The Low Impact to No Impact Year

Cutting Out Tara's Beating Heart

2008-08-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

We got back from our holiday on 27th July.

On 29th July it began to rain. It rained, poured, mizzled, piddled and deluged for the next twenty-one days. The Shannon River, which rises three miles from us, burst its banks on 16th August.

The Shannon has never been this high in Dowra for thirty years. On the night of the 16th a life long resident told me she listened ‘to the roaring’ and felt very frightened. “The floods used to be bad so we thought.”

This is the worst summer on record. After May where there was a month of no rain we have had high winds and plenty of rain in June; our apple trees keeled over to a 150-degree slant as the south-westerly winds battered them. It rained on into July. We had a week’s respite in Westmeath. There was a flurry of activity while we were away and we could see our neighbour had had the hay cut in the field just beside us. Up until midnight on the 27th/28th I could hear the tractor cutting in the field.

Then the rains came. What had not been bundled in silage cover already began to rot in the field.

Leitrim is said to have the highest rate of suicide per capita in the Republic of Ireland. With the hay uncut and the relentless rain you could practically hear the shotguns getting cocked all over the county.

All those climate change deniers, the policy makers who live in hermetically sealed and ‘climate controlled’ office environments really should be out here for a week. Everyone seems to have a form of SAD, Seasonally Affected Disorder. And it’s not even winter yet. The light is on the wane but it is so overcast that I am typing this mid afternoon with the electric light switched on. Both Tony and I are in the grip of the second bout of bronchitis this summer. We are coughing, spluttering, sneezing and fevered like you would expect in the winter.

Some of those aforementioned policy makers decided to run a motorway through the heart of the Hill of Tara earlier this year. I doubt that they would see or believe there is any connection between the raging winds, the floods, the hay failing, the blight on the potatoes (warm, wet weather makes for good blight conditions). A friend said to me, “What can we expect when we don’t respect the land?” Or rather the Land that is told of in the myths of this island.

It is said that when the Little People, who took that form after the Tuatha de Danaan were vanquished at the Second Battle of Moytura at Lough Arrow, that they headed north. One legend says that they settled here near us, in the hills and hollows surrounding Lough Allen.

Natural gas has been discovered in a seam that runs under the lough and onwards through west Cavan right up into County Fermanagh. With oil prices skyrocketing there may come a time when the policy makers decide it is ‘economic’ to open up that gas field.

God help us if they do! We are seeing what happens when we make a goddess angry, but I really don’t want to know what a whole tribe of fairy folk would throw at us if they got summarily evicted!

Eco Holy Days

2008-07-18T01:22:00.001-07:00

We are off to Earthsong tomorrow. There will be no more posts this month as Tony and I are off for our eco-break in Ireland.

Pray for dry weather because we will be camping in Westmeath! This is in the Irish Midlands but the more easterly side of the country that tends to be a bit dryer.

Camping and staying in your own country is probably the best bet for a low impact break. There are more and more camping holidays with an eye to cherishing the environment becoming available. And here where I live, in Ireland’s Green Box (or premier eco-tourism destination) there are self-catering houses that have really made a great effort to be carbon neutral.

Earthsong gathers together around 200 people – couples, singles, teens and kids – on a campsite for eight days. During that time there is a real effort to create community and mitheal, the Irish word for neighbourly co-operation, is central to the event. While there are plenty of workshops to keep kids, teens and adults occupied if it rains there is the structure for sharing out chores equitably.

Cooking is done over open campfires and ‘cluster groups’ naturally gravitate around the campfires. The ideal is that there are enough campers in each cluster so that the adults only need to cook one meal over the eight days. This ensures the necessary break from domestic concerns that is part of a good holiday.

The word holiday comes from holy day and is used in the British Isles as opposed to the American styled vacation. The Holy Days in the ecclesiastical calendar were the only real breaks medieval working people would have enjoyed. There was always a spiritual component although there would probably be fairs and such fun, too!

I like the concept of using the time for holiness – or towards wholeness – rather than just vacating my usual routine and life for eight days.

Earthsong practices a low impact philosophy, which to my mind performs a more secularlised spiritual component. There will be Taize chanting, drum sessions, bellydancing and much more to do. These activities pledge no allegiance to any particular denomination or religious philosophical tradition. They do fulfil the recreational component of what an individual’s internal and spiritual ecosystem require to relax and renew.

We’re in the home stretch now. Tony’s sister, our niece and great-niece are the vanguard and start pitching tents today. We showed the polytunnel and kitty sitter around the place yesterday evening. Today I need to weed and pack the car. Our neighbour Tony Weyman will pick the dogs up to take to his kennels at 10am tomorrow. Then it will be time to give Zelda and Minnie a last scritch on the head and to head off for a week towards wholeness and holiness. And fun.

The latest buzz about bees

2008-07-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

There is a new book about that yokes the concern over global warming with horticultural apocalypse.

The premise of the book is a quote from Albert Einstein (although this has not been fully documented where or when he said or wrote) that when the bees die the human race only has four years to last.

There is current concern over sudden colony collapse in the honeybee world. This may be due to the varroa virus, which has weakened the bee’s immune system. The other contributing factor is that conventional farming tends towards ‘monoculture.’ This means that they just have one crop on their farm – almonds or oranges or tomatoes. For instance, in the States bees are transported thousands of miles to these farms and only get one type of dinner for weeks on end. Then they go more hundreds of miles and only get one type of dinner.

Like humans most other species need a varied diet. We need our protein, carbs and ‘five a day’. Bees seem to need a variety of plant nector to thrive and remain healthy.

Organic gardeners can help support bees by planting a number of plants that will give the bees a varied diet. In my garden I have wallflowers near the apple trees. The bees like the wallflowers and then go on to pollinate my apple trees (which are going really well this year.)

I recently was asked to respond to a question on an organic gardening forum. It reminded me how I deliberately planted a lot of bee friendly plants that also work well in a companion plant sort of way like the wall flowers do with the apple trees. We had been given a hive; I'd done a beekeeping course. What I didn't want to do was starve the swarm. So I have been building up the garden with bee friendly species over the last two years. So far my area is varroa virus free so I may take the plunge and get the hive going next year.

If you want to help our stressed out bee populations plant lemon balm, cat mint, poached egg flowers, lavender and use plenty of green manure clover.

Remember there is more at stake here than just missing some honey on your morning toast.

A Hiatus

2008-07-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since I have been able to post due to a combination of a horrid case of summer flu and our computer seemingly living at the repair person's shop for the last month. But mostly the flu left me very low both physically and in spirit.

With the computer problems I also increased my scepticism that we will be able to tackle the global environmental for a technical fix point of view. Or a purely technical fix point of view. We just need to consume less and make less waste. Or at least that seemed to occur to me when I was popping my antibiotics for the mother of all sinus infections (that still lingers.)

The other irony that I got to savour while bedridden is that with rocketing fuel costs I am trying to get my full driver's license. I have had a provisional license and learned a manual over the last two years. At nearly 52 years of age this has not been a easy ride. I resisted learning for so many year but the move to a rural area makes it completely impractical. There is very little public transport and if you need to take your dog to the vets then you need to have generous friends to get you there.

The real pressure now is financial. The insurance rules in Ireland have no changed so that a learner driver MUST have a driver with a full license ride shotgun at all times. More and more jobs are putting in as essential criteria a full driving licence. Given that I am on the dole and Tony has one day's work per week it has become critical that I get that licence. And of course, the practice needed to pass costs petrol, which currently is €1.44 per litre.

It seems as if we are all completely ensnared. I'd really like not to get on that hamster wheel but if we are ever to save enough to get solar panels on our roof and make other necessary eco-improvements, then we need a job. A job in the country tends to mean a car to get to it. And now you need that all important full driving license to actually meet the criteria.

So I am feeling a bit despondent.

It has to be about consuming less

2008-06-03T07:34:00.000-07:00

Tony and I are at virtually the half way mark through the Low Impact No Impact Year. I've been reviewing what we have been doing and what more we could be doing given our limited budget.

That's the thing. It takes money, or if you are lucky to live in the UK, grants to put in solar panels, pellet boilers and water harvesting systems. But what I have had to grasp is that you can can only change your behaviour over items over which you have control. Cash income is not always in one's control. Especially now that the world seems to be sliding into global recession.

But where you lose on the the cash front you gain on time; inspiration is often at it's most ingenious with the cash strapped.

Although we have moved to a mostly vegetarian diet I still fall back on convenience foods, especially in this past month when it has been uncomfortably hot for me. (I am currently sporting a sunburn from gardening this past weekend. The sweat washed off the sunscreen.) The quorn and veggie burgers come in glossy printed boxes that are not suitable for composting. We can burn them in our cast iron stove although that does add to CO2 emissions. But given that there is little landfill in Ireland I am a bit loathe to risk them getting dumped off shore where the plastics will affect marine life.

When you aren't worried about the melting ice cap there is always the dolphins!

So for my next resolution/affirmation I am going to start doing more batch cooking and freezing. I know I resolved that earlier this year but I got very busy in the garden and being fifty-ish my energy levels didn't have the reserve levels for an extra shift in the kitchen in the evening.

Where I have been more successful is weeding out cleaning products that tend to have lots of packaging. I have worked out a recipe of 500 grams washing soda to 100 grams of soap shavings to make laundry detergent and household cleaner for washing floors and surfaces. I am using baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) with essential oil as a fabric softener and to make the clothes smell nice. The baking soda also works well with a bit of water and lemon rind to clean the stove top and kitchen counters. There are two small plastic bags as opposed to large plastic containers that will probably be shipped to India for recycling.

With the drought this past month and with the fact that we are water metered we are looking at cost canny ways to save rainwater this winter. We are on the scout for containers that can be recycled as rain barrels just as we collect and redistribute old windows for a second life with those who are making cold frames and green houses,

Swings, roundabouts and best guestimates about what will do the least possible damage. More and more I come to the conclusion that the only real solution is to consume less. Perhaps the global recession is the universe's natural corrective to over-consumption.

Oh, and we need to plant more trees.

Wise Women Don't Waste

2008-05-23T04:06:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready for a Ireland's Wise Woman Weekend on 7th June when I will be at Speaker's Corner at 5:30pm to share the tips from the Low Impact Living trail. Please check out www.wisewomanireland.com to see if there are still places for this wonderful, woman enpowered weekend.

In preparing I am realising that although we have not got the money yet for the solar panels and triple glazed windows cutting down on waste does save money. If you don't get prepared meals, cook and freeze your home made veggie burgers for instance, you do save on the waste going to landfill AND you are saving money on not paying some corporate body to cook your own meal.

Of course, we do have convenience foods sometimes. When I entertain my friend's kids I tend to stick to tried,tested and favoured veggie burgers that they like. But they also like tuna and pasta. The tuna tin gets washed and put in a box that will go to the Manorhamilton recycling centre. Even the box the veggie burgers gets burned rather than send it to landfill. But that is just short term. Really we need to cut them out entirely. When I burn the box of shiny cardboard there are chemically smells emanating from our chimney. I don't need a chemistry degree to realise that if it smells bad and catches my breath (I am mildly asthmatic) then it should not be going into the atmosphere.

So I will work out some spicy bean burgers that Isa's kids LOVE and put them in the freezer for when they come over for afterschool.

With the metanoia regarding sodium lauryl sulphate I am cutting out a lot of plastic bottles of the eco-brand for home made cleaning products. I have even sourced a book The Naturally Clean House on www.lehmans.com for those who don't feel happy about having a chemistry experiment when they mop the kitchen floor.

So I am watching the waste baskets and bins in my house. I didn't even bother to empty them this Wednesday as they aren't full yet. That has to mean that we are improving.

Clean up around the House in more than one way

2008-05-18T06:27:00.000-07:00

Since having my consciousness raised about sodium lauryl sulphate and noting how many household-cleaning agents, even of the ‘ecological’ brand name leaders, I have been mulling over alternatives. The fact that I have run out of cream cleanser and my cooker hob and kitchen sink were looking decidedly house shameful (as opposed to house proud), I needed to mull faster.

I certainly was not going to travel sixteen miles to the nearest wholefood store to get the eco-friendly brand I have previously used. There is also the issue of packaging. All the toilet cleaner, washing up liquid, laundry liquid and cream cleanser comes in plastic bottles. I do recycle them but it do I really need to be contributing to the recycle stockpile?

A few years back I came across some articles that mentioned that you could make up your own household cleaners for the equivalent of tuppence. It all seemed to boil down to having a quantity of white vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, washing soda (sodiumcarbonate decahydrate more than 30%) and lemons.

I sprinkled some baking soda onto the stovetop and scoured it with the heel of a lemon. The acid from the juice made a little fizz and got up some of the more stubborn bits. Then I wiped it down with a wet cloth. It worked very well.

The stainless steel sink required more elbow grease. The lemon/baking soda scouring got up some of the worst of the grime and grease but there were a lot of tea stains left behind. I put the sink plug in and dissolved a half-cup (2oz) of washing soda in very hot water; then I added cold water to a hand hot temperature to fill the sink. Ten minutes later rubbing with a cloth was taking up some of the stain but not all of it. Using a wood and bristle pot scourer that comes from Germany did lift the last of the stains though.

You can make your own laundry soap with soap shavings and washing soda. I have done this before and it worked okay so long as you use a higher washing temperature, say 60°. At my preferred and more energy efficient 40° washes the soap did not always dissolve. But perhaps I need to tinker with the ratio of soap to washing soda to perfect the recipe.

Either way, making my own household cleaners will reduce packaging for recycle or landfill, save me money, save on trips for the eco-friendly brands not stocked locally, save petrol for those shopping trips and transport miles.

While I don’t have sensitive skin problems and didn’t use gloves when using the washing soda, it is recommended that you use them. That’s a personal preference as far as I can see.

Cherishing Biodiversity

2008-05-17T04:12:00.000-07:00

Tony and I have been working out in the garden and polytunnel pretty intensively over the last fortnight. With the heat wave this was a bit of a challenge but we have had a break in the high temperatures. Since I am not a person who enjoys temperatures above 21°C I had tunnel vision on the tasks in hand. Focus got blurred with plenty of perspiration.

It was cool and overcast (my favourite kind of weather) when I took out the dogs this morning and my perspective widened. Over the past two weeks there is not just a profusion of growth in the garden but out in the hedges and along the roadside.

A few years back I began doing a biodiversity survey as a record of the rich heritage we have here in West Cavan. Always in the back of my mind is the threat that we might lose this wonder. But I am determined to be an optimist and not get prematurely nostalgic. This is a celebration of the abundance of creation.

I have decided to start again but narrow my study to a section of townlands that roughly coincides with dog walking paths. This means along our lane that runs parallel to the R207 and is locally referred to as the Old Blacklion Road or the Smuggler’s Road. I’ll pretty much be concerned with about a mile stretch between our townland of Corrogue and Tober Mhuire but will extend it to Doobally since I go up that stretch of road frequently if not routinely. This extends the survey to about two to three miles between Lough Moneen and Doobally.

This morning I set out with my digital camera and began to record pictorially. I also opened an Excel spreadsheet to note down the common name, species name, date and site of sighting and any notes in separate columns. Some of the names are familiar but I also have plenty of reference books to help me identify ones that are a mystery to me. The digital camera is essential because I don’t want to pick an endangered species by mistake!

Even if you live in an urban or suburban setting doing a biodiversity study can be illuminating. It creates a sense of wonder and devotion in my experience. It is also humbling to know that we are but one species amongst so many, each contributing its own unique qualities and beauty to the grander scheme of things.

WWOOF!

2008-05-17T04:11:00.000-07:00

Most people ban dogs from gardens but WWOOFing has nothing to do with the canine species.

Working Worldwide on Organic Farms (WWOOF) helps people find working holidays on organic farms, smallholdings and gardens where they can volunteer to help in exchange for room and board. Many people travel the world on a shoestring budget learning about gardening and farming while also getting the health and fitness benefits of a ‘green gym’ workout.

Tony and I have just been accepted as hosts for WWOOF Independents. While Northern Ireland is included in the parent WWOOF organisation there are many countries, like the Republic of Ireland, that are affiliated through the Independents organisation.

If you want to learn firsthand about organic gardening then a working holiday is a really good way to get practical experience.

So if you want to have a holiday that not only has a low impact on the planet but actually positively contributes to creating more carbon neutral lifestyles then log on to www.wwoof.org

Surfactants - Do we really need them

2008-05-10T12:24:00.001-07:00

My main reason for looking at shampoos and such is because they create a lot of packaging – probably unnecessarily. But as I researched both conventional and ‘eco’ brands of detergents, whether used for personal hygiene of household purposes, I kept coming across sodium lauryl sulphate and it’s kissing cousin sodium laureth sulphate.

These are foaming agents, or surfactants, and they are made from sulphuric acid.

Chemistry is not my strong suit but I have been looking at the US National Institutes of Health studies on the effects of sodium lauryl sulphate.

The big health hazard seems to be from working in the factories that make it. It’s cheap to make and add to all sorts of things – toothpaste, for instance. While in the industrial setting asthma and respiratory problems seemed to be noted there are other references to the fact the liver and gall bladder are not able to break this compound down. So it would seem that maybe it lingers in our bodies? And builds up? So why are we putting it into our mouth? Little children swallow a lot of toothpaste. I know I did before I got the whole routine down pat. And when the toothpaste tastes nice you naturally want to swallow it when you are three years old.

Now if you are using it daily with your body wash, shampoo and toothpaste, even though the amounts are well below toxic levels perhaps – PERHAPS – there is a slow build up in the body if our liver cannot break it down.

Today I looked at the labels on a lot of ‘natural’ toothpastes, some of which I’ve bought in the past. Two main brands include sodium lauryl sulphate. I chose one that has aloe vera and tea tree as main ingredients and silica as a whitener. I am completely confident of the first two ingredients and will need to research the other.

It still had the box that I will have to burn (it’s the shiny cardboard variety) but as someone with a dicky gall bladder I think I will start being a bit more careful of things that I may ingest that include this chemical.

Bridget Belford's Patchwork Quilt

2008-05-09T04:37:00.000-07:00

I needed to take a break from sowing in the garden yesterday and do some sewing of the mending sort.

We’ve been having a heat wave by Irish standards and I had to take the heavy winter weight duvet off the bed and replace it with a flannel sheet and wool blanket. This I topped with Bridget Belford’s Patchwork quilt.

The best light in the house is in this bedroom so I set to my mending tasks there. I am of an age that despite vari-focals I need to remove my glasses entirely to thread a needle.

My grandmother was an enthusiastic seamstress and I still have an apron she made as a Christmas present for me. I bring it out when young friends come over to bake with me. My mother taught me the basic stitches to get me through my Girl Scout Sewing badge. She wasn’t as enthused by sewing as my grandmother, despite having a good modern sewing machine to replace a much more ancient model of Singer that lived in a cavernous cabinet in her bedroom.

I am not so much an indifferent sewer as a downright sloppy mender. Perhaps it is my eyesight. No, that’s an excuse. I am just not much practiced and have forgotten the neat ways of mending. Once upon a time I used to like darning and I do still have my mother’s darning egg. Synthetic ‘wool’ pretty much put paid to that exercise although it is still well worth the effort for 100% wool garments.

What struck me was that patchwork is part of our ‘make do and mend’ culture that elevates itself to a work of art. What may have started out as thrift became a wonderful way for a hardworking woman to express herself artistically. It may have been ‘fancy’ in some ways but it was also just ‘plain’ useful come the winter.

It also was a social activity. Quilting bees were parties of women who would stitch the layers of old blanket to the patched facing and plain backing. As well as being a work of art a quilt became a networking with neighbours. If the quilt was going to be a wedding gift some of the sewers sentiments or bitterness might get stitched into the finished product.

My sister gave the quilt that started me on my ruminations about recycling of old textiles in previous generations to me. Bridget Belford had given her it when she dated her son. Now it has moved from Pennsylvania to Yorkshire and now Ireland.

I like it because it is made from those fabrics that remind me of the 1940s and early 1950s. ‘Retro’ may be very fashionable now but quilts have always been in fashion.

We don’t horde scraps of material or old clothes these days. We send them down to the Clothing Bank or to the charity shop. But I may just hang on to a few scraps and begin to piece together some small patchwork project…maybe some tablemats. That’s not too ambitious for a sloppy sewer.

Mending is a skill that we need to revive if we are going to fully embrace the Reuse, Recycle, Renew! philosophy. Patchwork quilts are useful to remind us that this is not just an unpleasant task but the stepping stone to creating something that expresses art in our soul.

Less Landfill - result!

2008-04-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

With Beryl’s creative solution on how to compost the cat litter now in place I was interested to see how much rubbish I would have this week. On Wednesday evenings we have to take our ‘Cavan bags’ – refuse bags that we buy in our local Spar – into the village for the county council to collect very early Thursday morning. These bags are 12.5-kilo maximum weight.

I went around the house and found that I filled a quarter bag.

And what am I filling the bag with these days? Most of the contents are balled up used tissue. I have always had dodgy sinuses. I was rather loath to pitch the paper hankies into the fire. I know! I know! It’s my own bacteria or viral stuff, but it still is creepy.

Now I am wondering if I need to surf the net to see if anyone is making organic cotton hankies. Although women of my mother’s generation who did hand washing – even of nappies or diapers – have said that washing the handkerchiefs was just too disgusting! They shudder as they speak of it. (It involved boiling it in a large saucepan with lots of salt to dissolve the snot. The interesting pieces of information I pick up along the way.)

I am not sure I would convert Tony to cotton hankies but I do think I will look into it for myself since I’m responsible for most of it. It’s either that or get over my squeamishness and start putting the tissues into the compost bin.

But as an aside, I read in Healthy and Organic magazine’s May issue that someone is now marketing a technique to get your cat trained to use the household’s toilet. I look at Zelda, who was a foundling lured in from outdoors with great patience, and her wildish offspring, Minnie the Minx, and somehow think that our felines may not be the most suitable candidates for that method.

Line Drying and the Non-Technological Solution

2008-04-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

The Guardian front page is headlined this morning ‘Sustainable’ bio-plastic can damage the environment.’

The article goes on to notes that bio-plastics made from maize, sugar cane and wheat are not only hastening a food crisis (in the race to make bio-fuels), but that the bio-plastics give off methane at landfill sites.

So the technology that figured bio-plastics would be a ‘sustainable’ solution to our packaging addiction have found that they have only added to the problem.

The other worry is that the maize-made bio-plastics are devised from genetically modified corn. As a firm supporter of both bio-diversity and organic horticulture I have to say anything with the GM label on it is anathema to me.

Perhaps we have been pinning too much hope on the technological fix.

And it is back to looking at no packaging or the brown paper bag that will compost down!

In the meantime, and on a happier note, the springtime has brought rain in the night time. This is good for watering my seeds. And we have sunny, breezy days that are renewing the joy of line-dried clothing. You need add no essential oil to scent your clothing. The cleanest breezes in Europe blow in off the Atlantic and over the meadows; they give my clothes and bed linen the best fragrance ever. It’s not one money can buy. Nor is it a terribly technological answer to drying my washed clothes.

But it has the aesthetic satisfaction as well as being sustainable in the truest sense of the word. Plastic bags or plastic of any sort is neither sustainable nor particularly aesthetic.

Cat Litter Composting - Sorted!

2008-04-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

It's good to talk about sh1t with friends!

When my friend Beryl was visiting us last week I told her my concerns about the cat litter being composted. We have a very high water table and I didn't want to risk inadvertantly poluting. I had learned that human manure needs to be sterlised at a temperature of 70 degrees C to kill off the harmful bugs.

So we put our thinking caps on and figured out that we can take a conventional black plastic rubbish bin with a lid. Then I place it in a south facing place and preferably up agains a wall to create even more heat. The black plastic is really good as a heat conductor. I need to drill in some ventilation holes and then can start filling it with wood pellet cat litter. This should compost down and get sterlised in the bin. But to be extra careful when the bin is full I will take it to specially designated composting area to give it some more time 'cooking.'

We can't use it on vegetables, herbs or soft fruit. But I really want to start establishing more flowers and shrubs so I can try it out on them next spring.

The biggest volume of our household's contribution to landfill has now been substantially reduced.

Sorted!

Thanks to Beryl Slevin of Ballina, Co. Mayo and Berkeley, California. Those Californians always like the appropriate technology challenge!

Shampoo Bar Soap

2008-04-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

I've taken delivery of my shampoo soap bar this week.

A while ago I was looking at my nice 'ecological' shampoo that does not have sodium lauryl sulphate and other chemicals that are on the 'under suspicion' list and began to take into consideration the plastic container.

Okay, I save them up and take them to the recycling centre but do I really want that box of stuff cluttering up a corner of my kitchen? Not really? Besides, it's still all consuming energy even when it gets recycled. What could be more low impact than to wash your hair with a bar of soap. It works well on the body? Why not the hair?

My initial web search was not encouraging. Yet, I knew that somewhere someone would be making them. I used to be able to buy them in my local health food store when we lived in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Then, brain wave! I had met a fellow American ex-patriot up at the Organic Centre and she made hand-crafted soap using only ingredients that were organic or sustainably harvested from her garden or the wild.

I emailed Lisa and she made and matured a batch. It arrived yesterday and I washed my hair with it. What I dislike about a lot of the 'ecological' shampoos is that they can be a bit gloppy and don't lather very well. Apart from the fragance sending me into euphoric scent heaven, this shampoo bar lathered up well and rinsed much better than the commercial brands. It was wrapped up in a pretty paper package with string and a label that has the personal, hand written 'look' but is also absolutely professional.

It is truly made by hand. It's made fairly locally to me (just one county over) and respects the earth's resources.

Shouldn't all products be made with that level of consumer trust?

Rock on Lisa McCabe of Roslea!

Redefining Progress

2008-04-18T05:20:00.000-07:00

There is a new improved carbon footprint quiz online at http://myfootprint.org.

What is really good is that you now type in the country where you live and you can compare you own lifestyle choices in relation to the general population.

While I am doing well in comparison to my Irish neighbours what is really worrying is that it would still require there to be an earth 1.53 times its actual size.

I'm still saving for those solar panels.

Communities Need Services to Stay the Low Impact Course

2008-04-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

With some dismay, I have just learned that my local branch of National Irish Bank will close in July 2008. Worse still, so is the Drumshambo branch, twelve miles away. Mohill, at the opposite end of the county will also lose their branch. This leaves Dowra residents the choice of either a forty mile round trip to either Carrick on Shannon or Ballyconnell to withdraw money from their deposit accounts, buy foreign currency, or deposit job seeker’s allowance cheques.

Once again, it feels to me like rural residents are paying for the folly of their urban cousins. In this case, the banks made some feckless judgements about lending. Now they are rationalising to maintain their profits, if not their customer base.

The rationale by the bank seems to be along the lines that there are 20,000+ residents in Sligo Town and one branch to service them. Co. Leitrim has the equivalent number of residents so one will do for them. One size fits all. I strongly disagree.

There is no thought that Sligo Town and surrounding villages do have the luxury of local bus services. Dowra has one Bus Eirann service to Sligo each Saturday. Rural Lift (God Bless them) takes a mini bus alternate Saturdays to Carrick on Shannon. This bus is full to the brim with older people and others who either do not drive or cannot justify the expense of running a car. I have taken this bus myself and it takes people who live way up the byways and lanes of Glangevlin and Ballinaglera. Frequently, these are older people.

These people do not fit the demographic favoured by banks for internet banking.

Without a good public transport system we need local services – banks, supermarkets, post offices, schools, medical centres, resource centres. If Dowra had a public library I would consider myself to live in heaven. So far we have been blessed with a bank, post office, supermarket, medical centre with the GP visiting weekly, and a resource centre. It has the advantages of rural living with the amenities. It is one reason why we decided to settle here seven years ago.

This is how communities need to be if we are going to prepare for the ‘downshifting’ required by global climate change. How can one justify a forty-mile drive for a few transactions? How can you make those transactions if you work in the opposite direction of your bank? If you are on the job seekers allowance, how do you justify the petrol money to drive to deposit your cheque? How can a bank run a business by herding its customers into internet banking when dial up connections have only just become more reliable. As for broadband, if the line goes down then you can have a long wait for it to be fixed. (I know first hand how long some publicly funded organisations who had real teething problems with broadband had to wait. It will be a little while yet before it will become more available, affordable and reliable. ) How can we, as a society, leave our elderly rural residents stranded without public transport or local services?

The National Irish Bank needs to understand these rural realities if it wishes to understand its customers. If any business fails to understand its customers it loses them. Many businesses know that it is quite cheap to attract new custom. What is expensive is retaining custom. Maintaining local branches may, therefore, be viewed as a customer retention exercise. Perhaps expensive, but in the longer term, far more lucrative for the business. Rural people, in my experience, do still value loyalty as a principle. Once petrol prices soar and rise again, then they will think twice about any unnecessary car journeys. Loyalty and pragmatism can coexist.

I was perusing NIB’s Corporate Responsibility 2007 today. Page 26 makes interesting reading. NIB cares about “environmental management” and is ‘keep(ing) focused on regular improvements in resource consumption, waste reduction and increased recycling.” Then it goes on in its heading “Connecting to reduce travel” that “travelling is expensive and time-consuming; it has a negative impact on the environment; and it puts extra pressure on employee’s work life.”

NIB purports to care about its employees as part of its commitment to social responsibility. Customers who will have a forty- mile plus round trip to visit a bank do not seem to come into their social responsibility equation.

Rural communities need banks, health clinics, pharmacies and public libraries. Out in the sticks we do realise that we have to travel for some things but we need the essentials just as much as urban neighbourhoods. Cutting back on local branches of post offices and banks can really have a huge impact on the environment as well as quality of life.

NIB has not made a low impact/no impact corporate decision. My community is now campaigning to get them to reverse this decision.

More precious than gold

2008-04-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

Last week there were some good dry days to get cracking on the garden. Although we are not certified organic, both Tony and I have taken courses in organic horticulture and we abide by the principles laid down by the certifying bodies.

We are lucky that we have two neighbours who are certified organic cattle farmers. So we have good manure available from cattle that will not have been fed cattle nuts laced with GM soya. Nor will they have been foddered over winter with silage laced with artificial fertilisers.

But for our raised beds we still need compost. This does take patience. Last spring my niece Hannah and I uncovered one heap and turned it onto sheets of reclaimed corrugated iron. The metal helps maintain the heat in an area that is a frost pocket. We very carefully turned the heap and added layers of scrunched newspaper and cardboard. Then Hannah helped me cover it all with black plastic and weigh it down with large rocks and planks.

Apart from it being heavy work and having an energetic teenager was an undoubted asset, I felt it was important for her to learn where compost comes from and how to manage it so it will turn into the lovely crumbly brown organic matter that plants love. It also gave us an uninterrupted period of time to have lengthy girl talk. Upon which I shall draw a veil of confidentiality that only a fifteen year old can demand.

The corrugated iron came courtesy of Frankie McMorrow. Locals have got to know that we recycle so now whenever Frankie has some windows that have been taken out of a house or shop he checks if we can take them. And without fail Tony accepts. We have a lean-to green house structure made from windows that used to front a chemist shop in Drumshambo. Other windows have been used to make a green house for our friend Isabella. Beryl down in Ballina cannot wait until we get our trailer licensed so we can bring her sine windows so she do a lean-to greenhouse similar to the one we have attached to a shed. Those planks weighing down the plastic on the compost heaps came from Noel Keegan’s pub when it was gutted for refurbishment.

Likewise that corrugated iron works not only for our compost heaps. John Joe up the mountain needed to make a shed as a wash house/laundry room. A few sheets of what was one person’s rubbish have now put a roof on a very serviceable shed for doing laundry.

As for the vegetable waste, a two-person household does not generate a whole heap of peelings. But come summertime, our local grocer, David O’Rourke, will fill a sack of fruit and vegetables beyond the sale date and we will add them to the compost heap. They were a big part of the ingredients that were spread in the polytunnel last week and put on to the raised beds outdoors.

What goes around certainly does come around. Compost is very precious and far more valuable than gold!

Losing Whole Continents

2008-04-02T04:06:00.000-07:00

Climate change scientists tell us what we may lose in the future. Already they reckon the ozone hole is as large as Antarctica.

I learned from my gardening teacher, Klaus Lautenberger, that we have lost soil the size of North America. We lose it through wind and rain. Remember the Grapes of Wrath? John Steinbeck’s classic told the economic and personal dislocation experienced by the climate catastrophe experienced in the American Midwest during the Great Depression of the early 1930s.

One of my fellow students exclaimed, “But then soil is more costly then oil!”

Yes, soil is precious. In Ireland we have lost a huge amount through lashing rain and bellowing wind. We use wind turbines to create renewable energy quite efficiently here in the Northwest. After a heavy rain the streams are brown with the soil that is getting washed away. Because Ireland is the most heavily deforested country in Europe we lose even more because we don’t have trees to help anchor the soil.

Whether it is the prairies or the wind-blasted Northwest of Ireland, what I keep coming round to are trees. We really need more trees. We can help deter soil erosion with them. We can carbon offset with them. They create beautiful green lungs to combat air pollution.

Growing our own vegetables is good in terms of reducing food miles and getting us to eat our five a day for health. The veggie scraps help create compost, which creates the organic matter we need to keep soil healthy and productive. But we need to also plan in trees into any planting scheme. Rowans and certain dessert apples or plums are quite happy in smaller gardens. Really small gardens can sport acers and dwarf Japanese weeping cherry trees.

If you really have no space at all try growing a lemon tree from a pip. You need to make a terrarium. Get a shallow wide-mouthed jar and put a few drainage pebbles at the bottom; fill it up with seed growing compost. Take a couple pips from an unwaxed, preferably organic lemon. Put them in the compost and then cover the top with some cling film. Or pop it into a sandwich bag. Put it on a sunny, south-facing window sill and wait. Be patient. Check for any signs of germination. Once the leaf has broken though the surface you can take off the cling film top. It will still need to stay dampish but don’t get too frisky with the watering. Once there is the ‘true’ leaf – two or three leaves formed – transfer it to a plant pot. With care and warm, keeping it out of cold drafts in winter, you will watch your lemon plant go from strength to strength. It will take a few years for it to flower and fruit but the leaves always have the most delicious clean, citrus scent.

Turn the Lights Out Tonight

2008-03-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

Earth hour is between 8pm and 9pm tonight. The clocks also spring forward an hour from 2am Sunday morning.

This is a global wide energy initiative to raise awareness on being not only energy conscious but also energy conscientious.

If you have a non-paraffin candle (beeswax or soya), light it and say a prayer for the earth and Her many and varied species.

GIrly Pride and Prejudice

2008-03-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

It’s terribly stereotyping but I do tend to divide women into two camps – those with a shoe fetish and the others with a handbag passion.

Guess you can tell I categorise myself in the later camp.

For someone who wants to live a low impact way of life you need to get a grip on these obsessions. I am no fashionista. Yet I am a woman who has, over the past fifty-one years, been exposed to lots of advertising about what I need to be a ‘real’ woman. And fashion is fickle.

With Spring arriving I have been greedily eyeing up a set of white mules and the handbag to go with it that I bought to go to my niece’s wedding (and assorted ancillary social events). I am a flat heels woman so I was in a tizz trying to find comfortable shoes that had some sort of heel. I defied all logic and bought the shoes first and then built the rest of the ensemble around that. Comfort first.

I am longingly and lovingly looking at these objects because I have lived in a single very practical and waterproof pair of shoes all winter. They will see me through probably three more winters. I have the summer equivalent of seasonal flats and trainers.

My craving for variety is therefore expressed in a desire to accessorise with statement handbags. But you really only need so many of them.

I rationalise my consumerism by purchasing most in charity shops, which I attack with relish when I visit my sister-in-law in Armagh, up in Northern Ireland. The little white mules (never worn by the way) came from the Cancer Shop on Scotch Street. Barnardos furnished me with a sleeveless dress for dining out.

But I realise that I do have too many bags. Even charity shopping can be gluttonous and consumerist. Most are manufactured in sweat shops by women and children earning a pittance and ruining their health. So I am going to go through the storage boxes and be ruthless and give some away. And not just the tat. I bought a John Rocha handbag years ago but rarely get a chance to give it an outing. (The Rocha kitten heels got snaffled by a teenage niece many years ago; she view shoes as objet d’arte). And call a handbag moratorium for 2008.

While I was ruthless with makeup in that I only have one lipstick and lip gloss and only buy non-paraben, eco-friendly brands anymore, the handbag issue was my weakness. Not an Achilles heel so much as an elbow.

But let’s just take it one day at a time, one step at a time and one less bag at a time.

Eating a Peck of Earth

2008-03-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

When I was young there was a saying, “you have to eat a peck of earth before you die.” Not sure of its provenance but the proverb has stuck in my consciousness.

Since I was raised with supermarket shopping this was puzzling. However, in my teenage years our next-door neighbour had an organic garden. He was an alcoholic in recovery (with very occasional slips) and the garden was his therapy and lifeline. Early summer mornings we would find squash and huge beefsteak tomatoes left on our patio picnic table. It was part sharing of his surplus and part apology for the odd disturbance when he slipped and muttered loudly on his back porch in the early morning hours during the summer of the Watergate hearings.

Yesterday I was attending an organic horticulture course for women at the Organic Centre. Our tutor, Klaus Lautenberger, shared some interesting statistics. I already knew that Ireland was the most afforested country in Europe, but it also has the lowest percentage of agricultural land in organic use. The Dept. of Agriculture has an ambitious target of 4% or agricultural land being certified organic by 2012. Since only 0.9% is the current benchmark that means a 400 fold leap forward. Our trainer said that up until this year all the courses he has taught have had a majority of women as students. That has changed this year because women seem to be insisting that their husbands attend!

Klaus shared some other interesting perspectives. The earth is around 10 million years old. Humans changed from a hunter/gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural one 10,000 years ago. Human beings have only been really urban animals for the last couple of hundred years. Up until seventy years ago even those urbanites may well have had an allotment or small yard where they grew some of their vegetables or kept poultry or a pig. Certainly, some of my classmates who hail from Dublin can remember that sort of way of life right up until about 1960.

Klaus avers that working with the soil, being connected with nature and the miracle of planting a seed, watching it grow and then savouring the sweet succulence of that harvest is deep in our DNA. Humans need to garden, or at the very least, grow some sort of plants to stay connected with hopefulness. Indeed, he pointed out that medical experts are now prescribing gardening as a form of mental health therapy.

This reminded me of my old neighbour who would crawl back onto the wagon after he had bayed at the moon and confronted his demons. A few days later he would be back out there, down on his hunkers, weeding the vegetables, or out watering after sundown, admiring the green leafiness of patty-pan squash, inhaling the mint from the tomato plants. His surname may have translated from the German as small but my neighbour was a mighty man and he taught me a lot.

Online Shopping

2008-03-20T05:29:00.000-07:00

Is online shopping really green?

In theory and certainly in practice for us folk living out in the sticks, it means less time on the road in our cars.

I suppose there are still CO2 emissions expended to get the goods to the distribution point. And there will be forests cut down in terms of the invoicing and accounts paperwork. But there would be anyway. I spent enough of this lifetime filing and processing those bits of paper to know that nothing moves more than paper.

It’s a pity we don’t give the trees more credit for making the world go round. Not just acting as ‘green lungs’ but also for giving us the paper trail that snakes through every aspect of our lives. Where would bureaucrats be without trees?

Even online shopping generates paperwork. At my end I just keep it on computer and don’t bother to print it out unless I need to keep something for tax purposes. Those people like you to hang on to paper for at least six years. But the retailer will still need to keep paper copies – for their auditor if they are a limited company or incorporated– as well as for the tax people.

In trawling the internet I came across one company that really is trying to walk the talk. www.thegreenoffice.com offers more than just recycled paper products. What is fantastic is that they give you a grading system on each product in terms of how biodegradable or conventional the product. So you can judge for yourself how to ‘green’ your office by what you choose to buy. It shows you online how carbon neutral is the product and also offers information about carbon offsetting for businesses.

They should get a medal!

In the meantime, please visit their site to see what best practice looks like. You can buy their products online. Depending on where you live you can judge for yourself if the shipping will create CO2. If you don’t have a more local alternative remember, you can always plant a tree. We can’t have too many of them.

Tax Those Plastic Bags

2008-03-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

It's really disappointing that Britain didn't take a green leaf from Ireland's book. They had an opportunity to put a tarriff on plastic carrier bags this week. For some reason that cannot be related to recession jitters that point didn't get included in Alistair Darling's first budget.

Ireland's countryside used to be adrift with carrier bags snagged on hedgerow branches and tree limbs. Once they started charging fifteen cents per bag at the grocery store the litter problem waned.

We have gotten used to carrying our canvas or cloth shopping bags. Or if we forget them (as we do) our grocers are happy to provide cardboard boxes for the shopping and these can be composted or taken to the recycling centre.

We had to visit our Recycling Centre yesterday with an assortment of household detritus - spent car batteries and plastic bottles with oil residue, paint tins, food tins, cardboard, some textiles, some rusting cake tins and plastic window boxes that the high winds had pulverised. We spent the princely sum of €5 to despatch our 'rubbish.' We took a full carload to make the thirty-two mile round trip worthwhile.

But it feels good to know that Ireland has caught up on the recycling schemes even in the more remote and rural areas. And we have still got some fellow European countries pipped at the green post with regard to discouraging plastic bags.

Just one slightly differant way of 'wearing the green' for St. Patrick's Day.

Hay Box Cookin' in the Kitchen

2008-03-12T05:48:00.000-07:00

Planning to camp for a week brought to mind an appropriate technology that could really be helpful to us during that week in Westmeath.

Hay box cooking does require a conventional cooker or flame source for the initial stages. But it does cut done on the amount of energy needed to cook your meal.

I first came across the idea of hay box cooking from an article in the Quaker periodical The Friend. In winter there are daylong regional meetings that require some distances to travel. This Quaker was not going to go out on a cold morning without the prospect of a hot lunch to sustain them through long sessions of business throughout the day. Their solution was to put a casserole in a hay box rather than snack on a flabby sandwich during a break in the proceedings.

A hay box is essentially an insulated box where you put your heavy casserole or Dutch oven to slow cook your meal. It is especially useful for cutting down on the energy needed to cook things like dried beans or stews. So you can hard-boil your kidney beans for twenty minutes and then pop the pot in the hay box for them to slow cook to tenderness.

You need a box to accommodate the dish of the day and insulating material. Hay was the material of choice in rural communities. But you can use old newspaper or cut up wool blanketing instead of hay. The trick is to get layers of insulation on all sides of the box. You’ll need to experiment with your insulating materials. Basically, this is another way of recycling whatever you have to hand. While you experiment, you will still be saving on the gas or electricity because you can use the hay box in a conventional kitchen setting. It’s not just for days away, picnics or camping

A wooden box was constructed for the hay box in the article I read, but Tony and I have an idea to recycle Styrofoam boxes from our grocer. Imported broccoli is shipped in ice to the local Spar. We’ve used these boxes to grow leeks in the past but we reckon that a newspaper lined Styrofoam box with a layer of hay will work nearly as well. Plus it recycles and finds a second use for something that will not biodegrade.

Low Impact Holidays

2008-03-10T06:33:00.000-07:00

Because my family lives quite a distance away, having a polytunnel to tend and five pets to look after, my partner and I have not been away together for more than a long weekend since 2005. In terms of a being away for a week or more together, we probably have not had a conventional vacation together since about 1995.

We got radical this year and have booked the dogs into their holiday camp with Tony Weyman and a week away for ourselves that will not require flying anywhere, is not hugely expensive and is dedicated to the Low Impact philosophy.

Tony is fond of reminding people that the origin of holiday was holy day. It describes a rest day that is about re-creation and revival.

Earthsong is in its second year. The camp aims “to help create a space where we can learn and remember how to be sensitive to our own needs and the needs of our neighbours and our environment. Where we can encourage a sense of wild playful creativity and peaceful spiritual awareness...”

It involves camping ‘in a beautiful and secluded location’ in County Westmeath, Ireland. That’s not a problem since Tony’s sister can lend us all the gear we haven’t got to hand. Best of all they operate a no alcohol, drugs or electric music policy. Tony will love packing his guitar and singing around campfires. Wood smoke is probably his favourite scent.

We are going to have plenty to keep ourselves occupied. We have volunteered to help out in the Children’s Creativity Area. There is drumming, gospel singing and belly dancing. There are storytelling and art workshops and Taize chants. Even if it rains, and this being Ireland, it probably will some of the time, there’s plenty to keep ourselves occupied over eight days of workshops. I’ll pack our Wellingtons to navigate from the tent to the workshops.

I’m going to pack my fountain pen and spare ink cartridges and journal. I’ll also pack poetry books and some novels (to feed my incorrigible need to read). I’ll have my wind up torch to read by under the sleeping bag. I know this works already. We had power outages last week during storms. It worked a treat. Gotta keep your eye on your priorities!

If you would like to bag one of the 175 places for yourself and your family (they have dedicated activities for both younger kids and teens) email me for contact details.

A wild impatience grips me

2008-03-03T03:10:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a wild impatience grips me when I read the newspaper.

On March 1st I read in the Guardian interview how ‘environmentalist’ James Lovelock, the founder of the Gaia Hypothesis and the man who flagged climate change as an issue back in the 1960s, told a journalist that recycling and carbon offsetting was pointless! Perhaps if we had changed our behaviour back in 1967 when he first issued warnings things would be different.

In the meantime, he does not recycle and keeps flying on airplanes.

Perhaps at age 88, you figure that you’ll be outta of here soon so it’s no skin off your nose.

But it makes me furious that a scientist who is associated with publicising climate change could make irresponsible statements that may discourage people for trying to change their behaviour. Worse, it could simply make people despair. Where will despair and inaction leave the grandchildren? Perhaps he seriously disbelieves there will be any grandchildren to consider?

That’s when the wild impatience makes me want to howl!

I wonder sometimes that if we treated the earth like a person we would be ashamed of ourselves. We wouldn’t dump on our cousin, piddle on our mother, bitch slap our sister, or burn our granny out of her home. If we did behave like that we would be reprimanded, socially ostracised or put in jail.

If we thought of the earth as a person we might assume that with some mediation, apologies, and restitution that even our very sick and justifiably angry cousin/mother/sister/granny might recover and forgive us. If she was loving. Since the earth gives us everything we need I think she qualifies for that adjective.

In my heart I feel that the earth is very resilient and can recover. It cannot replace what is lost but there is a regenerative principle that rules nature. It is watching the regenerative principle with each changing season that allows me to stubbornly adhere to the inner knowledge that if we change our behaviour not all is lost for the earth.

Part of this knowledge is told in ancient myths. The one that came to mind this morning is from Japanese Shinto mythology. The great creatrix of their cosmology is the goddess Amaterasu and because the storm god killed her food-giving sister she withdrew to a cave. Without the sun goddess and her sister goddess to provide food the universe was in dire straits. (Sounds a bit like the scenario for climate catastrophe?)

All strategies and pleas went unheard by Amaterasu. Finally, a screwball comedienne called Uzume upended a washtub and began her stand up routine. She got loud and as bawdy as Jenny Éclair. She began to dance and do a striptease until all 8,000,000 deities were raucously laughing.

This did the trick. Amaterasu got curious and poked her nose out of the cave. Merriment was how she was provoked into warming the earth.

The storm god got banished from the universe for bad behaviour.

There was a recovery. So what could possibly be the moral of this myth?

Humour her!

Keep up the recycling, do your carbon offsetting, plant trees, campaign for ‘green lungs’ in urban areas, protect endangered species when the laws are flouted. Add to the list…

Oh, and keep your spirits up with jokes, dancing, and being merry. Despair never works.

Pausing for Reflection upon having my haircut

2008-02-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

I had my haircut today and got chatting to the hairdresser. As you do. When she asked what I was doing I told her.

There is a lot of scepticism about reducing carbon footprint. “ I suppose you got here by paddle boat, then?”

Well, no. Then I mentioned about tree planting and carbon offsetting, but she was not much placated.

That I don’t have solar panels (yet) was another aspersion upon my credibility. I mentioned that we are saving up for them. Which is very true.

“And then, you don’t even get money off from the ESB! You have to buy it back off them!”

Now this may be true – if your little wind turbine doesn’t generate a heck of a lot of energy then you will have to buy surplus energy from the grid. But I couldn’t really get into the details of this against the roar of the hair drier.

Tony and I buy wind- generated electricity from Airtricity. (www.airtricity.com) On our last bill they noted that we saved 155 kgs. of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. We pay the same rates as other domestic users who buy their electricity from the ESB.

Ireland jumped from the Third World to the First World when the Celtic Tiger roared around 1992. Material comfort and financial security are relatively new concepts to most Irish people who did not emigrate.

If, like me, you grew up in a society where you had long prosperity and access to lots of the ‘toys’ of the privileged First World, you have enough historical experience to know that it does not buy happiness or peace. (You have to remember that I was born in the wealthiest country with the highest number of serial killers and a serious gun fetish.)

But I also understand that if you have not known financial security – and have had to watch loved ones move far away in order to earn their daily bread – that you may not want to give up the fruits of capitalist favour that you have enjoyed for just over a decade. Germany, utterly destroyed by the Allies in 1945, resurrected and enjoyed unprecedented economic good fortune. With over sixty years of prosperity behind them they have a different perspective. Now their government is at the forefront of Europe’s development of renewable energy. Perhaps it is because they still have some connection with that past and know the price for the prosperity. Or, perhaps knowing how hard it was to rebuild, with woman salvaging single sound bricks from the rubble of a ruined Berlin, they remember that one should not be so careless to lose what one has gained.

This is Ireland’s paradox. They have only just grabbed the golden ring; climate change is fast turning it to brass. They want to hold on to the ‘golden ring’ without realising the cost for future generations. When I write it is not as someone who enjoyed the ‘luxury’ of capitalism and is now telling the Irish what they should or should not do. What I do hope is that questions will be asked and solutions will turn into action.

What my Irish born neighbours may not take into account is that ways from ‘the bad old days’ – including gardening organically before it got certified and a premium priced at the supermarket – does not need to smack of the ‘poverty’ brand.

There are still many Irish people of my acquaintance who refuse to eat the fish Pollack, a relative of the cod. The Atlantic around Ireland is teaming with it while cod is rapidly working its way towards the endangered list. This is because Pollack is considered ‘famine food.’

For nations that endured great privation the ‘luxuries’ are hard won. As Ireland has proven, African nations and the Indian sub-continent will also want the toys of the First World in celebration of having moved beyond ‘famine food.’ What is less happy for them is that the First World gorged on the earth’s goodies to a point where we are all imperilled.

Not fair. Even buying fair trade will not make up for that inequity.

It's harder than I thought

2008-02-23T04:07:00.000-08:00

When I first embarked on this carbon neutral challenge I thought that I could probably get there is twelve months.

Now nearly two months in I am beginning to have some doubts.

It’s just that there is so much to consider once you do start to consider things.

Even if you get paraben free and sodium lauryl sulphate-free shampoo (good for the water, good for your health) there are still the plastic bottles to consider. I know I can take them to the plastic bottle bank but some of the opaque plastics are deemed ‘not suitable’ for recycling. Then they get shipped out to some third world country to get dumped.

If they are burned you can smell the chemical stench. I burned one by mistake once and my chest began to tighten and I wanted to reach for my asthma inhaler. Consider what this does when waste like this hits the industrial incinerators.

Bar soap is better than liquid soap so I am trying to source a shampoo soap bar that is suitable for my type of (slightly oily) scalp. I am also trying to find a good moisturiser – a body butter- that has a container that is suitable for recycling. At fifty-plus years of age my skin, unlike my scalp, is drying out.

What makes a lot of these choices so hard is that we are individuals and have very unique needs, like the oily scalp but dry legs. I want to find the most carbon neutral solution that fits my life.

But finding a solution that fits my small cottage cheers me. During winter I am very reliant on my tumble dryer to get clothes bone dry. Otherwise, in this damp country you wind up putting clothing on that is slightly clammy. In Leeds, my solution was to have a ‘clothes maid’ on a pulley that utilised the high ceiling our terraced house. This cottage has low ceilings and space is really at a premium. Today, though I turned to a company in Kidron, Ohio called Lehman’s. They have been publishing a ‘Non-Electric’ catalogue for years. Initially, their market was to provide Amish and Mennonite families with ‘appropriate technology’ for their religious beliefs. Now there are many more people – campers, New Age folk living off grid, rural dwellers, and environmentally conscientious folk – who appreciate the many solutions to their circumstances. These solutions are often very ecologically sound.

Online I found a rack that can be bolted into a corner of my kitchen where I can hang clothes to dry when the airing cupboard is full and the weather if abysmal (quite a lot of winter here in Ireland.) It is made by Amish crafts persons and strikes me as a simple livers solution to a practical dilemma. While I was online I think I may have answered Tony’s wish for a cast iron pan that will fit inside our stove so he can use the hot coals to make chapattis. Cooking from the cast iron wood stove is his winter version of barbequing. Which doubles up on being energy savvy – keep warm and cook dinner from the same source of heat.

To Go Organic Try Growing Some of Your Own

2008-02-21T03:53:00.000-08:00

People often complain about how pricey organic food is in the shops.

Well, this reflects the true cost of food. It’s more labour intensive when you don’t throw a lot of pesticides and herbicides at your plants. You need to weed and check for pests and use biological methods to get them to desist. Or, in layman’s terms when the caterpillars crawl all over your cabbages you get out there with a bucket, pull on your Marigolds and pick each little critter off, one by one, and drop them into the bucket full of boiling hot water.

You can, however, start to grow some of your own and you will begin to appreciate the effort that goes into farming organically.

My personal recommendation would be to grow some of the more ‘watery’ vegetables because these are the ones that retain more of the chemicals that have been used to treat them. So lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers would be my personal recommendation for the novice gardener.

In Ireland you will need a little greenhouse to grow the tomatoes and cucumbers. These offer frost cover because we can get killing frosts right up to the end of May. You need to choose a sunny spot because that will help keep the heat up.

If you are a real novice and nervous of growing from your own seed then get some good, organic plants from a local market gardener. Or ask a seasoned organic gardener to pass on a few plants for you to cherish once they are ready to go into the ground.

Don’t be shy of asking. Gardeners are some of the most generous people on earth.

Only have a bit of concrete yard? Then you can still grow lettuce and a container variety of tomato called ‘Tumbler.’ As long as you have a good south facing yard you should be able to grow the tomatoes. You need good light to give sufficient heat for the tomatoes to ripen.

If you do have a little greenhouse I want to plug a little know cucumber variety called ‘Crystal Lemon.’ It’s round rather then oblong and has a faint lemony tang. The great advantage is that this variety is more easily digested than the more conventional cucumber varieties.

If you haven’t bought your seed stock yet there is still time to sow tomatoes to be ready by June. If you live in Ireland you can get good organic seed stock from The Organic Centre (www.theorganiccentre.ie) Chase Organics is connected with Garden Organic (www.organiccatalogue.com) and has a large assortment of seeds. If you want to concentrate on keeping heritage varieties alive and well you can get seed stock from Irish Seed Savers (www.irishseedsavers.ie)

From Little Acorns Grow

2008-02-15T04:57:00.000-08:00

Many years ago I wandered in the woods of our local country park in Meanwood, Leeds and collected an acorn. I put it in my pocket and later emailed a horticulturalist friend in the States and asked if I could grow and oak tree from it.

She advised me to soak it in water until a ‘little thingy’ sprouted and to then pot it on.

I duly soaked and waited through that winter and then one day the acorn burst open and the untechnically termed ‘little thingy’ burst through. I potted it on in a very small pot and then, incrementally, in still larger pots. By the time we moved to Ireland in 2001 it was about a foot high. Our dog, Poppet, had chewed one of the tips but it was otherwise healthy. When we moved to our ‘God/dess little acre’ in Corrogue we planted the oak tree and the casket with the now deceased Poppet’s ashes in a corner of the land.

When I look out to that corner in 2008 I can now see the bare limbs of that oak tree, which is over a metre tall now. It’s been fifteen years since it was a smooth and shiny acorn in my pocket.

Patience and perseverance works. Oak trees teach us this. It was such a tiny thing, a toss aside from the parent plant. It might have been squirrel food. Instead it is a teacher that small actions do grow into larger and mightier things.

Small actions to tread lightly over the face of the earth do become larger things. Like the oak tree we planted here, those small actions will outlast us and create a legacy worth leaving.

Let's think Biodegradeable

2008-02-12T04:32:00.000-08:00

We have had a fair February so far. Yesterday I began the spring clean up in our garden. Lots of gardeners suggest that you do this deadheading and clearing in autumn. My friend, Marc Carlton, who is a wildlife gardener recommends that we wait until spring.

But spring is very early and I can see the new shoots of mint, lemon balm and purple bellflower starting. The oregano and feverfew are recovering. I am itching to start sowing seeds - flower, herbs and vegetables. But I don't have any plant tags.

You can buy plastic plant tags from a lot of garden centres. But I really want to minimise plastic. So I had a bit of a think and hit on the idea of ice lolly or popcycle sticks. These generally are made of balsa wood - so they should be sustainable as well as biodegradeable.

I got on the internet and clicked on the kitchenware site www.lakeland.co.uk.

They came up trumps. I can get 300 by mailorder for the princely sum of £7.50 plus carriage. Not bad.

The real revelation is that they now have a 'virtual catalogue.' And it is terrific! You can zoom in and out, flick pages, and click on any item for more details. This is a real paper saver!

Well done, Lakeland! Oh yes, and they are probably the only place where you can still get jam pot covers. I need to get ready for the foraging season!

Learn to Cherish Used Yoghurt Pots

2008-02-08T08:11:00.000-08:00

With the new moon just past (at the Chinese New Year), I always gear up to start sowing seeds for the garden and polytunnel.

It is hard to resist those little, convenient yoghurt pots for lunchboxes and snacks. Here is how you can reuse them.

The plastic they are made from is usually not dishwasher resistant. I mention dishwashers since their temperatures are such that with rigid plastic pots they can sterilise the pots without using commercial sterilising fluids.

For the yoghurt pots you need to give them a really good hand wash to get rid of any trace of yoghurt. Then have a dishpan of very hot water with a few drops of tea tree oil or a couple dessertspoons of cider vinegar in it. This rinse should be sufficient to sterilise the pots to use to sow seedlings.

I like the Glenisk organic yoghurt pots. They are not so flimsy that they split and break after a couple of uses. So you get more recycling mileage out of them than some of the cheaper supermarket own-brand varieties.

Carbon Offsetting

2008-02-04T05:06:00.000-08:00

I took two trips to the United States for family reasons last year – a niece’s wedding and my mother’s 90th birthday party. By carbon contribution is still on my conscience.

We have an acre of land and planted one new tree last year. My gut instinct told me that was far from enough. I turned to the Internet to help me figure out what my carbon ‘debt’ was that needed settling.

Lo! There is a wonderful organisation called Carbon Neutral Ireland and they set me straight on how many more trees I need to plant. Since this is the time of year for putting in bare rooted trees I felt the urge to get planning.

Carbon offsetting is a way that many organisations (and countries) try to balance their lifestyle choices with the global environmental priorities. From www.carbonneutralireland.ie I found out that for every round trip that I take from Dublin to New York I need to plant two trees. So I need to plant three more trees before spring to offset my trips made in the interest of familial piety.

I am lucky that I have an acre of garden in development including a small apple orchard. I have space to plant trees here. If you don’t have the garden space then there are ways around this.

For instance, one Christmas Tony and I gave some friends a tree for each member of the family. There was a birch for one daughter, an oak for the other, beech for mum and a maple for dad, who had close family living in Canada. So a tree might just be the perfect gift for that difficult to buy for person who seemingly has everything. We have a millionaire neighbour who falls into that category. One Christmas I gave them a lemon tree I had grown from a pip; it is now thriving in their conservatory in Whitehead.

If you don’t have a good tree nursery contact or feel that the green thumb route is not for you then do not despair. There is www.nativewoodtrust.ie. By contacting them you can buy a tree for €30 and they will plant it in a forest for you.

St Brigid's Day

2008-02-01T07:43:00.000-08:00

Ireland claims three great saints - two patrons, Patrick and Columcille, and one matron, Brigid. Today is St. Brigid's feast day. In the Celtic scheme of things this is also Imbolc, the return of lactation for sheep, a breaking of winter and the beginning of spring. The snowdrop, which is out in force already here in the west of Ireland, is one of Brigid's symbols of her return, of the reassuring cycle of renewal.

I noted the early arrival of a butterfly in our garden nearly a week ago. Now we have had weather that is far more wintry. In the Irish mythological sense, we have had Hag Mother Beara, breathing winter back at us with sleet, hailstones, thunder. rain. This time of year was always noted as a tussle - not just meterological but spiritual and mythological - between Old Mother Winter and the emerging Maiden Spring.

At this time of climate change I think it is important to start making notes about the biodiversity in our own locality. Armed with a good reference book, it is possible to note all the species of flora and fauna within your "patch." This can be a garden, or neighbourhood,townland or village.

I started to do this a few years ago. It's a good way of keeping a record of what species are appearing and when and where. I put my data into a simple excel spreadsheet format. I note the common name, the fancy Latin definition that I have hunted in my reference book, where, the date, and any titbits of detail that I notice - this could be "in a waterlogged ditch" or "boggy meadow."

Apart from being a record of the ecology heritage in your locality it also will become useful as scientists investigate the full ramifications of climate change. It used to be a saying around here that a fair February crushes the rest of the year. But as another person who is a lifelong resident of Leitrim has said to me, sadly, "I don't think the old signs hold at all these days."

Beannacht Brid! Brigid's blessings on our world.

It is a Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly...actually

2008-01-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

The Butterfly is about six weeks early!

Maybe this means and early spring...

When I took the photograph of the butterfly yesterday I couldn’t lay my hands on my Complete Irish Wildlife. A tidy up of the bookshelf revealed it.

I have to apologise. That butterfly is not a red admiral; it is a small tortoiseshell (Nymphalis urticae). What is really interesting is that the common Irish garden butterfly is seen on the wing from March to October. It’s more than a month early. Which makes me think I had better sit down and start sowing my garden seeds after the next new moon.

Red Admiral in January

2008-01-26T07:11:00.000-08:00

I came upon this rather drowsy and tame Red Admiral today. What does this tell us about climate change and global warming?

A Low Carbon Diet

2008-01-25T07:33:00.000-08:00

Pig and poultry produce less methane than cattle and sheep. But they are more dependent on cereal and soy, which could lead to deforestation in some parts of the world.

I heard an interesting statistic on the news the other day. It takes 10 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie of food. That includes transport, horticulture, animal husbandry, and packaging. I suppose the impact of marketing, the white-collar end of the food industry that work in offices that also consume energy, is not taken into consideration. But they ought to since apparently we buy 80% of our food from major supermarket chains, which expend lots of time, energy, television and paper production to persuade us to buy their brand of baked beans over their competitor’s baked beans.

Convenience never seemed more inconvenient.

Another statistic quoted was that people who lived in the 20th century, despite two devastating world wars, experienced a 600% increase in enhanced standard of living!
After wartime rationing, we all got a taste for exotic foods that were shipped from the other side of the world. In some cases, the vestiges of the British Empire influenced this. People were on the move. Ex-patriot Brits wanted their marmite. Likewise, the influx of immigrants from the empire brought people who yearned for some plantain and okra.

We never quite leave behind childhood comfort foods. I like maple syrup on porridge because of some advertising about ‘Maypo,’ a brand of maple-flavoured oatmeal cereal.

But to decrease our carbon footprint we all need to start eating locally. That will mean eating parsnips in season in England or Ireland. Not avocados that might be in season in California or Israel and are shipped to us here.

Sacrifices will have to be made and one thing is for sure – we will not see an increase in the standard of living in the 21st century like the previous one if we want to hand on a user friendly planet to our descendents in the 22nd century.

Mail Order Impact 2

2008-01-23T02:57:00.000-08:00

I have had a lively correspondence with both my favourite mail order companies since my last blog.

www.spiritofnature.co.uk not only have fairly traded, organic and low impact goods to sell they have a policy of only printing two catalogues a year and will only send a catalogue when someone specifically requests it. They are also upgrading their website to enhance the online marketing of their goods to further decrease the dependence on a paper catalogue.

I’ve nominated them for the Observer’s Ethical Awards 2007 for online retailer.

Meanwhile, over at Landsend you can go to their American website www.landsend.com and they have a section on Social Responsibility. They do a lot of charitable work for the likes of Habitat for Humanity and also have a specific environmental policy to recycle and reuse for their offices. However, they are more circumspect when directly asked about whether they will consider having organic cotton goods and whether the people who are manufacturing their goods are unionised or earning a pittance. They say that all companies have to be in compliance with local and national laws.

Well, we know that some countries have far stricter legislation on worker’s terms of employment and conditions than others. In some countries cotton workers are regularly exposed to highly toxic (to humans, let alone to the plants) chemicals without benefit of protective clothing and gear that we would insist upon in Europe. Cotton is the most heavily sprayed crop on this earth.

I know a very committed organic producer in Ireland who says that in some ways it might make more of a difference to wear organic cotton than to eat organic vegetables. This said by a man who has made organic goat’s cheese and farms organic vegetables.!

Mail Order Impact

2008-01-21T08:29:00.001-08:00

Living as I do pretty far out in the country a shopping trip requires a minimum fifty mile round trip. So I have found that mail order helps to reduce the CO2 produced by our aging car.

Mail order does generate catalogues though. I’ve pretty much whittled my consumer choices down to a couple companies. www.spiritofnature.co.uk has a wide selection of organic and fair-trade essentials – undies, T-shirts and socks –as well as cosmetics and toiletries. I have got the hang of their website now so I am emailing them that they don’t need to send me a catalogue anymore.

Likewise, the other company that I buy things from is Landsend. Now their cottons are not organic but I frequently buy waterproof shoes from them and fleece trousers. These wick away moisture so they are essentials for Irish country living. So my email to them was twofold. While I told them that I want to reduce my carbon footprint so please do not send me the paper catalogues in future, I also took the opportunity to ask them if they will be stocking organic cotton in the future. I also asked them about their trade policy. While only developing countries qualify for the fair trade quality mark, I did ask them if they used unionised or non-sweatshop labour to manufacture their goods. I’ll let you know their reply.

Viking Direct have been really good about my asking them to stop the catalogues. They said that I might receive some over the next six weeks because some may already be in the queue for mail out, but that after that the mailings should stop. I’ll keep tabs on that as well.

Affirmations

2008-01-19T05:59:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago the Saturday Guardian featured environmental heroes from around the globe. They celebrated all the famous and less celebrated who are working to preserve our planet. I came across an inspirational woman politician from Iran, Massoumeh Ebtekar, and this quote in particular stirred me.

We need to put spiritual and ethical values into the political arena…You don’t see the power of love, you don’t see the power of the spirit, and as long as that goes on, the environment is going to be degraded and women are going to be in very difficult circumstances.

I am departing from my usual format to give thanks for two Leitrim women who have been particularly helpful and supportive to me over the last couple of week. I am also grateful for the life work that they carry out. Thank you to Jane Golden, of the North Leitrim Women’s Centre, for talk, time and tip offs. Also, big thanks to Pauline Howard, initiator extraordinaire of the Wise Women Ireland Weekends, who has publicised my work on the Wise Woman blog at www.wisewomanireland.com.

Whenever we see women of spirit, doing what they love or spreading love in the world, we need to celebrate them and give thanks. The environment needs them and women need them.

Leftovers II

2008-01-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

Life is full of synchronicities. After writing my blog about food waste and learning to get crafty with leftovers I came across a new website and campaign in two different places in the print media.

www.lovefoodhatewaste.com is campaign to raise awareness about the amount of food that is wasted, principally in the UK, but the principle applies to most Western, consumerist societies.

I did a reality check in my refrigerator after signing up to the campaign. I found some rice pudding that needed urgent consumption that evening and some cooked chickpeas that had languished for a couple of days. The chickpeas promptly got processed in two ways. Half went into making a small pot of humus for Tony’s lunchbox today. The other half went into a potato and chickpea curry for supper yesterday evening. The rice pudding was dessert and Tony noted how it tasted better the second day.

Portion control seems to be where I slip up and create the leftovers that can languish at the back of the fridge. So I am paying more attention to portions and thinking ahead how supper can be used for lunch the following day. When I make soup I generally freeze half of a large pot that I can wheel out as an emergency lunch or supper.

To make a small pot of humus:

Put a mug of cooked chickpeas into a food processor
Add a teaspoon of tahini
Add a chopped up clove of garlic.
Add a Tbsp of lemon juice (or the juice of half a lemon – or even a whole one if the lemon isn’t particularly juicy)
A dash each of salt, paprika and cayenne pepper
A Tbsp of water

Turn on the food processor and begin to drizzle in olive oil or a combination olive/vegetable oil into the processor just as you would with making mayonnaise. You will need a bout a third of a mug of oil in total. If the humus is not smooth enough to your taste add more water.

Add some crusty bread and crunchy vegetables to the lunch box.

Acts Accumulate

2008-01-14T09:50:00.000-08:00

Everyday one of us or both of us has a new insight for action.

I pointed out to Tony that disposable razors are plastic and will languish in landfill. Tony had a beard for twenty-five years so I suppose he doesn’t really think too much about shaving. But now he has a Wilkinson where he just has to replace the blade when it is too dull for a reasonable shave.

With two writers in the household it also dawned on me that the other plastic item that we were sending to landfill were all the disposable pens we go through. We must go through hundreds. Well, maybe I am exaggerating a little bit but scores anyway. I used a fountain for well over ten years until it developed a hairline crack in it that meant it leaked over my hands.

On our jaunt to Enniskillen we purchased two new Parker pens. Tony has a black one and is pleased that it comes with a lifetime warranty. To differentiate between us I picked the only alternative colour, a bright Barbie™ pink. But I was disappointed to find that it only comes with a two-year warranty. Same manufacturer for both and it has the recycle symbols on the package. We’ll just have to road test them to see if my girly pen lives up to my wear and tear.

To match by shocking pink fountain pen we have also purchased a torch (flashlight) that runs on a dynamo principle. No batteries! You just squeeze the handle and you generate your own electric light. We really need where out where we live for the last dog walk of the evening. At full moon there is plenty of light to see your way down the lane but at the darkening phase and a cloudy night it can be pitch dark outside. The upside of living out here without light pollution is that on the recent freezing nights we have seen all the stars and planets light up the sky. I barely watch my feet. I just keep my eyes on the stars.

Make Do or Mend?

2008-01-11T04:38:00.001-08:00

The fate of a rechargeable battery toothbrush has got Tony really curious about all our electrical equipment.

Yesterday, I did an inventory of all the rechargeable or electrical items that are in the house. That doesn’t include the petrol driven rotivator or strimmer that are part of the garden tool kit. They live outside. But I still am taking them into the overall equation.

What I am doing today is tracking down the model and make of each so I can email or write each of their Customer Services departments and ask them if any or all can be recycled or how they recommend that we best dispose of them when they come to ‘the end of their useful life.”

It’s not a terribly long list but it is daunting enough. I am fortunate that I live with a man who is not in love with gadgets.

In doing the inventory I realised that I am still using a food processor that we got at Christmas 2006 - the month we first became mortgaged on our first property in Leeds. There is a very slight chip in the plastic lid but it has been completely serviceable all that time. I don’t use it often but I do use it a lot in spurts when I do batch cooking or am entertaining. It’s a small Braun Electronic so I should at least write to them to congratulate them on creating a consumer durable. They’ll probably hate me.

I am remembering my mother’s refrigerator. She and my father bought that fridge when they moved into their first house in Queens in 1948. It was a Westinghouse and was still going strong forty years later. The freezer door finally fell off the hinges and that was the end of it. By that time my mother was worrying about the CFCs on old fridges so she bought a new model.

We used to think of the term ‘consumer durable.’ Now, all the models seem to be too expensive to mend or buy replacement pieces. Although I will say that Dyson, of the vacuum cleaners, is an exception here. I have been able to get replacement items very easily and inexpensively. But that company seems to be the exception to the rule.

There used to be a shop where there was someone who mended your toaster or put new heels on your shoes. I would have to drive twenty-five miles to Enniskillen to find a cobbler who would perform that sort of service.

Mending used to be an art. I can’t say that I am any great shakes at sewing but I did like learning how to darn, principally because I adored the wooden daring ‘egg’ used for heel, toe, and elbow repairs. Somehow I think we may all need to revive that lost art.

Get Creative with Leftovers

2008-01-09T02:45:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite programmes on radio is BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme. I was listening on Tuesday and learned some astonishing statistics.

Our society generates a great deal of food waste. Our grandmothers knew how to stretch a Sunday joint to feed a family until Wednesday by making lots of different things with leftovers. Convenience foods have made us lazy and most of our leftovers end up in landfill creating methane, which in turn creates more CO2.

Consider the food chain thus. You have a pork roast on Sunday. That pig created methane (from his manure). Then the pig had to travel to an abattoir. The food miles begin to accrue. Then the slaughtered animal goes to a food processing plant. That’s more diesel expended. There the meat will get wrapped up in polystyrene and plastic wrap. That takes oil to create those products. Then the product – it started out as a pig and now it’s ‘product’ – gets on a truck again and goes around Ireland to the shop. The consumer gets in her car and drives to her supermarket and buys a pork roast for Sunday. She drives home and puts it in her oven – whether gas or electric – and expends more energy to cook the meat.

Even if that pig is an Irish pig there are a heck of a lot of food miles already. Lots of our food is imported so you can start to figure in air or cargo ship miles for non-domestic food products.

If you don’t eat every scrap of pork and put some in the bin because you let it sit in the fridge for three days and it’s gone off, you create more food miles and more CO2.

Which leads me on to leftovers. If you ate up your leftover pork in your Monday lunch sandwich or minced it up for meatloaf, you could contribute the equivalent of taking one car in five off the road.

Yes, that’s what the man said. The equivalent of one car in five!

You cannot compost cooked food. If you really have such a hectic lifestyle that cooking with leftovers is impossible get a wormery and feed your leftover cooked food to the worms. They will give you great plant food in exchange!

The Things that You Didn't Know that You Didn't Know"

2008-01-04T08:01:00.000-08:00

Well, what do you know!

I’m not the sort of person who reads the product pamphlets in the box. I need to sort of intuitively figure out how it all works rather than be told in moronic detail how it works.

However, it is fortunate that Tony does scan those pamphlets because we found out something that would not have ordinarily occurred to us.

Tony needed to buy a new battery-charged toothbrush yesterday. In the Braun pamphlet they have an interesting (almost footnote) that “please do not dispose of the product at the end of its useful life.”

It then tells you who to call to find out where to send it to your nearest collection point.

So all you eco-warriors using rechargeable batteries, have a look at the piece of paper in the box and store it somewhere that is memorable when two years down the line the product goes out of warranty and ends its ‘useful life.’

You learn something useful everyday it would seem!

My Ecological Footprint

2008-01-02T05:42:00.000-08:00

I thought taking the ecological footprint test would be a good way to gauge how much progress we make over 2008.

Despite eating organic and not too much meat, buying locally and watching the packaging...

Despite the fact that we have 90% ecological light bulbs in the house and our electricity is generated by wind turbine...

Despite being careful to not journey alone by car...

My ecological footprint would require a 1.6 larger globe. Gaia would need to expand 1.6 times just to accomodate what I like to think of my relatively modest requirements.

Where I fall down is air travel. Because all my family lives in the States I fly home on visits. Also, because we are living out in the Irish countryside we don't have great access to public transportation.

So today's actions included booking a place on the Rural Lift bus on 12th January for a shopping expedition in Enniskillen.

Rural Lift is a wonderful organisation running mini-bus routes through West Cavan, south Fermanagh and Leitrim where it is at least a ten mile journey just to get to the normal Bus Eirann scheduled stops. On alternate Saturdays they do runs to either Carrick on Shannon or Enniskillen so that those without transport (or those who choose to take public transport) can get to the shopping centres, deal with optician appointments, visit the library, or visit people in the town. THe organisation is run by Claire O'Shea, a wonderful, vibrant woman from Northern Ireland who really walks the talk - she biked across Canada and used the train for her holiday, is building an eco-house, and runs a wholefood co-op service for friends so that they can get bulk organic foodstuffs.

There are a number of ecological footprint tests on the net. Personally, I am a bit wary of the ones who are sponsored by ads from Chrevrolet (a US motor manufacturer).

A really easy one is the Ecological Footprint Quiz at www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp

There are also some interesting ones to consider at www.ecobusinesslinks.com/ecological_footprint_calculator.htm

Let it be Resolved

2008-01-01T11:52:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

It's traditional to make resolutions at New Year.

Here are a few of mine. Please comment and add a few of your own.

I resolve to figure out the kitty litter compost problem
I resolve to figure out a better way to filter our tap water. I realised that the Brita ones we use are plastic and just go to landfill. May I just learn to live with the taste of the water provided by our Group Water Scheme, or find an affordable plumb-in version.
I resolve to keep up the actions I already have in place to do with replacing clothing with organic/sustainable fabrics whenever possible; composting and reducing our waste; finding alternatives to brand-name and packaging heavy cleaning products.
I resolve to share my strategies and tactics with the general public
I resolve to thoroughly research the strategies so that I am sure of the facts that inform my judgement call
I resolve to tame some of our garden wilderness before the spring makes it grow like wildfire

I'll stop there for now before I exhaust myself with a 'To Do' list that seems insurmountable. A my beloved would remind me - don't let the 'to do' lists do you to death.

Let it all be Love in Action!

As the Old Year Goes

2007-12-31T10:01:00.000-08:00

It truly is a time for reflection and review.

Before we embarked on this low to no impact exercise I did some preparation. This year I became aware at how much pesticide usage on clothing exists. In fact, a colleague at the Organic Centre, Hans Wieland, pronounced that all of us should be wearing organic clothing to make a bigger impact on pesticide use. He would even go so far as to say that he feels it is more important to wear organic cotton clothing than to eat organic food! From an organic grower that really is saying something.

In addition, I am a union member (SIPTU- Leitrim/Cavan Branch) and I was horrified to learn that so many workers use these dangerous chemicals without training or protective workwear. Statistics vary but many workers die from exposure and many thousands more become chronically ill from the unprotected use of these herbicides and pesticides.

Bit by bit, I have been buying organic knickers, socks, t-shirts and pygamas on a replacement basis. I also learned that there are harmful chemicals in many cosmetics and toiletries, and formaldehyde in nail polish. I couldn't afford to bin all the mascara (yes, I am a lipstick environmentalist!) but I do now have costmetics that are natural, with no parabens and petrochemicals. I did a lot of internet research and have tried differant brands and did a price and delivery quality check on a number of websites over 2007, so I am feeling confident on what products I personally need and how they fit into my household.

Last, but not least are the household cleaners. I always thought that I was pretty good using all those Ecover products, but they do come in plastic containers. I do recycle them at our 'Bring Centre' in Dowra. That does not diminish the fact that I can cut down and improve on our useage. So I am going to be looking hard at cutting down on the number of products - whether they are ecological or green - to do the cleaning. Today I tried a recipe of using bicarbonate of soda with a dash of essential oil as a fabric softener. It seems to have done the job at a fraction of the cost of buying a plastic bottle of fabric conditioner.

With the Christmas holidays I devised one way to cut back on the wrapping paper problem. I used plain brown paper with raffia ties this year so that they can be composted. I also asked a very gifted textile artisan, Caroline Walsh, to make Tony a special Christmas stocking that is big enough to hold books, DVDs or CDs - the most commonly given gifts in this household. Next year I will have Caroline make one for me. That way we can just put the presents in and close our eyes if we want the surprise element.

There is still wrapping paper from other folk but I will burn it on the fire where possible. Anything that looks like it might be a bit toxic if burned will have to go to landfill. But we only have a small box this year and I am sure we will improve greatly by Christmas 2008!

It's about cats....and dogs ...and Christmas

2007-12-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

The cat litter composting project is still in the In tray. It may take some cogitation. If we did a hole as some suggest we hit water table very quickly. If we go for a plastic compost bin, it's well, PLASTIC. I want to avoid either option so I am still working on the ideal model.

But Tony and I did realise that another large part of what goes to landfill are tins of cat food. While our dogs happily eat the dry kibble, our cats do the sucking lemon face if confronted with too many meals of kibble. So we are currently doing a price comparison. We talked to David, the local Spar proprietor, about what was his cheapest cut of meat. He no longer has scraps so we bought some skirt steak for the cats last night. I am currently simmering it with some barley to see if it will pass the good feed test. If the gourmet cats give their paw of preferment it looks like we are done with Whiskas.

Meanwhile, Tony has had to go to some meetings that will take him through Manorhamilton. Manorhamilton is a mecca of butcher shops. There are four in the town and we're sure to luck out on some scraps.

No car journey goes unwasted. Every one is planned to multi-task when you live out in the country. Petrol is expensive but it is also essential to have a car to get anywhere. Even in most cases, the main sources of public transportation are a six mile car journey from home.

In reviewing our shopping list yesterday we also decided we could dispense with blue tack to hang up the Christmas cards. We are going to hang them on lines of cotton string with clothes pegs. I am not sure what the components are in blue tack but we only ever seem to use it at Christmas. Then I lose it in the interim. Last year's stash is wasted. So we decided that a panel pin, cotton string that can be re-used out in the garden and the clothes pegs is probably the lower impact way forward.

Yesterday I made our Christmas wreath with a friend. She's a community artist as well as a farmer so we had fun padding out the wreath frames with sweet smelling hay that was mown from her land last September. (It was so abysmally rainy it only got dry enough then to make hay.) Then we walked down her lane and snipped holly and ivy and gorse and some spruce to make up the wreaths. We never took more than three small cuttings from anyone bush. And if the berries are few and far between we left those holly trees alone. It was great fun.

One thing I sincerely hope is that I don't get all poe-faced and pious about this. That would be very dull. And counterproductive.

Eat Local - but how?

2007-12-17T03:31:00.000-08:00

I was just about coming to this morning, listening to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme when one item tagged the edge of my consciousness.

A survey said that most people want to buy their food locally. Something like 47% was quoted.

What people don't realise is that if you do want to do this then you need to think seasonally. Imported foods have basically educated us to think we can have whatever we want whenever we want it. Kids really don't understand this. This was driven home when my niece was visiting in the springtime and asked if we could go blackberrying, a favourite pursuit. Thence commenced a short discourse on how blackberries only appear in August and September and how everything has its season.

This was a mild revelation to Hannah.

It also came as something of a revelation to two hip London youngsters when I revealed on a visit passed allotments * that it required pooh to grow vegetables. They were disgusted and swore never to eat vegetables again.

So if we eat locally and seasonally then it means there is little point in bottling or freezing fruits?I can't agree with that since our foremothers sweated away the late summer preserving the fruit and vegetables for the scarce winter months. Squirrelling is good if not necessarily strictly 'eating seasonally.' Winter diets can get awfully dull otherwise. Even squirrels now this.

The problem with eating locally is that unless you grow a lot of your own vegetables and live in a rural area where you can source some local lamb or beef, then you are at the mercy of large corporate agri-food businesses. These businesses import and ship over long distances. This means big food miles.

Locally grown means for those of us in the northwestern edge of Europe giving up bananas and satsumas and.....horror of horrors! Sugar. The queen of sugar in her tea - okay, raw cane and organic - is getting shakey at the thought where this tangent is going.

Could I give up sugar? Honey is nice but it doesn't have the same tang as sugar. And I like to bake. With sugar.

So now, along with building a separate cat litter composting site I have to think really hard and long about giving up sugar. But only after Christmas...

* Allottments are common gardens where you are rented a plot out by the town and city councils in England and Wales. They are a hold over from the 'Dig for Victory' gardens of World War II when Europeans last had to seriously think about eating locally. Indeed, Tony (born in 1950) never saw a banana before he was five years old because rationing went on until 1954.

It starts here

2007-12-15T10:58:00.000-08:00

We've been talking about it for a while now. How to minimise our waste. Because we live out in rural Ireland we have to buy special refuse from the county and then we drive the mile and a quarter into the village on a Friday night to leave them there to be collected. So we know how much we are shifting out the door and how heavy it is.

Most of it seems to be cat litter. So our first act to minimise what goes to landfill is setting up a special cat litter composting bin. You cannot use it on vegetables but the composted down material could be used on shrubs or the flower beds. Or so I have been led to believe. I am of the 'suck it and see' school of gardening.

We already compost for our garden and polytunnel. Our local grocery store even gives us the past their sell by date vegetables in the summer to compost instead of sending it to landfill.

Over the course of this next year I am going to blog about what actions we take - and also how they work out in practise.

I am passionate about spreading the word about what works. I am also sure that governments are way behind individuals. So my blog - and I am also willing to take public transport to talk to any groups in Ireland - to help other individuals decide what they can do and how they can put those decisions into action.

It's all about walking the talk and honouring the integrity of Creation.