I sort of own a shop called the little co-op in Bristol

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 14/02/09 at 02:02:05 pm

Over the last few weeks I have taken over the running of a shop. I say I and really I mean we as there is a group of around 10 like minded good people also on board. So where is it I hear you shout, well it is 156 Church road, Bristol, BS5 9HX. It is all quite exciting and there is a real buzz about the place and although I love working on selfsufficientish and writing articles it is good to be involved doing something that you can touch and visibly see people enjoying. Especially at this time of year when the allotment is not doing much and we are not conducting our forages.

If you live in Bristol or are thinking of visiting then do pop in for a natter and a selection of teas and coffees and cakes or even CD’s, DVD’s and videos. We also have a good selection of books starting at 10p. We are open from Monday to Saturday 10am-5ish pm.

The aim of the place is not like most businesses we aim simply to be an asset to the community. Next week we will be selling wholefoods too. We are also open to suggestions about running the shop in the evening and have our first poetry night on 25th February at 7.30pm – 9.30pm all welcome as long as you buy one cup of tea!

I know that I have not blogged for a while and when I do it is a big advert for our new shop, but well as I said I am very excited. It also fits in with the buy nothing new 2009 considering that all the stock we sell is second hand! Well apart from the drinks.

I have to say once a again a massive thank you to everyone who donated. Your donations have been put to good use and you all helped us secure our shop.

Google Guilt and How Nothing New Year is going

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 14/01/09 at 10:01:37 pm

Google Guilt

My most thoughtful girlfriend forwarded me an article on Monday as she often does when she should be working. I don’t always read them as I don’t always have time, and in some ways I wish I hadn’t had time to look at this last one as I think it will have a profound effect on the way I work. The article was entitled “The Carbon Cost of Google“, apparently Harvard Academic Dr Wissner-Gross has calculated that just two searches on Google use the same electricity as boiling a kettle or 14g. This figure has been disputed by Google who claim that one search uses just 0.2g of carbon.

For a while I thought that I believed Google’s figure of 0.2g, I mean why shouldn’t I they have come up with the answers time and time again for me. Little did I know that I just wanted to believe and my subconscious brain was as ever, one step ahead already weaning me off Google.

Whilst researching an article I found myself instead of going for the immediate option of Google which is always so easy, I instead turned around to my bookshelf and took down a book. Don’t get me wrong I do often refer to books as I generally know where to find what I need to very quickly and they are more reliable as a source than the internet. I do however, rely on Google too much. In fact I have been known to use it just to spell a word; Googling the wrongly spelt word and finding the way to spell it, instead of picking up my (very good) dictionary. I also Googling a weight or measure to find it’s metric or imperial equivalent instead of just learning it or turning to one of my many cookbooks.

So this return to books seems like a direct result on what I can only describe as Google guilt a phenomenon that I am sure we could be hearing a lot more of over the year.  I do feel better for having breaks away from my computer and it has been great to engage with some of my old books again. Perhaps Google guilt is not a bad phenomenon (I used a dictionary to spell that)!

How the Nothing New Year is going

I wish I could report on how easy the nothing new year is going. It has been tougher than I thought, already! On a  night out with an old friend (ironically known as two hats) I managed to loose my two hats. With the temperature here in Bristol apparently dropping lower than the temperature of Iceland this was not a great time to have no hat. So over the past fortnight I have been searching charity shops far and wide to no avail. Happily just the other day I found one hat and paid 25p for it, what a result.

As for other things, well it is my girlfriends birthday on Friday I have still not got her anything. I am not really sure what I can get and not being able to buy anything new certainly restricts what she will get. Well that’s for another blog. For now I am happy just to have a warm head.

GOOGLE WAS NOT USED IN THE WRITING OF THIS BLOG.

Happy nothing new year

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 01/01/09 at 12:01:34 pm

Last year, that is way back in 2008, I did my best not buy anything new unless it was really necessary. This year I intend to do one better and buy nothing new at all, seems I am not alone and many of the people on the selfsufficientish forum are doing the same.

I seriously do think that we have manufactured enough not to warrant making anything more for quite a while longer, think of how much damage is done by making a load of old tat that we don’t need, vast swathes of China no longer see daylight due to our apparent need for dancing fish or the third new mobile phone in a year.

It might sound like I want to do without stuff and perhaps whip myself with birch twigs but that misses the point. I think it will actually make me happier not to be bothered with a load of stuff I don’t need at all, besides I prefer second hand stuff.

As I said last year I started this, it was a bit of a half arsed effort to honest and I still bought (new) loads of books, hard drive, memory card, bike trailer, jeans, shirt, power lead, demi johns, potato peeler and well I think that was it. Not loads as I am certainly not much of a shopper, but all stuff that I thought I needed at the time. Did I really?? I did want a digital camera so I bought a second hand one, I wanted a new desk that came second hand but that was about it.

So I am perhaps way more prepared than someone like Paris Hilton, Posh Spice or Gary Coleman would be. Still I can already think of things that I want like a cider press, more demijohns and what about presents for other people?

There are going to have to be exceptions as I won’t be able to do without food. Yes I do produce a lot of my own food and for that matter I will still need to buy seeds, of course I will still have to buy some food. Especially at the moment as I had a poor harvest last year.  So this starts the exceptions..

• Seeds
• Food and drink
• Cycle parts (although I will do my best to get second hand stuff)
• My own book (but no others)
• Medicine and dentistry (If I need a new tooth I am not doing without
• Anything the landlord decides needs doing on the house (Will try and source second hand stuff whenever I can and give him it)

It might sound like I am cheating as I am not going the whole hog and giving up money like Mark Boyle. I wish him all the luck in the world with this one, don’t get me wrong; in fact Mark is a good friend of mine. It’s just this one is not for me, I live in an urban house with my girlfriend and I think it would put too much of a strain on our relationship if I was to give up money and moreover, I like being able to nip down the pub now and then or to tuck into some really nice food.   You can see Marks progress on his blog if you do want to read about a no money idea.

I am sure that now the recession has us well and truly within it’s grasp there will be many people not buying much new for 2009, alas not for the same reasons. Whatever happens I wish you all a very happy nothing new year and I hope that you all get what you really need this year.

The talk went well now I’m ready for Christmas

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 24/12/08 at 01:12:21 pm

Well I gave a talk to the Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Pagan Society of Birmingham the night before last, it was the first talk that I had given on my own so I was more than a little aprehensive. Dave is normally standing next to me and we work well as a team, if one of us dries up the other steps in.  I met up with the main organiser known as “sleepy owl” a regular of the selfsufficientish web forum who showed me around Birmingham as I was six hours early.

Anyway, the talk went very well and the group were very friendly. Part of the talk mentions energy saving and the group seemed to find the part when I spoke about running a cooker hob more efficiently most entertaining. I do say that you need a flat bottom (pan) and make sure you don’t have a crusty ring.

So another good acheviement to finish off the year, next time I have to speak alone to a group of people I at least know I can do it.

Now feels that I can relax and really enjoy Christmas. Have a really good one anyone that reads this! Now, I have to work out if 12 noon is a little too early to nip down the local and start the festivities.

At Teather’s End

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 19/12/08 at 01:12:27 pm

The other night I had an amazing experience; I was in a play. I don’t mean performed, I mean I was part of the play.

The play was a wonder club production called at Teathers end. Unfortunately it looks like it won’t tour as it is specifically written using the space in which it was performed namely the Trinity Centre a converted church just outside of the centre of Bristol. If it does then buy a ticket!

It is set in the Old Market area of Bristol in 1869 described as “A place of vice, poverty and grim hope” a description which would befit old Market today.

The audience gathered outside the old church drinking mulled cider. The doors of the church were slung open, mist bellowed out and haunting Latin choral melodies were heard increasing in volume as a funeral procession slowly proceeded out of the building. Without taking a cue we all followed as we were now active members of the play. We walked up stairs and the true and rather tragic story of how William Pullin was driven to the murder of his best friend PC Richard Hill starts to unfold.

Sitting as if we were in the congregation of a church we then move downstairs to celebrate the forthcoming marriage of Richard Hill. A scruffy looking bloke invites us to the three crowns pub claiming that he is the landlord. We walked down stairs and entered 19th Century Bristol. I was amazed at how much effort and detail had been put into the sets of this place. Everything was made from cardboard and as the lights were low and people were in 18th Century costume milling about the place, pickpocketing, begging and generally having a chit chat (in character) it really did have the feel of what it would have been like – I am sure the smells were very different. It almost reminded me of how Dr Who does Victorian but somehow a little more believable (I guess as their were no aliens). They must have spent hours on this area and even if you miss the play I would try and get in to the Trinity Centre just to see the set.

The play did confuse me at times as events were going on across this small square and you were not really told where the action was going to be. You could stay in the pub, visit the Doctor (who told everyone they had VD) or go to the butchers to name a few. After sinking a few pints and having my pockets picked twice I got a bit of the hang of the play and realised that you needed to listen out for clues as to where the action would be and as in any real life event everyone was going to leave with a different viewing of the events. As a hint though try following the lead (played by Malcolm Hamilton, no relation) who you might recognise from a certain lager advert and also follow the Police man.

I am not an avid play goer, in fact I can count the number of plays I have seen on just over one hand. I would say however, that this was the most moving and perhaps the best I have seen. I would urge anyone in Bristol or even near to Bristol to go and watch it. It really did move me to tears due to the extremely high standard of acting by all involved, the understated yet very appropriate music and the believability of the whole set. Again I would urge you to go and see it, ot is worth seeing just to watch the vicar get carried away with his role and to have your gloves stolen by a hobbit like street urchin.

At Tethers End

15th – 20th December 2008
8pm @ The Trinity Centre, Bristol, BS2 ONW

Book tickets @ the
Tobacco Factory Box Office – 0117 9020344

For more information – Michelle 0777 303 8570 or Nick 07533 633 308

At Teather’s end

Public speaking preperations

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 17/12/08 at 04:12:41 pm

I agreed to give a talk months ago in Birmingham to a LGBT pagan group in Birmingham. I was starting to wish I never as this sort of thing always puts me in a strange sort of mood for the week preceding it. Thankfully after a long chat with the organiser I feel pretty good about it, well ok about it anyhow.

I have a love hate relationship with public speaking, I hate it before hand and always want to run off and not do it. I get very, very nervous which in turn makes me a little short tempered at times, even during the talk at times. It is most odd. Afterwards I am walking on air for a couple of days, so it does seem worth it in the end. Especially after a good talk. (We did give one very bad talk, and I won’t mention it here needless to say I still shudder about it now)

The thing with this one is that it will be the first that I have done by myself. This makes the preparation slightly different that usual. What usually happens is that Dave and I will argue about who’s house we practice in. When we finally decide we go through the talk together, taking the subjects that we both know the best to talk about. This means that Dave has become more of an expert than I have in certain areas and visa versa and that when either of us flounder the other helps them out. So what happens when I flounder here, well I guess I have to muddle through. It is both an exhillarating and terrifying thought.

I was very glad to have Dave sitting next to me when we spoke on Radio 4’s today program and on BBC Breakfast earlier in the year as I was white with fright.  That was certainaly the single most terrifying moment of my life. Since then I have spoken on live radio a few times. The last time I got an hour long slot on local station BCFM. On a side note I notice that Ed Stourton has been sacked from the Today program, I met him when we went on there and I can’t say that I feel sorry for him. He did not even look up when we entered the room, let alone say hello in short I thought he was a self centred twat.  John Humphies did and he even came out of the studio to say good bye, the other bloke their did at least nod his head too. I wonder if the fickle media world is not entriely that fickle, I hear rumours that the nice people tend to stay.

Well I am putting off preparing the talk just to write this so I had better get on and bloody well write it instead of adding to the already flooded pool of showbiz gossip.

Oh and the talk well if you are interested it is happening on the 22nd of December from 8pm at the Wellington Hotel Bristol Street Birmingham. It cost nothing, I promise to try and be interesting and it won’t be like the talk I try not mention – the mistake I made with that one was thinking I could talk off the top of my head. I learnt the hard way, you can’t.

Merry Ishmas

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 09/12/08 at 07:12:59 pm

We created a word with “selfsufficientish” and so what’s to stop us creating another one with Ishmas? So what is ishmas? What does it mean? Well it’s like Christmas; in fact it really is what Christmas future will have to be as it is sustainable and thoughtful.

Ishmas is celebrated on the 25th December and has one message and one alone and that is to really think before you do anything for Ishmas day. Think about what you buy and think about your loved ones, don’t allow any of them to go hungry and don’t get tricked into thinking that the more money you spend on them the happier they will be.

So many people tend to forget their morals and consuming habits at Christmas time, this was very apparent when I went to a Christmas market in Bath at the weekend; hundreds of people were trying to push through the narrow streets, ladened with arms full of wrapping paper, decorations and presents. All things that I am cutting back on buying this year. In fact the only presents I am buying are copies of my own book, and I am only giving out one of those. So think ishmas, think don’t spend money.

I might sound like a humbug, but I think I am giving people far more thoughtful and individual presents than I could get was I too trudge around an out of town shopping monstrosity. My shop is the local common, the wood and well I do also need to buy the odd ingredient from a health food shop. Oh and I think, like James Strawbridge of It’s not easy being green fame, there is no harm in buying just one book – The Selfsufficientish Bible.

Decorations and trees

Ishmas starts with decorations, we still have some left from Christmas past the odd bit of tinsle and the plastic tree but as ever bits get broken and go missing and there always seems to be half as much as the year before. So for decorations for Ishmas this year I decided that we would weed our friends allotment, he has a holly tree and having the corner plot he has ivy growing all over the surrounding walls. We filled up to bags with this holly and ivy and it now adorns our living room, it really does make the room feel cosy too. According to the Druids by bringing in evergreens we are giving the natural spirits somewhere safe to stay, nice one always good to have spirits at Christmas.

If our “normal” decorations start to fall apart next year then they will be totally replaced with holly, ivy and other evergreens that I will get from the local area. Thus being a carbon free and highly sustainable way of decorating the house. I will have to point out that you should be careful with this approach if you have small children or animals as many everygreen berries are poisonus.

I will keep the plastic tree though as I don’t see any need of growing one when a fake one does the job. This tree on the left belongs to an old lady in Chippenham and it is thought to be the oldest christmas tree in use. It is still being used after 120 christmases. I am not sure if ours will last that long. This must be the most sustainable christmas tree in the world too as only one tree has been used instead of 120, imagine if every tree was fake and lasted this long we would all save a fortune on the yearly cost of trees which stands at £20 million just here in the UK.

Presents

I have to be careful with what I write here about presents as I know that some of the recipents read my blog, so no clues here Mum! Needless to say it the thought that counts with presents. I had to start to make some of my presents months ago and so they will have lots of thought put into them. One that I can talk about is my hop pillow, for my insomniac friend. I cut up a very tatty old white shirt into one big square. Then I sewed up each side of it leaving a big gap. I filled it with hops from my allotment, a few sprigs of lavender and the rest of the shirt to pad it out a little. Then I sowed up the final side to make a pillow.

I have also dug up feverfew from my allotment to give to a friend who gets a lot of migranes. For other friends I have a big barrel of beer on the brew and they are going to get a bottle each with a personalised label. For example, “blue moon ale” will be written on the label of a mate who only drinks every few months.

Lastly I am putting together herbal kits including ointments made from ingredients I have foraged and dried herbs that I have foraged. These are for the people that you would normally buy soap for as you don’t have a clue what to get them.

I hope that everyone will be happy with what they are given and I am very thankful that I don’t have any teenagers to but for. Well I guess I would just give them booze and I am sure they would be happy. Not so sure their parents would be though.

Wrapping paper

So what do you use for ishmas wrapping paper? Last year I used old magazines, but I used these wisely only using pages that I thought relivant to the recipent of the gift. So my big mouthed friend got pictures of Jade goody, my political friend got picture of MP’s and Dave got pictures of dog’s playing cards.

I will also be making paper this year from mushrooms but if I said more it might spoil the surprise of one of my gifts.

Transport

I decided too that I might not spend any money on transport this year either and am seriously contemplating cycling home. Home is up in Northampton which is about 102 according to google maps. This I could be done in a day if I was feeling very fit, in reality 2 days would mean I could do it all in daylight which does sound like a better plan. I would stay at a mates house, certainly would mean that I would not have to worry about the crowds at the train and bus stations.

If the weather is bad though I will scrub this idea and try for a liftshare.

Ishmas

So that would be an ishmas, I hope you agree that instead of a Christmas full of stress and spending it is one full of joy and love. Merry Ishmas everyone.

Colds, manflu and herbs

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 04/12/08 at 03:12:25 pm

I have been feeling sorry for myself all week as I have been suffering from what is these days termed as Manflu, no longer can I call it a cold. I am debating if “manflu” help matters. It’s almost living up to a sterotype, “right I am ill, I am a man ergo I must be incapable of doing anything and must whine”.

Anyway it will teach me to boast, at the weekend during the “free feast” I announced that I was so healthy at the moment I would not catch my mates cold. Well, how wrong I am.

I think perhaps drinking for two evenings did not help. It might also be that I am not used to being surrounded by over 100 people; as there were at the free feast. Pretty amazing that really, feeding 100 people without spending any money, makes you realise how wealthy we really are in the west.

Well that’s if for the short blog as my head can’t cope with anymore, I also have to go out and forage my next dose if cold relief.

Preperations for the free feast

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 28/11/08 at 11:11:08 am

It’s been a pretty busy few days as preparations for the free economy feast step up. I was getting rather worried that the yarrow beer I brewed for it would not quite be ready in time but it is starting to settle and it looks ok. I did try some after the first fermentation and it was palatable although full of sediment, so fingers crossed it is ok now.

The free feast is open to anyone who turns up and will be held at Cafe Midnimo in Bristol starting at 4.30pm on Saturday 29th Nov in Bristol. The feast will be served around 4.30pm in Café Midnimo, 163 Ashley Rd, St. Paul’s, Bristol BS6 5NX.

The Yarrow Ale won’t be served up at Cafe Midnimo as it has a no alcohol policy the local of serving it is as yet undisclosed. I did make an extra gallon for myself, which I am going to give a lot more time to mature just to judge the difference in taste, I have no other ulterior motive with making my own brew, honest.

SO WHAT ABOUT FOOD?? Well we did manage to find a massive haul of wax caps yesterday. Enough to feed at least 20 people as a soup or starter anyway. I say we as Dave and I were joined by another forager called Fergus who is desperately trying to rid himself of his TV name “the roadkill chef“. So I am sure he won’t thank me for mentioning it again.  He is trying to rebrand himself as Fergus the Forager and I think it seems to be working. It was good to talk to him about foraging courses especially finding out how he sells them as Christmas presents. As this is to be Dave and I’s wage next year we really do have to learn how to sell them. We were also joined by a local helper called Dan who seemed to enjoy just spending the day out. It is always good to go out picking with good people.

Good people carried on as a theme this morning as a bloke from BBC radio Bristol turned up with his radio car. I asked where the crew was and apparently they don’t need them for these live links. This was a bit of promotion for the free feast, I basically had to do a live talk about foraging. It might be on the listen again thing, for another week. I was on at about 8.40-8.50 ish so right at the end of the 3 hour show, about 2.50 hrs. It was unfortuantely cut short as there was a big fight near where I used to live in Bath, off the London Road. Quite odd as if I had taken a different course in life I would have been there.

So this afternoon we are now going to be off around Bristol looking for more foraged food for the feast. I will have to get on to that now.

Brewing 100 pints of Yarrow Beer, free Economy and new desk

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 19/11/08 at 03:11:24 pm

Brewing 100 pints of Yarrow Beer for the Free Economy

Last week I turned up to a meeting in a pub regarding the free economy. More on that later. The free economy lot are throwing a party offering free food and drink to anyone that turns up at the end of the month to celebrate the founders experiment of living without spending money for a year and of course buy nothing day. The party is to be held in just over a week on buy nothing day (29th November) and I agreed to supply some home brew. Having never brewed anything over 40 pints before this was indeed to be a challenge. The ingredients were no problem being just Yarrow, Malt Extract, Sugar, Water and Yeast - I wrote up the recipe and a brief introduction just here.

The interesting thing I found out about Yarrow is that it contains Thujone an ingredient also found in Absinthe. So I am going to assume that Yarrow ale/beer could be slightly psychedelic. Well as I am brewing 100 pints of it for over 100 people I am doubtful that it will really matter as I can’t see anyone having enough of it to have any effect.

Yarrow has been used by humans for the last 60 000 years and apart from being used to brew a psychedelic beer it has had many other medicinal uses including treating toothache, kidney disorders, toothache, piles and to stem the flow of blood. In fact soldiers throughout the ages have gone into battle with a pocket full of yarrow for this very reason. Indeed, in some circles it has been called the warriors herb. I love it as it grows everywhere and I tend to take an infusion of the stuff when I am feeling a bit run down, it seems to help.

Making the beer itself was a bit tricky to say the least, I got my 100 litre (22 gallon) water butt (see below) and filled it with steralizing solution and warm water. This involved getting the hose out or I could have been there for hours; as I had no tap attachment I had to tape the hose to the tap and flooded the kitchen a little as it kept firing off. I then rinsed it out with colder water and had much the same experience.

Now knee high in water I added the malt and sugar to the brew bin which I then moved to a warmer room – The dining room. My girlfriend seems to be grinning and bearing it as my home brew collection starts to take over, I have not told her that I intend on having something brewing constantly now for ever more. She does make the odd comment that makes me think she might disapprove such as, “if that f*****ng thing bubbles one more time”, or “I can’t come into the kitchen I am going to heave”.

Boiling the yarrow did smell a little and it had to be done in two large pans that I have for home brewing, one 7 litre and one 4.  Picking the yarrow was easier than I thought as I found a spot with loads of it, I would suggest doing the same if you are to make this as you when there are only a couple of plants in one area they are best left totally alone to give them the best chance for survival; you need about 1 pannier bag or roughly one carrier bag full so you will need a lot. I later found that trying to measure out almost 2 kilograms of yarrow is not the easiest in a small kitchen with tiny scales. So to add to the water there are now bits of yarrow, grass and clover all over the kitchen.

Anyway, if you want to recreate this then here are the ingredients and the full recipe is over here.

Ingredients

• 3.4kg organic Barley malt extract (10 jars)
• 2.7 kg Brewing Sugar
• 1.75 kg Fresh Yarrow leaves
• 56 litres of water
• 1 cup of good ale yeast
• a small jar of honey (for priming)

You may ask what on earth is going on in that picture, the thing on the far right is my water butt  wrapped with a fleecy sleeping bag to keep the brew to a regular temperature without having to have the heating on all night. It is being propped up by a few bricks so that when it comes to draining out the brew into its beer barrel the job will be slightly easier. No need for siphoning tubes with this set up. I am slightly concerned that if the bricks get cold they will radiate coldness and cause the brew to cool down this is why the local paper has been pushed under as an after thought.

Free Economy

….Which according to it’s founder Mark Boyle, “It’s about making the transition from a money-based communityless society to a community-based moneyless society”. You might have heard about Mark in the past as he was the bloke who gave up everything he owned and decided to walk to India.

Dave and I have got involved with them on and off over the last few months, mostly offering free forages. What happens in short is rather like freecycle but with your skills instead. People list what they can do anyting from house building to scrabble playing. You sign up, putting in your address and it tells you who is nearby so if you need a head massage, want to borrow a drill or need help with your dahlias then it is worth a look.

New Desk

On Saturday we popped into the Bristol branch of Emmaus a big warehouse type shop full of second hand furniture. Everything there is donated and all the procedes go to help desitute people in need of a home, work and support. It is one of my favorite shops as I love second hand furniture. I saw a massive desk and immediately wanted it, my old one although it has served me well is just too small, once I have a couple of books on it, it is filled.

So I excepted delivery of my Edwardian second hand desk yesterday. Great I thought it is perfect so big that I could sleep on it. Then I awoke in the middle of Sunday night; the day before delivery. I realised that it was so big that it would not fit in the house. I measured up the staircase and the front door and indeed I felt sure it would not fit.

So all credit to the three blokes from Emmaus who worked out that by taking it around the back, through the french doors then, taking apart the bannister we could fit it in.  It was odd but I think there was a real sense of winning in the face of adversity when we eventually go it in.

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