Further to my recent decision to start blogging here again, I’ve changed my mind.  It was a little on the ambitious side to think that I could maintain as many blogs as I am currently trying to, so I’m going to say goodbye, this will be the last post on this blog.  I will be continuing to blog at EcoStreet and The Zen Housewife.  Please join me there.

A good friend of mine lost her daughter to leukaemia 7 years ago.  Her son James is now raising money for Woking Hospice to help with their work in supporting bereaved children, support which he benefitted from when his sister died.  You can support James by making a donation at justgiving (see widget in the right sidebar).

This will be my last post at this blog for a while.  We will still be living our little green lives at the Little Green House until at least August next year (2008), but I’m taking some time out from this blog to concentrate on other endeavours.  I will continue to write regularly for the EcoStreet blog, as well as carrying on with the administration of the directory and forum on EcoStreet.  

I am also writing a new blog with a spiritual twist: The Zen Housewife.

I’m going to leave The Little Green House just the way it is for now, and perhaps will come back from time to time to report on developments as we prepare to move around August 2008.

To everyone who has visited and commented, thanks for taking the time and I hope that our paths will cross again.

Friends of the Earth would like to hear from you.  They’ve recently launched a new online bookshop and would like feedback from the green community.

All you need to do is answer 10 short questions for your chance to win over £150 worth of environmental books.  Click here to complete the short survey.

Thanks to Anna at Friends of the Earth for the tip. 

I’m not finding much inspiration to go outdoors at the moment.  The wind and the rain are a combination guaranteed to have me on the warm and dry side of the glass, unless I absolutely have to go out.  And so, the allotment has been neglected in favour of indoor activities.

One of the indoor activities that I’ve taken up is writing for a new blog at Lifescape magazine.  It’s called EcoStreet at Lifescape, and it’s a weekly round-up of what’s been happening at EcoStreet.  It’s a great opportunity for me to write for a whole new audience.  I’m very excited about it.

We are getting ourselves ready for our trip to Cape Town for my sister Natalie’s wedding in February.  We are going for three weeks.  It’s another flight, and something of a wrestle between my conscience and needs must.  So we are going to offset our flights with Treeflights, must add that to the list of things to do before we go.  I just can’t wait to make the move permanently…

All the best for the New Year to our friends and visitors.  2007 has promise written all over it.  We have a few green resolutions for New Year, namely finally fitting the Water Two valve and putting down the long awaited leaky-pipe irrigation hoses in our back garden, attached to our water butts.   We also have plans to further insulate our loft, up to 30cms.

But, on to more jovial matters, and our New Year’s Eve gathering.  We had such a terrific night.  Good friends, good food and lots of fun.

The children painted and played before dinner.

And for dinner we had bobotie, begrafnis-rys, roast butternut, green bean curry and chutney, followed by fruit salad.  Thanks to Neill for making the bobotie and to Lindy for the fruit salad.

So here’s to 2007, may it be a good one! 

Piper and I walked down to the allotment yesterday afternoon to pick some leeks for our supper, and came back home to fetch Pete because we’d seen other plot-holders burning bonfires and wanted to do the same.  We scurried back down there with a number of newspapers under our arms to start our fire, but alas, even I, a seasoned African girl with many braais (BBQs) and campfires under my belt, was defeated by the slightly damp, still very green vegetation that required disposing of.  The kindly allotment society chairman, Gordon, even tried to help things along a little with his weed-killing blowtorch, but to no avail.  Our heap stubborly refused to become a bonfire!

I now realise that we took the wrong approach to bonfiring.  Number one rule: be prepared!  We should have taken kindling (lots of it) with us, and folded lots of longer lasting firelighters out of newspaper before heading off to plot.  Rest assured, next year will be a different experience entirely.  We’ll be prepared, oh yes we will! 

I received a letter from Humfrey Malins MP this morning, replying to my email of yesterday.  I can say one thing for him, he’s on the ball when it comes to dismissing constituent’s concerns.  Here is an excerpt from his letter.

The Conservative Party believes unwanted mixing of GM and non-GM crops should be minimised, ensuring that producers and consumers can choose between GM, conventional and organic products.  Clean labelling is key here.

So far so good.  Our local Tory MP then had this to say:

GM materials are identifiable to a 0.1% threshold, and we regard this as an appropriate benchmark.  Our principal concern is to protect against cross-contamination, and any risk to bio-diversity.  The Government has taken the 0.9% figure which is proposed for produce and is seeking to apply it as an acceptable level of cross-contamination in cultivated crops.  This poses a threat to consumer choice and to the integrity of organic and conventional crops.  If GM crops are to be grown in the UK, it is essential to put in place adequate firewalls between them and conventional crops.  It is equally vital to put in place a robust legal framework to deal with liability, which does not at present exist.  I would be concerned that many local authorities would not have the scientific expertise necessary to make appropriate decisions about GM crops.  With levels of cross-contamination yet to be clarified, it could also impact on boundaries beyond their own jurisdiction.  Therefore, I am unable to sign EDM 396.

I’m disappointed.  Mr Malins has a point about possible lack of scientific expertise in local authorities, but I feel that sidestepping this EDM is a mistake, as it is so important that the government doesn’t think that we don’t care.  How I wish we had a Green Party MP in place. 

I like country music.  Not all country music, and not all of the time, but country music strikes a chord, so to speak, with me.  Could be because my Dad used to listen to it when I was a child, but I think what I like about it, apart from it being laid-back and chilled-out, is that the lyrics speak to me.  They seem to be less romanticised than most song lyrics, and are often just about everyday things.

Anyway, I just heard a song on the radio that brought a tear to my eye and gave me one of those moments of clarity, just as complacence was setting in.  Kenny Rogers (don’t laugh) singing My Petition, a song about a little boy out there doing something to make the world a better place, while the grown-ups are just sitting around being lazy.  I include the lyrics below for your reading pleasure.  Please have the tissues ready.

I just sat down to watch the game when I heard the doorbell ring
An’ I wondered who in the world it could be
Through the peephole, all that I saw there
Was a crooked cap on curly hair an’ some kid squintin’ back at me
I said, "If you’re sellin’ somethin’, well, I ain’t buyin’ nothin’
But I appreciate you stoppin’ by."
Said: "I ain’t askin’ for a dime, just a minute of your time
An’ your name here on the dotted line
Could you sign my petition?"

Had a spiral notebook in his hand
Handed me a chewed up pen
An’ I ask you: "What am I signin’ up for."
I scrolled down that wrinkled page
Saw a couple of neighbors names
I kept readin’, then I sat down on the porch
It was a letter to the President
With a list that numbered one to ten.

It said: "Make a law where Daddy’s don’t work late
Keep Uncle Joe an’ those soldiers safe
Give those kids on TV all they want to eat
Put a stop to bullies on the bus
No crime, no waits, no hate, no drugs
Give a blanket and a job to people on the street."
I said: "Son, sounds like a world I’d like to live in."
And I signed his petition.

He thanked me for my time
I headed back inside, grabbed my beer
An’ got back to the game
Thought: "By now that boy he’s three doors down
"Here I am just sittin’ round
Waitin’ on the world to change."
Must’ve blocked the whole game out
All that I could think about was.

"Make a law where Daddy’s don’t work late
Keep Uncle Joe an’ those soldiers safe
Give those kids on TV all they want to eat
Put a stop to bullies on the bus
No crime, no waits, no hate, no drugs
Give a blanket and a job to people on the street."
An’ I thought: "Man, ain’t that a place I’d like to live in."
And I thank God for that boy that’s out there fixin’
The world with his petition…
 

I will be trying to make the world a better place with more vigour after that! 

A few months ago I was asked by a friend to give a talk at a Muslim youth group in our town about how we try to live an eco-friendly lifestyle.  I was honoured to be asked, and keen on principle to do do some green evangelising, but I secretly hoped that it would all fall through.  One reason was that I’ve never left Piper with anyone other than my sister (once) or my mom (this doesn’t happen often as my mom lives in South Africa), and I was unsure how to get around the obstacle of not wanting to have a non-family member looking after her for the hour.  I decided that if Ayrton would play with Piper in the youth group creche under supervision, then I’d be happy to go ahead with the talk.  And so I did, it was this afternoon, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  The children were so switched on, really aware of the problems the planet is facing, so different to the way that I was at that age, living unaware of what was really going on around me.  The hour flew by, my powerpoint presentation actually worked, and I feel like I’ve done something good.  I’m also very relieved it’s all over!

I’m not entirely sure where the past two weeks have gone, but gone they have, and its been a fortnight since Ayrton’s 11th birthday.  We had a birthday dinner for him with all UK resident family in attendance. Happy birthday Ayrton.

What happens when you try to carry lots of vegetables?

They become cucumbersome. 

Our friend, Azar Breakey, has just had his first break as a musician by being included in this Sony podcast on acidplanet.  We love his music, you can listen to loads of his tracks here.  Onwards and upwards Azar!

Apparently it’s not a snake, it’s a legless lizard called a slow worm.  It looks like a snake to me though, and I’ve seen a few, being an African girl.  On Sunday, Ayrton and I were picking some bits for supper at the allotment and I found this beauty when I lifted the carpet on top of the compost heap to add a few weeds.  It just lay there, perfectly still and waiting to be photographed.  Apparently slow worms are protected in England under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 from being killed, injured or sold.  We have invited our slow worm to stay and eat as many of our slugs as it likes.

Life as we know it has ground to a halt this week.  No freshly picked vegetables turned into mouthwatering dishes, because I no longer have a cooker.  No relaxing around our dining room table because it’s buried under power-tools and dust.  Ping-cuisine and hiding upstairs is the order of the day, or avoiding home as much as possible.  You may have guessed it, we’re having a new kitchen installed.  And is it going smoothly?  Well, do these things ever go smoothly.

Oh, and there’s no hanging out in the garden either, Pete’s building our new deck out there.