Seed Bombs

I expect we've all heard about the folk who go around "seed bombing"

there's laods of interesting information on the Guerrilla Gardening site

Seed Bombs a Guide to Various Forms and Functions

Amazing stuff like blowing eggs and filling them with seeds as well as the

"tradional" mud balls.

Elspeth Thompson 1961 -2010

With great sorrow this weekend we heard of the death of Elspeth Thompson ,a lovely lady who we had only been blogging about a week or so ago.
Our hearts go out to her family,friends and colleagues, especially her husband Frank and her young daughter Mary.

BLESSING
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze
behindthe grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
John O’Donohue

Weekly Roundup

It's been a wet, wet week here at Renaissance HQ causing endless frustration with pruning and animals.

As for animals our little menagerie has increased by two Silkie bantams who are now settling in nicely with our tiny Seebright and Nankin bantams.

Of course the weather has given us plently of time to enjoy vintage film : The Innocents , look at books : The Flower Shop and wonder what to do with all those books we've read but know we'll never read again , maybe the answer is Green Metropolis. But I rather suspect they'll go to the charity shop as usual.

We've watched The Delicious Miss Dahl on TV and spent quite some time looking at the kitchen Sophie Dahl used. We even found a seller of vintage items whose wares would fit wonderfully into the kitchen: Jolie Trouvaille.

Talking of vintage we continue to add new items to the shop and there is now a rather nice selection of vintage prints there.

We've also continued to post over at Renaissance Childrens Notebook.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend.

Unwanted paperbacks - Green Metropolis

Some books you want to keep forever.

But most of us just don't have the room to keep them all.

Some quite simply have to go.

What do you do with all those unwanted paperbacks?

You know the sort, the ones that keep you entertained but you'll never read them again.

Well Green Metropolis offers one solution :

"Books can’t be recycled in the same way as newspapers and magazines, however, they can be recycled in a very sustainable way! You simply need to ensure that they stay in circulation by finding them a new home. By doing this you're not only helping the environment, you're also increasing the pleasure a good book can give and doing your bit for charity - for every book sold, we donate 5p to the Woodland Trust!"

Take a look at the Green Metropolis website.

So this week we have had the sad demise of Hetty the ex battery hen, now of course we are contemplating additions to our little flock.

Inevitably after joining Lovefilm we've been watching films Kinky Boots and Mr Blanding Builds His Dream House.

Outside by the sea we've been walking on Cromer Pier and the joys of country living continue with pruning in the orchard. After a hard days work outside it's nice to come into a supper of something warm and filling like Pork & Bramley Apple Bake especially when you've grown the apples yourself.

This week in the books to read and keep section of Renaissance Newsletter we've looked at a book you're all bound to love, Home by Anita Kaushal in fact we bet some of you already have it on your book shelf.

We must have spent a long time browsing the internet this week because we've found several blogs new to us, all well worth a visit:

Elspeth Thompson's Gardening Against the Odds
The Flower Shop Stories written by Sally Page
and
Charlie and Caroline's Blog written by the owners of Pedlars

Browsing blogs has given us a date for the diary with Donna Flower's Open House Sale definetly one for lovers of all things vintage.

We've also been inspired by Alicia Paulson and Cherry Menlove to start posting over at Renaissance Children's Notebook for the first time since January.

It hasn't just been browsing on the internet we've also manage to load some new items to the Renaissance shop .

By the way we'd still love to hear your opnion on the Shovel Birdhouse

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

WWF Press Release - Atlantic bluefin tuna trade ban fails

Such a shame when things like this are not even properly discussed:

"Discussion of a long-awaited proposal to ban international commercial trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna was cut short today at the largest wildlife trade convention when an immediate vote was pushed through.

Member governments of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) chose to vote today on the proposal. 72 out of 129 CITES members voted against the trade ban, 43 voted in favour, with 14 abstentions. WWF will proactively call on restaurants, retailers, chefs and consumers around the world to stop selling, serving, buying and eating this endangered species. Already a growing body of the global seafood market sector is choosing to avoid Atlantic bluefin tuna to give the exhausted fish stocks a chance of recovery – including such groups as Carrefour Europe.

“After overwhelming scientific justification and growing political support in past months – with backing from the majority of catch quota holders on both sides of the Atlantic – it is scandalous that governments did not even get the chance to engage in meaningful debate about the international trade ban proposal for Atlantic bluefin tuna,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean and observer at the CITES Conference of the Parties in Doha.

Once the Principality of Monaco had tabled the proposal this afternoon and a number of countries had given brief interventions, Libya called for an immediate vote on the proposal.

“The regional fisheries management organization in charge of this fishery – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, ICCAT – has repeatedly failed to sustainably manage this fishery,” said Dr Tudela. “ICCAT has so far failed miserably in this duty so every pressure at the highest level must come to bear to ensure it does what it should.”

“It is now more important than ever for people to do what the politicians failed to do – stop consuming bluefin tuna,” Dr Tudela said.

The Principality of Monaco – the CITES member country that submitted the proposal for a CITES Appendix I listing of the species – became last year the first country in the world to be entirely bluefin tuna free. WWF is urging other countries to follow suit."

Did you know that Monaco was the first country to become bluefin tuna free?
Wouldn't it be grand if the EU followed?

Seed Cards

Just spotted these seed cards over at Tracy Mathieson's Foxtail Lily blog,

@ £3.25 each they are available from her barn shop Foxtail Lily

What do you think about the Shovel Birdhouse?

I found this image whilst browsing Di Overton's blog Designers Block,

curious I clicked the link and discovered that:

"the design is a deliberate one. A bird's diet consists of seeds and worms. As children, we gather worms for fishing by wiggling a shovel in the ground. With this birdhouse, the bird can wiggle his own worms out of the ground by simply landing on the house and letting the subsequent momentum do the work."

So what do you think? Would this actually work? I'm not so sure....

Anway if you want one they cost $190.00 from Areaware.

Elspeth Thompson - Gardening Against the Odds

I've been reading Elspeth Thompson ' s Weblog, Off the Rails : From Railway Carriages to Eco Home for some time now, it is a lovely place to visit, so I was delighted to note that she has started another more gardening orientated blog, Gardening Against the Odds.

One to follow I think.

Plant Labels

Love these plant labels available from The Modern Gardener @ £5.00 per pk of 10

Weekly Roundup and Giveaway Winner

The winner of our Georgette Heyer giveaway is Jeanne of Tales of a Cottage Garden we'll pop the book in the post to you Jeanne next week when we have your postal details.

Gladys and Annie sorry to disapoint but we do have other Georgette Heyer books to read so look out for another giveaway soon.

So what have we been doing, well apart from the usual horsey and orchardy things we've had to give the ferrets a bath which was fun if messy.

We've found some brilliant greetings cards with little gardens and we've joined Lovefilm we've even managed to add a couple of new items to the shop.

Oh and the chickens are laying....

Whatever you are doing this weekend - enjoy!

Greeting cards for gardeners

Love these "cardens"

which "will brighten any desktop, windowsill or sideboard" and are "enjoyable for all ages all year round"

Available from Postcarden

I think the Allotment is probably my favourite, which would you choose?

Weekly Roundup and Giveaeay Announcement

Since the beginning of March it has felt really Spring like and we've turned our thoughts to window boxes, and displaying Spring bulbs indoors in vintage china pieces. We've also been looking at a tutorial for making floral necklaces.

Whilst in our dreams we've visited Pedlar's castle in reality we've spent some delightful time watching the boats on the North Norfolk coast.

We've also successfully rehomed (fingers crossed) our juvenile cockerel and been rather amused by a report from the Sun about chickens killing a fox , you should read it for yourselves the puns are really groan worthy.

Far more mundane but never the less worth a mention, we renewed our car tax online, it was very simple to do and personally I would highly recommend it.

There has even been time for some reading, I've been dipping into Gisele Scanlon's The Goddess Experience and I've finished the first of my Georgette Heyer dectective / murder mystery books. Which leads me nicely to the announcement of Renaissance's first giveaway.

Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer

I've finished reading it and would like to pass it on to someone else, so if you'd like to read it yourself please leave a comment over here at Renaissance Newsletter.

If there is more than one person interested in the book we'll do a little draw and announce the winner next Friday in our weekly roundup.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend and good luck in the giveaway.

Windowbox Succulents

I saved this photograph ages ago as inspiration for windowbox planting.

I think the succulents look wonderful against the grey clapboard.

(Sorry can't credit photograph as I don't remember where it came from, if it is yours please accept my apologies and leave a comment so I can rectify matters)