The Art of Happy Attitude

When I came out of my house this morning I was greeted by a neighbour with

"hmmmm pretty grim day today," I'm sure she was refering to the weather, but the comment was all encompassing.
"Last year it was freezing by this time of year," I replied with a smile "and it's dry."
"Looks like it will rain soon," was the retort......

Whilst we don't always have a choice in the weather or the situation we find ourselves in, we do have a choice in our response. Choosing a positive response to the first stimulus of the day has a knock on effect for the rest of the day and beyond.

This seems, on the one hand, to be basic and obvious and, on the other, it is something which we pay very little attention to and consequently forget to do when going about our daily business. So often, we follow our usual, habitual "gut" response when a bit of thought and a different "way" might serve us (and those around us) much better.

Taking the time (about a second) to actively choose between your habitual response and an alternative is something you might like to consider. You never know, it might make all the difference to your day.

A post election pondering....

I'm being urged by friends of the earth to make Nick Clegg aware of the need to keep his Green Credentials entact whatever pact he should embark upon and I'm wondering if I'm not better off just doing all I can to make sure he keeps to the core Lib Dem policy of a referrendum on PR since this will surely in and of itself return a much greener parliament.......

Voting dilemas

It seems it's all about tactics in this election, and perhaps if we all tactically vote right then we might get to vote for who we want (and not waste a vote) next time. In our neck of the woods it's getting very complicated since the split vote against the conservatives is a very real (and imo scary) possibility.

My hubby and I had one of our monthly conversations the other day about chucking out the tele and for once I was against, saying that I really want to keep it to watch the election results coming in. If nothing else, this election has an exciting element of unpredictability to it..... and that in itself may get the electorate a bit more interested in politics or at the very least in voting. Perhaps the chenanigans of the expenses scandal, the recession and the Copenhagen debacle may have a positive longer term outcome somehow. Let's hope so.

Never work another day.....

“Find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” Confucius...551 to 479 BC

I just found an interesting blogger Wayne Kehl; interesting for what he has to say, particularly about the above quote and because he lives in Prince George, British Columbia - a place I've always had a yen to visit since working in Vancouver 7 or 8 years ago. Anyhow, the quote and article resonated with me from an environmental angle since so much about becoming more environmentally aware puts us back in touch with our essence, with the earth and with being in tune with ourselves and everything around us. I am currently searching for my next "job", and since having children I am doing it in a different way from ever before. I am looking for something which enthuses me and doing my utmost to turn it into something which I get paid for. I hesitate to call it work, since I will remain enthusiastic and really enjoy what I do. So far, I'm enjoying myself, and not getting paid much.... things will change on that front. The way forward for us and our environment is both exciting and challenging; out of it all though I am confident that we will find better, more satisfying lives where we are passionate about what we do.

The Journey

I've just discovered this inspiring website..... The Journey. I particularly liked the Eastside Roots flic. Hope you find something here to inspire ;-)

See the light.....

If you live in the UK and you haven't heard about this already, please sign up for the Lighter Later campaign, it will give us more light for every day of the year (unless you are always an early bird) and just seems like such a logical step towards saving electriciy and opening ourselves up to a lighter future ........

PS please spread this beyond your green network and let everyone who ever has contact with you know about it Cheers

New Awakenings

Soooooooo it's been toooooo tooooooo long since I posted here and any of you who were reading me have probably disappeared off to do your own saving of the planet by now.... which is not such a bad thing. Anyhow, I'm back from a long cold winter (not that we can definitely count it as over in these parts, but I'm optimistic) and thinking about getting out onto the alottment, into the garden and starting the growing season off with a good amount of wonderful homemade compost and digging power.

I've been reading a great book called The Edible Garden (it's on my book list over there on the right) which pointed me in the direction of a fabulous website "Punk Rock Permaculture"..... lots about Haiti on it at the moment and if you dig into the archive you'll find loads of fascinating stuff. We're also considering doing some No Dig gardening in some builders bags we've managed to rescue from the garbage heap. Empty builders bags seem to be left around all over the place and they make great, cheap, low effort raised beds. There is a great website on no dig gardening here and a fab page on how to layer stuff to make it. When you're the mum or dad of a busy family this looks like the way to go to me.

I hope you're all having your own new awakenings and are fresh out of hibernation to start a new spring. Looking forward to keeping y'all up to date with my gardening endeavours. Ciao for now.

I got a stunning email from Friends of the Earth today identifying how they will effect the elections.... here's a link to their offering. It's so bad it looks like a joke. If I was going on this alone, I'd say the Earth has no Friends and is doomed. Thankfully I know better. Hmmmmm elections though, nowhere to turn if you're green in this country.

March resolution

OK, from now on, I'm going to post more regularly, my recent posting rate is really rather pathetic - a definite "could do better".

So much going on.....

2010 has started with much activity in our household. We're busy getting involved in our local Transition Town initiatives, looking out for our consumption and trying to keep to using at least 10% less in 2010, and at the same time getting as many other people involved in Saving the Planet.

There was a very interesting Analysis on Radio 4 the other day entitled "Are Environmentalists Bad for the Planet?". Particularly interesting in light of the fact that at our last Transition Town meeting we were discussing how to expand the network of interested people beyond the "Usual Suspects"..... I have had a suspicious feeling for a while that there is something about a lot of the people involved which puts others in the community off becoming involved. I'm hoping to start expanding the network via the local schools since I'm convinced that kids can help bring parents on board....

Anyhow, I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas. Go Well. F

Reducing household waste

This article talks about an inspiring family who have reduced their waste to one bag a year! Pretty amazing. We seem to be doing comparitively well when you look at the state of the rest of our street. Over the Christmas period there have been no collections, exacerbated by the snow.... most people seem to have bags and bags overflowing their grey bins - so far ours is still contained. This is something I aim to improve on dramatically though in 2010. If we can only put our bin out once a month I'll be pleased..... and hopefully we'll do much better that that.