international downshifting week 19 - 25 april

“If you are looking for a little help to slow down your pace and enjoy life more, this is the place for you!

Our campaign was formerly known as ‘National’ Downshifting Week. This year, as a result of the strong support we’ve received from around the globe asking if other countries can officially ‘join in’, we’ve simply decided to rename it
‘InterNational Downshifting Week’!

Now everybody can get involved and form a united and global movement that supports living and working more sustainably and strives for a proper work / life balance!

Our campaign remains packed full of really simple ideas that will help you ’slow down and green up’ and it’s almost time for her 4th outing. I cannot wait to get my teeth into it and this year I’ll be working hard to keep my carbon footprint down to a minimum. I hope to enthuse you with ideas on the many ways you can slow down and green up in your home, community, business and school.

So keep an eye on our website and Green Family Blog for further details and good luck with your own personal downshift!”

Tracey Smith

Creator of InterNational Downshifting Week

Escape the Fantasy April 21 - 27

The idea is simple: take your TV, your DVD player, your video iPod, your XBOX 360, your laptop, your PSP, and say goodbye to them all for seven days. Simple, but not at all easy. Like millions of others before you, you’ll be shocked at just how difficult - yet also how life-changing - a week spent unplugged can really be.

check out the website before next week!!
http://www.adbusters.org/metas/psycho/mdw/

april in the vegatable patch

Right no hints and tip’s this is just a list of things that have gone in. I was going to say it’s all from seed this year but someone just gave me some onion plants, which apparently are going to be more expensive this year. So thats a win win. Everything is probably too close together but most of the seed packets are well out of date so I thought I’d put everything in that I’ve got. For now this is what’s in.

Parsnips gladiator F1
Carrot Autum king
Beetroot bolt hardy
Spinach Beet perpetual spin
Lettuce little gem
Raddish Scarlet Globe
Broad Bean bunyards exhib
Early Pea Kelvedon wonder
Purple Sprouting Broc
Salad Leaf Rocket
Oriental Salad Leaves
Roob Cima Di Rapa

Don’t you just love the names? All seem to be doing OK apart from the early pea which despite it’s name is nowhere to be seen. It could be that the seed is too old. Below is a picture of my notebook, which I love. I wish I had kept one ever year too compare the years by, I think it’s more of me being a geek than anything useful though.

today is buy nothing day

http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/

Saturday November 24h 2007 is Buy Nothing Day (UK), It’s a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

It’s buy nothing day and I can say that I will not be buying a thing not because i agree with the whole idea but more for the fact that I don’t have a penny!!

cheap school clothes?

So it will be soon time for all the little monsters to go back to school so all us parents realise that in the course of six weeks they have all grown out of everything and everything has a hole in it some how. This can cost a fortune especially when you have a few kids at school age. Most people therefore are pleased to see that many shops and supermarkets are selling school clothes at a record low price £2 £3 for trousers for example.

On the face of it it seems great but at what cost do we benefit from such cheap prices? We save a little cash but on the other side of the world somebody takes home around £18 a month to keep our kids clothed on the cheap. Don’t get me wrong if you are a single parent with kids on benefit you want to get the cheapest clothes possible, even if you are struck by the ethical dilema.

Whats the answer then? Nobody wants to see familys struggle to buy expensive fair trade clothes but we also don’t want to think that somebody is suffering just so we save a few quid. Would it not be better to abolish uniforms altogether? thats not to say that it would solve the problems in the sweat shops of Bangladesh etc. but it might stop supermarket price wars which force lower and lower prices, which is the main problem. Kids might also gain a bit of individuality aswell.

trees for the future

50 Million Trees and Counting: Trees for the Future

safari concession threatens Hadza tribe

This is not directly to do with me but it is something that is close to my heart so if you hav enever heard of survival international then shame on you, no you should really check it out, give it a look and see what you think.

Hundreds of Hadza hunter-gatherers face eviction from their ancestral lands if a foreign safari company is given a hunting concession on their land.

Tanzania UAE Safari Ltd, which is reportedly backed by members of the United Arab Emirates royal families, is negotiating with the government of Tanzania for a concession of 3,975 sq kms in the Yaida Valley, where Hadzabe (‘Hadza people’) have lived for millenia.

If the hunting concession is approved, the Hadzabe will lose access to crucial food sources such as game and wild tubers. They are likely to become destitute, with devastating consequences for their life expectancy and general wellbeing.

Last month two Hadzabe activists were arrested when they attended a meeting with local officials to voice concerns over the deal and its impact on their tribe. They were later released.

The Hadzabe are reported to be trying to seek a sustainable solution with all parties concerned, which respects the tribe’s land rights and way of life.

The Hadzabe number between 1,500 and 2,000 people. They are one of Africa’s oldest tribes and speak a click language like the Bushmen.

As they are hunter–gatherers, adequate land and natural resources are essential to their survival. Until the 1950s they survived entirely by hunting and gathering. Living in small mobile camps, they had no ‘chiefs’ or formal political organisation.

Tanzania’s government has made repeated attempts to settle the Hadzabe in villages and get them to take up farming. Today, most Hadzabe people live in settlements, inside their distinctive grass huts, but they still move off into bush camps to find food.

No Hadzabe farming has been successful, unsurprisingly, since the hot, dry climate is unsuitable for it. One Hadza elder told Survival, ‘No Hadzabe ever died of hunger when we had our land. But now that so much of our land has been taken and is still being taken, many Hadzabe are hungry.’

National liftshare day

water crisis

Got up this morning to find that there is not water!! this is the second time this year, which may not seem much to some people around the world but it the first time this has happened since I’ve lived here for 9 years. It really makes you think about how much we rely on such basic services like water sewerage electric and gas. We never give them a thought untill they are not available.

If the peak oil projections are true will this be the future of our general services? I was totally unprepared this time and I’m the sort of person who knows what should be done and how to do it but for those who are blissfully unaware of the reality of daily life they must be in a panic.

I can flush the toilet with water from the water butt as well as giving some to the dogand cat . I could also spend ages boiling it for us but I think that I’ll just go down to the shop for now. The worst part is my little boy has an awful cold and I want him to drink lots of fluids, it’s just another reminder of how prepared we all could be but never bother to think about.

Water is the worst service to be without, electric and gas I can do without for quite a while but water is hard to substitute. If our future requires a more resilient daily life then today has taught me a valuable lesson and no I’m not one of crazy doom scenario people just a realist who would like to be prepared for all eventualities.

I’m just pissed off that I can’t have a cup of tea…………………..

april’s garden photo’s

Here is is part of my tub crop raddish lettuce and garlic

this is the herb spiral looking a little healthier.

I proud of the thifty use of this old window that I’ve just put into the shed door. I just need to get the roof on the shed now! I’m hoping for something to turn up on freecyle as up to now all the materials have been free.