A good friend of mine lost her daughter to leukaemia 7 years ago.  Her son James is now raising money for Woking Hospice to help with their work in supporting bereaved children, support which he benefitted from when his sister died.  You can support James by making a donation at justgiving (see widget in the right sidebar).

I heard on the news this morning that the government is considering encouraging us to become vegetarians for the sake of the planet.  According to some research by the University of Chicago recently discussed at EcoStreet, it’s more effective to give up eating meat, than to replace your gas-guzzler with a Toyota Prius.  This added to my recent personal misgivings about eating meat means that I’m going to be devising a plan to reduce meat consumption in our home.  I respect the right of choice for the rest of the members of the household, so it won’t be a case of no meat at all, but I will only be providing a meal including meat once a week.  There remains the issue of ensuring that everyone gets their vitamins etc.  But I’m sure we’ll muddle through.  Marmite contains B12 doesn’t it?

I’m back to updating The Little Green House.  I’m not promising daily updates, but I’ll see how I go.  I have missed it.  The latest news is that we have given up our allotment.  We’ve instead decided to move our vegetable growing to our own garden, to allow for easier care of the plants, and some other projects that have come up and are taking up more of my time.  We have scaled back our vegetable growing accordingly, but are still growing garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers, butternut squashes and potatoes at home, as well as plenty of fruit.  We have two apple trees, a pear, a green gage, a kiwi, a cherry tree, raspberries, blackberries, grapes and strawberries.  I’ve also made sure that I source more of my bought vegetables from very local sources as a way to assuage my guilt.  My hunt has delivered some unexpected treasures and led to my meeting some amazing people.