The apple of my eye.

Pruned and proud 

Meet Elsie-Kate. Yes, Elsie-Kate. I'm afraid I have grown this attached to her already. I've wanted an apple tree for some time now and thought that I would have to get two for my back garden as I have been told that two is vital for pollination but then I realised that my neighbours had apple trees and started investigating. They have eating apples and I wanted the same (cooking apples not being a favorite of mine), so I ventured off to a good gardening centre and after a lot of advise and a crash course in tree care I arrived home with my prize. I had wanted to put it in a different location in the garden  as my summer bench usually sits here but needs must as this is the sunniest spot. Before long I was out with spade and trowl but as with many estates I and my young neighbour of 6 years of age, spent most of the time removing the 1000's of stones which are quite often a large portion of the new estates of Ireland's gardens. Still my own compost and some well rotted manure (neither personally belonging to me you understand!?) were added to welcome my new tree to its new resting place and so now its fingers crossed.

Anyway, the main reason I am adding this to my blog is that there are too few trees around new estates these days. I didn't realise for the first year that I was here that only the houses at the front of our estate included a cherry tree (non fruiting of course). I felt bad that we only had one tree on our plot and beautiful as it is it only blossoms for a couple of weeks every year but most of the houses had no trees at all. This is an issue I feel for the environment and us. As living, breathing human beings we need trees in order to give us oxygen. So this is one of my reasons for adding another to the small enough green areas of our planet. The other reason is home produce. So I'm slightly obsessed with it. I wont be sorry to pick a few fresh apples from my own back garden in a few years, maybe even one or two this year. Not having to go to the shop, fork out money for them and then wonder what they may have been sprayed with in order to keep them "fresh"....I'll take some of that thank you very much.

 This tree cost me €22. It didnt break the bank and if I take care of it, it will take care of me.

What is your opinion? Are there enough trees in your area giving you beautiful flowers, fragrance, produce or shade. Have you ever taken notice before and if not what do you think now?

Make your bed and plant in it

The first bed completed and netted.

So nice to have a bit of time to get out in the garden. I am taking leap forward this year and hoping to get my hand on an allotment but while I am waiting my parents and I are in the process of putting together 3 beds to grow veggies in. A kind neighbour has given us some topsoil so we have added some of our own compost that we have been making over the past year and some well rotted horse manure (thanks to another friendly neighbour) in order to pack in some nutrients. Its been back breaking stuff just trying to sort that out so that we can get planting. So far though we have potatoes and cabbage in one of the beds and this evening dad and I prepared the 2nd bed. No we wont get jobs on Gardner's World but we'll keep our fingers crossed that the effort we put in wont go to waste.

The precious cabbages protected (we hope) from invading slugs.

I wont say that it was altogether cheap as we spent a bit on netting, bamboo, tomato feed and an amount of other things but then we got the knack of being 'vernacular' (my old lecturer would be proud) by using old sticks to hold up the netting rather than using the bamboo which we wanted to keep for staking up plants as they grow and we may even see how an old net curtain might do when we need netting the next time. 

Ultimately our goal is fresh home grown and organic produce to enjoy but if nothing else we are out in the fresh air and getting plenty of exercise, not to mention spending time with the ones you love! ( I dont mean the veggies :)

Bed no 2 ready for more edible delights.

Th'Ink well before purchase

I've been getting through alot of writing pads this year as I try to organise my lecture notes and I've taken care to buy as much recycled paper as possible etc. However, I have also gone through my fair share of pens too and its not so easy to find the right pen which in the end will be safe for the environment. I imagine the very best pens are the fountain pens with refillable ink and even better are the ones that dont require you to change the cartridge each time but simply fill the built in ink reserve. In reality though these can be messy and leak all over your work and other belongings so you want a good throw away pen that will last. Now I like my stationary as I may have mentioned in the past and a pen has to feel good when I write with it. I thought I had found it in one of those roller ball types so I made my purchase. You can also rub this ink out too with a special lid so I thought it really was the bees knees and it wrote like a dream....for 3 days...and then was empty! So I took it back and told the shop assistant my problem and she replaced it. It was empty in...3 days! Back I trotted a third time and it was once again replaced and I made sure to check that I got one with a full amount of ink in it. 3 days later it was gone. I hadn't written an excessive amount with it and I had much cheaper throw away pens that had lasted for months. What a waste of money and a terrible job for the environment. That was 3 pens over 9 days that possibly would head off to the landfill. 2 pens thrown out per week essentially. Business is business and I expect companies to make a profit but isn't this kind of wastefulness costing us excessive amounts (to purchase and clean up the waste) both in the shop and landfill and that's before we consider the environmental damage inflicted.

Do you know of any good pens that have done their fair share for the environment, advertise the plastic number symbol on them so that you know you can recycle them or simply a good pen that lasts a decent amount of time? Share your thoughts here.

Look to a brighter future

The long nights have been with us for a while and an even longer one is to come tomorrow. However, looking at the glass half full that means that from Thursday night on wards they are getting shorter again. How wonderful is that? So many people are travelling or have travelled up to Newgrange in Co.Meath here in Ireland to experience the sunrise tomorrow from within this historical tomb as it has done for almost 5 thousand years. There are many possibilities for building this passage tomb and aligning the passage to the morning sun so that its rays reach through to the internal back stone with its intriguing decorations and markings. One thought is that these neolithic people were celebrating new life and the promise of spring with all that that season brings. Why am I rambling on about Newgrange in an environmental blog? Well because its time to get thinking about growing your own veggies in February and getting allotment plots prepared, compost bins ready and looking towards the new year as a fresh start. The cold will hang around for a while but nothing will be right without proper preparation so get thinking now. Start planning what seasonal foods you can eat rather than buying from outside of Ireland (or outside of the country you live in) can you introduce changes in your lifestyle that will benefit the world you live in making it healthier and safer for future generations? If it all went pear shaped last year, well now you can try again and learn from last years mistakes. Make you plans now and hope for a good year to come just like our ancestors did in Co. Meath every winter solstice.

Play your cards right.

Don't forget that if you want to do the environment a little bit of good this Christmas and you haven't sent all the cards in time for the postman to deliver them then take a look at e cards. I mentioned this last year too but no reason why I shouldn't send a reminder. I choose http://www.care2.com/ecards/ and they have a lovely range of free e-cards. There are some other fabulous sites where you have to pay on a monthly or yearly basis and if you are going to make it worthwhile then check them out. Of course send a few cards and look after the post offices but"play your cards right" and you will achieve the perfect balance

Guilt free fix in the morning

Slurp slurp!

The holidays are practically here and all I want to do, like everyone else I'm sure is to relax and chill out. I'm writing this in the city at a very busy WiFi café sipping my hot chocolate and watching people pass by or pop in with hands full of weighty bags, no doubt full of presents. One nice surprise is that I am drinking out of a completely compostable takeaway cup. Lovely. Nice to see some people have their heads screwed on. Now I know where to come for my morning coffee before the dash to college (or work if that ever comes my way) and not feel guilty because I am gathering yet another take away (or throw away) cup. Of course it would be better to sit down with a washable cup or glass but its the next best thing for those of us always on the go. Hey even the Christmas shopper can take their fix with them til they wind down on the big day itself.

Do you read me?

I have been pretty busy at college these past few months and my bag is full of books, bought and borrowed. I am seriously tampering with the idea of purchasing an e reader, the Kindle to be exact although of course there is a wide variety out there now including the iPad and its rivals. Part of me wants to save my back everyday, the other part says that if I can get some of these books as a download from the net then I am saving on paper. However the other side of me hates buying more plastic and encouraging its production. It is a dilemma although the reader is winning presently because of the amount of books I seem to need. This time I want your feed back on what is best to get. Do you have an E-reader and are you better off now for it or are you a stickler for a physical book. It has to be said that with all this technology, we cant really be looking after the local shops either. What do they do when people don't need them any more and turn to the Internet? Should we have a heart or should they just get with it? Gadget girl or not, I have a conscience and this is a tough one?