Our changing climate seems to have put paid to any ‘deep and crisp and even’ snow here in the south of the country, instead we have soggy fields of ‘brown and squelchy mud’, but for me, the worst aspect of 21st century Christmas is the unstoppable commercialism, typified by ‘Black Friday’ – to my mind the antithesis of both Christmas and smallholder living!
The
‘holy grail’ for most smallholders is to be as self-sufficient in as
many ways as possible, and weather-related events such as flooding bring
home to us all just how reliant we really are on the infrastructure of
the 21st Century! I recall writing an earlier diary entry on
this subject some time ago (October 2009), pondering the possibility of
becoming at least, less reliant on the supermarket, and at best,
relinquishing the checkout and ‘loyalty card’ schemes altogether! So,
how have we managed? Well, we continue to collect a small quantity of
‘Nectar’ points from the mega-Sainsbury store in Gloucester (it’s
convenient, parking is free ‘n’ easy, they stock items you can’t get
from the local stores, etc., etc.) – all the usual excuses for failing
to learn to be more personally resourceful and socially responsible, and
blindly continuing to be an obedient consumer! We do, however, in rain
or shine, make our regular pilgrimage to frequent the many and varied
independent shops in our local market town, Newent. It’s a lovely trip
out, and as well as the luxury of being able to buy a myriad of
locally-produced products, we meet friends in the high street and stand
for ages, blocking the narrow pavement having a good old chin-wag!Continuing on the theme of self-sufficiency, we’d love to be able to exist off-grid. We have solar panels on a conveniently south-facing roof, and even on an overcast day between the end of March and the beginning of October we rarely need to heat water by any other method. We would have liked to install photovoltaic panels, but a survey confirmed our suspicion that our 16th century farmhouse roof would not support the weight! Try as I might, I cannot learn to love wind turbines, and the idea of having one constantly in my line of sight could not be borne.
So, life, as always, is a compromise between dreamy idealism, and what the individual decides he or she can or cannot do without.
