Goodbye....

Sob...sad day in the hothouse and for post-materialism. My old faux croc shoes have to go. They are becoming a public health hazard, and to quote someone Mark knows 'they don't owe me anything'.
Bought in the heady days of being a stylist, I saw them in one of those scary shops with black clad stick insect assistants and beech veneer everything. They were in a sale but quand meme, very expensive...Patched, repaired, more hole than sole, time to go.....
I did save a pan today however, that had cremated rice pudding in it. Mark was about to bin it. Scraped and wire wooled it lives again Ha!

A thing of beauty....

Our beautiful, tank like kettle, purchased from Loupia vide grenier a few summers ago, finally had a break down. Knob fatigue so to speak. Now fitted with a smart new, heat resistant cork, courtesy of Guinot, it will live to see thousands more cups of tea.
The other item pictured herewith is our elderly spanish tea-strainer, Mark, fool-hardy waster, was about to throw this jewel out. It has been re-conditioned, clumsily but with an artistic flair, with a length of super wire, and is now serving as 'bottom of the washing up bowl bits collector' to prevent drain blockages.

Saved from trip to IKEA by 1970's tray

I was struck by some weird urge this morning, to go to IKEA. this has not happened to me for about five years. The reason, apart from the thought it might be warm in there, was that I had suddenly had enough of picking up bits of straw in the bathroom from the perpetually molting washing basket lid. The thing itself must be twenty years old, no problem with that, but I was beginning to wonder if a new one would be..nice...no more bits, the gentle whiff of a couple of decades of socks gone...

Also the rug in front of the fireplace is VILE, hey we could get a new one, a better lampshade in the sitting room, fresh duvet cover, kitchen table is very wobbly, those old mugs are very unpleasant ...STOP.

I could have spent all day driving to and from Ikea, eating dodgy round meat products, buying not only the afore mentioned washing basket, but about fifteen other not actually really needed items, and spending money with the help of a small rectangle of plastic. These are dangerous places.

In the end I went out into the shed and found a 1970's vide grenier tray, banged a nail through it

attached some wire in a handle shape...new lid, which will do until the rest of the basket gives way, and we find another during the V.Grenier season next year.

Thanks Penny for the article about 'cashless man' in the guardian, which was probably another reason I didn't take the drive...

Rare event

Rarely seen in the hothouse, MEAT. Mark still stuck to the veggie option for Christmas lunch, with a nut roast sort of item, which was very good, in fact he had to fend off the carnivore folks.

This is a small pintade or Guinea fowl, the spotty black and white birds which emit a un-oiled gate sound (when not dead). José the butcher told me at length, while everyone waited patiently in the queue, how to cook it to perfection, what to stuff it with, and how many times to baste it. I like José's boucherie, it has a few prized cuts on display, no acreage of bloody formless things, more like a gallery of precious things to be admired.

Meat has become, in our present time, something too available, an assumption that protein in meat form should be eaten every day, vegetables something secondary on the plate. I would rather regard meat as something eaten as a special event, like the traditional Sunday roast. A bit more money spent occasionally on a good quality 'happy' beast must be better for us than a continual consumption of ultra cheap antibiotic soaked animals.

Unfortunately I lit the fire last night with 'Le Monde'. There was a really brilliant article in it about the huge production of meat and the consequences for us and the planet. One of the statistics was that 70 percent of South America's arable land is now given over to cattle production. Add that to the incredible amount of cow fart methane gas and its a massive problem.

I'm dreaming of a recycled Christmas...

It might just be meanness, but I think its more to do with not buying acres of shiny paper, then to throw it all away again. This year we have 'chute de papier' from our local printers which I am painting in suitably festive colours.

I saw an item on a news programme in the UK about the fantastic amount of wrapping paper created just for the festive period. Can't remember the statistics now of course, but suffice it to say, it was something like, you could wrap up all the buildings of Milton Keynes, and still have enough for a few outlying villages.

Happy Christmas, and may all your decor be nicked from a hedgerow, and your presents not be a boxed gift set of incense for yoga, curry made easy pack, or anything that you have to open in front of your loved ones and say mmm, "how lovely". When actually all you really wanted was a book token.

Home made 2

Here is a homage to the book, afore mentioned...fed up with groping around for the loo roll, which had usually fallen to the floor I came up with this bizarre, but very functional paper holder. Nail, garden wire, 1970's salad server, at cost of perhaps 20 cents. I might adjust the wire so it hangs straight, otherwise, perfect. think I might contact John Lewis to see if they would be interested in taking on a small quantity of them...

Home made.

Buy this book. Inspirational for us post.mats. The work of Vladimir Arkhipov. A fascinating collection of functional everyday objects made by people who really had no choice but to 'make do' with what they could find. Here featured, a bath plug made from the sole of a shoe and a fork.

Amongst other items, t.v ariels, fish feeders, bags, chairs, exercise machines, toys etc etc....