How to: Geological bottle stoppers

I'm a pretty big fan of both geology and gin. 

Give me a good bit of strata to admire and a G&T and I'll be pretty happy.

I saw the idea for these geological bottle stoppers over at cupcakesandcashmere and couldn't wait to try it myself.

There are full, photographic, step by step instructions over at cupcakesandcashemere, but it really is very simple:

1 - Collect some suitably sized corks, and some pretty, flat bottomed stones or fossils.

My corks are tapered wine bottle corks that I bought from a home brewing website, and my amethyst and replica fossils came from London Natural History Museum.

2 - Using glue, I used a glue gun but super glue would also work, attach the stone to the wider end of the cork.

3 - Allow the glue to dry completely and add to your favourite bottles.

Park crochet session: making the most of the good weather

Tips for Tights

 
Tights drive me scatty.

I wear them practically everyday and I ladder them frequently. 

But I'll be damned if I'm throwing them away as frequently as I ladder them.

I just can't bring myself to do it.

Such a waste.

Consequently I'm always on the look out for ways to prolong the life of my tights.

These are two of my favourites:

1 - Nail varnish - the natural enemy of ladders: Small, easily hidden ladders can be stopped by painting the surrounding area with nail varnish! You're tights may not be as good as new, but you can keep wearing them. And that is a win as far a I'm concerned.

2 - Falling-down-tights-be-gone pants: Potentially the least sexy under-garments in the world. But they do work.

 

If you have a pair of tights that fit well at the top, but that are laddered on the legs then chop em off. The resulting pant-type remnant can be worn over a good pair of tights to stop them sagging/falling down. 

Genius.

Just don't flash anyone, because not only does it look like you're wearing granny pants, but that you're wearing them over your tights... it's not a great look.

Let me know if you have anymore!

Re-growing Spring Onions

I spotted the idea of re-growing your spring onions on Pinterest a while ago, originally from Homemade Serenity.

Bloody good idea I thought, but does it work? Is it worth doing?

Turns out, yes!

Simply, keep the last inch and a half of your spring onions, roots intact and submerge in a little water.

They started growing straight away, we've had a couple of handfuls of greens already, and they are still going. 

I am never not doing this ever again.

A bit of greenery in South East London

Stave Hill Ecological Park, Southwark.

London life: Cycling the Thames Path to Greenwich

 A while ago we cycled the Thames Path from Tower Bridge to Greenwich... 

Not just to eat fish and chips

But substantially to eat fish and chips.

 

It's a great trip, old and new all jumbled up together, ending in Greenwich Park with its squirrels and wild parrots.

 

 

 

Waste not and be happy

As far as I'm concerned most people could do with being a little less wasteful. Actually, a lot less wasteful, it's kind of a thing I have and kind of the theme of this blog.

This weekend we visited our local cinema, Bermondsey Shortwave, for Taste the Waste courtesy of the Green Film Festival.

Taste the Waste is an eye opener about how much food Europe wastes and a whirl-wind tour of the impacts on climate, land, society, diet etc.

I can highly recommend it if you want a bit of a think about what our food-use looks like and what that means.

It deserves thinking about.

A Belated Birthday Present

My dear friend @clairey_led recently celebrated a birthday, and requested no presents... a request which I honored somewhat reluctantly.


So Claire, instead of a present here are some songs I enjoy that I think you might too. Nothing ground breaking, but worth a listen.











I hope you like them.

Cyclists: set other road users an example

 

Old poster, still true. 

From our recent trip to the London Transport Museum.

Peanut Butter: Making up for lost time

More and more often I find myself asking why I didn't try certain foods before... like coleslaw, or pistachios. Foods I didn't like when I was a child and so didn't consider re-trying them an an adult.

Peanut butter is the latest on this list, and in character with the attitude of this blog I'm not wasting an opportunity to enjoy it!

If peanut butter will go in it, I'm putting it in. I've got missed time to make up for!

Curries? Yup

Coleslaw? Nom! It's a double combo of foods I mistakenly thought I didn't like!

Bacon sandwiches? Tasty

Burgers? Delicious

Biscuits/cakes? Of course

Peanut butter and banana sandwiches? Classic

Replacement pizza sauce? Bit genius.

However, the peanut butter recipe I return to again and again is peanut butter brownies. There is nothing not to like!

 

I use this recipe from Inside A Black Apple, take out the cocoa, replace with a little flour and add two or three large table spoons of peanut butter. 

Half chocolate brownie, half peanut butter brownie, as pictured, is also pretty special.