published: June 1st, 2008

Kitchens Have Become Man’s New Garden Shed

Category Kitchen | no comments »

As city dwellers give up on the Great Australian Dream and opt for apartment living, men are facing the reality that they may never be the proud owner of a garden tool shed. In response, Generation Cave-Deprived is taking their need for tinkering, building and destruction to the kitchen, with the aid of powerful kitchen appliances and utensils.

“I don’t have a shed to store the loud tools I always wanted”, says Paul Cartwright who owns a unit in Melbourne, “so I take it out on food with my blender, juicer or high carbon knife set”.

Dr Rob Heard, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, believes such behaviour is a result of social learning, “From a very early age, boys are encouraged to focus their energies on rugged pursuits. If men can’t retreat to their backyard shed, they want to at least enjoy some of pleasures associated with it.”

One of those pleasures is to show the new kitchen toy to mates while the womenfolk are left to gossip around the dining table. However, just any machine doesn’t guarantee collective grunts of approval.

“You can’t have a fully-automatic espresso machine. It’s all about being in control”, says Dan Sanger, proud owner of a $500 Gaggia Classic, and resident of the aptly named Sydney suburb of Manly. “To make great coffee I need to tamp just right so the two shot basket runs evenly from each spur. Plus the slip on turbo-froth adaptor makes better steamed milk.”

While knowing that high above Australia’s largest cities, otherwise peace-loving men are cutting, dicing, grinding and crushing defenceless cups of fruit, vegetables and coffee beans may not be cause for concern. That it may not be long until they are strutting around with filters and steam wands dangling from their belt, is something none of us dare contemplate.

Simon Hillier is a freelance writer based in Sydney, Australia. His company, Get There Writing Services, provides copywriting, travel writing, feature articles, scripts and ebooks that will have your readers clicking and streaming for more. For further information on Simon’s article services, visit the feature articles and travel writing section of the Get There Writing Services website.

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published: April 14th, 2008

Tips for Ensuring the Safety of all Ggardeners

Category Garden | no comments »

Whether you happen to be green thumbed or you simply want to start gardening it is essential that you are prepared for any little surprises that may occur. You may want to create a beautifully landscaped lawn, or you might even want to grow some vegetables, or you could just want to surround your home with beautiful flowers. But whatever the situation you must keep in mind the following tips when you start any gardening project.

Firstly consider do you suffer from any pollen allergies. If you are like so many people nowadays you probably suffer from some type of allergy. This may affect you every day and during every season, but with all sufferers things can be even worse during the spring and summer months. This is because there is pollen in the air and everything will be in bloom and you may find it difficult to spend large amounts of time outdoors. So before you start any new project in the garden it is important that you consider whether you have any allergies or not and if you have to what extent do they affect you. If you find them be from moderate to severe it may be well worth avoiding working out doors.

The next thing to consider is whether you have an allergy to bee stings. More and more people are discovering that they are allergic to bee stings and in some cases there are people who require medication to help counteract the affect of a bee sting. Some people who have been stung by a bee will have problems with breathing and swallowing and some may have extensive swelling of the area around where the sting occurs, whilst others may have other problems that can be associated with bee stings. If you do get stung by a bee ensure that you remove the sting by flicking it out and not pinching hold of it to remove it (by pinching it you are actually injecting form the sting venom in to the entry site). It is during the later months of autumn that bees can be particularly dangerous and they should be avoided at all costs. If you find that you are allergic or that this type of allergy is common in your family then speak to your doctor about the best medicine to counteract this allergy before commencing any project in the garden.

Now we will look at the sort of clothes you should wear whilst gardening. It is very important that you dress to suit the environment that you will be working in. At times this may mean you will need to wear trousers and a long sleeved top especially if you want to avoid being stung or bitten by some insect. If living in a warm climate (Spain, Italy etc) you want to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes as this could result in potential health problems at certain times of the year. You should also consider wearing a good quality pair of gardening gloves to protect your hands and you should always be mindful of what you are actually reaching for, this is especially true in grassy areas where you will find visibility is diminished. Do not forget to be careful when working in densely populated areas of weeds, shrubbery or just where the garden is overgrown such areas could easily hid snakes, spiders or any other potential aggressor.

Whenever possible you should try doing your gardening either early in the morning or late in the evening. During the afternoon hours you will find it is the hottest period of the day and this is when the sun is at its zenith and produces the most power, which can leave you open to getting heat exhaustion or any number of heat related illnesses. So by deciding to garden during the coolest parts of a day and making sure that you drink plenty of fluids you will find yourself better equipped to your project finished easily and hopefully without any delays.

As well as the issues considered above, when deciding whether or not to do a project in the garden will depend largely on what sort of project and the amount of knowledge and skill you have. If you are just doing the basics, such as planting flowers or vegetable seeds, then there really should not be any problems. However, if the project you wish to undertake consists of a large amount of landscaping work, say you want to install a pond or you have decided to completely redesign the garden then you may wish to consider hiring a professional landscape gardener who can arrange for the work to be carried out without any real inconvenience to you. Wouldn’t it be lovely to come home one day from a day at the office to find that garden you always wanted completed.

Allison Thompson a work from home now living in Spain and is a partner in a small real estate firm. After working in this field for a number of years she decided to set up a number of sites relating to property matters and this one is related to gardens and gardening. If you would like to know more than please visit http://www.gardening.householdfacts.info.

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