Louisa Parry » general

My top ten British simple living/growing/craft blogs – summer 2011

louisa — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:04:07 +0000

Just over a year ago, I wrote a list of my favourite British simple living, green and craft blogs – and I thought it might be time for an update.

As I said then, I do read (and very much enjoy) a lot of blogs from the US (and Australia) because a lot of the information transfers but it’s also nice to read from other Brits, who have to put up with our not-always-perfect climate, buy BOGOFs at supermarkets rather than use coupons and know the correct terms/measurement units for crochet & baking ;)

Wild food/woodland living:

Green fingers:

Crafty crafts:

General simple living:

Oh, and of course, The Really Good Life is really good too ;)

(I’m always on the look out for new blogs to add to my feed reader – if you’ve got any simple living type suggestions, please leave the details below!)

Housekeeping post

louisa — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:05:58 +0000

Shiny new blog design, ooooh. I’m taking the opportunity to move some stuff around too.

The biggest changes:

The front page of louisaparry.co.uk is now my blog. The About Me has moved to the About Louisa page.
I’ve moved all my Three Beautiful Things (3BT) posts to their own blog as they were rather overwhelming this one: http://3bt.louisaparry.co.uk/. Update your bookmarks/feedreaders, pretty people :)
The addition of columns on the right there -> means I can now have navigation on my blog, oooh!
More excitingly than that, I can also have an auto-updated list of all the stuff I’m doing and updating – this blog, my 3BT blog, my Twitter account, Recycle This & its Twitter feed and my brand new blog, The Really Good Life & its Twitter feed. More will be added as needed but already it’s a good way to keep up with everything I’m writing/updating regularly.
My photos are still stuck in the old theme and not clickable from the new theme. They can be found here for the time being – http://www.louisaparry.co.uk/Photos/ – and I’ll move them to a new gallery thing soon. Photos viewable now – click the tab at the top, then select the album/gallery.

My favourite British green/simple living/craft blogs

louisa — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:55:06 +0000

I read A LOT of green/simple living blogs – some religiously, others only when the subject particularly appeals. There is such a wealth of knowledge out there and inspirational actions, not from proclaimed experts or media stars but from a range of people living (or trying to live) “simpler” lives. (I share my favourite posts here – http://www.google.com/reader/shared/louisa.parry)

However, the vast majority of the bloggers are from the US and while a lot of the information transfers over here, it’s nice to read stories from British bloggers too – their photos show familiar hilly landscapes not alien prairies or mountains, they talk about tea & Jaffa cakes, and they have small, climate-challenged gardens & no chance of an allotment this side of the year 3000.

So anyway, on with the links:

Frugal favourite: Notes from the Frugal Trenches
Wiry inspiration: Alison Bailey Smith’s abscraft blog
Best for colour: Attic 24
Best lack of colour: Fine Little Day (Ok, not a British blog but still contrasts wonderfully with the last one!)
Wild wood/living: Hunter-Gatherer-Cook/Man Up A Tree
Super greenies: Alice in Blogland, My Zero Waste & Green Eyed
Green fingers and egg collectors: My Tiny Plot, The Compost Bin & The Cottage Smallholder
Most likely to make me drool: Eat like a girl
Beauty in everything: Three Beautiful Things

One man and his dog: the hazard of owning a dog

louisa — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:38:54 +0000

“Leanne’s body was found by a man walking his dog in Lindley Wood, near Otley, West Yorkshire”

“Rebecca Storrs’ body was found by a man walking his dog on Saturday near a Bookers cash and carry”

“The body of Roxanne Diaz, 24, was found by a man walking his dog”

“On Wednesday, police announced that, based on dental records, the medical examiner had identified the remains, which had been found by a man walking his dog, as those of Chandra Levy”

“The Oscar-winner had the heart-breaking task of identifying Julian King, 7, after he was found by a man walking his dog”

“The body, with a single gunshot wound to the head, was found by a man walking his dog in the Glen of the Downs, Wicklow”

“They were found by a man walking his dog along Lake Esplanade on February 13. ‘If anyone has lost any gnomes, weâ€™ve got them at the station,’ Hutt says”

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Learnings

louisa — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:27:32 +0000

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been learning to drive, belly-dance and crochet. Not at the same time, mind you.

The driving thing came about because I’d said in, ooh, 2002 that I’d get around to driving one day. In July, Katherine thought six years was long enough for me to arrange my own “one day” and very nicely bought me some lessons with her driving instructor neighbour to force me into it.

Now the thing about driving lessons is this: it turns out it involves piloting a tonne of metal around the roads surrounded by other tonnes of metal. It’s SCARY. Speeds feel a helluva lot faster when I’m behind the wheel. 30mph feels like I’m about to break the sound barrier, which at least would distort the sound of my own screaming.

I’ve had four hours of lessons so far (got another one tomorrow morning) and about an hour going around in circles in an empty car park with John to practise my steering. It’s going … ok. I’m not a natural but given I had nothing except the vaguest idea about driving before (“a brake is for stopping, you say?”), I think it’s going ok. I’m looking forward to being a bit better on the roads so I can practise just tootling around with John instead of fannying around in a circle on an industrial estate.

Katherine is to blame for the belly dancing too. Well, partially to blame. We decided we were going to do a course together this year and after drawing up a spreadsheet listing all the possibilities (location/day/requirement of no fish involved), we ended up with belly dancing. It’s also going … ok. Again, we’re not naturals; in fact, we’re considerably less coordinated than we ever thought and it’s scary showing off that lack of coordination in front of a room full of people – but most important, to ourselves in giant mirrors. Gah. But it’s something new and it’s exercise, and my my, some of the pelvic circle and shifts feel nice on my rather stiff lower back.

Crochet is much easier than driving or belly dancing, and involved far less clutch control and jigging about. I wanted to learn how to do it after the wirework workshop in Liverpool last month – I thought it was a really nice technique for use with wire so thought I’d try it out on yarn first. In my first week, I made a large number of circles using the double crochet and triple crochet stitches (which instantly became cat hats) to practise but then found some dishcloth cotton in a great green colour at the wool place in the market for 70p a ball and that inspired me to stretch myself and make a cotton shopping bag.

I kinda improvised around a random pattern I found. I started off with a square base rather than a round one, had 28 stitches/holes rather than 36 and did more rows – but the handle and finishing off instructions were great – very neat. (I reinforced the spots where the handles join the bag though. It didn’t feel strong enough to me.)

I’m very happy with the finished bag – it’s very stretchy and feels strong – and I’m delighted to have figured out how to do the holey/net stuff too. Double and triple crochet didn’t produce something different enough from knitting for me to be interested pursuing it but I like the idea of being able to do different things with it, like that net or granny squares.

On the knitting front though, I knitted two super chunky scarves for me and John yesterday (John’s is the orangey thing at the bottom of the string bag). Both scarves would have been better with a third ball of wool (I like them extra long) but are both fine – neat – with just the two balls I used. Each scarf took about two hours to knit (while I was listening to Joanna Bourke’s ‘Eyewitness: A History of Twentieth Century Britain’ – some of the accounts are a bit waffly but otherwise bloody excellent stuff) and is super snuggy. Bring on the cold winter.

Zach and Jeff versus The Meteorite

How to grow your own cats: a beginner’s guide

louisa — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:54:35 +0000

Cats are easy to grow, even in a reasonably exposed north-facing garden like ours – but benefit from early propagation in a greenhouse (see left).

When the cat is ready to be planted on, pick a large pot to give the cat sufficient room to root/curl up (see right top).

Cats are reasonably hardy but can be infected with the “evil virus”. If that occurs, remove the cat from the pot (to avoid cross-contamination) and leave it to “dry out” on an old doormat (see right bottom – tell tale evil signs can be seen, namely the staring eyes, the fact her head is on backwards and the slightly manic “I’m going to eat your soul” expression). The evil is usually eradicated/forgotten about within a few minutes and the cat’s growth will continue as normal again.

Cats will raise from the curled/lying position as they grow until they reach their final height (typically around 40cm). Cats who have been infected with evil early in the growth stage may retain a rather hunched appearance and maintain the soul-eating gaze. In actual fact, they don’t eat souls, they prefer Go Cat. And tuna.

New camera

louisa — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 19:38:04 +0000

Got a new camera – a Casio Exilim EX-S880 – the other day. I’m not particularly one for gadgets but I wanted a small camera to carry around with me for work reasons as well as for fun ones – I so often spot Recycle This ideas when I’m out and about.

I put size and cost ahead of quality in my buying criteria – I wanted something to take photos rather than with which to do Photography (capital P) – and the Casio met that: it’s small enough to slip in my jeans’ pocket and was just over Â£120, which I didn’t think was too bad since I imagine I’ll used it for at least three or four years.

We’ve not had a chance to test it properly in daylight since daylight and our waking hours are barely overlapping at the moment but the flash (particularly the soft flash) stuff has turned out alright. There is a nice feature for selecting the focus point but our tests with the facial recognition stuff so far have failed (perhaps we all look too alike). There are lots and lots of pre-defined settings — everything from the basic portrait and sports, to text and fireworks, and there are three video options including a “YouTube” mode (which basically seems to be “turn quality to crap”).

The screen is very big and clear but the photo playback makes all the photos look too bright and over-exposed (going to see if we can adjust this) – the initial few second review after taking the photo is closer to the final image.

The camera comes with a cradle for downloading and charging: it seems counter-intuitive that the camera goes into it backwards but of course it makes perfect sense when you think about it (it lets you use the screen). It also just plugged-and-played in Ubuntu (Gutsy) – just auto-detected the camera then downloaded to gthumb as standard. Even though I’m usually a stickler for checking this sort of thing before I buy, I didn’t this time and so was happy that it Just Worked.

I’ve uploaded a selection of photos (mostly from yesterday) to my Photos section. I’ve shrunk them down because there didn’t seem to be any point putting the full size ones online but I’ve not made any other adjustments to them – colour, focus, cropping etc. The three pics in the cafe were done without a flash so not to annoy fellow diners but the rest were with the flash. The scones with cream and jam were yummy, by the way.

Recycle This was “loved” by the Times in 2006

louisa — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 14:50:18 +0000

Recycle This has had its second mention on the Times newspaper’s website, Times Online.

We got a link a couple of months ago on the site’s Eco-Worrier blog but I’ve just noticed that we got a link in their Newsdesk’s blog in their “The web we loved” round-up of their favourite sites in 2006 (in the environmental section) too.

Woo!

Overheard on the bus

louisa — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:04:13 +0000

Teenage boy, protesting an earlier accusation: I’m not sexist!

Teenage girl: Yes, you are. All men are sexist.

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Facial (A)Symmetry

louisa — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 22:00:52 +0000

I’ve been interested in the idea of checking my own facial symmetry for a while so when I found a website that did all the “hard” work for me, I thought I’d give it a go. Then I found out I had to have some silly plug-in to make it work so I did it myself with layers in the GIMP instead.

Not a great photo for checking it out on, but here goes…

This is a photo of me from our trip to Burano, Venice on Christmas Day 2004…

This is how I would look if the right side of my face was identical to my current left side.

Droopy eyes a go go and longer too. But woo! no chin spots :)

And the reverse: two right sides.

My face looks a lot squarer but not as droppy. Somewhat like a ‘Guess Who?’ card.

And this is with the right side as the left and vice versa (so just reversed really, although I didn’t do that).

It looks odd for my other side to be drooping off for a change.

Carbon falls asleep