Oxford is turning me into a hippy.

I compost.  For the love of all that is holy, I compost.  When in any right set of mind would I compost prior to moving here?  Never, because composting is for hippies.

But here I am, composting into my little bucket every day to save planet Oxford… I mean… Earth.

It has been a slow transition, but a transition I have made nonetheless.  First, it was giving up the car.  Granted, cars are a lot of maintenance and time and petrol, so to be honest saying goodbye to what was usually an item of stress for me wasn’t all that bad.  Bicycling is easy around Oxford so long as you learn the roads and stick to your guns.  It took awhile to get the hang of but once I got used to it the run commuting followed.

Then the recycling.  I am a big fan of the commingled recycling.  I’m a big fan of the word commingled.  I walk every couple of days to the company commingled recycle bin and commingle my things with others.  I separate at home, but apparently soon I will be commingling with my neighborhood.

I’ve purchased enough save the Earth bags that when I moved house we primarily moved in bags.  I reuse things.  I go to stores that give little extras if I reuse their things.  Today I got a face mask made out of cucumber and lavender because I am a reuser.

I am a reuser!

Hardly anything I purchase is pre-packaged, though I find myself drawing the line at “organic” produce.  So far as I believe throughout my life I have not had inorganic produce.  My parents were not serving me wax fruit and my chickens weren’t born as nuggets.    I have an herb window.  I moved to a house with enough wild fruit we’ve started to call it the orchard.  On Sundays I have to pick up the dud apples from my front yard because they aren’t in season yet.

I put them in the compost bin.

To go from Houston, an oil and gas large truck cook seven cows for dinner and then shop in a mall larger than Oxford, to this place full of corner grocers support your locals electric bikes and milk deliveries land, is definitely a change of lifestyle.

Mercifully in order for the transition to be complete all I have to become is eccentric.  No dreadlocks or tie dye.  Just eccentric.

I can handle that.