Well it seems we are almost there with the whole You Tube channel. There are a few of us ready and willing to give it a go. The channel is called The Daily Good Life and we’re sorting out setting it up. I’ll let you know of the developments as and when they happen. Shouldn’t be too long until it’s up and running. Pip pip!

I’ve been a bit neglectful haven’t I. Since my last post, I haven’t really done all that much. You see, I’ve had a teeny break in my work schedule, and have become quite obsessed with reading Harry Potter. This week I’ve devoured three books and am currently wading my way through the Half Blood Prince. I just LOVE them. I can’t believe I didn’t read them sooner. If someone can find a recipe to match the description of the fictitious ‘butterbeer’ in the Harry Potter books - please drop me a line and let me know. Sounds scrummy. I also kept reading the name Cornelius Fudge, and in the end had to go and buy a box of fudge to eat. Subliminal or what.

I also was explaining to Rich about all the different things you can do with a wand. The thing was, it was whilst we were preparing dinner, and I was standing quite close to him, waving my knife around like it was a wand, saying things like “expecto patronum!”, “lumos!” and “expelliarmus!”. I’m a bit like this, I tend to really get into an idea and take it further than I ought to. Rich seemed a bit non-plussed, and told me to put the knife down. Probably as much for my own safety as his, given how accident prone I am.

Anyway, I digress.

Everyone else in veggie/goodlife/self-sufficiency blogland seems to be mega busy with this and that. At the moment I’m just sort of waiting for things to happen. Perhaps it’s because my choice of vegetables and fruit that I’m growing tend to be ready to harvest around the same time. I’m a bit rubbish with all this continual sustained harvest output of veg. As I’ve said before, it’s something I feel I need to get to grips with next year.

However, onions are still coming on with a treat. I am poised with my knife (not shouting spells, you’ll be pleased to read), reading and willing to gobble them up as soon as they’re ready. In fact, my onions are possibly the *only* thing I’ve managed to plant successively - this year I should have enough fresh onions to last me well into Autumn.

The sweetcorn have been an out and out failure. Of the block that I planted, a measly two plants germinated. And one of those has been almost nibbled into oblivion by the naughty bunbuns. I let them out to ‘free range’ amongst the cats and chickens, and have on occasion caught them sneakily nibbling some carrot tops or suchlike when my back is turned. I even think they may have located, dug up and consumed the sweetcorn ’seeds’ (kernels?) from the ground. Ah well. Rich’s Dad told me about how easily and quickly he started his sweetcorn off, so I think I will give it another bash. It might be late in the season, but at the moment I feel like throwing caution well and truly into the wind and just at least trying. What have I got to lose? A few seeds. Kernels. Whatever they are.

Lastly, I have found myself very much in a baking mood. Specifically sweets and cakes. Not quite sure why. I think I blame all the sweets mentioned in Harry Potter. And I keep seeing recipes everywhere for elderflower drinks, cakes, savoury snacks, champagne etc. Before we sold off a thin strip of the Smallest Smallholding, we had an elderflower tree. Then they cut it down - are they mad?!!?!?

I used to be quite up to date with Internet and new media technology. Then I started to get a bit behind…now it seems I’m actually totally clueless. I only really discovered ‘vlogs’ this week - video logs. Of course I knew about podcasts and people making online video diaries, but the whole subscription to a channel on You Tube and the community feel of it sort of surpassed me. I’ve subscribed to a few vloggers and channels because they’re fairly interesting and some light entertainment. Some people are crazy, some people have something interesting to say.

It got me thinking though. I’d love to do some vlogging. I used to be a theatre studies student, and I suppose I still have a bit of a yearning for performing! I think being on You Tube, even if you are being yourself, is a kind of performance. I love the idea of reaching out to people and spreading fun, interesting, thought-provoking topics, or occasionally just putting something fun and stupid up, or perhaps completely and utterly bizarre.

One of the channels I subscribe to is called 5 Awesome Girls. They’re a bunch of girls from across the USA brought together by their love of Harry Potter. Their ages range from 17 or 18 to early 20s. For each day of the working week, they do a small vlog about why that day is awesome, what they’re up to, answering questions posed by one of the other girls. I like this idea, it’s good to watch something positive. There are other groups of people that form a group and take turns vlogging each day, it seems to be something I missed and something I’d like to get involved in.

So my thought it this. I would love to do something similar. I want to find 4 or 6 other young people that are into living a bit of the Good Life in their own way. I say young because I want people from my generation to fly the flag and show our peers they can do it to. I want us each to say hi, vlog about our day, what we’ve done, what’s on our minds, perhaps talk about projects we’ve got on the go. The videos can be funny, they can be serious, they can be whacky or arty, or just simple and straight to the point. Variety is good.

So if you’d like to join me in forming a group that gets green living, vegetable growing, home cooking - the simple, good things in life - out to an audience, and you think you can make it interesting and watchable (and you have a camera or webcam) let me know. It’s not hard to do! I really want to do this, and I think it would be great to have people from all over the country - or even from other countries - involved. I could do it on my own, but I would rather get a group of us involved in it.

Let me know!

I have been very pleasantly surprised over the past few months with my new(ish) allotment. I am from a generation that don’t greet each other in the street with a smile and a hello, even if there’s miles of lone pavement and only you and the other person crossing paths.

I was surprised when my other half Rich came up to live with me, and he’d say hello to people as we passed them while out walking in our local park. I was even more surprised when they smiled and said hello back! He said he’d always done it when walking his dog back home - I found it a strange phenomenon, but in time have come to do it more readily now.

But down at the allotment, almost from day one for me, there has been a sort of camaraderie, where everyone says hello and has a quick chat regardless of whether you’re a newbie or an old boy.

My neighbour on one side is a young woman in her 30s, really lovely and on the occasions that we’re there at the same time, we exchange greetings, have a quick chat about how things are going. I still don’t know her name though! On the other side is a woman in her 50s or 60s, who came over to have a chat the first time we were both working on the same afternoon.

Further up is an old boy who launched into conversation as I made my way up my allotment sidepath. Very open, had a chuckle. It’s nice. Another young guy in his late 20s waved at me and my Mum as we drove out of the allotments one day.

As I said, I have been part of a generation that looks the other way, bows their head or pretends to rummage around in a bag or wallet, fiddle with a mobile phone or iPod. Anything not to make uncomfortable eye contact, to acknowledge someone else is there. Having an allotment for me has partly opened me up to the art of conversation with strangers. Strangers who, through conversation, become familiar acquaintances. And perhaps one day, even friends?