There has been much talk recently about waste and recycling, which can only be a good thing. Last week I went through my kitchen cupboards, filled up my Ella's Kitchen Cabinet and gave my ingredients a massive overhaul, there were no real corkers of out of date stuff but there were a few. I really love kitchen clear outs and can often be found in kitchens giving them a little rejig. Anyway, I did have shelves of glass jars and everything looked beautiful but we've had a few accidents with glass jars so I've been to IKEA and bought heaps of stackable plastic containers, decanted everything and labelled them prettily. It might be plastic but it's staying on my shelf and will be refilled when running low. Now I can see everything, I can see when I'm running low and I can stock up accordingly.
But where? Where in Wokingham Borough is there a shop I can go to and buy just enough of one ingredient without having heaps of plastic which goes in the bin and a cardboard wrapper which goes in recycling? When I shop for fresh ingredients I don't weight it and then put it into a plastic bag, I weigh it or get it weighed at the checkout and put it straight into my bag, it's the little things. If we all did a little. Another thing that I don’t like are plastic coathangers, one friend was saying that they’re a pain but a metal one is a lifesaver and he has one that has been down the back of the radiator on many a retrieval mission over the years! Maybe when the new shops are ready someone at Wokingham Borough could talk to a company called Unpackaged.
Earlier this week I was on BBC Radio Berkshire with Sue Kinnear, who was standing in for Bill Buckley, and Tracy Corbett author of The Forget Me Not Flower Shop which was published in July 2017 and The Summer Theatre by the Sea which is due out in April. I always enjoy the BBC Berkshire Book Club and in amongst the book talk we chatted a little bit about labradors (named Britain's favourite dog, beating the Mixed Breed mongrel and the Jack Russell). I am delighted to to share my 3 recommendations for the BBC Berkshire Book Club are The Last Day by Claire Dyer, Mum can you lend me twenty quid by Elizabeth Burton-Phillips MBE and The Year of Surprising Acts of Kindness by Laura Kemp. More on them over on my blog.
I put it down to being a Piscean but I am rather emotional and prone to hay fever moments, I had one on school run (not helped by Gallagher and Lyle) when my 17 year old told me about this tweet from Graham Stead the father of one of the boys in her year. Graham's son Tom, a Reading FC fan died aged 19.
"Going to #Readingfc vs #Brentfordfc? Pls support 1 min applause in 19 minute in Tom’s memory who recently died aged 19 n of #osteosarcoma. Pls donate to tribute fund @BCRT (Bone Cancer Research Trust) and @OxHospCharity (Oxfordshire Hospitals Charity) text TOMS19 followed by £1 £5 £10 to 70070 (eg TOMS19 £5). £1 from all at game would raise £15k”.
