Pete was astonished as the sheer tonnage of unused plant pots that were kicking around, and they became a big target for disposal.
Plant pots aren’t the easiest thing to recycle. Last year (I think) Wyevale garden centres offered a ‘take back’ scheme, but they don’t seem to have any information on anything similar this year. They are rarely included in kerbside recycling collections, and you may find plastic recycling facilities locally are limited.
But as long as they’re in good condition, there’s absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t be reused. While keen gardeners might amass a sizeable collection, there are plenty of new gardeners who will be short of pots, and many school gardens and other community gardening schemes will be able to make use of them too. It’s just a case of finding someone locally who can use them. If you’re a fan of Freecycle/ Freegle (and we’re not!) then you can put out an email and see who comes to collect them.
In the end we took my spare pots (and I spent a couple of hours washing them all, so they were clean) to our seed swap stand at the Hampshire Green Fair . Not exactly local, but we were going anyway so they didn’t accrue any Pot Miles. Several visitors to the stand thought it was a great idea – and wished they had brought their spare pots to offload on us! But there were also people grateful for one or two pots, and a teacher who took two bags of pots for her school garden project. We found almost all of them new homes with little effort.
We may be Decluttering Ninjas, but we have a couple of quandaries which we have yet to resolve. Pete’s collection of vinyl LPs (lots of lovely electronic music!) have been trying to find a new home for years now. Pete has been patiently selling them in ones and twos, but that has become a pain in the butt and we would just like the space back. However, they have very little resale value and their sheer bulk makes them difficult to rehome.
And while we were clearing out the garage we found two petrol cans full of old petrol. It’s too old to use now, even if we hadn’t changed over to a diesel car. We don’t have a lawn, so no lawnmower. Local recycling facilities will take old motor oil, but there’s no mention of petrol. How can we dispose of it responsibly?
If you have any suggestions on how to deal with these two items then please get in touch via the comments, or send us an email!
And as the Big Green Blog Gathering enters it’s final day, here at the Emma & Pete Show we are thrilled to be hosting the Renewable Energy Cinema once more. Today we’ve got a fascinating nature documentary about honeybees and their hives:
And if you’d rather see beautiful, furry bumblebees, then we have a short film about those as well :)
Saving the Bumblebee from Jamie-Lee Loughlin on Vimeo.
Ever since Pete and I became self-employed (3+ years ago now), we’ve faced the same question – “What do you do?”. At the beginning it came from ex-colleagues we bumped into. Some of them were just being polite; I think others were hoping to discover our escape tunnel for themselves.
We see less and less of them these days, but we see more of other people. And our answer to date has been a kind of off-hand phrase designed to kill people’s interest: “internet marketing, it’s quite hard to explain”. It never does put people off, though, and they insist on more long-winded answers that they usually don’t understand. But what they really want to know is whether we can help them with their computer problems or tell them how to make the internet work for them.
There are various other professions it’s best not to own up to in public. If you’re a doctor then it means people shoving their body parts in your face and expecting a consultation. Accounts are asked tricky tax questions. Lawyers are asked for free legal assistance. I’m sure there are plenty more.
Pete likes to invent fantasy jobs that are far more interesting – but less prone to exploitation – than his own; I hate lying to people. I reckon I’ve come up with a workable solution though – job titles which are aspects of what we do, that we’re happy to talk about and that aren’t the kind of thing that usually involves offering on-the-spot advice.
From now on, I am going to be The Emma Cooper (someone called me that recently, which was quite entertaining), author. My first book, The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z was published last summer. When asked the inevitable question “is it doing well?” I shall respond with a simple and resounding “Yes”, as it’s actually very difficult to quantify. I am currently working on my second book and my articles appear in various magazines and newspapers from time to time.
Pete is going to be a Trainer. Also true, it was the last role he had before he became self-employed. Although he hasn’t run any training courses since, it’s something he would like to get back into and we are currently planning a pair of courses although that’s in the early stages and we can’t give any more details at the moment. Or maybe we can – you’d have to ask Pete :)
We’re back at the Big Green Blog Gathering today, hosting the renewable energy cinema. Yesterday we had a great film about one of permaculture’s heros – Sepp Holtzer – and today we have another: Emilia Hazelip.
As part of the Big Green Blog Gathering, we’re hosting the Green Cinema today :) It may be solar powered later on if the sun comes out (but we’re hoping for rain), but at the meantime it’s powered by 100% renewable energy from Good Energy.
This film was chosen by my friend Mr. H as one of his favourite films on permaculture, which ties into all the themes that are being covered by the BGBG this week.
It’s hard to believe, but I have been a published author for a year now. This time last year, The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z was hot off the press and we were preparing to take a car load down to the Big Green Gathering for a week-long signing fest. Alas, it was not to be. The Gathering was cancelled at the last minute, and so I put together an online version instead.
Due to last year’s problems, the BGG isn’t running this year either – so it’s time again for the Big Green Blog Gathering. All next week, over on my lean green, blogging machine, I will be hosting days of fun and frolics in the virtual sunshine.
There’s plenty of room if you want come along, and if you want to join in and give a talk in the virtual yurt, or help with the weeding in the permaculture garden then give me a shout. It’s so hip, it even has a Twitter tag. But no Facebook group. Not yet.
It’s nearly a year now since I have (mostly) given up cow’s milk. I can cope with small amounts now and again, but any attempt to have cow’s milk products on a regular basis makes me uncomfortable and isn’t worth it. I am fine with goat’s milk on cereal and in tea; when I cook at home I use goat’s milk and butter, and Pete is fine with that. It’s hard to taste any difference in cooked foods, anyway.
One of the few things we have struggled with is finding a decent curry sauce that is free from cow’s milk. They’re either too fiery or completely insipid and leave a lot to be desired. But that has now changed, after a spontaneous visit to a local farm shop uncovered the range of curry sauces and chutneys (achars) from Ghurka Fine Foods.
For our first encounter I choose the mildest of the sauces on offer – the Masu cooking sauce has a heat rating of 1 (out of 5) and of itself is vegan although they recommend using it with red meat. We happened to have some lamb mince in the fridge, so today we cooked that up with the sauce, two onions and plenty of peas (Pete loves peas in curry!).
The result was delicious. Although there is not a hint of heat in the sauce, it still has plenty of flavour. We both loved it, without reservation, and would happily buy it again. Our local stockist had at least one other flavour on offer (and several chutneys), which was a heat rating of 3, and we’re confident enough of the quality of the range to give that one a go next time as well. And we’ll be keeping an eye out for the Ghurka Fine Foods range on supermarket shelves from now on.
Dr Chris Johnstone, author of Find Your Power and all-round good egg, recently delivered a talk at the Bristol Happiness Lectures. Sadly, I couldn’t make it to the event (ironically some of my own gut-wrenching mental health problems made it impractical), but thanks to the wonders of the internets and portable recording devices, the talk is available on YouTube.
For your pleasure and ease of viewing, I’ve plunked them below.
Part 1 of 4:
Part 2 of 4:
Part 3 of 4:
Part 4 of 4:
I’ve started reading Find Your Power recently. It’s bloody good. Blissfully free of the usual self-help claptrap hyperbole, and it’s refreshing to see a Brit talking about mental health issues for once. Too many books in this genre are American imports written for the American market (which sounds terribly xenophobic when I don’t mean it to be), whereas this is very much a Brit writing style. Having a Brit chap write about brain health makes a big difference to me. Which is not to say I dislike American writing styles, it’s just something worth mentioning. Plus, I’m utterly rubbish at book reviews and recommendations. The mere fact I’ve mentioned it should be enough for you to work out that I like it.
‘Find Your Power’ by Dr Chris Johnstone (ISBN13: 9781856230506, ISBN10: 1856230503) is published by Permanent Publications and is available in paperback right now. Go buy it, chop chop.
I know that a lot of people think of the internet as a wild and scary place, but it’s important to remember that it’s not really made up of a lot of computers and cables, but people. Behind every website there’s a real person. It always saddens me that the first response of people who have a problem with something that has been posted on the internet is often anger and/ or aggression. Perhaps they would take this tack if they were dealing with people face-to-face, but I suspect not. I suspect most people are decent people and, in the first instance, would attempt at least a polite first encounter.
Those of you who listen to the show will know that of late, Pete and I have had to deal with a couple of people who were less than polite. I occasionally have the same problem over on my other website, which is why this morning I have taken the time to write a post about Japanese Knotweed.
To sum up, Japanese Knotweed was introduced to the UK as an ornamental plant, but unfortunately has become an invasive weed. The problem is so bad the disposing of this plant incorrectly will land you in trouble. If you have Japanese Knotweed in your garden then it pays to be a good neighbour and to try and keep it under control.
Foragers (very trendy right now) understand that one of the ways to control this plant is to eat it. Apparently (and I can’t comment, because I’ve never tried it, we don’t have this weed in our garden) Japanese Knotweed can be used as a free rhubarb alternative. Those in the know says it is actually nicer than rhubarb, and can be made into crumble, pie and fool in exactly the same way. I have links to more recipes in my original post, all provided online by friendly people who are simply trying to share information with other people who might find it useful.
So, in a spirit of cooperation, if you have a blog or website and can write something relevant, it might be nice if you linked to this post, or my original post on Japanese Knotweed recipes, so the information can be shared far and wide :)
Have you saved money using one of our Emma and Pete promo codes? We’d love to hear your stories – how much you spent, and how much you saved! If you can remember which code you used (for a vendor like GoDaddy, where there are several), then so much the better!
If you’ll get in trouble with your spouse/parents/bank manager for over-spending, then don’t worry – you can stay anonymous! Just email your savings stories to emmaanadpeteshow@gmail.com (or you can leave them in the comments) and we’ll share them here on the site and we might mention you on the show as well :)
The more happy customers we have, the more deals we’ll be able to bring you!
Pete and I have been making good progress with the decluttering. A few weeks ago we cleared out the shed and the sun room, which were mainly filled with my gardening clutter. Pete was astonished as the sheer tonnage of unused plant pots that were kicking around, and they became a big target for disposal.
Plant pots aren’t the easiest thing to recycle. Last year (I think) Wyevale garden centres offered a ‘take back’ scheme, but they don’t seem to have any information on anything similar this year. They are rarely included in kerbside recycling collections, and you may find plastic recycling facilities locally are limited.
But as long as they’re in good condition, there’s absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t be reused. While keen gardeners might amass a sizeable collection, there are plenty of new gardeners who will be short of pots, and many school gardens and other community gardening schemes will be able to make use of them too. It’s just a case of finding someone locally who can use them. If you’re a fan of Freecycle/ Freegle (and we’re not!) then you can put out an email and see who comes to collect them.
In the end we took my spare pots (and I spent a couple of hours washing them all, so they were clean) to our seed swap stand at the Hampshire Green Fair . Not exactly local, but we were going anyway so they didn’t accrue any Pot Miles. Several visitors to the stand thought it was a great idea – and wished they had brought their spare pots to offload on us! But there were also people grateful for one or two pots, and a teacher who took two bags of pots for her school garden project. We found almost all of them new homes with little effort.
We may be Decluttering Ninjas, but we have a couple of quandaries which we have yet to resolve. Pete’s collection of vinyl LPs (lots of lovely electronic music!) have been trying to find a new home for years now. Pete has been patiently selling them in ones and twos, but that has become a pain in the butt and we would just like the space back. However, they have very little resale value and their sheer bulk makes them difficult to rehome.
And while we were clearing out the garage we found two petrol cans full of old petrol. It’s too old to use now, even if we hadn’t changed over to a diesel car. We don’t have a lawn, so no lawnmower. Local recycling facilities will take old motor oil, but there’s no mention of petrol. How can we dispose of it responsibly?
If you have any suggestions on how to deal with these two items then please get in touch via the comments, or send us an email!
