A Reflection on Compassion and Non-Violence

Sunday will be the 8th day of the experimental No Impact Week and it is suggested we have an 'Eco-Sabbath'  by keeping all our electrical gadgets switched off.  I plan to visit my parents tomorrow, so that will be easy for part of the day, but I shall probably switch my computer on in the evening to skype my hubby, who is in Lausanne at the moment.

I think it is good to have a day a week to allow ourselves to unwind and reflect and be spiritual, in the sense of connecting with our deeper self, with other people and with the natural world around us.  I think I would still call myself a Christian, although I haven't been to church in a while, but these days my spirituality doesn't involve rules or doctrine, in fact that sort of thing strikes me as likely to stifle spirituality.

A couple of years ago I came across a Buddhist who writes books that made a lot of sense to me, and indeed one of his books is called 'Living Buddha, Living Christ' showed me an expression of Christianity that was very close to what I had come to believe at the same time as presenting Buddhism as very similar.  Both Jesus Christ and the Buddha seem to have wanted to show people a better way of living and these very similar ways have been adopted and adapted over the years into something rather different from what they were meant to be.

No Impact Week: Giving Back

Day 3 was about looking at whether we use more than our fair share of the world's resources or not.

Today is about thinking what we can give back to society and the wider world around us, including the environment.

I don't have much time or energy to spare at present, as I am already doing what I can to support my elderly parents, visit my mother-in-law, who is in a local home and sort out my aunt's affairs, plus take my mother to visit her from time to time, so I think I will take some time today to review my financial giving to charity rather than giving of my time.  We have a few small direct debits set up, and I know charities find this helpful as it helps them plan their finances, but I don't want to do this with every charity I support.  In other cases I'd like to give an amount once or twice a year, but at present the way I do that is a bit haphazard, so I shall try to set aside some time this afternoon to plan my giving for the year.  I think I might find this website helpful.

What I'm hoping to do today is to spend a few hours gardening as well as cleaning out the chickens and topping up the bird feeders, which is giving something back to Nature.  Gardening organically is one way I try not to damage my immediate environment.

Seasonal Food

I took my daughter shopping after I finished work this evening as she is going back to uni tomorrow.  She had planned her meals and made a list of ingredients, one of which was mange-tout, so I did point out to her that this wasn't a good choice for someone on a budget and that it also involved a lot of food miles, however, I still bought them for her.

Later in the evening she asked me how she could know what was in season.  I wondered if I could find a simple cookbook on the subject but when I searched a couple of on-line bookshops just now there didn't seem to be anything suitable.  However, I did find this website and in case you can't be bothered to look at it yourself, I thought I'd post it's list of what is in season here, as much as reminder to myself.

Thanks to Gai for mentioning Eat Seasonably, which has a shorter, and slightly different list of fruit and veg in season, plus a jolly calendar you can print off as a reminder.

No Impact Week: Feeling Encouraged about Water

So, day 6 of No Impact Week and we are looking at water.

You can calculate your annual cubic metres of water consumption here.  Mine came out at 373*, but some guesswork was involved.

I don't actually know how many kilos of fruit, veg and potatoes I eat every week, but a kilo of each sounded about right.  It doesn't tell you how your result compares with the average water consumption, but as mine is mostly due to my food intake, I don't think I can do much to reduce it and it certainly doesn't seem worth making too much effort to try to reduce the 90 cubic metres that are a result of cleansing myself and the dishes, but if I can run the water for less time that would help.  Running the water for 5 more minutes a day while washing up would add 22 cubic metres to my annual water consumption, while showering for 10 minutes instead of 15 would reduce it by 14 cubic metres.

Eating about 350 grams of lean meat a week has consumed 78 cubic metres of water whereas if I were to reduce it to 250g I would be responsible for the consumption of 22 cubic metres less throughout a whole year.

Drinking 4 cups of tea a day would use 51 cubic metres of water a year, but I wonder if it would be the same for rooibos (red bush) tea, which is what I drink along with water and fruit juice and occasional herbal teas, none of which are mentioned.  In fact you are asked if you drink tea and coffee and these are lumped together as stimulants. There is no allowance for drinks of other kinds.
I must drink at least 102 cubic metres a year as my 4 'cups' of rooibos tea a day come in large mugs.

No Impact Week: Can I Cut Back on Energy Usage?

Today is day 4 of No Impact Week and we are meant to stop using power, so I'm not going to be taking part wholeheartedly.

It is the middle of January and a balmy 5 degrees above freezing.  Our heating is set at 18 degrees centigrade and I'm wearing warmish socks but my feet are a bit cool, so I had better not sit down for too long.  I'm not switching the heating off in this weather.

Neither shall I be doing without electric light. I woke up at 6.30 am as I usually do and it was pitch black, so I switched the light on as I like to read and think for a little while if I have time, before my brain is cluttered with the worries of the day.  Unlike some members of my family I am happy to do things without the aid of electric light, if they don't need me to look to carefully, but I draw the line at stumbling about in total darkness.  I have also been careful to switch the light(s) off when I leave a room.

I don't need to switch everything off to know what it is like to live without warmth, light and modern appliances.  We found out all we wanted to know about living without heating when our boiler went wrong in Winter a couple of years ago.  I am also old enough to remember the year of strikes and power cuts in the '60's and having to get ready for school by candle light.  And I've had to wash my clothes in the bath because we had no washing machine when we first got married.  Luckily we were able to buy a cheap twin-tub after about six months - but first we had to endure a few months in a badly maintained house with no central heating or double glazing and only small electric fires for heat.  The only good thing was that we realised when we moved out that the electricity metre went backwards.  There had been students living in it the year before, perhaps one of them had tampered with it.


On a more positive note, most of our light bulbs are low energy ones and  we did change to green electricity a few years ago.

I try not to use the tumble dryer more than necessary. We only bought it because my son started doing his own washing and wanted to hang his wet washing up at the same time I was doing my washing.  Now he's left home I won't need to use it so often. When the weather improves I shall be able to hang it outdoors.

We had double glazing put in when we moved to this house and when we had our boiler replaced we had a condensing boiler put in, which is meant to be more efficient.

I think I shall finish now as I have already written about energy usage last year and I think I could be repeating myself.

No Impact Week: Consuming Our Fair Share

For those who are interested I did manage to walk to work yesterday, but I didn't manage it this morning.  I was asleep when the alarm went off so got up a bit late, and those extra minutes were crucial to being ready in time to walk.  I realised I shall need to see to the chickens quite often as hubby is going to be away a fair bit over the next few weeks, and he usually sees to them on the days I work in the morning.  Can I get organised enough to make walking to work possible when he's away?  Watch this space.

Today's challenge for No Impact Week is to eat locally and seasonally and avoid packaged and processed foods.

No Impact Week: Reflecting on How I Get Around.

For No Impact Week today I am meant to be thinking about my travel arrangements. Now I live near enough to my place of work to be able to walk there if I have the time, so better planning could make that possible more often.

On the other hand I only work three days each week and once a week I do an evening shift, so I wouldn't walk home then when it's already dark.  I often do shopping after work, so I am doubling up on journeys, but if I planned it right I might only have one or two light items to carry home most days.

I might try walking to work today as hubby isn't back at work yet and he can pick me up after visiting his mum, I'll need to be better organised before walking to work on a regular basis is feasible.  It is something I shall definitely work on. There's also the matter of walking when it's pouring with rain, which I am a bit averse to.

Getting rid of the car is out of the question.  Without a car life becomes much more limited and besided, these days I need to visit my parents at least once a fortnight, who need moral, and sometimes practical support. Even if I don't need to take my mum somewhere, which I usually do, the train is slow and expensive and I'd have to get a bus or taxi at the other end, which would all take a lot of time out of a day's visit.

I also anticipate flying more than usual this year to visit family, so while I shall try to walk more during the week, I shall have to work harder at reducing my carbon footprint in other ways.

A few years ago I participated in something called the Year of Living Generously, which involved undertaking a new 'generous' action each month.  Some actions were about more sustainable living and others were about being a better neighbour.  This got me started into looking at ways I could change the way I lived for the better, but I found that even a small change once a month took some doing and also that other family members weren't always as keen on making the changes as I was.

So I think the best way to make lasting changes is to work on things a bit at a time, going at your own pace, and if you need to get your family to join in,  taking their views and needs into consideration.  Sometimes you just have to give up on some changes to keep the peace, and if those changes are minor it won't be the end of the world.  Other changes might need more subtle tactics and ingenuity or an element of compromise.

For instance, I remember my family weren't too happy when I changed to recycled toilet paper. Indeed, one member protested very vociferously.  After a while I gave it up, to be honest I wasn't all that impressed with the stuff myself.  A year or so later I discovered a softer version of recycled toilet paper and the family accepted it happily.

So perhaps this will be the year I walk more and use the car for less short journeys. It's been something I've thought I should work on for a few years now.  It will also help me achieve my goal of getting fitter, so I shall try to give it a go.

I know I am lucky not to have to go very far to work and therefore, even when I do drive I don't spend hours in slow-moving traffic, but I can choose to walk, too.  In fact my journey to work is mostly downhill, so uses very little petrol, but I need to think of the positive impact walking will have on my health, especially if I take short cuts and avoid all the car fumes in the mornings.

No Impact Week: Considering my Rubbish Output

In case you are wondering about the title, this is not a post in sympathy with anyone who doesn't think well of my blog.  No, today, as part of the No Impact Week I am meant to be considering how much rubbish I produce, looking at what I threw away yesterday and asking if I have thrown away anything that I've used for less than ten minutes.

I am pleased to say that as a follower of the Rubbish Diet blog and an occasional reader of My Zero Waste, over the last few years I have been encouraged to think about how much packaging I bring home with my food shopping, to reduce it and to recycle as much of it as possible.  With the added assistance of both our children leaving home for university last Autumn we have often had only one or two kitchen bin bags full of rubbish per fortnight recently, leaving our large wheely bin well less than half full.  I appreciate there could be room for improvement, but it is a start.

Yesterday I threw a few items of plastic wrapping away, and the most avoidable was from the half baked bread rolls we had for lunch, but with the shops having been closed and not having great enthusiasm to rush to them as soon as they opened, it seemed a sensible way of managing our bread supply.  It is not something we rely on the rest of the year, but I shall keep one or two loaves of that kind to hand, in case I get snowed in again.  With a bit of luck I shall have time to make my own bread from time to time over the next few months.

I shall make a mental note to buy more nuts, seeds and dried fruit from Suma as their bags are now fully recyclable.  Perhaps that is why they are a little bit more expensive than Infinity Foods products, which I also like.  Both are fairly traded and are supplied by workers co-operatives.  This was one plastic wrapper that went to be recycled rather than add to our landfill problems.



Having a cold, I have been using tissues, so I guess some of them were used for less than 10 minutes before being thrown away.  When I don't have a cold I prefer to use handkerchiefs.


In a couple of weeks I shall be on my own for a bit, so that would be a good time to see how much rubbish I produce just by myself.  I'm hoping this year will be less hectic than the last few months have been, although I know I will need to spend some time helping to clear my aunt's house, but hopefully I shan't need to spend too much time phoning people on her behalf as it looks like she might be setting into the nursing home she moved into a month or so ago.  I think you do need to have time to think and plan if you are going to be able to avoid creating much rubbish.

No Impact Week: My Current Consumerism

So today was about consuming less and thinking about consumption in general.

Well I've done quite a bit of thinking about what I consume over the years and while I do have the occasional splurge on things that are not especially ethical or sustainable (and lets be honest if we only bought things that fell into that category we would have very little choice and there are some items that just don't fall into that category), I don't spend every day shopping.

In the last few months I have invested in a number of woollen jumpers, first of all because I found some that were longer than usual, and women's shirts seem to be longer these days so I glad to find a jumper that covers them up. Then, after all this snow and very cold weather I bought a thicker jumper, which is made from British wool, but I have not yet found out where they are made.  This will mean I won't have to choose between shivering and putting the heating up high if the temperature drops again.

My other recent splurge was on books, which I will admit to having a weakness for.  I ordered several a few days ago, before deciding to do this experiment, as I expect to have more time than usual to read and reflect over the coming months and I thought I'd buy a few books before the VAT increase takes effect on Tuesday.

I like to buy a book by Thich Nhat Hanh from time to time as his brand of engaged Buddhism makes a lot of sense to me. I'd like to be an 'engaged Christian' following his principles, which I'm sure are very close to those Jesus' espoused (indeed, Thich Nhat Hanh once counted Rev Martin Luther King and the trappist monk, Thomas Merton, amongst his friends). So one of his books was amongst the ones I bought.  I also bought a book about candle making as I am keen to try to do this.

Last but not least were a couple of books and a CD by Marshall Rosenberg whose book Non-Violent Communication I've found quite helpful, but I think I shall need to immerse myself in his ideas before I can put them into practice in everyday life.  Learning to be less aggressive, even in subtle and subconscious ways, is an important part of being an engaged Buddhist or Christian, and so I do try to keep an eye out for help in doing that.

So that's a glimpse at my general habits as a consumer.

As for today, well once I decided I needed to buy painkillers, I thought I might as well buy the pizza for tonight's dinner. We also bought a couple of mushrooms and two peppers (reluctantly as they were from Israel) to go on the pizzas, one of which was just cheese and tomato.  As we bought them in Waitrose the packaging was recyclable cardboard and a thin covering of plastic film.  We also bought two cartons of Covent Garden soup, again the cartons are recyclable, a couple of packets of Yeo Valley cheddar (organic and from Somerset but the plastic wrappers are not recyclable here as far as I know) as they are always useful to have, four cartons of non-dairy milk, which I use daily (not 4 cartons, though), the painkillers, some inter-dental brushes, which are important for good dental hygiene according to my dentist and some part-baked bread in elaborate plastic wrapping, which is not good for the environment, but we arrived too late for the fresh baked loaves and besides which, it is still holiday time.  While we were there we also bought some organic mince for tomorrows dinner, which will use up most of the vegetables from the organic veg box we had delivered before Christmas, and, I nearly forgot, a local newspaper.

I'd nearly got back to the car, having paid for the above, when my mobile rang and daughter had sent me a text asking for a Pritt stick.  As this was obviously important to her and she isn't trying the No Impact experiment I went back and bought her one and also picked up a packet of blue tack as I know we have very little in the house and it comes in useful from time to time and somehow we never seem to know we need it in advance.

To prepare for today I needed to  
Type up a list of all the stuff you “need” to buy this week. Delete the items that you can live without for the week. For the rest of the items, figure out if you can purchase them second-hand, borrow them, or make them yourself.

Well, having had some lovely presents for Christmas just over a week ago and with a birthday in a fortnight, I can't think of anything I need just now other than food and a few everyday consumables such as laundry liquid and cleanser, but of course something could crop up as the week progresses and normal life resumes.

How Little Impact Can We Have On Our Environment in 2011?

Happy New Year to you.  I hope your year has got off to a good start, although with all the coughs and colds around at the moment, perhaps, like me, you are not feeling 100%.  I had a cold the weekend before Christmas and I still have a bit of a cough and continue to be lacking in energy, although too much food and later than usual nights may have something to do with that.

So it may not be ideal timing, but I've decided to try the No Impact Man one week experiment as a way of focussing on sustainable living at the beginning of the year, and the experiment starts today.

Sunday, the first day is about looking at everything we consume and, for this week at least, only buying what we really need, such as food.  After Christmas, that shouldn't be too difficult, we probably don't even need much food this week.

However, it does raise the more serious issue of how we as individuals have become defined to some extent by what we own and that most of us consume far more than we really need.

I'm not a fan of second hand and charity shops myself, but I think it is always a good idea to consider if we really need an item and then to buy the best quality that we can afford if it is something we want to last.  If we don't want it to last, do we really need it? 

Buying things that are made as locally as possible helps us to make our purchases more sustainable and if we want to live in a better, fairer world, with less poverty, then paying a fair price, that gives the end producer a living wage will help to make that happen.

I'll let you know at the end of the week how I get on.  If you want to join me, I'd be interested to hear how you get on, too.

Rememberance

At 11 o'clock today, the eleventh day of the eleventh month, I was reminded by the radio to spend a couple of minutes remembering all those who died in war.

I am lucky not to know anyone who died as a direct result of war, but I can be mindful that so many people, both soldiers and citizens have died as a result of war in this century alone.  I appreciate that if a country is being invaded it is the duty of its government to protect its citizens from the horrors the invading army might wish to perpetrate.  I can't think of any other good reason for war.

 I think it is quite possible that if we all try to live in ways that promote peace and eliminate the need for conflict it could make a real difference.  If we talk to people of different races, religions and political persuasions and try to understand why they do things differently from us and think differently about some things, as well as find out how much we have in common with them, then perhaps there would be less to fear from those who are not exactly like us.

If we could live less extravagantly and use less of the things people start wars over such as oil, perhaps that would help reduce the need for our government to invade other countries to secure access to precious minerals and other resources.

If there was less of a gap between rich and poor in this country as well as globally there would be less unrest.

I bought a poppy this year, because I would like to support those maimed and wounded by war, but I do not support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and I do not support the culture of militarism that seems to be prevalent.  Therefore I shall wear my red poppy with a white poppy for peace.

 I think it would be such a good idea for the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month to be a time when we considered how we could live to promote peace for the next year, rather than try to remember the mostly nameless and faceless people who have died as a result of war.

If we do consider how many young men in the prime of life, how many mothers, fathers, daughters and sons, young children and old men and women, how many Afghans, Americans, Argentinians, Bosnians, British, French, German, Iraqis, Japanese, Russians and Serbs etc. have died in the last two centuries as a result of war it could be encouragement for some people to try to live in a way that promotes peace rather than conflict.

The Beginning of Winter Cheer

I'm afraid the interlude has not been as brief as expected.  Every time we think we have sorted out the care for my relative another problem arises, so I may only be posting here intermittently for the foreseeable future.

Today I was wondering what you might be celebrating, Hallowe'en, Samhain, the Celtic New Year or Divali, the Hindu festival of lights, and how you celebrated.  I'm not sure about Hallowe'en, although I had fun 'trick or treating'  as a child in Canada.  The idea of Hallowe'en seems to originate from when the early church decided to put a Christian spin on Samhain, which the ancient Celts believed was a time when the barrier between those alive on Earth and those no longer alive was at it's thinnest as well as marking the very end of Summer and the beginning of Winter and the short dark days to come.  Divali seems to be at least partly a reminder that darkness has not won the day and we will see the sun again.

Everyone seems to agree we need some light and cheer in our lives just now, so I think we shall enjoy some candlelight during and/or after dinner tonight.   As we live at the top of a hill we don't tend to get any children knocking on our door.

5 Reasons to Buy Organic

As Organic Fortnight draws to a close I'd like to give you some reasons to change to organic produce.

1. For me the most important reason is that organic farming is not dependent on artificial fertilisers and chemical sprays, both of which are derived from fossil fuels, result in carbon emissions during production and are bad for the environment.  Excessive nitrates leeching from the soil can be toxic.

Organic farming methods use natural products such as manure, dried animal blood, fish and bone meals, and seaweed to fertilise crops and use more natural methods to control pests.

2. This means organic farming is better for wildlife.  Some people think the high number of dead bees found in recent years is partly due to the bees being weakened by the chemical sprays used by many farmers.

3. Organic standards for animal welfare is extremely high and at least as good as free range.

4. Many people believe that organic food is better for us as it does not contain traces of chemicals and may well have higher levels of nutrients.  The resulting improvement to the environment is certainly better for us all if we live near organic farms rather than farms using potentially harmful chemicals.  There have been reports of people experiencing health problems due to farmers near their homes spraying crops.

5. If you buy fresh organic produce in season and grown locally can reduce your carbon footprint as transport will be only over a short distance and plants won't have needed artificial heat to grow.

Visit local farmers' markets and farm shops or check out veg box schemes in your area for fresh, local organic produce, which may even come without plastic wrappers.

You could even start to grow your own organic fruit and veg in your garden or on an allotment.

The Soil Associations 5 reasons to choose organic.

What is the Best Bin Liner for the Planet?

Are you as confused as I am about how to line your kitchen bin?

If yours is like mine it probably has a plastic bucket inside it's metal exterior and we could just wash it out regularly and not line it at all, but if you are like me you probably don't have the time to wash it out more than once every week or two, and at this time of year when there isn't much sunshine to dry it but the heating isn't on indoors it could be tricky drying the bin.

So should we line our bins with regular bin liners or degradable bin liners, or should we use one of those thin carrier bags in which we brought our shopping home from the supermarket?  What if you don't take bags from the supermarket but use your own reusable bags and no one else in your house brings them home either?  Could there be an alternative to plastic even?

Well the answer to the first part of the question is, that buying regular bin liners means you are using precious fossil fuels merely to dump them straight into landfill. You are perfectly entitled to do that, but it isn't great for the planet.

What about degradable bin liners?

Well, it seems they don't degrade when packed tight in a landfill site where they aren't reached by air or sunlight, so they aren't such a good idea either.  I've been hearing this from various reliable sources for some time, so I'm as sure as I can be that it's true.

According to 'Science Man' the best sort of plastic bag to use is one containing at least 55% recycled content:

"In fact, if every household in the US replaced just one package of 20 count tall kitchen trash bags made from virgin plastic with trash bags that have 55% recycled content 720,000 cubic feet of landfill space (equal to 1,100 full garbage trucks) would be saved."

I'm sure it would make a sizeable impact in this country, too.

Of course, it will also help if people take all the carrier bags they won't reuse to a carrier bag recycling point, which most supermarkets around here seem to have.

If you are like me and you find that most of your rubbish is plastic bags that once contained rice, raisins or loo roll etc, then sometimes you can put other rubbish in these, or use a large one to stuff all the smaller ones into.

I presume our grandparents wrapped messy things in newspaper before they had plastic bags.

My supply of supermarket plastic bags is coming to an end as my son goes off to university and I've nearly finished the packet of degradable bin liners I bought in a misguided moment some months ago - at least I've made them last quite well. In a few more weeks it will just be me and hubby, so I shall see if we can create a lot less rubbish than we did with the kids around and if we can avoid using plastic bags.


What do you line your bin with?

*********************************************************************************

Organic Sugar

Buy organic sugar.

Why?

Because, conventional sugar beet is the most highly sprayed crop on the planet, but organic crops result in less pollution and so are better for wildlife.

Reasons to be Generous

80% of people in this world live
in substandard housing

If you are reading this you will be probably be part of only 20% of the world's population who do not live in substandard housing. 

If you can read this you are among only 30% of people in the world who can read.


You are probably among the 50% who are not suffering from malnutrition.

If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of the people in this world. 

If you own a computer or have a college education you are among a mere 1% of the human race.

If you have money in the bank and change in your purse you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthiest people. 
 

Did you know you were so fortunate? Amazing, isn't it?

(Figures based on Time magazine article of 10/05/2003)

A Day to Make Peace?

The world did not change for me on 11th September 2001, I am very glad to say, but I know many people felt it did change. Those who lost loved ones in such dreadful circumstances on that day will have been engulfed in grief and for some of those their lives will have been completely shattered.  Many people who were not directly affected still stopped feeling safe as they went about their daily lives.  Peace-loving, law-abiding Muslims suddenly came under suspicion of being a terrorist.

Fear and misunderstanding breed hatred and even violence as a certain pastor from Florida, and the response to his threat to burn the Koran by some Muslims, have shown.  It transpires that his threat was an attempt to force a group of Muslims to change their plans and build their Islamic Centre further from 'Ground Zero', the spot where the 'twin towers' used to be before terrorists flew planes into them and destroyed them.  His tactic could be described as bullying or blackmail.  He seems to feel very threatened by the plan to build this Islamic Study Centre and is doing everything in his power to stop it.  However, we have already seen how this attempt to force others to do things your way can escalate into more and more violence as there have been already been riots in Afghanistan and people chanting 'death to America' and this sort of thing can spread like wildfire thanks to modern communications systems.  Trying to coerce others is not a way to promote peace.

So perhaps 11th September is a good day to do something to make this world a bit more peaceful, or even to begin to work for peace more long-term.

Should we buy a Koran (Quran)  today to show Muslims worldwide that many Westerner 'infidel' do have respect for it?  Would it be better still if we started to read it, or read about it and Islam to find out what Muslims believe?  We would do well to remember that Islam, like Christianity has more than one expression and this can depend on the social culture prevalent in the different countries where Muslims are living.

If you know anyone who is a Muslim find out what they believe, but gently.  Don't give them the third degree.  Be prepared to listen to them explain what they believe and why, even if you don't agree.  Perhaps, when you understand their reasons you can help them to see things from a different perspective.


If you are a Muslim, try to find out more about Christianity.

If we want to foster peace in the world it is important to show respect for what other people hold dear, even if it is something you strongly disapprove of.  With gentle questioning you may discover why they think something is right and necessary even though you believe it to be very wrong.  This may give you new insights that help you see the matter differently.

Remember that religious faith along with non-religious spirituality, is closely tied up with a person's identity and view of the world, if you try to undermine that they will feel under attack in some way.  If you were to destroy someone's faith you will destroy the foundation of their life and that could have dire consequences for them and others.

Whoever you speak to, remember they won't represent everyone from within that religion.

While all the world's major religions advocate peace, people's perception is increasingly that religion is a cause of violence. Greater understanding decreases suspicion and increases friendship.

I believe I have a copy of 'Islam, a very short introduction' somewhere, so I shall track it down and start reading it this weekend, what will you do?

Organic Veg Box

Confronted with all the plastic wrapping, which my organic fruit and veg from a local supermarket was wrapped in I decided on Monday to try an organic veg box from Riverford Farm.

A number of years ago we had an organic veg box from Able and Cole, but I gave it up in the end because some of it wasn't very fresh and we had trouble eating everything before it went off.

More recently I used a home delivery service, which sourced everything locally, either in our county or from the three adjoining counties and I was happy with that for a few years until they dropped a lot of the suppliers I'd particularly liked.  As it happened I received an e-mail from them just after placing my order with Riverford, to say they had decided to stop home deliveries.

The main cardboard box will be re-used by Riverford.

I had been reluctant to use Riverford because they are based in Devon, but what I hadn't realised until more recently is that it is now a kind of franchise with local hubs, known as sister farms, and my hub is based in neighbouring Hampshire. This means that a lot of the food is from that area and pretty local, probably more so than most of the organic produce in my supermarket, although it does try to source things locally when possible.





Well my box arrived about half past one and the produce looked very fresh and in good condition and apart from the blueberries I'd ordered separately as a treat because they were grown in the UK, there was not a trace of plastic in sight.

This cardboard punnet will be great for
growing seedlings come the Spring.

Some more lovely looking veg

I also ordered a couple of loaves as the bakers in the town has stopped selling organic bread. It was wrapped in tissue and came in a brown paper bag that could be used to line a compost bin when it is no longer of use.

Interview with 'No Impact Man'

I've just heard an interview with 'No Impact Man' aka Colin Beavan on You and Yours.  It lasted about 10 minutes and Colin came across as just as thoughtful as he did in his book.

The interview was intended to promote the fact that the film 'No Impact Man' is now being screened at selected cinemas around the UK.  I felt Peter White didn't make this as clear as he could have done, though.

You can listen here.

(Jewish) New Year, New Start

Happy New Year to you, if you are Jewish.  If you are not Jewish, then you might like to know that today is the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.

I found that out when listening to Good Morning Sunday at the weekend.  One of the guests was Rabbi Pete Tobias, who explained that originally the new year was the time when the Jewish community apologised to God, as he put it, so he wouldn't be angry with them, because they wanted him to bless their harvest and the new crops they were sowing and planting for the year ahead.

Traditionally the word the Bible uses rather than apologise, is repent, which I've been told means to change direction.

It seems to me that now would be a good time for all of us, whether Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Atheist or whatever to repent of all the things we're doing to upset the balance of our beautiful, life-sustaining planet and change direction to a new way of doing things that means we tread much more lightly on the Earth and do what we can to avoid harming others.

Something I read this morning could help us to change the way we think about the food we eat:

'We have to look deeply to see how we grow our food, so we can eat in ways that preserve our collective well-being, minimize our suffering and the suffering of other species, and allow the earth to continue to be a source of life for all of us.  If, while we eat, we destroy living beings or the environment, we are eating the flesh of our own sons and daughters*.  We need to look deeply together and discuss how to eat, what to eat and what to resist."

* This is a reference to an allegorical story the Buddha is said to have told, known as 'Discourse on the Son's Flesh'. The meaning is that we are thoughtlessly consuming our children's future, or at least the resources they will need to live well, and maybe to live at all.

From 'The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching' by Thich Nhat Hanh.

A Tasty Use for Stale Bread

As it's National Zero Waste Week I have been thinking more than usual about food waste, but I do think it was also a coincidence that we had two stale ends of loaves in the bread bin. Hubby didn't want sandwiches yesterday and my son made a cooked lunch for himself and his sister. He's finished work in readiness for going to university next week.

approx 12 oz stale bread

As a result I was left with about 12 ounces (300g) of stale bread. The white bread already had small blue dots of mould in places and the crust which no one had eaten was very mouldy, so I did throw that away. There was also half a wholemeal loaf that was getting a bit stale.  Part of the problem is that the white organic loaf from Waitrose is a bit dry, so it goes stale quickly.


So, what did I do with all that bread? I made cheese pudding of course. Perhaps you have heard of it, but I don't know many people who have. It's a recipe my mum often made, which I believe she got from her own mother and is a kind of easy to make souffle, although the bread means it's not as light as the real thing.  It's quite an economical, vegetarian dish, and very tasty, too.


Cheese Pudding for 4 people

Ingredients

8 ounces (250 g) stale bread

15 fluid ounces (400 ml) of milk (soya or oat milk should be fine)

1 medium egg

8 ounces (250g) of strongish cheese according to taste



Method
 
1 .Grate the bread into a large mixing bowl.

2. Grate the cheese in with the bread.


3. Add the milk and the egg.








4. Stir well.   The mixture should be
   like sloppy porridge, but not too runny.


If it seems too runny and especially if you didn't put quite enough bread in you can add a handful or two of porridge oats.





Pour the mixture into a greased oven-proof dish or individual dishes.








Possible variations

If you want a bit of a zing without using too much cheese add a pinch of mustard powder to the bread crumbs and mix well in.

You could also experiment with adding fried onions or sun-dried tomatoes to the mixture, and using just a little less milk to compensate for their moistness.


Serving suggestion

Serve with carrots, broccoli and a jacket potato for a nutritious, balanced meal.  This is probably fairly high in fat due to the cheese, so not suitable for anyone following a low-fat diet.

I didn't have a jacket potato yesterday as hubby and I ate cheese pudding for 4 between the two of us.  I made a separate, small one for daughter as I had so much bread.  She forgot to tell me soon enough that she was going out, so she had it cold when she came back in.  The half she left will go to the chickens.  I don't think it's as good cold as hot.

Record Output from British Wind Farms

Good news.  According to this report from Business Green, British wind farms delivered a record output last Monday.

'Britain's wind farms reached record levels of output on Monday providing five per cent of all electricity to the grid over the course of the day.

National Grid confirmed that 40.5GWh out of a total 809.5GWh was provided by wind farms during the 24-hour period, with output peaking at 1,860MW at 8:30pm. At its peak the wind energy sector was providing electricity equivalent to that produced by three nuclear power stations.

A spokeswoman for the grid operator said that when so-called embedded wind generation from turbines that are not connected to the grid is taken into account it is estimated that on Monday around 10 per cent of the UK's electricity was delivered by wind power.

"Overall about 10 per cent of total electricity demand would have been met by wind power," she said. "It is a pretty big landmark for the industry."
The record will be taken as further evidence that the grid can cope with growing inputs from intermittent energy sources such as wind farms. "Matching demand with supply is changing by its very nature because of the intermittency of wind energy," said the National Grid spokeswoman. "But that does not mean it can not be done."'

If you would like to see more of our energy from wind farms why not switch to Ecotricity, Good Energy or another supplier of 'green' electricity.

National Zero Waste Week

In case you didn't know today is the beginning of National Zero Waste Week.

This was started by 'Mrs Green' of My Zero Waste in 2008.

The idea is to encourage people to focus on the rubbish they create for a week and to consider if they could have avoided accumulating it in the first place or if it can be re-used or recycled.  The hope is that people will take a few better habits with them after the week is up.

To put it another way, it's reminding people to

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

This year 'Mrs Green' is encouraging us all to think about the food we waste.

According to the Love Food Hate Waste website, which is run by WRAP, a staggering 8.3 million tonnes of food is thrown away by households in the UK every year.* 

On average we are wasting £50 worth of the food we buy each month, which represents a hefty chunk of most people's food bills.  As some people are not wasting this much, then others are wasting more than £50 worth of food a month.

Not only is it costing us our hard-earned money, rotting food waste in landfill creates the greenhouse gas, methane, and so makes climate change worse.  In fact if we stopped wasting all this food it would reduce the UK's green house gas emissions just as much as it would if one in four cars were taken off our roads!

So, I'm sure you want to know how you can save yourself a lot of money and stop climate change from getting any worse by not buying food you will only throw away.


Here are my tried and tested tips for keeping food waste destined for landfill down to a minimum.

1. First of all, it helps a lot to plan your meals for at least the next few days.

2. Secondly, check the fridge, freezer and cupboards to see which ingredients you
already have.

3. Then make a list.  You may think it's old-fashioned, but it really is the best way.

4. Fourthly, don't be tempted by offers in the shop unless you can really use the items,concerned and it really will save you money.I would also suggest that you buy the best ingredients than you can afford, and as it is also Organic Fortnight, consider buying some organic food items.  These are probably better for you because they haven't been sprayed with potentially harmful chemicals, and good organic farming practices are certainly healthier for the environment, the thing we don't always notice, but which we depend on for our survival.

The other benefit of buying good quality ingredients is that because they cost a bit more we will be more committed to making the most of them.  I wonder if 'buy one get one free' offers encourage us to waste more food than we otherwise would.

5. It can also be helpful to buy food only for a few days in advance, if you often end up not making what you had planned due to a change in circumstances later in the week.

6. Check the sell by date is one you can work with.  No good buying mince for Friday's dinner if it's use by date is several days earlier.


I hope you are now inspired to cut back on food waste this week.  If so, go to 'Mrs Green's' National Zero Waste Week post and make a pledge, saying how you are going to do that.  You could win a prize!

'Mrs Green' has more tips to help you throw less food away here and here.


I've just looked at all the plastic wrapping in that photo which, it seems, is the only way supermarkets can distinguish organic and non-organic fruit and veg and, as it's also Organic Fortnight I've decided to try an organic veg box again.  I'll let you know what it's like when it turns up on Friday.



*According to this article in the New York Times Americans waste about a third (27%) of the food available for consumption, but this isn't just the food they take home, the waste starts in supermarkets and restaurants.  It seems we also waste around a third of our food here in the UK.

Organic Fortnight

Organic Fortnight starts today and runs until 17th September. The Soil Association have a variety of suggestions for things you could do from visiting an organic farm to trying some organic beauty products. 

They even have some tips for how to buy organic on a budget.

Why not try out a new organic product each time you go shopping, whether it's fruit or veg, an item of clothing, a new lipstick or shower gel.

Take a look and see how many organic items you can find in your local supermarket or take a trip to a Farmers' Market near you, where you will probably find all sorts of organic goodies for sale.

Traidcraft have a wide range of mostly edible products that are organic as well as fairly traded.  Bishopston Trading Company, Greenfibres, Gossypium and Liv have an even wider range of clothing and household items. 

I've been using organic toiletries and cosmetics for several years. I use lovely organic cleansers and moisturisers from Weleda as well as their deodorising sprays.  I've been pleased with mascara from Alva or Lavera, which both have staying power and give good coverage. I've been pleased with eye-shadows from both companies as well as from Dr Hauschka whose lipsticks keep lips well moisturised. I've found that the Dr Haushka deodorants work well, too.

Herb Garden at Ryton Organic

If you are anywhere near Warwick I'd  recommend a day out at Ryton Organic, which is a large garden with lots of sections demonstrating all sorts of ways you can grow things organically.  There is an excellent organic restaurant as well as a cafe, plants for sale and a shop selling gardening products and a range of planet-friendly goods from Ecover washing up liquid to Infinity Foods.




See another angle on Organic Fortnight at My Zero Waste.

Do you have any tips about buying organic?  Perhaps you have a favourite product or producer, in which case let us know.  It would also be interesting to hear if you are blogging about Organic Fortnight yourself.

Let the Sunshine Chase away the Laundry Blues

Make the most of the sunshine and dry your washing outside if you can.

Nothing beats the smell of sunshine and fresh air the laundry has when dried this way.  Sunshine is a mild, natural bleach, too, so spread any stained items out to get the maximum effect.

If you would otherwise have dried your washing in a tumble drier, then you'll save money, too and your carbon footprint won't be so big.

I'm so pleased we've had enough good weather while I've been home so that I could finally catch up with my hand-washing this week, as well as drying the normal weekly wash outdoors.  When we're all trying to dry our washing indoors we run out of room on the airers, even though we use the tumble drier for some things.

Summary of Suggested Actions (1)

Here's a summary of the actions I've suggested so far that you could take to improve your life and make the world a better place.   If you can manage to do one of these you'll have taken the first step on the path to a greener and more generous life.

If you don't feel able to anything suggested so far, or do all these things already, don't worry there will be more suggestions over the next month, and hopefully many more months to come. 

1) Buy less.  This will almost certainly save you money and reduce the clutter in your home, not to mention reducing the amount you waste.  It will also mean you are using less of the world's precious resources unnecessarily, so there will be more to go round for everyone else.

2) Switch it off when it's not in use.  It can save you money as well as helping Planet Earth.  

3) Green your cleaning.  This could be good for your health and it's certainly better for the health of that part of the planet which you live in.

4) Smile more. You'll feel better for it and you might make friends along the way.

5) Waste less.  It will save you money and the planet will be happier for it.

Waste Not . . .

Rag rug made from scraps of material

'Waste not, want not', my grandmother used to say. When she was growing up money was very tight and so nothing was thrown away without first considering if it could be put to some use or other. With no crisps or snacks between meals people were hungry and ate everything on their plate that could be eaten. Clothes were mended until they couldn't be mended any more and then they might well be ripped up to make pieces for rag rugs.  She continued to be frugal throughout her life, although she could also be generous.

In contrast as a young adult and new home-maker I happily bought plastic pots to store dry goods in the larder and leftovers in the fridge. To my mind they looked so much smarter than my mum's margarine tubs and other re-used containers.  Although we weren't well off and in many ways I was fairly thrifty, there were standards I felt I had to keep.

At some point in my 40's I began to wake up to the fact that the way my generation and much of my parents' generation was behaving was not so smart as all that and it was causing us big problems.

Readjusting my thinking about what is acceptable has been a slow process, however and one that is still ongoing. For instance, while now I do re-use plastic ice-cream tubs when we have them, it has only occurred to me as a result of writing this that I should probably consider using a few margarine tubs for leftovers and maybe I didn't need to buy quite so many 'smart' plastic pots recently, although the kids may find a few of them useful when they go off to university this Autumn.

Most of us have been infected by this disease, the seeds have been sown in our minds from an early age by advertisements in magazines and on TV and billboards. The prevailing culture tells us that we are better people if we have filled our homes with bright, shiny things, but the good news is that there is a cure. We can think differently and will not become lesser people because of it, although it may require a little effort on our part and take a little time.

We can start by giving more thought to what we buy, asking ourselves if we really need it. If we need it, how long will we need it for? Sometimes we only need things for a short while and could borrow or hire one. If we need it for longer, it helps to consider if this one will last or is it likely to be no good in a year or less, in which case would it be worth it to pay a bit more for a better one that will last longer.

Then when we stop needing things, we need to think about whether we could re-use it for something else, for instance margarine or ice-cream tubs can be used for all sorts of things, or whether someone else could use it in which case we could take it to a charity shop or try to sell it.

Some things have no more use, but that doesn't mean they should go straight in the rubbish bin. They might be better off in the compost bin, or it might be possible to recycle them. Recycling isn't ideal as a lot of energy is used to recycle some things, but it is better than throwing everything into a huge landfill site to pollute the environment for who knows how long.


Best of all is to Reduce the amount of rubbish we bring into our home, whether as unnecessary packaging or as cheap, shiny objects we didn't really need or that break in a short while.

Second best is to think about how much we can re-use for other purposes, such as using toilet roll-holders to grow leeks.

Thirdly we need to consider if what we are about to throw away can be composted or recycled.

This is just an overview of a very big subject, which I intend to return to and break down into bite-sized chunks.

A couple of good blogs dedicated to rubbish and ways to reduce it are
The Rubbish Diet
and My Zero Waste.


If you have come across other helpful blogs on the subject of rubbish or have anything to say about waste in general please feel free to use the comments facility provided.

Brighten up the World with a Smile

Here's a very easy idea that will cost you very little and will instantly make the world a better place: smile.

I'm not suggesting that you get yourself arrested grinning inanely at every passer-by, nor that you pretend you are happy when you are not, but when you greet someone, give them a genuine, friendly smile to make them feel they count and somebody cares about them. Smiling will make you feel better and cheer up the person you smile at. Smiles can be infectious, too, soon everybody could be smiling just because of your one smile.

“If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an awakened mind.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, 'Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life'

Green Your Cleaning (1)

Our CO2 emissions are not the only aspect of our lifestyle that has a negative impact on our environment. So much of what we do can damage the environment in other ways if we are not careful.

When we wash ourselves or our clothes, or do the washing up with a regular product we are probably sending phosphates into the water system and these can upset the balance of life in our rivers and streams as too many phosphates cause an algae bloom that can smother the surface and reduce the oxygen in the water, so causing the death of fish and other creatures living in the water.  Excessive phosphates caused the Great Lakes of America to suffer an ecological disaster in the 1960's and 1970's.  Perhaps this was the cause of the stinking mass of rotting fish in Lake Ontario, which I experienced first hand as a child in the mid '60's. This and similar problems with water pollution caused manufacturers to change the types of detergent they used, in Britain at least.

Some additives in regular detergents are potentially hazardous to the environment while others can cause people irritation and allergic reactions. These include enzymes, optical bleaches, foaming agents and synthetic colourings and perfumes

To make sure we are causing as little pollution as possible when we clean up, it is best to choose plant-based products, which are as natural as possible such as washing up liquid, dishwasher detergent, washing powder and laundry liquid made by companies like Bio-D, Clear Spring from Faith in Nature, Earth Friendly (sold by Green Brands in the UK), Ecoleaf, or Ecover.



This is a very straight forward thing to do, which should not involve much effort. True, the green detergents may cost you a little bit more financially, but to calculate the total cost of any product it's impact on the environment and our own health has to be taken into account as well.

Ecover products are available widely in supermarkets, while the other makes tend to be sold in Health Food shops. Some people prefer to avoid Ecover products since they carried out tests on water fleas a few years ago as this is a form of animal testing. It seems they may also have carried out tests on the blood of farmed rabbits.  According to their list of ingredients their washing up liquids, laundry liquids and possibly other products contain Sodium Laureth Sulfate, a detergent derived from petroleum based products, which can be an irritant and may be harmful in other ways.

Currently I use Bio-D washing-up liquid  as the company is based in the UK as well as filling all the other criteria I require. For washing my clothes I use Ecoleaf laundry liquid as it dissolves well and I like the smell, which is not milky like some. This is a relatively new product from the Suma Co-op.

It is possible to buy many of these products in 5 litre containers from which you can refill the bottle you keep by the sink and some Health Food shops provide a refill service so you could take a re-usable container of your choice along.

If you are trying to avoid using plastic bottles at all you can use soap nuts instead of your usual laundry liquid or soap powder Soap nuts are the pods from the Sapindus Mukorossi, a tropical tree native to India and southern China. These pods contain a high level of saponin, which is a natural detergent.

You can also make a kind of washing up liquid from them. According to the soap pod website you can make washing up liquid from them in the following way:

Put 15 whole Soap pods or equivalent
and 2 litres of water
in a heavy bottom pan and bring to the boil. Be careful, as they will boil over like milk! Put a lid on and simmer very gently for 10-20 mins. Leave overnight. This is enough for a normal liquid for cars and floors etc.

For all other cleaning you need to make a stronger concentration, so the next day repeat the same; bring to the boil then simmer for 10-20 mins. The liquid should then be deep golden colour.

When cool strain well through sieve in to a jug and decant into plastic bottles.
The liquid will keep 4-8 weeks depending on how much light and heat gets to it so try to store out of sunlight.

If you wish your the liquid to have a smell you can add a few drops of an essential oil such as orange or lemon grass.

This is something I've been meaning to try, but haven't got round to yet.  I bought my soap nuts from Summer Naturals, but there seem to be a number of outlets on-line.

Switch it off

I expect you have heard about 'Climate Change'. Sometimes people also talk about 'Global Warming', but this is not an accurate name for what is happening to our planet's climate. The most accurate name for it might be 'Climate Chaos' as basically the weather patterns all over the world are becoming more disrupted by increasing levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere, so we see more droughts in one part of the world and torrential rain causing flooding in another with more frequent hurricanes in yet another.

You may not be sure that any of this is really happening, but weather reports from around the world don't leave much room for doubt. The only thing we can't be 100% sure about is why it is happening but, whatever some people say, the evidence seems to point to human beings having a lot to do with it as the film 'An Inconvenient Truth' (available as a DVD from some libraries) explains very clearly. You can see a trailer of dramatic highlights on YouTube. There is also a book available.

As the way you and I live is almost certainly causing a lot of problems for a lot of people and could soon (in our lifetime) bring about even more extreme weather conditions in the UK, I want to do what I can to reduce my impact on the climate and if enough people do the same before it's too late, then perhaps things won't turn out as badly as some people fear. Perhaps in time we can even reverse some of the worse effects of climate change – if we make a real effort before it's too late.

Even if you're not convinced what you do will make much difference to the world, saving energy will make a difference to your bank balance, as saving energy saves money at the same time.

One really simple thing we can do,to save energy and money, is to turn off the lights when we leave a room, assuming that we aren't leaving someone else in the dark and we aren't just popping out to make a cup of tea and coming back in a few minutes.
 
Switching lights off once we've finished using them can save us £10* a year.

However, switching light bulbs on and off too often shortens their life, which is why I suggest you make sure that neither you nor anyone else wants to go back to that room for a reasonable length of time such as 10 to 15 minutes. 

Likewise switching off all our electrical appliances, including mobile phone, shaver and battery chargers when we are not using them will also save us money as well as reducing our carbon footprint.

Switching off items such as televisions and computers rather than leaving them on standby for hours on end could save you a further £30 a year.*

Don't worry if you forget more often than you remember to start with, it takes time to get into new habits.  I've found many of these things are second nature now, but it took a while to develop these new habits.



* According to figures on the Energy Saving Trust website.