Free Cycle Re-Cycle

Have you ever used Free-Cycle? It's amazing! You post what you don't want onto a website, and if someone else wants it, then all they have to do is come and fetch it. No money changes hands, but warm glowy feelings are experienced because you have been frugal and at one with the recycling universe. Less than two days ago, Andy posted the old sofa and an old bike on the Free-Cycle website, and by 8.45 this morning, both of them had been whisked away to new lives, where they will no doubt be made more use of than chez the Manor.

This made Andy feel better about the possibility of taking something from Free-Cycle for ourselves. We are currently on the look-out for some old paving slabs with which to surround the polytunnel. I have grand ideas about filling the paved area up with a variety of pots all stuffed with herbs. But I have to admit that my main raison d'etre is to squish the weeds that really like growing around the polytunnel edges, probably because they love the huge amount of horse poo we dug in earlier in the season.

'It doesn't seem right taking something without donating something in the first place,' said Andy, 'but now we've donated two items, I feel we can have something back,' and because I believe in karma, I agreed with him.

And, of course, it's great to be re-cycling, rather than hoiking stuff down the council tip, which is where the sofa and the bike would have ended their days had they not been snapped up so eagerly-beaverly.

The only danger is that once you enter the world of free-cycling, you start thinking you could use things that you wouldn't have previously given a second glance. It's a bit like e-bay. I had an e-bay evening last night, after several e-bay free months, mostly to look for extra bits of beekeeping equipment. This is because I am convinced I'm going to open our hive for its first inspection this weekend and find umpty-numty queen cells, a potential swarm or two and will need to take evasive action in re-homing the gazzillions of bees that are BOUND to have developed in the last 7 days.

And whilst I was looking for extra supers and other such malarkey, I found a skep.
'Oooh,' I thought. 'That'll be handy for collecting a swarm.'

And then I had a quick look at pretty china plates with flowers on them, novelty egg cups, pictures of bees, pictures of poppies, Pimms jugs (glass only - none to be had), and books in general.

You'll be glad to know my hard-earned cash stayed in my bank account.

'Can you put livestock on Free-Cycle?' asked Mrs Miggins. 'Only I'd like to Free-Cycle Mrs Slocombe.'
'I'm not sure,' I said. 'But I am sure that however annoying you find Mrs S, she is staying put, because I find her wild-eyed lunacy strangely entertaining.'
'But she's had all my bottom fluffage again,' moaned Mrs M.
'Maybe it would help if you didn't sit on her head at night,' I said, having found both Miggo and Pumphrey nesting on top of Mrs Slocombe when I closed up the Penthouse suite yesterday evening. They may have been trying to suffocate her, I don't know for certain, but I am certain I could some feather munching going on.

Well, after a morning sorting out the gardens here at the Manor, (where I saw the Malarkey bees scooting about amongst the bee plant flowers I put in last year - hurrah!) I'm going to sofa slump this afternoon and refresh my memory about how to conduct a hive inspection, in preparation for this weekend. Andy's bee-suit still hasn't arrived so I'll be the lone bee-keeper, with Andy braced on the sidelines with Piriton and camcorder.