Don't even wash the pot

Great scheme. I threw the rooster in the slow cooker for the day (with lemon thyme, oil, paprika), added yams at lunchtime and then pulled the bird and yams out at dinnertime. Stripped the carcass of meat and put the carcass back in the slow cooker (which still held the cooking juices) with carrots, onions with skin on, celery, black peppercorns, parsley and bay leaves.

I'll have another look at it in the morning.

The latest NZ Gardener magazine arrived today. Weed of the month is creeping buttercup and it likes poorly drained soils. We have loads and heaps and more loads of creeping buttercup in our garden and lawn. But our rainfall is so massive, especially lately. I don't know that the soil is really compacted or clay heavy, just that it has to deal with so much rain. The tests in gardening books about waiting for an hour to watch water drain don't mention about round here where sometimes it takes days and days (and more days) to get an entire hour free of rain.

Sprouts are good though. Sprouts lift my food growing soul wherever in the world oron the calendar I am.

I've made some weight loss goals. This is unusual behaviour for me. Maybe I'll post more another time.

"Good" magazine

I saw this new magazine on the stands last week and I've just read that Sad Little Garden has been eyeing it up also.

I'm usually quite a sucker for magazines. Not the glossy svelte ladies' magazines, but various gardening, food, current affairs magazines do make their way into my shopping trolley o. n occasion.

So why didn't I purchase Good? It is after all about the eco friendly types of things I like to think I espouse.

Weeeell. Not really. It might be carbon neutral (except if that is buying carbon credits, then I think that scheme is about as ethical as when in the middle ages people bought indulgences from the Pope). It is also apparently printed on recycled paper. Heavy weight stuff, probably supposed to denote quality. But inside, there is lots of white space, big type and more commercial stuff, like photo shoots on home furnishings made of bamboo. So, buy more stuff aye? Cash in on the current zeitgeist for things eco?

A few months ago, a person wrote a letter to the editor of NZ Organics magazine, saying they had a good message, but they needed to get sexy. I love that NZ Organics depicts earthy people at work in their work clothes, that in this magazine people over 25 actually exist etc. I don't want NZ Organics to go "sexy". But if sexy, lite-eco is what you are after, then Good is now available at a New Zealand supermarket or newsagent near you.

I don't mean to be nasty as in wanting someone else's baby to fail. But I don't suggest you buy Good. I suggest that if you like magazines as I do, then you buy the ones you really love, share them with your friends, and put your 'eco' efforts into not buying things. Or buying magazines which really teach you how to put some changes in place, whether growing garlic or diy home insulation.

magazines

I've been pondering a few things about magazines today. I've not pondered much about gardening because my children keep playing vomit and hoopy cough tag and outside it continues to rain and then pour and then rain again.

A week or so Fire commented on my blog that I should read the New Scientist. So I bought one, because I hold Fire's opinion in high regard and thought she could be on to something. Favourite Handyman (also with health deficits but thankfully not vomiting) and I had a look and talked a bit about why we're not so excited by it. It doesn't seem to drag me into multiple aspects of a topic. I like the way some articles in the New Zealand Geographic do just that. I also like that our local library has the NZ Geographic because stunning gorgeous photography doesn't reproduce cheaply.

A magazine I often ponder subscribing to is The Ecologist. You might notice that I've had a learning curve on the creating links front. I've quite deliberately made the link to the current issue page because of an article which has this lead in:

Life, religion and everything: Scientist Rupert Sheldrake tells Laura Sevier it's time for religion and science to kiss and make up

Actually I'm tempted to subscribe just so I can get hold of that article and distribute it to my blog reading friends Fire and Rachael and see what they do with it.

Which brings me to an excellent development in international magazines: digital subscriptions. Much as I prefer to read magazines in bed, in the lounge, outside etc., digital subs are seriously much cheaper than paying for English and US magazines to be freighted over to NZ. Not to mention the carbon badness of all that printing and freighting.

Other magazines I like are NZ Gardener and NZ Organics (which doesn't have a website but is my favourite of the two). I could say quite a bit about Mothering magazine but I won't because much as I adore my children, they are finally in bed right now and I just don't want to talk parenting on my work break.

If you've made it this far, please comment and tell me your favourite magazines. Cos I learnt how to put sitemeter and clustrmap on my blog today while not cleaning up vomit and am consequently pathetically keen to see some signs that someone is out there, visiting me here!