The 500th Slow Life Blog

It’s taken 29 months to reach the 500th Slow Life blog posting, which is an average of 4 a week and about 150,000 words. Slow Life began as the story of our quest for self-sufficiency; we were sunny optimists then. Now, we are older, wiser and a good deal poorer. It hasn’t been difficult to stick to our pledge never to shop in a supermarket, but the farm has had to go, and with it all the animals, leaving us only with our vegetables, which have the great advantage that if they look sickly, you don’t have to call out the vet.

Looking back over 500 Slow Life blogs it’s striking how we’ve been swept along by events, by the opportunities to take part in TV programmes, by the chance to design gardens for flower shows. The gardening shows have led to a close association with Japan, where everyone strives to live the Slow Life, with varying degrees of success. There’s no doubt that the ideas behind Slow Life are also becoming more popular in the UK. The Slow Food movement recently announced that their membership has increased to 30,000. Less than one tenth of the RHS, but moving in the right direction. Everyone is striving to improve their work/life balance, and when I get the time, I will do too.