All things Selfsufficientish

Ireland calling – Virgin Update – Lacock

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 25/09/08 at 08:09:34 pm

Seems that I have somehow managed to strike a cord with Ireland. In a couple of weeks we are due to film a small something for a documentary to be shown on RTE and tomorrow I have been asked to talk about ecotarianism on a show called the Last Word on Today FM. Apart from the late, late show that we got over here for a bit, I have never really watched any Irish telly or indeed listen to that much Irish radio. Not really sure what to expect of either to be fair.

The Radio thing span off from an interview with the Times that I did the other day. It was a pretty good extract I thought and for once I was not misquoted.

Closer to home, Andy Hamilton is a Bristol-based forager and environmentalist and author of The Selfsufficient-ish Bible, an urban guide to “almost self-sufficiency”. Far from being a politically motivated firebrand, he is charmingly affable and at ease with this concept of compromise. “You have to question everything and look down the chain,” he says, “but it’s about being realistic.” He grows his own vegetables and will cycle half an hour to buy a “decent” pint of milk. “But equally I will buy Fairtrade orange juice now and again and I’m not just thinking ‘Right, I’ve done my bit for Africa there’, but I do actively choose not always to buy local for that reason alone. I like to buy local honey, but occasionally will buy Fairtrade because it is helping the rainforest, in that if they are making money from it perhaps they’ll stop chopping it down.

Enough of the showing off there!

Virgin Update

Virgin media have put a foot forward in the right direction and are refunding me some money, about bloody time too! I am still not entirely convinced that everything is square as yet need to sit down and scour through my bank statement. I have a feeling that all this arose due the staff being paid commission on getting sales. We got a letter from our phone company telling saying that they were sorry to see us go when we first signed up to virgin, we did not sign up our phone with them and had to get this overturned.

Pretty slow day otherwise.

Lacock

Spent yesterday in Lacock, a small village 4-5 miles from Chippenham. There was not much there but that did not really matter, it was great to spend the day ambling along the Route 4 cycle path by the river Avon from Chippenham to get to the village. Then stopping for cream tea at a traditional tea shop when we arrived, before wandering around taking pictures and generally just have a relaxed time.

We did not have tea served in this massive tea pot but there were plenty of oddities like this hanging around. It managed to be touristy without being Disneyfied, well I thought so anyway. Some of the shops had women serving wearing serving wench clothing, it took a moment to take in what I was seeing but seem fine. The whole village has been pretty much untouched from the 13th Century.

I did find that there was an odd calm to the village and indeed it seemed that I was not the only one. During wartime Londoners were evacuated there and there was a school set up in the Abbey (also used by Harry Potter). Aparently, the children behaviour was exemplary during this period. Reading other history’s of the abbey there certainly seemed that anyone who had any contact experienced this calm.

There is a spaced out theory that new places hold lots of chaotic energy and so we can react badly, this is why new estates can get vandalised etc. Not sure about the chaotic energy, but I do know that in an old place you can feel more relaxed. Old places have a character of their own, with the creeks, uneven floors, woody smells and small doorways. I really do defy anyone to tell me they feel less relaxed in a place from the 12th Centry than a concreate block from the 1960′s. Well unless it is haunted.

Look to the left, now is that not just sheer beauty? Well it is to me but then I think I am becoming a sucker for houses with even just a hint of wood and am slowly becoming a hater of Urban mistakes! In fact I am seariously debating a move away from the constant wails of sirens, house alarms and all that. I would miss being able to nip out and do all the stuff that a city can offer though. So this will possibly stay an internal dilemma for a lot longer.

Anyway back to the point, I was sort of speaking of wood; we also found this amazing Yew tree, not sure how old it is but looking at it I would say it predates the house above. You could almost transport yourself through time when you held onto this tree, it must have had so many stories happen around it. People do report to have some strange experiences beneth a yew, perhaps as it is pretty toxic. On that note must make some food as I think I am getting decidedly light headed myself.