Help!

My clothing challenge continues and it is a bit of a challenge just now. I have a birthday coming up, just another one -day-older birthday but the kind of one that makes folks sit up and take a bit more notice at the passing of years. (Or is it actually decades? Yikes!) I have been fairly determined to get hooked up with something from one of the fairly traded shops. Well, as with any shopping endeavour it is never at the top of my list of things to do and now with just a few days until my staff night out for the summer, same outfit many uses philosophy, I am in trouble! Of the two stores I can find on line, neither have anything in stock my size. http://www.peopletree.co.uk/ and http://www.nomadsclothing.com/ You see it is that issue of not mass producing. I applaud them but really could they not have something my size that I like? Just one thing. I am away to find more sites. There surely have to be loads out there!

Get this................................ .

In the UK we buy two million tons of clothing each year. 1.2 million tons of which ends up in land fill. That is the equivalent of 200 million full bin bags. I am thinking we maybe do not need to be buying so much.

There are 6000 clothes banks in the UK. 25,ooo tonnes of textiles are donated each year. Of that

• 5% go to charity shop for resell, only the most usable.



• half is sent to developing countries



• damaged clothes are unpicked, sorted into colours to prevent redyeing, and are made into new fibres.



• unwearable clothes are sent to the flocking industry where they are shredded and made into fillers for roofing felt, loudspeakers cones and furniture padding.

We bought the largest of tubs this weekend and have crammed it full of fab salad leaves, including an oriental salad mix. Just as we went to plant it the heavens opened on two loads of laundry. We chucked some of the laundry in the dryer, left the rest to the mercy of the weather and dragged the big pot inside the kitchen to deal with it.

We have decided pots are a great way to go. Slugs seem unable to scale the heights which is great. Our allotment is in a sorry state. Two weeks of no attention and the garlic and onions are just about making it. Everything else has provided slugs and caterpillars with highly nutritious fare. And the weeds? How does that happen so fast? So, I am now reckoning we need to learn fast about winter veg and have another go. Two steps forward and one step back! We would love to actually harvest, but even the time out in the fresh air is well worth the efforts.

A few weeks ago we went on a walk with some friends of ours and their little people. Put four keen adult walkers together and the wee ones find themselves hiking hard and fast. We climbed up the hill at the back of Castle Campbell. It was quite a scramble and there were the occasional really marshy bits. On the way back down our littler boy started to complain a little.

"My legs are not made for walking!" he announced very loudly.

"Well, what are they made for?", we asked.

"They are made for watching TV!" came his all too quick reply.

Mike and I are watching next to no TV and are so enjoying it. Too many more comments like that, and our little people who are watching very little TV, will be watching absolutely none!!

Tough times

These guys are never far from my thoughts and prayers just now.
www.lifewiththelockharts.blogspot.com

Outraged!

We walked to school yesterday, the two little people and I. In the driveway of a house we passed was a leather sofa. It looked in pretty reasonable condition. The kids wanted to know why it was there. I explained that the folks in the house had obviously got a new one and did not need this one any more. Inevitably, they asked me what would happen to it. Our little girl quickly suggested that maybe they would give it to someone who did not have a sofa. We all agreed that would would be a very good idea and walked on happily to school.
After lunch the three of us were walking back down the same street towards school. As we approached the same house the kids suddenly stopped with wide eyes.
"Mummy, that is the bin lorry. What are they doing with the sofa?"
We watched two men tip that perfectly good sofa into the mouth of that large chomping beast and I have to say I felt physically sick and really angry. The kids were pretty upset. There was not a lot that could be said. At 4 and 6 they get it. There are folks in this world who do not have as much as we do. We need to look after what we own and if we have something perfectly good that we do not need then it is good to look for someone who might have a need for it.
It is not hard, people. The same time it takes to call the council to arrange a pick up you could call at least three organisations who will come to your house and collect. Maybe the council should offer these numbers, you know right at the bit they tell you that the call is being recorded for training purposes they could say "if you are calling to chuck a perfectly good piece of furniture please call Bethany or Debra or the Salvation Army. The landfill don't need it and someone else could really do with it!"
You just do not know how much I wanted to knock their door. This week, though, I have to remember that I am a little more emotionally fraught. And maybe it was completely infested with fleas and there was just nothing that could be done about it.

There is a time

There is a time............................................

To gladly use the tumble dryer, which was an incredible gift, to ensure the family have clean clothes, maybe using up unnecessary electricity but saving on your energy, allowing it to be poured into something more valuable this week.

To not be with your best friend at the funeral of her father, even though everything in you wants to be there, because you know that your nephew needs you to be that smiley, safe person who will give him cuddles and let him share your lasagne even when he has eaten all of his own dinner.

To send your sister frequent texts about how things are going and how the family is coping when you know that she is struggling being 150 miles away, and to send texts that have those twists of humour even in a sad event, that allows her to feel connected without crying. Thank you little brother!

To let your son wear a really nice shirt out of a bag of gratefully received hand me downs, because he really likes the look of it and thinks he looks like he is going to a wedding, when in actual fact he is off to nursery to get messy, just because it makes him feel happy and that makes you feel happy when there is a lot of sadness around.

To drive late in the evening, when you are already completely exhausted, to weep with a friend whose three year old son has just had a stroke which at this point looks like it has had a serious impact.

To say "please, that would be so good" to a friend who offered to make your tea one night this week when normally you would you would say you were fine.

To use ordinary shampoo when your shower can only be 3 minutes long and it takes at least twice that long to rinse out bicarb and vinegar.

To not worry about the slugs probably decimating the garden, knowing that time and energy needs to be poured into people at the moment. Another season of planting will come.

To commit to regularly doing those back and shoulder exercises to deal with some build up of tension.

There is a time to quit blogging and get some much needed sleep!

What kind of legacy will I leave?

This has been a very sad and very challenging week. I attended a funeral on Monday and watched two girls aged 10 and 18 weep over the coffin of their father. Another situation that I am indirectly involved sees a girl my age lose her husband today to cancer. She has a two and a half year old child and is expecting their second in November. I watched my nephew play happily with my two kids today desperately sad that he will not grow up to know his Grandpa, someone who doted upon him, someone who would have been such a role model for him.
I have had some pretty deep conversations this week. In one with my brother we discussed all that Jack's Grandpa had been to folks around about him, the completely giving nature of the man. So many folks tonight grieving the loss and wondering who else will fill that gap. As we talked we acknowledged it was our responsibility to ensure that those values would be passed to Jack. It was our responsibility to ensure that he grew up with the challenge of living a life for others. The choices will be his, as they are ours.
My son climbed in to bed beside me this morning. Grateful, I think, for a few quiet moments with his mum, there have been precious few of those this week. In that half asleep but conscious he was there state, I heard him say. "You are my hero, Mum." How wonderful would it be to always be that to my son. He will watch my choices and live my choices directly for the next 14 years, God willing, and then indirectly after that. May he see someone he can be proud of. May he see someone who values life, who enjoys the journey, someone who recognises that we are not just here for ourselves but here to make a difference in the lives around us.

Enjoy the journey

We live our lives at such a pace. There is a constant pressure to do and to achieve. I have worked really hard over the last few months to tackle my "need to achieve" condition which was beginning to impact on my health. I have been proud of my progress and the reduction of stress pains in my back and shoulder. It is never far away with me though and a new boss at work has just thrown things out of kilter a little. I need to keep remembering that life is not about doing.

This weekend in our extended family we have been shocked with a devastating event and are now walking with someone facing the loss of her much beloved father. He has lived life to the full, someone to admire. Our faith brings the certainty of a bright future for him and also the comfort of knowing that we do not walk through these traumas alone. We walk with a God who knows suffering and promises a peace that passes all understanding.

Life is there not just to be lived but to be enjoyed and in our enjoyment there is opportunity to bring much to others. My parents returned form Tanzania today. They have had an excellent trip. Sharing and encouraging many. Doing more than perhaps would be suggested normal for a couple of their age but they are maladjusted. They are clear about what their lives are about. They have the normal stresses and strains and many discussions about priorities but they are enjoying the journey and do not live in a "if only I had done...... if only i had said" mentality.

Too hot to post!

It is too hot to do a lot of things in actual fact.

We have had their baby paddling pool out for the kids two days in a row. It is way too small to swim or even paddle in but it has been a lot of fun taking diving leaps into and having water fights! We have worked like mad in our allotment and in our own garden over the last four days, planting kale and broccoli wherever we could find space. We have discovered that slugs just adore broccoli, nasty creatures, so we are now tempting them over to the very dark, hopefully dead, side with beer slug traps. To date we have only sent a beetle to a very intoxicated death.

I have had a mountain of school to complete this weekend and have a huge mountain of ironing that we are now falling over on the upstairs landing. Both are going to be done outside today. I have never ironed outside before but I refuse to spend this period of sunshine inside. This is Scotland. This sunshine will not last. It needs to be exploited to the full. (or maybe fool as I flatten bugs into our clothes!)

My parents called again last night. It just blows me away that I can talk to them in Tanzania like they were in the next house. They have been insanely busy but are having a really rewarding time. Yesterday they had a few hours off and they went for a walk. I walked the same path in my head last night, knowing that over 15 years it will look very different. There were three kids that we played with a lot around the TAG church all those years ago. Winnie, all grown up, is now serving food at the bible college. Her Mum was part of a sewing class we helped out with.

It really is time for them to come home and let me see some photo's.