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Value in Little Things

Published on May 1, 2023July 14, 2023 by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

We’ve been away but more of that later. One thing we often do is take a wander around a second-hand or junk shop. You can tell a lot about a nation by the things people resell. In Alice Springs, for example (yes, even on our great Australian adventure), we could’ve had anything from a teapot to a shirt to mining helmet. Brummen in Holland has a great 2nd hand warehouse. Gus’ back corner (achter hoek) . Seriously, you could furnish a house from there and clothe its inhabitants. There’s even paint, crockery, and electrical items. I’m not sure the cds and vinyl would be to everyone’s taste, but what can you do? Lol.

There were one or two glass cases with cast-off watches and small items of jewellery. In the back of one of these, I spotted several cameras. I love a camera. The box brownies and bellows based cameras now very difficult to get film for, but there was one little gem, an old 12 megapixel Samsung. Takes both photos and video. Look back on YouTube and someone the originals were using these things. Ten euro? Sold!

Now, I had no idea if this was in working order, but, at that price, it was worth a punt. Reader, it works! 12 MP glory is mine. There was an SD card inside. I took a couple of test shots and flipped the display on to see the results…. guess what? In 1990, a family of Surinamese origin, somewhere in Holland, had taken pictures of their home and each other and, very sweetly, their pet rabbit. They are very ordinary photographs of an ordinary family doing ordinary things yet somehow trapped in time. I’m not going to publish their photos. I’m not sure yet if I should delete them since they have survived this long and they made me stop to think about the things we take for granted. One persons waste is someone else’s treasure. One person’s past is someone’s future.

Environmental

Published on April 20, 2023 by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

The latest in solar and wind technology being used to dry our washing. It’s so important to keep up with this stuff for the sake of the planet.

Mine the craft

Published on April 17, 2023April 17, 2023 by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

I know it’s ridiculous to play video games in your retirement, but hey, I like ’em. What you forget is that the first generation of gamers is well into their 60 now. Sir Clive Sinclair and the mighty ZX and ZX spectrum. Cassette tapes to load a game… maybe 15 minutes… then it crashes and you have to start over. Oh, the humanity! For those who have a 5 minute PS update or the tedious load screen that’s on for 30 seconds let me tell you back in the day games didn’t even have graphics!

My 8 year old niece was fascinated to see my house in minecraft. For officionados it’s a mixture of cobblestone and glazed terracotta in a right old mix of colours and texture. Even the carpet tiles don’t match. I keep a number of virtual cows, sheep and clucks (half chicken half duck no one really knows) but no pigs, llama or horses (yet). I’m one of those irritating players who transport all manner of trees and flowers from every biome and just plant bamboo next to oak next to tulips next to acacia…. just like a Victorian really. Obviously, being game rich means you can build several homes. Usually a day’s travel apart so the zombies don’t get you … or the skeletons, spiders, illagers (in-game baddies).

But I digress. The thing about this ‘useless’ pastime is that it’s not useless. This is how to train a surgeon or send in an airstrike or calm an autistic child. There are more products associated with games than films or music these days. In face many films (movies for my Amercan chums), and much music is now released based on games. Even TV! TV is dying in its traditional episodic form. Binge watching The Last of Us on Amazon Prime is how it’s done these days. Fortunes have been mad on ‘video games’ even the social media moguls are losing their pull but the games go on. Sorry Mr Z, your Mehtaverse is not going to replace playing Mario Kart and laughing IRL (That’s ‘in real life’) with my friends and family. I can play my own D’n’D adventure alone with an RPG (role playing game … think Tomb Raider) too.

Maybe I should tell you about the board game collection, which fills six small IKEA crates, sometime. Play, in all its glorious forms, is a basic human need. Have fun.

Spring Into Action

Published on March 25, 2023 by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

Well the clocks change tonight. Tomorrow we will be a)up late or b)up on time and grumpy. Twas ever thus. Today, however, is the planting of the food crops. To be fair the rhubarb stays out all year and garlic gets planted in November but all those delicate veg need to go outside now. Today we plant onions and broccoli and peas and beans, beetroot and carrot but only for the tiny shelter/greenhouse (only it’s not a glasshouse) with just a few things directly into the earth. Lettuce, this year, is going in the chest height herb bed to attempt to avoid slugs.

Last years food crop was amazing considering we only completed the raised beds in late April, so this year we have organised a bit better and hope to have more food available. We also took the opportunity to put some fruit bushes in February, though I doubt those will fruit this year. A gooseberry and a blackcurrant. Hopefully the last frost has been and gone but in the UK who knows.

The compost has been fed through the winter. We have a vermicompost system buried into the raised bed thanks to Subpod (no money has changed hands) a New Zealand based company. The nice thing about worm based compost is that it doesn’t smell. You don’t need to spread it either because this system has holes for the little fellows to wriggle in and out taking the nutrients with them.

I’m not a garden expert, I’ve just realised that we can make more from what we’ve got… cost of living… pension.. blah. Between last years jam, sell by date boxes from the supermarket for soup and pickles, even marmalade. We compost anything that’s too far gone and use ash from the wood burner to add carbon to the soil. It’s all going rather well.

Manky veg soup

Published on March 4, 2023March 4, 2023 by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

For those of you not from the north of England, ‘manky’ is a description of things not at their best. Frankly, past their sell by date. It applies to all things, not just food. It can apply to people.

You can make soup from pretty much any food…. not that I think ice cream soup sounds good, but.. our local supermarket has begun to sell boxes of the less attractive fruit and veg cheap. Sometimes, the bag split. Sometimes, it’s close to their sell by date. Food that would otherwise go to waste. Either way, it’s £1.50 for a box you might pay up to £10 for in the normal run of things. They are available most days but in limited numbers. Lots of people ignore them. Others are embarrassed to admit that cheap food may be exactly what they want. Now, I retired, and my monthly income was cut in half. I’m still doing OK, but I dont mind sorting through the veg boxes, and soup is always a simple,quick food option

Today, it’s root veg. Carrots and parsnips and a bit of onion mixed with the schmaltz from our last roast chicken. Pinch of salt, little bit of pepper. That’s four each servings for two people for a bit of time. Of course, some excellent bread with a thick slathering of butter.

I’m making myself hungry now.

Decorated (still no medal)

Published on February 13, 2023February 14, 2023 by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

Well, more, in the process of decorating. Over the pandemic we began ‘project renovate’. one of the things people were still allowed to do here in the UK was have building work done. So the kitchen was refitted and a new garden scheme with raised beds to grow food became a reality. The log burner went in … then things kinda stalled. Between the holiday season and a sort of hibernation mode very little was happened over the last weeks but with the arrival of more spring like days and the utility bill came the realisation that something needed to happen to stop us heating the whole house and inhabiting easier to warm spaces. The kitchen table serves as an office and the living room as my den, which is nice because its south facing and catches even the slightest sunlight and warmth. I do have to say that once the curtains were removed it got a lot cooler in here.

We’ve gone mad and decided that this is not a cash cow but a home. Ignoring the current TV fads for flip and resale beige nightmares we decided we are living here so mad colours it is then. the living room will be purple. First coat applied and second on it’s way. This development has been somewhat slowed by my having sprained something in my wrist making holding a paintbrush a short term proposition at best. I’m good at the fiddly edging bits though so it can be done in short bursts. Certain parts of the room need to be finished first so the build in seating can be fitted. We’ve booked the carpenter so a line has been drawn.

Better get back up my ladder then.