Today's favourite.......my Burgon and Ball Secateurs

So I am going to start this post with a piece of personal information that may surprise you all.......
I am only little!!
5 feet, 1 and three quarter inches if you want an exact measurement.
Even my dear mum was 5 feet two.
And with that littleness goes a ridiculously small pair of feet, (size 2 and a half if you want a real chuckle) and small hands.

I hear you wondering if I have again lost the plot but these are important facts for what I am about to talk about and here's why. Every now and again people berate the fact that people make ladies tools, that surely no one needs them and everyone can manage to use a general sized tool collection but actually no we can't! I need smaller tools to be able to hold them comfortably and be able to use them for any length of time. And if they are attractive at the same time then hooray, although it does annoy me if they are twice the price with a designer label, but that might be more about my budget than anything else!!

 

Anyway a few months ago Burgon and Ball contacted me via Twitter having seen that my prized 20 year old secateurs had "disappeared" and offered to send me a new pair of their Professional Range secateurs and when I saw that they do a smaller size I jumped at the chance. They arrived in a few days in the post and I realised that I had been struggling to use my Felcos and almost every pair I had ever had, because these just perfectly fitted into my somewhat tiny paw. They have been my faithful servants since that moment, both in the garden at home, on the allotment and in various Incredible Edible Bristol gardens across the city, and are still working as if they were new. I have obviously given them the odd clean and oiled them a few times, but they are such a pleasure to use I can hardly believe my luck!!

When I was sent them the lovely folk said they were happy for me just to have them as a gift and that there was no need to blog about them but I feel it's really important to say that for someone with small hands like me they have been a real eye opener and here's why that is important. Many a person in horticulture has issues with thumb joints and often that is around using secateurs for hours a day. From rheumatism to arthritis and all sorts of other nasty issues, using the wrong sized tools is never ideal for the body, and so it is really good to know that there is a business out there really looking to support all gardeners.

There is a link to the secateurs here in case you fancy a look.......

And while you're there take a look at the new Brie Harrison range which I think is beautiful. And I wasn't even asked to say that!!

 

Bear with me whilst I talk about......bus stops!!

Bus stops I hear you ask, quizzically. Some of you will think I have finally lost the plot but bus stops are, in my opinion, a real lost opportunity, and I have been thinking about this for a good while.

In Bristol, with a new bus service on it's way, lots and lots of new and upgraded bus stops have appeared. They take up large amounts of pavements with their perspex walls, Adshel advertising and often LED type advertising that moves through several advertisements in sequence. the colours used are bright and brash and there is a frightening amount of plastic used in them. They might be practical but without a doubt they are far from pretty.

A new Bristol bus stop in all its glory!!

There are several things that bother me about this design. The seating isn't really seating and is more about perching to wait for the bus. Arm rests appear to be in place, which limits the amount of people who can sit here, but more importantly stops anyone from sleeping here. In a city where rough sleeping is an enormous problem, this type of design seems harsh and unkind. Of course I am not suggesting bus stops are an ideal place to sleep, or that anyone should do anything other than access the excellent services for the homeless in the city, but people do slip through the net and there is a problem so let's not make it harder on those who are far more vulnerable than ourselves purposefully.

However, that isn't really my point! My point is that with all the talk we hear of how to make healthy cities, bus stops, street furniture and the practical appliances that make the city run in a better way, ought to be included in the plans for the healthy city. A healthy city needs, of course, a healthy and engaged population, as well as spaces where nature and health can meet and why on earth shouldn't that be a bus stop? Whilst the city is often grid locked and people are often left waiting for buses for far longer than they had planned, why not make that wait as pleasurable as possible? But also why not utilise that space for other things? For example, why not pop a green roof on top of them? Like this great example in Sheffield.....

Not only does can this help to stop any flooding issues around the stop itself, but it automatically adds summer shade and winter insulation. With clever use of planting it could also create a great place for pollinators to feed and although it is never easy keeping a green roof green for 12 months of the year, it can be done with appropriate planting for the city. This stop obviously has electricity running to it, so the installation of a water butt and a simple pump system for irrigating in really hot weather is easily within the bounds of possibility.

Of course along with the green roof it might be ideal to add a solar panel in order that the unit, for that is what town banners would call this, becomes self containing and managing. Most stops would easily hold 2/3 panels and if sheep can graze on grass under the fields of panels in Somerset, it must be possible to put them onto the green roof of a bus stop? The solar panels obviously, not the sheep!!

But could there be more? And could that more be made into best practise so that all authorities can look at their bus stops in a different, healthier or more holistic way? Recently I have been doing a lot of work with a railway line here in Bristol where both flower and vegetable beds are implemented, but where also the train partnership have seen the importance of what we are doing and have added water butts to the platforms. Of course everyones first reaction is the they will be vandalised, which they have not I must add, but shouldn't we stop looking at what might go wrong and concentrate on the positives? 

If you look closely at this to the left there is still an advertising board. 

So let's look at what those positives are.........

Firstly massive community engagement around those spaces and a feeling from the community that people care and are interested in supporting that community. Which in turn means vandalism is unlikely because people are engaged.

Second more beautiful areas of the city, often in spaces that are not known for their greenness or for being places full of anything other than concrete. Bringing nature into these spaces is a vital and welcome change and anyone who has ever planted a flowering lavender in a grey city space, will know just how quickly those bees and pollinators come along. In the Bearpit Garden it was within minutes, quite literally!!

But thirdly, and in my view most importantly, it supports a healthy city, for people, for planet and for ongoing life in general. Standing at a railway station or a bus stop full of flowers, food, the gentle buzz of bees, with birds flying about, has to be better for every single living thing in the city, than standing staring at an LED advertising board that wants you to eat bad burgers or use a particular brand of washing powder. 

Now I know I am, in many folks opinions, a dreamer, but this is only not happening because we allow that corporate ideal that they, who ever they are, are in charge. But who said so? Why can't we demand better and more exciting beginnings and ends to our journeys? Surely making greener and healthier pocket spaces across the city has to be a great way of supporting people to get their hit of nature and persuading folk to use the bus instead of getting into the car? Many of us will be familiar with the green Bus Stop in Norwood, in London, a project installed by the Edible Bus Stop Co, who have gone on to create other pocket green spaces across London, but surely in all seriousness we need these spaces to be designed and installed as the norm by whoever is in charge of installing and maintaining bus stops. Here in Bristol that is the local authority. Now I hear you say, but Sara there is no money to which my response is these stops are costing an enormous amount of cash, with their electric advertising, lights, and constant maintenance following tagging and vandalism issues. Entire paths have to be dug up and relaid, often losing areas of grass as they go, and these are spaces where our children gather. They gather and see adverts for fast food, in areas where obesity is already a burgeoning problem. They see adverts for sweets and cakes in a city where cases of diabetes are rising faster than the NHS can keep up with, and for exotic holidays that they fear they will never be able to afford. Adverts for supermarkets in a city full of fresh, local and affordable food that producers struggle to sell. Need I go on? So let's get these companies sponsoring these spaces properly, and allow them a small, permanent advertisement that just says they gave the money to make this possible. If they really are interested in the health of the nation I would ask why they wouldn't?

Now it's fair to say not every bus stop across the country can look like the Edible Bus Stop, but with a little bit of thought, some local authority by in and some clever technology there is no reason why they couldn't all be greener? If we are really trying to green grey Britain, would' this be a fantastic beginning? What do you think?

The Original Edible Bus Stop.

Resolutions? Not on your nelly!

I don't do resolutions. Setting yourself up for failure on the first day of the year seems unkind and unnecessary. After all changes come slowly, incrementally and start with small changes that lead to more. 

Which reminds me of a family I have worked with for the last year. They were desperate to grow some food and teach their children where food comes from and approached me to find out how to get an allotment. Our first conversation was difficult as it was apparent really quickly that they just didn't have the time to work a plot properly and that they would have struggled and given up. This family has parents with 3 jobs between them, one car which is generally at work with one parent or the other or ferrying children around to various sports and  clubs and when we sat and worked out what their really spare time looked like it was pretty much not there. They certainly couldn't find 8 hours a week to get on top of a weedy plot!!

I always think it's harsh but kind to be really honest with people about time and gardening, because there is nothing worse than knowing something will be a struggle for someone. If  struggle is involved there will disappointment and a feeling of failure. Gardening, be it for flower or fruit, should be a pleasure, a joy and for it to be anything else is sad and wrong. 

What I didn't say to this family however, was that they couldn't garden, but that we would find a way they could, allowing for their time, or lack of it, and ensuring the youngsters in the family were involved! We looked at what space they had available to them at home in their tiny back yard and front garden and we planned to make those spaces edible, productive and beautiful. 

They discussed what they wanted to grow and a raised bed was made and some large pots bought and filled with compost. Seeds were sown of lettuce leaves and tomato seedlings were bought. Chillies were gifted and herb plants bought. Eventually everything was planted out, a feeding and watering rota was made and the growing began. Every few weeks more salad was sown and slowly over the summer the family realised they were becoming almost self sufficient in salad leaves and in late July when the tomatoes started fruiting, enough sauce was made to last a fair while and some 'sun' dried tomatoes were made using my dehydrator, and stored in olive oil. The chillies also fruited somewhat spectacularly, leaving my own crop looking embarrassingly light, and they were turned into ristras and dried and are on display in their kitchen labelled by heat level with luggage labels. 

All in all for a family that's really pushed for time, this little project has done several things. It's enabled them to eat fresh, seasonal food and learn to preserve some of it for the winter months. It's enabled them to use what garden space they have productively, and to be in that space more and so outside more. They've learnt some growing skills and are excited to learn more and have visited some gardens to look at how others grow. But most importantly it has been a family project that they have worked on together and that they all agree has helped their family to spend time together which they might not have otherwise done. With 3 young people in the house between the ages of 9 and 15 it's often hard to find something everyone will enjoy and learn from, but this has seemingly really worked. 

 

I'm told more pots and another raised bed are being planned this season and that courgettes and potatoes in bags are on the menu as well as the tomatoes, chillies and herbs of last year. And that their neighbours are keen to join in turning the project into one for the street, which they are happy to support and help establish. 

As we move into 2017, with its uncertainties and global concerns, stories like these make me realise that everyone can make change in their lives if they want to. What's important is that those changes are sustainable, not overwhelming and seen as fun. Small actions that lead to movements of change through families, into communities and beyond through real grassroots activism.

So with all that in our thoughts, let's stop making pointless resolutions. Instead let's look at one small change we can make and make it for good in away that is meaningful and offers kindness to ourselves, our friends and our planet.

 

The Anger of the Voice of Despair

This weekend the black dog has visited, but not the usual one. This one has made me angry to the point of despair and given me the need to rationalise my thoughts however hard that has been. And that thought rationalisation made me really work out some stuff that I thought I'd share. A lot of this is going to be political, so if that's not your thing, apologies.

First, of course, Farm Terrace in Watford lost their fight to keep their plots in the High Court. This isn't just a few plots disappearing but has been seen as a dangerous precedent being set. If extenuating circumstances mean whatever it needs to mean, in my eyes that says we'll probably take most excuses. Which of course is crazy but just shows that the laws around our communal lands are just not taken seriously at all. 

Then the weekend has been a barrage of political nonsense, from MP's who send out tweets that suggest they don't understand democracy to Trump and his horrific rhetoric around almost everything, but particularly around his refusal to believe climate change is a thing, to Farage and all the other right wing horrors that make the Internet and social media a dark and disturbing place at times. 

A question about healthy cities finally tipped me over the edge this morning. To ask which work stream healthy cities should come under is ridiculous. Health, be it of cities or people, needs to be an umbrella policy that covers all work streams and has policy embedded around it that all departments at both local and national level adhere to. And health needs to cover poverty, food and how we handle food waste, clean air and water and our urban planning, as well as young people's services, mental and physical health provision for all. Because without health we are nothing other than a failing population struggling to get through each day, being led to do what we are told by an ever more distant political elite who we will fail to engage with and hence feel helpless, unheard, and unimportant. But this is not the first time I've heard someone say of land and food that it's so difficult to pigeon hole, it's easier not to engage with it. And yes. They really said that.

But then last night there was a glimmer of hope. I watched Planet Earth 2 with expectation, just as I watched Life on Earth in the 70's as a child. I watched the iguanas outrunning the snakes, the sloths and penguins and the wonders of the natural world and it made me angrier. Not with the programme but with all the things that had effected me over the weekend, the Trumps and Farages and the hate filled rhetoric abounding from everywhere.

The programme was stunning. The photography incredible. Our earth is a place of wonderment, where species fight huge issues to survive,  and continue just being. They aren't concerned by GDP or growth. And they can do absolutely nothing about the one species that is putting them all at risk. Humankind. 

The pillager of their lands, the destroyer of their homes and the taker of their food. What is it that is inherent in man that insists that growth is so vital in a world with limited resources? And what makes man arrogant enough to think that he is more important than any other species?

I have no answers to any of those questions. 

But what I do know is that I'd like every politician, every journalist, every climate change denier (and actually everyone to some degree myself included), to look around them and see what growth is doing to our planet and to the other species we share it with. Come down from which ever ivory tower they live in and see the reality of poverty on children whose parents are working and yet really struggling to put a roof over their heads and good food on their tables. To see the effects of bad housing, poor sanitation and unclean air on the millions of people that these things affect worldwide.

To live on less than a dollar for one day.

Or on minimum wage for one week.

Or somewhere you are unsafe, whatever species for a month.

Perhaps then pigeon holing might stop and we could look at whole system change. Because that is what we need. Today. Now.

The dog is still here. He's battling in my brain, telling me not to write this, that it won't make any change and that no one will give a hoot. But I know how good he is at messing with my thoughts and I know not to trust him. 

So I'll work on sending him packing at the same time as I pray the world will begin to save itself, not by making growth or by taking more resources from our planet, but by moving forwards with one thought only. 

Kindness.