The House Husband

It was jolly warm today. Shorts and t-shirt, straw hat and sunnies. That’s me. I’m feeling a lot better today so I assume the sun has burnt off whatever was ailing me.

I spent most of the day composing a user survey for my dissertation. It needed quite a bit of chopping and changing but I finally managed to finish it and sent it to a few people as a test run. I then realised I’d sent the wrong URL and had to send off another email with the correct one. Idiot I am!

Other than that I was mowing the lawn and preparing Moroccan meatballs for Nicktor and me tonight. Naturally I took the poodles up the park but it was so hot they were quite happy to get back home again so they could lie in the shade under the trees in the garden.

Speaking of the garden, I figured, after all the talk about our Green Cone, I really ought to put up a photo of the finished product. Because I sat down, the poodles just had to get in on the action!

Our Green Cone - note that a third of it is under the ground!

I have had all my results from last semester now (they have been a bit late because of exams) and I’m quite happy with my results. Now it’s just the dissertation…

I’m still not feeling 100% and, consequently, I had another granny nap this afternoon. I’m not sure what the matter is but I get all lethargic, my head starts to ache and my nose starts to run. A summer cold, as my mum says, is what it probably is.

Anyway, before hitting the pillows, I planted the white sweet peas in the hot border and managed some dissertation work. For lunch I watched Portugal’s annihilation of North Korea (7-0) which was all in the second half. The North Korean team was holding its own and being threatening for the first 45 minutes but the Portuguese were given one hell of a team talk during the break, came back out and couldn’t stop scoring. A highlight was Ronaldo, showboating as usual and failing miserably.

After lunch we went up to the park for a walk. The fair is in town and Carmen was very interested in what was going on with the Dodgems. She stood and stared, alert and excited. I have no idea why. She’s seen stranger things as well as the fair last time! Maybe she has happy memories of last year. Day-z, of course, took no notice at all.

A woman, who I’d swear I’d never seen before, stopped to talk as her dogs sniffed around the nervous poodles. She said she didn’t know I had dogs. She said it in a way you’d expect someone who sees you every day to speak. She fussed over the girls and was amazed they were poodles. She wasn’t mad so I assume she’d mistaken me for some other scruff in a straw hat.

Back at home I crashed out with the poodles for company. Two hours later I felt a lot better and went into the garden with my coffee, the radio and dig bag and I completed the hole for the green cone. It was hot and sweaty work but I felt a lot better having finished it. After dinner I intentionally left a few bits of cabbage, just so I could christen it.

I’m presently watching Spain v Honduras. Spain are playing better than their last game but they still don’t look like world champions. Mind you, no-one else really does either. They are passing crisp and well and creating lots of chances but, coming up to half time, have not dominated as much as they should. They are also playing a bit dirty, faking fouls, elbowing off the ball, etc, which I really don’t like. Still, when they duck and weave and race down the pitch, it’s glorious. And the goal they scored was absolutely brilliant.

Carmen excited by the dodgems while Day-z looks in completely the wrong direction

I really like the idea of recycling. Use something then, rather than discard the leftovers, turn them into something else. It’s the way things should be. Of course with glass, paper and cans, the council are quite happy to take them away for me as long as I separate them into their particular bins. We have alternate collections – this week recycling, next week general refuse – and it works fine for us. Although big families, apparently, have problems with it.

Veg, some fruit and garden waste goes onto the compost heap down the back of the garden to slowly turn into nutrient rich dirt to be used, eventually, on and in the garden. There is also a stick pile down there for things that take too long to break down. While this isn’t really recycling, it does provide a home for small mammals and insects. I’m pretty sure there’s a hedgehog living in the stick pile and perhaps a pixie or two.

Cardboard is a bit of a problem. Our council does not recycle it from the front of the house. They have big bins in car parks dotted around the borough but that’s not particularly easy when you don’t drive. So I burn the cardboard and the ashes are mixed into the compost heap when the bin fills up enough. This adds more nutrients to the mix although I put my hands up to a small amount of carbon being released into the air when burning it.

My problem has been cooked food. What do I do with it? I can’t put it on the compost or it would smell and attract all sorts of creatures including rats. So I have to throw it in the normal rubbish. Not that we have a lot of leftover food! And then I read about the Green Cone. It’s available all over the world (almost) and you can read about it here.

What a marvellous invention. By a very simple process it uses natural bacteria to break down virtually any food stuff into a liquid nutrient which is distributed into the ground which in turn is used by any plants lucky enough to be growing in the vicinity. The Green Cone will take any cooked veg, meat, fish or fruit, bones, animal droppings, the lot. Fantastic! I had to have one.

It took a while but I eventually bought one online this week and it was delivered today. It is MASSIVE. The box it came in was even bigger. I had to build it (not difficult) and now have to dig a very big hole for the basket to sit in but I’m very happy with it. I would have dug the hole today as well but I think I need to confer with Mirinda first.

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For our walk today, the poodles and I went right up to the top of the park and cut across, through a small wood and over a burbling stream. It was glorious. The final hill we went up reminded me of the opening sequence to Little House on the Prairie. I took this photo of Carmen at point, where she prefers to be, guiding us on. It was a lovely day.

Carmen as scout, making sure the way ahead is safe