At a time when just about everyone in the country is fitting energy saving bulbs in their homes, tightening their belts against the economic crunch we are facing, having cavity wall insulation installed, closing curtains at dusk, turning down the thermostat and wearing extra clothes, switching off pilot lights and lights that are not strictly necessary……

At a time when many Local Councils are switching off street lights completely to conserve energy and cut costs…

Penyrheol Primary School is lighting up the sky again.

It is, however, not quite so wasteful as it used to be.  Only eight of the massive globes were lit this week.  They also went off by 2100 hours which is a slight improvement.

On other occasions, there have been 18 globes lit from before dusk until after 9.00pm  Indeed, on more than one occasion they have all been left on all night.

Now…. at this time of the year, all the children are safely home before dusk.

These lights are presumably there to help adults to find their way into the school to attend keep fit classes and the like.  There was a grand total of 5 cars in the car park on Thursday

There are already adequate street lights in Penyrhoel.

They are on all night.

There are already adequate security lights around the school.

Why cannot the people attending the school in the evenings, each purchase a small torch …possibly like the one I myself use when I take my dog for a walk at night?

Presumably it is our Council Tax which is used to pay for this blatant extravagance?

Grrrrrrrrrrr !

There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, we tried to make the break once before, when we sailed away in 1999. We sent everyone on our huge list a card with instructions to keep it and put it up each year with the others, and to think of us, but not to send us cards. However, once we returned from our six year Odyssey, we somehow got sucked back in.

Last year we sent ‘Welsh Air Ambulance’ charity cards to everyone on the list and I included this web address, so that hopefully, any people who wonder where their cards are will come here to find out!.

This year, all the money which would have been used to purchase cards, and all the money which would have been spent on postage, will now be sent directly to the charity.

We have also decided not to give prezzies to the grown ups… only to grandchildren…. and they are having Premium Bonds rather than plastic trash. The children are old enough now to realise that not only will they have the chance to increase their holdings if they re-invest any winnings, but that eventually they will have some money saved up for when they are older and will be able to buy something substantial when they become independent.

As for the adults, the reasoning here is that most grown ups can do a better job of buying things they want/need, so it makes sense to avoid the mad rush and stress of shopping for things we hope they will like, but which, if they had really wanted them, they would have bought for themselves already.

All that… plus… we are getting old and have decided not to ‘do’ stress anymore!

Obviously, we shall not be expecting any gifts either, so think of the saving on prezzies, wrapping paper, gift tags and boxes… and think of all the trees that will not be wasted, and think of all that recycling space that will be free for others to fill.

Reading this through, I appear to be taking on the mantle of a certain Mr Scrooge.…. but nothing could be further from the truth. I just get cross about the amount of hype and ‘must have’ that accompanies the winter festival.

All this though, leads me on to my New Years Resolution, which is to make more effort to phone and/or Email friends and keep in better touch….. (since the invention of Email, there really is no excuse)

And still on the subject of Christmas, we have been to the children’s school Christmas concerts, which were excellent. But we were amazed to find not even one reference to the reason for the celebrations… not a crib nor a shepherd in sight… no Baby Jesus….no Joseph … no Virgin Mary…..no Magi…. no bright star….. Just Disney characters and Santas and woodland animals …..Whose birthday is it anyway?

Bah! Humbug!!!

Oh Yes…. And Merry Christmas everyone!

I was young when it was launched…having just started my higher education course.

I was really only aware of the Hype …strange music… ash trays in cylindrical forms. … strange coffee tables…

Later I was to benefit from its offspring.. GPS navigation systems which helped me to sail to far flung harbours… and indeed to drive my motor home to diverse postcodes these days!

So….. Cheers Sputnik!

A substantial number of dogs and cats who have been lovingly cared for by the staff at Llys Nini, Penllegaer near Swansea, are at long last available for re-homing. They are special animals who have had a less than perfect start in life and who have then been obliged to spend two years at the Animal Centre

Sadly, despite the care and attention lavished on these poor animals at Llys Nini, living in an animal centre cannot compare with the security and comfort having a real home with a loving family.

Special people are urgently needed as soon as possible to adopt these lovely dogs and cats. Having been in cages for so long, they will need training and a lot of love.

However, having been associated with many of them over the period of their incarceration, we can vouch for the fact that they are lovely little chaps and girlies who only want to be loved.

If you have love to spare and the time to give to re-starting a life-on-hold… please visit this page and scroll down to see the pictures. Click each picture for a description of each potential new friend.

Not only will re-homing these animals be excellent for them, it will also free up spaces to rescue other needy animals to continue the marvelous work at Llys Nini.

If you live in the Swansea region, you can visit the centre any day (including Sat & Sun) except Wednesday, between 11am and 3.45pm.

Hope to see you there!

By the way, if you cannot commit to re-homing an animal, you would be most welcome to volunteer to help at Llys Nini, cuddling cats, walking dogs, socialising rabbits, ferrets, birds etc, manning the telephone, helping out in one of the charity shops, driving the ambulance ….. there is plenty to do! And if you live too far away to visit, or have no free time, there is always the Safe Haven Scheme…..

That is good news…….

We sometimes take cans of drinks both for ourselves and for the children.

That too is good news…….

However, we also need to think of the wider implications of our actions, whether we are at home or out in the fresh air.

Not only should we crush the cans when empty, and dispose of them in the appropriate recycling bin, we need to consider the plastic holders that are so convenient in keeping the drinks together when we buy them, and which are so often forgotten once their work is done.
It is not enough just to put this strappy plastic in the bin (preferably of course, a plastics recycling bin)

It is also extremely important to cut the plastic in such a way as to remove any closed circles. I have seen many sea birds severely hampered and injured by uncut plastic strapping. They think it is a juicy bit of food and get either their beaks or feet tangled, usually permanently and often fatally.

It only takes a moment to cut the pack strapping down to size and your thoughtfulness can save lives.

…….Now that is really good news……..

Thinking and drinking can be done together!

Indeed, we rarely throw anything out and are uneasy when friends and neighbours do so. Two such items have found a useful second life in our garden.

The rejected clothes hanger has been turned into a climbing frame for sweet peas. This pic was taken a couple of weeks ago and they have almost reached half way up by now.

Even the netting was ‘wombled’ , having been thrown out by yet another neighbour …..and the pine cone?…. a constant reminder, along with several others of its kind, of our dear friends Jacques & Liz, a souvenir from their house at Labenne in Les Landes.

The next little ‘find’ was a spurned towel rail. It cried out to be rescued, so we put it out to pasture with a few potted plants to keep it company.

In fact one of our three compost containers is a ‘past-its-use-by-date’ water tank with openings drilled in strategic places.

Every piece of Wombling is one space in the landfill site saved

The first two bins have an overflow pipe which feeds pots in a sheltered spot.

However, although this system has proved very useful, we were concerned that the whole of the front of the house was being ignored.

We have invested in a ‘proper’ water butt, a 300L job which, despite its size does not look too ugly to sit at the side of the house.

Although we bought it a week ago, it was only last night that we had time to set it up….too late the catch the deluge that accompanied the bank holiday weekend.

However, it is raining again now and we can hear the water pouring into it from the main roof

We should have plenty of water this year to avoid the need to use our precious metered water to keep our plants alive.

We have got our landfill bag down to one smallish black bag per week, and nearly all of that is made up of unnecessary packaging from shops. I spent 15 minutes yesterday trying to extract four printer cartridges from their impermiable and unassailable thick plastic armour. The old cartridges have been saved for recycling, but the plastic had to go into the black bag.

Paper is shredded, and taken to the animal centre when we go to drive the ambulance. It is re-used as bedding for the miscellaneous small animals. Tissues & kitchen paper, when used are composted. Vegetable waste (and there is plenty of that as I cook fresh food from scratch every day), lawn cuttings, garden waste, etc., also go onto the compost heap along with crushed eggshells and the furry contents of the Dyson cleaner.

Glass and any tin cans are left out in green bags once a fortnight, and plastic bottles (milk/lemonade) and cardboard are dropped off at the baling plant when we are passing, (not as a special journey)

I get pretty mad when I see people who either don’t know, or who really just don’t care, about the environment initially, and the future of the planet in the bigger picture. Around here I see households putting out ten times as many landfill bags as we do, and have to wonder what on earth they find to fill them with!

I’m sure there are oodles more things we should be doing, but if everyone does just one thing greener this week than last, it would be for the global good.

I enjoyed the slapstick cum-uppance of this video….. …Enjoy!

Although we were not involved in the organisation of the Burns Supper during our stay in Almerimar, we were delighted to be part of the celebrations.

Mary was in charge of the food, but her problems were greatly multiplied by the ‘Foot and Mouth’ restrictions in force at the time, which meant that genuine Haggai, (either on the hoof or in their body bags) could not be exported from the UK.

Poor Mary! She spent weeks experimenting with various ingredients attempting to get the right mix until she was finally satisfied just in time for the party.
The great night arrived, and forty or so people generally more smartly dressed than was the norm for a bunch of live-aboard yotties, assembled in the upstairs room of Paco’s Bar in Almerimar.

The Haggis was piped in…. correctly addressed….. stabbed to death….. and duly eaten, helped down by the usual suspects: tatties and bashed neaps and, of course, ample supplies of Scotch whisky.

The haggis was adjudged by several genuine Scotsmen present to be the best ever tasted …., but only Mary and a few of her trusted friends knew that The Beastie was actually a Spanish impostor which had been steamed in a pair of nylon tights, (claimed by the cook to have been brand new ones, but who knows?)

I took off my shoe and saw that my big toe had pushed a huge hole in my tights

“Ooh, ooh!”….. I giggled…..

The three youngsters studied my foot for a moment before each volunteered a solution to the problem, each from his or her individual viewpoint.

Number One, ever the practical one, said:

“Perhaps you’ll be able to mend it?”

Number Two, the Forward Planning Expert said:

” I expect you have another pair tucked away in your bedroom drawer, don’t you Grandma?”

Number Three, the Retail Therapy Expert said:

“You can go and buy some more!”