tulipfest II

It rained and rained and rained last night. Jake (my labrador) had a fabulous time on our morning walk jumping in all the puddles and playing in the stream which was running fast and deep. I went up through the woods to see if there were any signs of violets. Once they appear, you know the wood anemones will be along soon and then the bluebells and then Spring is definitely here. Jake was so muddy and wet that I had to use 5 paw towels to dry him when we got back! But it's been sunny today and the temperature made it into double figures so who's complaining?

There's not much colour in the garden yet. The crocuses and tulips are slowly appearing but they're a bit thin compared to last year. I saw both magpies and foxes digging up my bulbs this winter. I don't know if they dig them up because bulbs are tasty or because they'd got something else buried in the pots (usually nuts) and the bulbs just happen to be in the way. Whatever the reason, the bulbs are coming into flower in a rather haphazard fashion. So, in the absence of colour in the garden, here are this week's tulips:

I was talking to my friend in the Turks and Caicos Islands today. She said that it was 81F which is the usual temperature there, give or take a degree. Hard to imagine for those of us in cold, damp climes, but we can always dream....

plastic bags II

As soon as I'd posted my blog about plastic bags this week, I came across this video (click to view). It's a spoof wildlife mockumentary on the life of a plastic bag, narrated by Jeremy Irons and made by a lobbying group in California.

California has always been at the forefront of activism against plastic bags with San Francisco the first city to ban them, back in 2007. The debate about the pros and cons of banning and taxing plastic bags has been raging ever since. Figures for 2009 showed that the number of plastic bags picked up on San Francisco streets rose slightly after the ban was introduced. 

A recent article in The Guardian (11 January 2011) compared plastic bag usage in the UK, where voluntary regulation is in place, to Ireland, where plastic bags are taxed:

"the number of bags used a month by each person in the UK dropped from 11 in 2002 to 7.2 in May 2009, but then rose again to 7.7 in May last year – equivalent to 475m bags in total per month. In Ireland, the equivalent figure – compiled from plastic bag tax receipts – has dropped from 27 in 2002 to 2 in 2009, suggesting that the tax is having a strong impact on consumer behaviour".

With Wales introducing taxes on plastic bags later this year, this one's going to run and run....



eco friendly or not....

There was an interesting article in today's Independent newspaper with the headline, 'Plastic fantastic! Carrier bags 'not eco-villains after all'. It was an account of unpublished government research which found that plastic carrier bags were less harmful to the environment than paper or cotton alternatives.

The report, commissioned by the Environment Agency in 2005, compared seven types of bags to see which had the lowest environmental impact when used only once. Impact was measured by the level of pollution caused by extraction of raw materials, production, transportation and disposal for each type of bag.  According to the report, each paper bag would need to be used 4 times and a cotton bag would need to be used 171 times to be comparable to a plastic carrier. This led the authors to conclude that, if shoppers switch to alternatives, they need to use them time and time again to be greener.

I found it an interesting read. Under a headline which said that plastic carriers were not 'eco villains', it went on to confirm the damage they do. Six billion plastic bags are used across the UK annually and the environmental damage they cause through litter and marine pollution is indisputable. In addition, plastic carriers are oil greedy in their manufacture.  

The controversy about plastic bag usage and its relative importance as an environmental issue shows no sign of diminishing. The most recent high profile example is the Welsh Assembly's announcement to charge 5p for every carrier from October 2011. However, as George Monbiot points out, plastic bags are not the biggest problem we face, only represent a small proportion of domestic waste, and distract attention from  more important issues. In an article about why there's so much interest in plastic bags, he says:

'Because dealing with plastic bags is easy. Easy for the government, easy for retailers, easy for shoppers. It threatens no one, makes money for the shops (if they charge for their bags) and ensures that everyone feels better about themselves, while continuing to trash the biosphere just as we did before.'

Food for thought....

the baskets are coming....

My friend, S, who lives in Bayeux for part of the year, emailed to say that the baskets are starting to reappear in her local market. Waiting for the baskets to arrive is a bit like watching for the swallows to return and just as exciting, at least for me! It's a sign of Spring coming, the days getting longer, the weather picking up.

Here's a jumble of baskets in a French street. These come mainly from Madagascar.

And most of these are from Morocco:

Meanwhile, I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival of my next delivery of pot baskets which are the most beautiful and intricately woven that I have the pleasure of handling. These are true works of art, made in Ghana by highly skilled weavers, and the people I sell them to are usually basket collectors. Here are some of last year's:

And once the baskets have arrived, I'll be back at the market. Just in the process of finalising the programme of fairs and festivals for the Spring. I'm looking forward to seeing all my old friends at Whiteladies (hi to L and R!) and meeting some new ones too. So come on down....

tulipfest....

As part of my ongoing campaign to ignore the weather, here are this week's tulips:

And to combat the fact that it's grey and miserable today (although not cold, hoorah!), I made banana pancakes for breakfast and ate them with ice cream (don't tell my dentist). Should have accompanied them with Jack Johnson, of course, but instead put on Muddy Waters very loudly. The great thing about pancakes, laden with maple syrup, chocolate sauce, ice cream or bananas, is that they make it feel like the weekend, regardless of the day of the week or what the weather's doing outside.

And Spring is coming. Here are the first snowdrops, struggling through last year's leaves in the woods where I walk the dog: 

The crocuses are through in the garden and it won't be long before they're in flower. But in the meantime, watch this space....the tulipfest goes on!