I’ll admit that I only discovered relatively recently that most wrapping paper isn’t in fact recyclable, despite having paper in the name. Looking back, I don’t know why I didn’t clock before - after all, glittery, shiny, crinkly stuff just isn’t recyclable, so why I thought I could pop glitter-adorned wrapping paper in the recycling bin is beyond me (cue feeling guilty about contaminating more than one load of recycling over the years!). So, surprise surprise, I’ve decided to do something about it (and it gives me the perfect excuse to give you all a Julie-Andrews-shaped earworm!).
Now, simply throwing away the stashes of wrapping paper in the cupboard wouldn’t exactly be in line with my new minimal-waste mindset either, so I’ve steadily been working through what’s left. I’ve still got a fair bit of Christmas paper left, but I reached the end of the birthday paper a few weeks ago and am now turning to good old brown paper. I’m lucky in that I have a keen(ly artistic?) two year old who loves to wield a crayon or two, so our brown paper packages are indeed tied up with string (slash ribbon), but also decorated beautifully by Izzy’s own fair hand. I’ve also rediscovered my old flower press at the back of a drawer and am in the process of drying out flowers from the garden to spruce up any parcels that will need wrapping this autumn.
And why talk about wrapping paper this week of all weeks? Well, Saturday is my mum’s birthday so we’ve got her some goodies to wrap up! First up are some of Lidl’s veg bags (see week 7 of #Write52), as well as Jamie Oliver’s new recipe book: Veg. I’m a big Jamie fan and have tweaked a stash of his recipes over the years - as Ed alluded to in last week’s newsletter (sign up here), I am indeed a translator who loves to cook (not sure I have time to jump on the #ThatTranslatorCanCook bandwagon too, but there may be the odd post that features here that could come under both hashtags!). In my bid to look after the planet more, we now eat veg- and plant-based meals at least 5 days a week, but more on that in a future post. For now, here’s that promised earworm. All together now...
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens, Brown paper packages tied up with strings, These are a few of my favourite things.