Outdoor Shower Construction
We made an outdoor shower because it’s such a lovely thing to do – showering in nature! We looked at lots of options for outdoor shower construction, but the key issue is location and access to water. We decided to…
Tree Bog Construction
A tree bog is essentially a small shed raised over a hole with trees around. The trees eat the ‘humanure’, so it is a very ecological solution. Our tree bog is mounted on a frame and keyed into flat stones. …
A Cob Experience
A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a day with one of the only two professional “cob” builders in Spain. We want to build our new house using “cob” and this was a…
Medusa’s Garden
Our kitchen garden is really Medusa’s Garden, the orchard and the areas around and in between. Why Medusa? Because that’s a name for the primordial serpent energy of the land and there’s that wildness here. If the land doesn’t like…
Homemade Natural Toothpaste
I probably wouldn’t have bothered with homemade toothpaste if organic, fluoride-free natural toothpaste was easy to get here, but it isn’t and I just couldn’t bring myself to buy the commercial stuff. So, I started to look for natural, easy…
Natural coconut milk shampoo
I’ve been working to get as many chemicals out of our lives as possible. Every other day a report comes out about cancer-causing chemicals in shampoo, toxic ingredients in the laundry detergent or asthma and allergies triggered by common household…
Rosehip syrup
This week I made rosehip syrup. Our hedgerows have masses of wild roses and at this time of year the hips are bright red. Rosehips are an excellent, natural and local source of vitamin C through the winter, much of…
Lessons from water
In the developed world we take water for granted; we don’t appreciate it and we brutalise it, alternately contaminated it and then treating it with harmful chemicals. We barely stop to think that without it we would not exist, many…
Chamomile/manzanilla
Chamomile/manzanilla grows wild around here and I’ve been picking and drying it. It smells beautiful and fresh and tastes much nicer than any of the commercial versions. Only a few heads are needed for a cup, which I sweeten slightly…
Hay making
We’ve got a push along petrol mower and several fields that needed mowing and we were wondering how this would get done. Or perhaps we would just let the fields grow for a while. Then a neighbour showed up. Actually…
