Cob & shakes...

This place kind of stunned me.

http://naturalhomes.org/goatlings.htm

It made me realise I'd really have to raise the bar if I wanted to make something amasing out of cob & shingles...

The bulgy walls don't really do it for me, and I although I love shingle roofs and the shakes are very neat, to me they look too straight, like they're cut out of sheets of plywood rather than split out of cedar. I also don't like that they're aligned to go to the bottom edge of the roof, ignoring the fact that it waves up and down. I think this would be a problem, because it means when you're going up a slope you've got shakes side by side up instead of overlapping to shed the rain.

I love the up-and-down-ness of the roof, but I think that the lines of the shingles should follow around the contours almost horizontally, not try and stay parallel with the edge of the roof.

I much prefer Sun Ray's for character: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Q2MuDl8oyaFrYzDC21_DeZhyphenhyphenCs1vUOpZenB3IAmeoEIAZSC68pHWRUEyy_59bTWscujLi_LYcRv0VAWXcvCiSvU6Oqvh0R9vA0v7oJ0xQyvsgkrBu1ZHMZRwgYZiLAQpmAsmkPcMNX0/s1600/P1060301.RW2

They don't have to be quite so wild (these ones are old and weathered) but at least they lie in a natural direction

http://streetsofsalem.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/witchs-house-wolffystle-pan.jpg

From Hart Hill for a donation, It made lovely soup and was very sweet to eat raw.
I've kept about 200 seeds for next year.



It was the gold one on the right in the wheelbarrow.

Soya...

Do we really want to be eating this stuff?

Health:

• Felicity Lawrence: Soya is in 60% of all processed food. But should it carry a health warning?
• Soya-based foods may harm male fertility

The evironment

• Our Diet of Destruction

When we're cutting costs, choosing healthy food to put in our bodies is probably the wrong place to be compromising on. What could be more important than maintaining your health?