Early in March I started ‘chitting’ my potatoes. Chitting involves putting the potatoes somewhere cool and light so that they start to produce strong sprouts. The idea is to get them off to a head start before they are planted in the soil. Not everyone agrees with this logic and the mere mention of chitting down at the allotment can be a good way to start a healthy debate. Early in March I started ‘chitting’ my potatoes.
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Being self-sufficient is not just about growing our own food. Harnessing our own energy is an important part of a self-sufficient life and a makes a valuable financial contribution to the smallholding. We have solar panels and heat the house with log burners and wood that I cut
and dry myself but for some time now, I have been researching a more off-beat, fascinating and long forgotten technology.
Earlier last year, I wrote a little article called Electric Blue, all about our decision to buy a bright blue electric car. For me, self-sufficiency is not just about growing my own food but also harvesting my own
energy. This involves using wood to heat the house and solar panels to produce
electricity from the sun.
My meeting with Jon Cole brought back memories of my childhood when I first
made contact with a model plane. But in those days, it was a simple kit comprising balsa wood and a very messy glue – the end product looking like something that had already been in a fight!
The first wet day after a long, dry spell during the first fortnight in April, saw me
meeting up with Claire Barrett, the site manager, at Boothby Wildland. Before I
discovered what this involves, I wanted to know a little more about Claire.
On a lovely sunny morning in early March, I met up with Vincent Brittain who is
the CEO and Founder of sports and education charity inspire+. Of course, my
first question was who is Vincent Brittain, followed by what is inspire+?
I have mentioned previously that from
time to time I do meet people who have
a real passion about their work or their
hobby, and my conversation with Lissy
Hawkins turn out to be exactly that.
Matt ‘Hambro’ Hanson OBE was born on the 29th November 1984. In March 2005, Matt sustained a dreadful scrummage accident during a training match for England. This resulted in him needing a ventilator to breathe and being paralysed from the neck down. Matt had started playing rugby at the age of five.
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As the summer months roll by, events of
Eastertime seem a distant memory….
“What’s going on? How can a whole country have a power cut?” were the questions on our lips one sunny Monday afternoon.
In the last issue I wrote about the bronze statue of Wojtek the Soldier Bear in Edinburgh. He was a much-loved hero
of the Polish nation from the Second World War.
