Like minded friends

[yugogypsy]

Hey I like it too, but when dealing with Govt. officials and fools from Child Services that put people in cubbyholes with labels, we don't fit, so we're not fit to parent!

Thats the only time I've had my lifestyle held against me and as far as I'm concerned, its a violation of my human rights to live how I choose!

Lois

[eccentric_emma]

i generally embrace the label but i've been stopped by police on account of my hippyish appearance. i was speaking to somebody else about this and he said its like they look at you and see piercings and dreadlocks so you must be a trouble maker.

luckily my workplace is really tolerant of me especially when i pinch all the leftover cardboard, used envelopes and bits of polystyrene (im collecting it to make nev's haybox cooker), my boss just sees me as eccentric.

most people call me eccentric in fact. its been a nickname since school! i like it provided others indulge/humour me.

[red]

yeh my brother calls me a 'bloody hippy' in an affectionate (?I think) way... we have totally different lives.. he live on otherside of world in a city flat and thinks I am mad to opt for English countryside. each to their own.

It's interesting to me who does and who does not understand what we are doing.. the most obvious one being we bought a house in terrible repair, cos that way we could afford the land, and we figured we could make the house ok eventually . besides.. its inhabitable, so whats the rush (apart from maybe those new cracks in the ceiling...house is already on a slant so difficult to tell if its falling further..)
often people I would not expect to get it do totally, even if its not for them, meanwhile those that I thought would have a good understanding, often turn out not to have.
the thing that bugs me the most is when it is assumed that we have just joined a lastest craze or fad... and will go off it in a year or two. huh? we have been striving for this for a long time!

[hamster]

I often refer to myself as a 'hippie'!

Most of my friends understand what I'm doing and why, but like Emma I find a lot of people are just paying lip service to green ideas. Many's the evening at uni last year when we'd talk about climate change and peak oil and all agree that Western lifestyles are largely unsustainable, and then the next day they'd all come home with five new polyester tops from Pr*mark! I try not to be confrontational, even though it frustrates me sometimes that people don't see the connection between their lifestyles and the bigger picture, as I don't want to put people off making changes.

My family have always been fairly self-sufficientish just out of habit, so the fact that I've grown up to have the heating on really low, cook from scratch, compost (soon!) and grow vegetables isn't really that surprising. Luckily my bf is very supportive too. I think he'd slip back into bad habits if I wasn't around to remind him why processed food is bad, and he has no interest in gardening at all, but he agrees with me overall.

I am surprisingly thick-skinned (people expect me to be very fragile as I'm quite quiet) and don't really care what people think of me and how I live. Mostly it just makes me sad that a lot of the people I care about might not be prepared for the changes we're all going to have to live through.

There are also times when I worry that I am conducting a large percentage of my social life on the internet....

[Stonehead]

When we first moved up here, many of the long-established locals thought we were hippies. However, they've now decided we're actually nutters. Which makes us all right, after all!

[baldowrie]

Yugogypsy

put people in cubbyholes with labels, we don't fit, so we're not fit to parent!

Oh yes know that well with the added single parent and disabled obviously can't cope label particularly as son has something wrong with him!

[Thurston Garden]

Our move was quite gradual. Both working in city jobs in Edinburgh. Suits. Company car. Expenses. Lunches with client's. Bar after work. S*ainsburys.

Eventually we tired of city life. My parents had a static caravan at the seaside, an hour away from Edinburgh. The year before we quit the city, we spent every weekend there, March through November. By December (far too cold for the caravan!) we were on t'internet looking for somewhere in the country. The house we bought had just under an acre of garden and as I had grown veg and kept hens ask a child, it was natural to start again with the big garden. Then (whilst in the middle of refurbishing the house) I spotted a market garden business for sale on Skye. Try as we might, the deal never had legs - the vendor repeatedly moved the goalposts leaving us with a large legal bill and surveyors fees. This, coupled with the books Not On The Label and Valuable Veg were the real turning point.

Both disillusioned with always having to keep up with colleagues incessant thirst for consumerism and oneupmanship Stephen moved into a less stressful, but more enjoyable job and I quit mine altogether. People really did think we were mad, and most former city friends and colleagues still do. We have, however made many like minded friends in the country.

I do a little consultancy in Edinburgh (less the suit, car and lunches!) where I do get grief/funny looks/chastised when I go around behind people switching off lights, mildly commenting on driving/shopping habits - just last week I asked why my former secretary was having a prepared sliced apple pre-packed in a bag for a snack - she was oblivious to the unnecessary packaging and why the apple slices did not go brown in the bag...

I do try to educate (sounds like I am being bossy lol) people, and on the whole they seem to understand, but as has been said before, it's mostly token gestures and lip service. Ready meals, big cars, child labour clothing, electrical gadgets, latest fashions and 'shopping trips' prevail.

My best mate works for Ross Cobb - each time he comes to stay, it's usually a bozzy do. We have to agree at the start not to discuss farming methods/poultry production. We both know it would all end in tears.

[Hillbilly]

Over the years (or as we've grown older ) the number of friends we have has decreased but the ones we have now are worth more to us than, well.... they are very, very precious. Even if they are miles away and we don't get to see them that often. OK, it was our fault as we moved further away (more land) - nothing personal

Actually, whilst we laugh about the move, we do miss the old area and were actually talking today about moving back someday or even further west. This place is perfect, the land, the steadings, the house, the physical location...but the locals are pretty cold and unfriendly. Ho hum..we have very, very thick skins.