Having been born in Yorkshire in early 1945, I grew up with all those war time and post war austerity slogans: ‘waste not want not’, ‘make do and mend’ and ‘dig for victory’ Even the slogan ‘is your journey really necessary?’ seems to apply these days, as we try to do all our shopping for two or three weeks all in one trip.
My first garden was my Dad’s ‘dig for victory’ garden, and living in the fertile Calder valley he grew everything. He kept bantams, rabbits and a pig in our suburban garden right next to the woollen mill where he worked. I loved the cute white or piebald rabbits, but every so often one of them ‘went to a good home’, and strangely enough, we always had meat stew that night. My parents recycled everything back then, and come to think of it, quite a few items got ‘recycled’ from the mill, including leather offcuts for shoe leather. Dad had a cobbler’s last, and whenever we got new shoes he would attach an extra leather sole to ensure the shoes endured. They made woollen blankets at the mill, so we got all the unsaleable blanket ends, which Mum would either sew into full sized blankets, or boil, dye and shrink them to use as dressing gown material. I guess all this sort of thing never really left me. I won’t be killing the odd chicken for a Sunday roast like Dad did, nor making fur gloves from rabbit skins like my multi-talented Mum, but the whole idea of living off our tiny bit of dirt is just the same for me.
This is a housing commission home (Queensland Council House): Our new right wing government has threatened tenants like us, two people in a three bed roomed house, with a rent rise if we don’t move into smaller accommodation, which is not available anyway. So be it: we cannot move for various health reasons so we’ll have to manage the rent rise. As the current rent is assessed at what is affordable, it seems logical to assume that the new rent will be unaffordable, so the garden will be essential to supplement the food budget, and recycling will be a matter of necessity, not choice. Not that we are poor: there is no need for anyone to live in poverty in this country whatever their income: so much is free, re-useable and recyclable if we start to look at things the right way, know how to cook simple meals, and preferably have space to grow some food.
It feels good to beat the system by reusing and recycling as much as possible. Right now I’m pondering how to make use of that rusty old car wheel. I’ll think of something. Eventually.