Adam Tinworth: The Rest of My Life

Foragers' Harvest

We've been foraging for fruit in the trees that grow adjacent to the flat in Lewisham:

Elderberries for jam…

To Commute or Not To Commute

We're in the middle of trying to figure out where to live next. It's dawning on us that we're facing a choice between our ideal lifestyle and convenience, between the rural idyll and being 10 minutes from the office.

That discussion makes this piece in Business Week rather sobering: people spending three hours of their day commuting, while constantly planning how to escape this lifestyle. I spend between 90 mins and two hours commuting most days at the moment, and I find that pretty tolerable. how much would I trade off for a better life?

And how long until the internet allows us greater freedom for remote working, of the type espoused here?

Too many questions, and, once this place is sold, I need some answers to go with them…

Tags of Christmas Past

We had something of an eco-friendly Christmas this year. While we were clearing out Mum's house back in 2008, we found enough unused Christmas cards to last for year and enough paper and tags to last, well, two years, as it turned out.

And some of the designs were decades old. I liked the designs of these tags so much, I've scanned them to preserve them for posterity:

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On Objects and Memories

An important lesson to learn when you're still dealing with the posessions from your late parents' house:

The hardest part of decluttering is remembering that the objects are simply representations of the memories, not the memories themselves

Sometimes it's hard to make that separation.

Blackheath Farmers Market

This morning, I took myself off to Blackheath, to give some more of Mum's old possessions to the Cancer Research charity shop there. It's a slightly snobby things to do. I know, when the Lewisham one is slightly closer, but I can't help feeling that the sort of things I'm donating will be more appreciated (and fetch more for the charity) in Blackheath than down here.

Anyway, the plan was to head back down the hill and into the Lewisham Sainsbury's to pick up some chicken and other bits and bobs for a roast tonight. But then I stumbled across the Blackheath Farmers Market, which I'd heard of, but never visited. Could I get what I needed there?

One free range chicken, some organic cooking apples and some dessert later, the answer is very clearly "yes".

Nom.

Freecycle Splits

The UK arm of Freecycle, an initiative that allows people to give away things they no longer need thus avoiding landfill, is in the process of splitting from the US founders. 

Freecycle was a life-saver for us as we cleared out my parents' house after Mum died last year. Big items, like the three-piece suite, couldn't be given to charity shops, and they were in great condition, so there was no need to landfill them. But, through Freecycle, we found people who needed them, and gave them away. 

With a little bit of luck, this split will allow the UK's Freecyclers to innovate and push up the amount of goods Freecycled, rather than undermine a fabulous initiative.

Which reminds me - anyone want a small, exercise-style trampet?

[via Suw]