toilet paper or amazon which is more useful?

2005

2015

Gosh look how much the trees grew!

When  we first moved to France 16 years ago and lived in our mobile home we had a highly illegal septic tank, a 200 litre plastic drum buried in the ground. Being previous residents of the developed world we proceeded as we had before and selected the nicest toilet paper we could find having been subjected to the functional, but not luxury loo paper of Zimbabwe for the previous 12 years. Well who new that the selection was as vast as it was, and who knew that it was possible to have 4 ply, quilted, embossed fragranced loo paper. Then surprise, surprise our septic tank had an eruption! All over the grass, floating sheets of quilted loo paper all over the garden. It was blocked.
Lucky for me I married a dairy farmer. Dairy farmers spend a lot of time in poo, and are not squeamish :) After many failed attempts to find a brand of loo paper that dissolved in a septic tank we discovered that the stuff that looked about the same as the not very luxury brand in Zimbabwe would be the only thing to use. Hey ho, win some, lose some.
Let this be a guide and warning to all toilet users that if you want to help the planet maybe it is time to forgo the luxury brand toilet paper. 

Look at those ears!!

In my quest to rid myself of clutter, of my brain and conscience, not necessarily my stuff, I have successfully managed to avoid amazon purchases for nearly a year. It annoys me to the extreme that the owners of these mega corporations have sooooo much money and make sooooo little to contribution to the community part of society.  I noted the other day that the Forbes list has created a score system on philanthropic contributions to go with each of their mega rich people. Mr. Amazon did not do so well in the philanthropy department, neither did Mr. Google. On further investigation even some who looked great had dubious tax avoidance loops linked to their philanthropy or managed to channel their own money back into their own charity systems. Disappointing. If you think about it, if everyone paid the tax they owed then there would be less requirement for charity and philanthropic work as it could all be funded by that thing we elect to speak for us and call government. Oh no I forget I can't even do that anymore. Vote that is.
​Alice aked me the other day how I was going to manage without anything apple, microsoft, google or amazon. I have succesfully avoided the apple thing, but as I type on my not apple computer using facebook to network on, google as my search engine and microsoft for my software I realise I will have to either branch out into a new industry, or I will have to get someone to teach me how to do everything without any of this jolly handy computer stuff. It is a work in progress. 

A couple of blogs ago I showed you a photo of sheep eating hay overwinter. The photos I show you today are of the regrowth in the same place. Spring seems to be steaming along rather too quickly. Some of the vineyards are doing a second pruning to slow down the growth and avoid the losses that may come with a May frost. The sheep are however enjoying the early flush of green  which should set them up for their lambing in April.
See you all very soon
Helenx

Today at the farm