Visit to Glasgow

I don’t get out of Boghead much, I go to Toddlers’ group and sometimes shopping trips at weekends but I rarely have a day in the city, and I never get a day out without E… until yesterday.

Some friends were visiting from Sydney, Australia and they asked for a bit of a guided tour through parts of Glasgow.

We started by trying to get parked, and eventually found parking above the old Sauchiehall centre. We walked down Sauchiehall St to the statue of Donald Dewar which stands looking down Buchanan St. From there we went to George square, we got into the City Chambers and we were able to see the very grand marble staircase, although most of the rest of the building was closed to the public. Then we popped into the GOMA for a quick look, more at the building than the exhibits… The wombats were quite impressed with the architecture though when you think of where Glasgow got the money from (the ‘tobacco’ trade - which some believe a pseudonym for the slave trade) it is almost eerie.

From GOMA we went (via the Buchanan St. Tardis) to get the subway to the West End and had a lovely picnic in the park followed by a look in the Kibble Palace (not realising that the largest collections are Australian native plants, doh, just what you want to see on the other side of the world) We took a walk through some of the backstreets past the tenements on Cecil St. and then a wander around the University. Before heading back into town and back to the car. I managed to point them in the direction of Edinburgh and said my good-byes.

Spent the rest of the afternoon meandering through a few shops and down to the train station…

Going over it all now, it was a really nice and relaxing day (I have not had many of them in Glasgow) but it had been so long since I could do my own thing that I really appreciated it.

Thanks for reading ;o)

First harvest of 2008

We picked our first rhubarb of the season on Sunday and had a small crumble… delicious. For a crumblier crumble - I mixed a little bit of porridge oats in with the crumble mixture, it was lovely, you probably only need about 2 tbsp per cup of flour (I never measure for a crumble, so I can’t give an exact instruction)

The rhubarb crumble got me in the mood for puddings so I made chocolate bread and butter pudding to use up the stale bread - We are now baking all our own bread in a bread maker acquired through freecycle, and so we now get stale bread (a foreign concept when you only buy supermarket bread, as it has so many additives in it that it does not go stale) - For chocolate bread and butter I replaced the usual sultanas with chunks of milk chocolate (J won’t eat sultanas… one of the few ‘picky’ habits he has yet to be talked out of )

I have now planted out a 1/2 a bed of beetroot shoots (they were started off in February) I will also plant some seed beetroot in the bed so that I will get a later crop - which will mostly be for pickling.
I planted out some lettuce seedling and they are looking very healthy, I have surrounded them with several ’slug pubs’ - a sunken yoghurt pot, half filled with beer and covered with an upside down empty margarine tub (you have to cut ‘doors’ in the margarine tub so that the slugs can get in) I was starting to think that my peas were a lost cause but a quick check in the garden this morning and they are just coming up… so glad it has been years since I had a fresh pea pod full of the little sweeties… hmmm.

Well I am truley excited by the growing season, so much stuff is really coming to life in the garden and we have managed to get on top of some weeding and cutting the grass and hedges meaning some more goodness can get to our plants… still on the to do list is to pick up the greenhouse and get some chickens… then we’ll be all set

Thanks for reading ;o)

Washable nappies and wipes

E has recovered from her illness and is now eating for Scotland. She is eating mostly bread (occasionally with jam, when she smiles nicely and says “pease mum jam”) But I guess it is getting her Carbohydrate (and sugar) levels up.

Seems to me that Children (specifically babies) will eat what they need, if E needs protein she asks for cheese or beans, she mostly drinks water but occasionally asks for apple juice, possibly her body craves the nutrients and vitamins that she (for what ever reason) is lacking. That is why I think that she is eating a lot of bread, well that and the fact that it is all home-made and very tasty these days

So now that she is well I have converted her to re-usable nappies. I have a few makes, by far the best has been motherease. tots bots are not nearly as good and I have old style terrys squares and plastic pants too.

Apparently it depends on the shape of your child - some babies legs have a knack of striding… the old John Wayne look. But E’s have never been like that, she has a very natural kind of adult stance (straight up and down)

I did try using washables before, but she was too young and they neither suited her body shape nor her ‘out put’ she was what they call a ‘heavy wetter’

There are several parts to washable nappies fromm the outside in these are:

• The Wrap - This is the new version of plastic pants, it is the waterproof layer that keeps all the yukky stuff inside.
• The nappy - A terry towelling nappy, usually with poppers or velcro fastening. Often made in cotton though bamboo is available and is very good. I was unaware of this, but the nappy gets wet right through, that is it’s purpose, simply to soak it all up.
• The liner - this works as a one way barrier, urine soaks through the liner into the nappy while keeping the baby’s bottom dry, it also collects the solids for easy disposal. The liner is either a small fleece sheet or one made of disposable paper

I am pleased to say that this time it has been much easier and more appropriate for her size. She is still able to walk and sit up in them, just like her disposables.

Since I am now washing a load of nappies every 2/3 days I have also made up some wipes out of a bed sheet - It was a brushed cotton cot sheet that was too small for a cot (we didn’t realise that it was till we were putting it on the cot) I cut the sheet in half, then in half again and again and so on, until the pieces were about the size of a face cloth. With the sewing machine, I put a zig zag stitch around the edges to stop the material fraying.

I plan to soak 1/2 the wipes in a chamomile and honey solution (a strong ‘tea’ made with 2 chamomile tea bags, 1 tbsp honey, 1 cup of water) Then I will use them as baby wipes… the other 1/2 of the wipes I have been using as ‘wee wipes’ - might sound odd, but I am washing E’s nappies anyway so I might as well fill the machine. I have already cut our loo roll usage by more than half… which is good for our pocket, the environment and our septic tank.

To wash the nappies and wipes I prefer to use a biological washing powder - it contains the enzyme busters that get rid of stains and smells.
I wash at 60oC, it is hot enough to kill most nasties and dissolve the smells and stains. I would wash at a higher temperature if a tummy upset was causing problems… but personally I will stick to disposables for those times.
I dry everything I can outside, (or in front of the wood-burner in the winter) using a tumble dryer would render the eco-friendly credentials of re-usables null and void, fresh air and sun-light is again better to deal with both stains and smells.

Well so far it all seems to be going well, we have 9 nappies, which is 2 full days use. We don’t yet know how efficient the turn around can be, so I don’t know how many days I have to use disposables for.
We will still use disposables when we are out and at night time, but using re-usables for normal daytime wear could save us £5 - £7 per week on nappies and £2 -£3 on wipes and loo roll…. WOW, a saving of up to £10 per week… that is pretty good going

Thanks for reading ;o)