Balancing our two Bits*

We have two Missions. The first was doing our bit for towards kick-starting the World economy out of the credit crunch by investing in materials and equipment for our new home. It looks as though our efforts in this sphere - filling our home with White Goods, some of which are apparently manufactured in Europe – and consuming hectares of sustainably-managed temperate forests, are beginning to meet with success. So, with the arrival of our deep-freeze – expected for this week or next – this phase of our work is drawing to a close.

Our second Mission is to play our part in saving the planet. To this end Ruth has planted vegetables in our newly-created raised beds which should make us near to self-sufficient in fresh food. Organic and air miles-saving at the same time. Unfortunately this plan somewhat undermines our mission to spend as much money as possible since it releases us in part from the cash economy. A further disadvantage is that our garden is so productive that we are being threatened by a surfeit of good things to eat, up with which we cannot put. This week our tomato plants, grown to over 6ft. (2m) high and groaning with fruit which menaces to all ripen at the same time could begin to overwhelm us. The above-mentioned deep-freeze is part of our plan to counter the approaching vegetable tide by a battery of preservation methods including freezing, sterilising, drying, and the range of pickling in oil, vinegar, alcohol and sugar. We managed to withstand the onslaught of the courgettes without the aid of any of these methods but it was a close thing. The next crop to threaten is the French beans. Followed by the French potatoes, French melons, French marrows etc.

*This reference has nothing to do with our new kitten, provisionally named TwoBits for delicate anatomical reasons while we tried to think of a suitable name. The name we eventually chose for her was Topaze. She’s ginger, so you can see just how fitting this name is.

P. S. In celebration of the French National Day, 14th.July, we might have called our kitten "Catorze" Waddya think?