Archive for the ‘Biodynamic Gardening’ Category
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Visiting Napa and Sonoma With Children
Posted on October 19th, 2011 by admin
Weve often described the Northern California Wine Country as a Disneyland for Adults, but that doesnt mean you have to leave the children behind. For many people, visiting wineries is only one day of their trip to San Francisco. After all, with all of the attractions it has to offer, the Bay Area is a great destination for the whole family. A daytrip to the scenic counties of Sonoma and Napa provides an opportunity to enjoy a relaxed pace with stunning views, wonderful tours and interesting wineries. The wineries and their gift shops are admittedly more interesting to the adults than the kids, but they will still enjoy the trip because it is, after all, farm country, and what kid doesnt enjoy that? Sonoma especially takes great pride in their agricultural diversity, so as you travel around youre going to see a wide variety of plantings, orchards and livestock in between the vineyards.
Were seeing increasing numbers of children in Wine Country. While it is still a relatively small number, parents are finding ways to make it work. The secret to having a great time together in Sonoma and Napa is to realize that while many wineries are not suitable or enjoyable for children, there are many others that are. Sonoma and Napa have over seven hundred wineries, of which about half can be visited easily so there are plenty to choose from, as well as many other family attractions.
One of the most kid friendly and adult enjoyable destinations is the Plaza in downtown Sonoma. If youre coming from San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge youll be at this historic and charming place in a little over half an hour. This is the Philadelphia of California, because it is the place where the Republic of California declared its independence from Mexico.
It is helpful to know that there are the counties of Sonoma and Napa, and the cities of Sonoma and Napa.Even though Sonoma is a small city of about nine thousand people, it is big on history. It is the only city in California that enjoys all three of these distinctions; it was an official Pueblo, or city under Mexico, it was a Franciscan Mission (the twenty-first and final), and it was the military headquarters for the entire West Coast under both Mexico and the United States. Around the Plaza, which is the largest in California, there are numerous historic sites as well as nice restaurants and shops. In the Plaza there are great picnic tables near the playgrounds and the newly restored duck pond.
The tourist bureau sits on the Plaza in an old Carnegie Library building and it can provide additional information for a great day with kids. A unique attraction called Train Town is just two minutes back down Broadway, the road that led you to the Plaza. This is a small old-style amusement park suitable for young children up to approximately age ten. There is a small train to ride and a traditional merry-go-round and it harkens back to a time before special effects were digital. There is even a petting zoo.
Around the Plaza are several winery tasting rooms where you can taste some excellent wines without spending all day getting there. Then you can nip back to the playground before moving on to the next winery. Five minutes from the Plaza is one of the Sonoma originals, the Sebastiani Family Winery, with their great old barrel room, one of Sonomas best gift shops and some very nice wines for you to sample. They also offer a trolley tour of Sonoma that explains about its wonderful history. Just to the south of town is the Larson Family Winery, on the old Sonoma Rodeo site. This was where the champion race horse Seabiscuit stabled overnight when he was racing on the West Coast. It has a farm-like setting with llamas and sheep. Horse rides through the vineyards can arranged in advance, bocce courts and picnic areas round out the experience.
From the Plaza you can head north on Route 12 up the Valley of the Moon, a scenic route. Voted Sonomas best tour, the Benziger Family Winery in Glen Ellen offers a wonderful mix of agriculture, education and fine wine. Their vineyards are tucked in a pretty little valley on Sonoma Mountain just down the road from Jack Londons old ranch, now a park.
Their tour, aboard a tram attached to the back of a tractor, winds its way up into the vineyards where they explain the biodynamic approach to agriculture, a remarkable system that is increasingly popular with many high-end wineries. Next you visit the barrel caves and finish up in the winery for a tasting. Admittedly wineries are about adult enjoyment, but there are often children on the Benziger tour and they always seem to enjoy themselves.
Please dont make the mistake of bringing children to trendy wineries where they have nothing of interest for kids. They will spend the hour while you are tasting wine bored with nothing to do. The wineries that are kid friendly have made a big effort to be so. At both the Sonoma Plaza and Benziger youll find good picnic tables, so pick up some sandwiches either at the Plaza or at the Glen Ellen Market.
Many of the wineries in the Valley of the Moon are kid friendly as long as you have an adult willing to keep an eye on them. The grounds are gracious and park-like allowing for a little outdoor enjoyment in beautiful surroundings. Some of those that come to mind are B.R. Cohn, Imagery, Landmark and St. Francis. Chateau St. Jean and Ledson Winery both have deli markets and picnic tables on site. They are all within five miles of each other along Route 12, the main road in the Valley. Hint: Bring a soccer ball or a Frisbee. There are some great lawns in the Valley of the Moon.
Napa is a great place to visit because everything is close together. The whole valley is only thirty miles long by five miles wide, and while there are other wineries tucked up in the hills, the variety of wineries that are easy to reach is wonderful. However, it is not as agriculturally varied as Sonoma. Napa is another half hour farther from the Golden Gate Bridge, but the ride brings you through the beautiful Carneros district with its vineyard covered rolling hills that have a distinctly Tuscan feeling. Napa is closer to San Francisco via the less scenic Bay Bridge.
Napa has a bit more of a city style than its country cousin Sonoma, but there are several places that children will especially enjoy. Everyone enjoys spectacular architecture and great views, something at which Napa excels. A classic example of this is the Artesa Winery, with its hilltop site overlooking Carneros and the Bay. Artesa is close to San Francisco and despite not being built with children in mind, the feeling is relaxed enough and the variety of places to explore extensive enough that everyone in the family will be charmed. They even have an elevator for those with strollers.
Just to the north in Yountville is Domaine Chandon, one of Napas original makers of sparkling wine. This is a favorite for groups and people with children because the grounds are gracious and accommodating, with lawns, ponds and wildlife. Up on the patio, they offer snacks along with their elegant sparkling wines and the tables make it easier to keep everyone together. The springtime tadpole explosion in the ponds will keep any child entertained.
One of the most enjoyable family wineries is Francis Ford Coppolas Rubicon in Rutherford, about half way up the Napa Valley on Highway 29 (St. Helena Highway). He took the historic Neibaum/Inglenook building and surrounded it with gardens that have all of the graciousness of a southern Italian villa. The exhibits and old barrel rooms upstairs are enough to entertain most children. During the summer they provide model sailboats to send gliding on the fountain pool in front of the building. There is a small caf, with outdoor seating, a great gift shop and of course some wonderful wines.
Just to the north is the V. Sattui Winery which in this context is most valuable for their great deli offerings and large picnic area. Napa does not have a lot of picnic areas. On a Saturday in season it can get busy, but finding food, wine and picnic tables all together certainly makes the logistics of blending wineries with children much easier. The wineries have dramatically more traffic on Saturdays than Sundays.
For the San Francisco-based traveler, unfortunately, two of the most interesting wineries for children are all the way at the northern part of the valley, just south of the old west style town of Calistoga, which is a great, kid-friendly place to visit onto itself. These two wineries are not suitable for infants in strollers, but for children eight years and older they are a fun experience. First is Sterling Vineyards, famous for its aerial tramway that carries visitors to its hilltop winery. Many years ago it was the first large winery to charge for their tastings. The price includes the tram ride. Between the tram, the gift shop and the tasting you need to allow an hour and a half to enjoy the place. Get there early to avoid the lines.
Just across Highway 29 is one of the newest, large wineries in Napa, although it was built to look old. The Castello di Amorosa is built like an authentic castle, from real stone and hand wrought iron. The vision, the forty million dollars and thirteen years it took to build produced a remarkable place. Children are restricted to the early morning tours so you should check their website for the schedule. The tour with tasting takes about two hours. The admission for Rubicon, Sterling and Castello di Amorosa all range between $ 20 and $ 25, although they offer discounts for children and young adults.
Napa gets hot in the summer, but very dry, so there are very few flying bugs. During the Winter it gets rainy, but not very cold. Both Spring and Fall are gorgeous, and harvest time, from late August through mid-November, is a very busy, exciting time in Wine Country.
Small, private wineries are often at peoples homes, so for the collector, traveling with children, you should ask your potential hosts if children are welcomed. If you want to get to the smaller wineries with children, consider hiring a guide with a car or SUV (avoid limos due to the need to sit sideways or backwards which increases the possibility of carsickness). While there are limo services in San Francisco, many of the experts live in Wine Country but they pick up clients in the city. Hiring a driver greatly reduces the stress and increases the enjoyment. Explain that you have children and ask them for a guide that is comfortable with that. Some guides are parents and actually like children. For them its something different and in fact we remember every tour weve ever done with kids. Touring with children is educational and a lot of fun, as long as you go to wineries that theyll find interesting too. So enjoy your day with the kids in Wine Country.Ralph & Lahni DeAmicis are authors of the books ‘Your Day in Wine Country, Touring the Wineries of Napa and Sonoma’, and the Concierge and Tour Guide edition, ‘Their Day in Wine Country’. They are owners of a custom tour service, Amicis Tours, based in downtown Sonoma and can often be found driving clients around Wine Country and introducing them to a wide variety of wineries in both Sonoma and Napa. They are also parents of five and grandparents of eight and their grandchildren love visiting wineries with them, and helped with the research for this article. Discover a wealth of Wine Country information or contact them to schedule a tour via their web site at http://www.YourDayInWineCountry.com or call (707) 320-4274.
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Natural Osteoporosis Treatment – in Three Easy Steps
Posted on October 19th, 2011 by admin
Natural osteoporosis treatment is highly effective, because in most cases the cause is simply a case of a bad diet.
The western diet of high protein in the form of meat, of high dairy consumption, of high processed foods and of little raw fruit and vegetables is basically the cause of most osteoporosis.
Couple that with some of the medications used to treat osteoporosis, most of which do more harm than good, and you have a recipe for poor bone density.
Let me explain.
When you look at wild animals eating meat, it is always accompanied by bones. Meat needs calcium to digest. So if you have a high meat intake, your body has to take the calcium from somewhere, in order to digest the meat. Your bones have the highest source.
Dairy is high in calcium, but it is in a form which is only available for baby cows who have not been weaned. Those of us who have been weaned and who arent bovine have a hard time digesting this. And it does you little good, making your body pH acid.
Any gardener will tell you that an acid soil needs calcium. So do you. But in a form that is in natural balance, that you can absorb easily. The best source of this is food. Such as green leafy vegetables. These are high in calcium, in a form that is easily absorbed by your body.
Processed food is food which has been denatured, either by the removal of key nutrients that help digest it (such as wheat germ in flour and molasses in sugar) or has been cooked so much, there is little goodness left.
So avoid processed food.
For natural osteoporosis treatment, first change your diet. Make it high in fresh fruit and veggies, especially green leafy veggies. Eat as much of it raw as you can. Eliminate or cut down on animal protein (meat, chicken, fish, eggs, dairy). Green leafy veggies are high in protein as are nuts and seeds.
Cut out processed food. This can be a tough one, so be creative in your alternatives. Sugar can be replaced with honey. Milk can be replaced with oat or nut milk. Use wholemeal, stone ground biodynamic flour. Avoid soy and artificial sweeteners. They are probably worse than what they are replacing, for different reasons.
The second most important thing to do is to take a supplement. But the supplement should be a superfood, rather than the common isolated and synthetic supplements. Synthetic and isolated supplements are very hard for your body to utilise. At best they go straight through (expensive poo). At worst, they hang up in parts of your body to create problems later on.
Blue green algae is a wonderful superfood, high in easily absorbable calcium and all its related nutrients.
And finally, to complete your natural osteoporosis treatment at home, take the tissue salt Calc phos 6x. Suggested dosage frequency is two to four times a day. This is available from health food stores, homeopaths, naturopaths, homeopathic pharmacies and online.
If your osteoporosis is quite severe, then I suggest you seek the services of a professional homeopath, in addition to the above life changes.
Madeleine Innocent.
If you liked this article, then I invite you to my download my free report to solve more problems like these. You can receive my free, weekly ezine on how to improve your health and that of your family, including pets, naturally.http://www.twolegsandfour.com.au
http://supplementnaturalhealth.com
Contributing editor Jessica Blair was invited to tour Weleda’s biodynamic gardens in Germany where many of the ingredients for their organic skincare products are grown. Here’s a little video she shot.
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I Love Organic Wine – a Cote De Provence Rose
Posted on October 19th, 2011 by admin
Provence. While Provence is known for many of the finer things in life, great wine is not usually part of the list. But its checkered wine history didn’t keep me from trying this bottle produced in the Puget Ville area, part of the gold triangle of Cotes de Provence. La Sauveuse (the savior) refers to a local spring that is more than welcome in an area in which water is often in short supply. So maybe this part of Provence has everything.
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed Domaine de la Sauveuse Cuvee Carolle Rose 2008 13.0% alcohol about $ 16.50
Let’s start by quoting the marketing materials. A long-term organic producer, Domaine de la Sauveuse has also been increasingly incorporating sustainable agriculture and biodynamic ideas into its production techniques. So far, the winery has only received organic certification, but their passion for the other two schools of thought is deeply entrenched. This rose is filled with strawberry, cherry and citrus aromas and flavors. A terrific sipper, it is also a good match for a roast pork or grilled, herbed chicken breast. Our Quality Assurance Laboratory has determined that this wine contains 12 mg/L of free sulphur. And now for my review of this Cotes de Provence AOC wine which is made from Syrah, Grenache, and Cinsault grapes.
At the first sips the wine was very fruity with soft acidity. And I thought of Provence. The initial meal was a boxed vegetarian lasagna with Ricotta and Mozzeralla cheese that I slathered with grated Parmesan cheese. The wine was sweet with refreshing acidity. It was round, somewhat lemony, and fairly long.
The second meal consisted of zucchinis and onions stuffed with rice and lightly spiced ground beef on a bed of sliced potatoes. This rose had bright acidity. It faded and yet stayed, if you know what I mean. My glass held lots of strawberries and some sunshine.
The final meal included home barbecued skin-on chicken thighs and wings that had been marinated for two days in a fruity Thai barbecue sauce, accompanied by potato patties and a fresh, garden-style tomato. With the wings the rose was bright and acidic. With the more flavorful thighs the wine was light and refreshing but not very flavorful. The acidic tomato softened the wine somewhat.
Before tasting this wine with two cheeses I paired it with Matjes herring. The wine was freshly acidic and tasted of strawberries. Herring and strawberries may not seem to go together, but this was actually a good combo, slightly sweet with soft tannins. With Asiago cheese the Cotes de Provence was almost mouth filling. It was round and balanced with good acidity. With a Swiss Emmenthaler the wine was light, almost too light. This wine was overpowered by the cheese.
Final verdict. I don’t plan to buy this wine again. It was rather disappointing for the price. But it did come close. If you are committed to organic wines your decision may be different from mine.
Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books, but really prefers fine Italian or other wine, with good food and company. He loves teaching computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. His global wine website www.theworldwidewine.com features a weekly review of wines and new sections writing about and tasting organic and kosher wines. His Italian travel website is www.travelitalytravel.com .
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Productive Fruit Trees Through Earthworm Farming
Posted on October 18th, 2011 by admin
As a child, it is likely you can recall going after worms and killing them. You may have recollections of fright or repugnance regarding the tiny helpless creatures, which, as you were advised by elders, could get into your body and cause much trouble and sickness. In fact, they play a vital and significant function in what is widely known these days as biodynamic farming, or the use of organic and natural farming methods to generate agricultural products.
By now, you ought to know that earthworms are genuinely beneficial. Their appearance may prompt repugnance and fright in some people, but they’re by no means harmful. They are the celebrities of the soil, and there are numerous reasons behind this. They break down natural matter and excrete castings and slime that contain nutrients to further enhance the soil.
You can benefit from the usefulness of worms specifically if you intend to grow fruit trees. If you do this, it will save you on fertilizers and leave the job of fertilizing the earth to who else but your soil and farming buddies – worms.
If you have decided to plant fruit trees late in the sowing season, you can still achieve this, without having to wait for the following planting season. Needless to say, the soil could be hard and stiff, making it more difficult to dig and you’ll probably have a hard time digging deeply. Worse still, you might have to dig around a significant spot where the fruit tree seedlings will be planted. Do not worry. As long as there are earthworms close to, you can be spared from such tiresome actions.All you’ve got to do is dig the site where the seedling will be implanted and put some worms into the soil. Plant the tree and voila, you can go away and just visit the plant from time to time. The earthworms will take care of loosening the earth, carrying rich nutrients from the to the subsoil and making burrows that could help further entrance and circulation of oxygen and water into the earth. As worms continue to flourish around the area, they’ll provide great natural fertilization to the fruit trees. Their excreted castings are significantly abundant with the correct nutrients perfect for development of plants.
All you’ve got to do is dig the location where the seed products will be inserted and put some worms into the earth. Plant the tree and voila, you can go away and just visit the plant from time to time. The worms will take care of loosening the earth, carrying rich nutrients from the to the subsoil and making burrows that will help further entry and circulation of air and water into the soil. As worms continue to thrive around the area, they’ll provide good organic fertilization to the fruit trees. Their excreted castings are significantly abundant with the right nutrients ideal for growth of vegetation.
If there aren’t sufficient volumes of worms in your meadows, garden or land areas designated for growing of fruit trees, you could opt to invest in earthworms grown in earthworm farming. Earthworm farming is the technology and method of artificially developing and growing worms to enhance their reproduction and growth. Such earthworms may genuinely be helpful in making you succeed in creating thriving fruit trees.
For more information about earthworm farming visit the website http://www.wormfarming.co.za
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Thirty Positive Actions for a Sustainable Earth
Posted on October 18th, 2011 by admin
There are many ways we can use our human energy to lighten the
load on natural resources and tread lightly on our home planet.
Check how many of these you do already:1. Recycle and re-use Wherever possible, separate waste into
compost material, bottles, tins, paper, clothing etc and make
sure that these get recycled. See if your local council has a
policy for recycling, food reclamation to fuel or even methane
extraction from waste. If they don’t – start one. Ask your
neighbours to contribute to a local composting station.“The UK has one of the worst recycling records in Europe (12.4%)
compared with 64% in Austria, 52% in Belgium, 50% in Germany and
47% in the Netherlands. In the UK we bury 80% of our rubbish in
landfills, compared to the Swiss who only landfill 7% of their
rubbish.” (The Observer 2004)2. Shop locally or order a veg box Give your local farmers a
boost by buying direct – either by visiting farms, farmer’s
markets or through vegetable box schemes – which are usually
organic. This saves transport costs in ‘food miles’ and
guarantees, fresh, local, un-polluted and healthy, in-season
food. Try and avoid supermarkets and shop locally when possible
to enhance your own local micro-economy.“The average household [in UK] spends 470 a year (or one sixth
of its total food budget) on packaging. In a typical Asda or
Tesco shopping basket only 26% of the cost is accounted for by
food; the rest is packaging, processing, transport, store
overheads, advertising and the mark-up of supermarkets which is
sometimes as high as 45%.” (National Farmers’ Union)3. Make more of your own food from fresh Stop buying ready-meals
and throw away your microwave. Take the time to make healthy,
balanced and delicious meals and condiments from wholesome raw
ingredients. Be like the French and live to eat – rather than
eat to live ! Eating food is the only activity apart from sex
that involves all of our senses.4. Promote community exchange If you can exchange skills, items
or energy direct with other people without the use of money -
this makes your activities more efficient. If you can share
resources with people around you – then you don’t have to earn
so much to buy things and you don’t have to work as much.5. Improve local diversity of nature See what you can do to
provide the right ecosystems to promote local biodiversity.
Bring butterflies, moths, birds, wild flowers and so on into
your local environment by providing the resources they need.6. Review domestic energy use Check whether you can save energy
by cutting down consumption or being more efficient. There are
government schemes in the UK to help with heating efficiency and
insulation. Even switching off at the plug at night saves power
-those little red ‘power on’ lights add up to over 4 million of
electricity used in the UK each year ! Look at how your home
uses energy and where it can be saved, even if it means putting
a jumper on occasionally.7. Start a local investment scheme If you want to save for a
future – doesn’t it make sense to invest in something you can
see and touch – like a local investment system that brings a
return on your money and improves your own locality ? Invest
money where you can see what it is doing – and where you can
lend a hand if needs be. Community companies, local
co-operatives and credit unions are a growing resource for
sustainable local investment. What better way is there than to
invest your energy directly into your local micro-economy where
you can cherish it ?8. Use an ethical banking system Just what does your money do
when you invest it a bank? Do you invest in the land mines that
blow off children’s legs ? Do you support armaments
manufacturing, the over-exploitation of rainforests, globalised
cartels intent on raping the planet ? Does your default
investment in a bank endorse child slavery and prostitution,
international drug running and money laundering ? Check the
investment policies of your bank to see just where they are
putting your energy as an investment. If you don’t like what you
see, at least consider using an ethical bank that might invest
in things you want in the world. Even better – reach for a
lifestyle that doesn’t include a bank account at all.Did you invest in this ? “Japanese physicist Professor Yagasaki
calculated that the 500+ metric tonnes of depleted uranium (DU)
that the US unleashed on Afghanistan was the radioactive
equivalent of 51,875 atomic bombs of the size dropped on the
Japanese city of Nagasaki. During the 2003 Gulf War the amount
of DU used was the equivalent of 103,750 atomic bombs the size
of that dropped on Nagasaki. DU fallout will travel from the
Middle East to the UK, US and parts of Asia.” (International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War)9. Review car use and petrol consumption The real price of
petrol, if you apply economic principles to its production -
that includes the time the earth has taken to make it – comes in
at over 1 million per gallon. Its use produces awful chemical
pollution and extreme noise. Most internal combustion engines
run at an incredibly low efficiency (usually about 20%). The
logic of having something that weighs over a ton to transport a
single person defeats me. Yes, I know they’re incredibly
convenient compared to the alternatives and that many motors
have cult status but – come on – there has to be a better way
than this ! Boy am I looking forward to hydrogen / oxygen fuel
cells. Cycling is great!10. Start a local energy collective Your roofs are a resource !
Take a look at some of the rooftop energy panels available
today. Chat with your neighbours about a collective approach to
local energy needs. Sell your excess energy back to the grid !
Intermediate technology combined with modern technology in wind,
solar or water power has come of age so start your own power
supply.11. Learn more about the nature in your local environment Which
wild animals and plants live in your environment? Share some
time with them and see what they can teach you. Become a direct
‘friend of nature’ and explore how other species see the world
we share. You could even adopt some wild nature near you and
‘look out’ for it.12. Make things from found or recycled materials Do you remember
the fun you had whittling wood when you were younger? Keep an
eye out for interesting wood you can prepare to make useful
things. So much stuff is just thrown away or destroyed that
could be useful again given a little T.L.C. Wild wood can make
attractive coat hangers, boxes, shelves, even furniture. Waste
skips often have objects that can easily be given a ‘new life’.
Working with your hands to make things ‘new’ can be a deeply
satisfying experience.13. Make your own Christmas and birthday presents Take time out
to make things that you enjoy and give them away to people you
love. These have a value way over anything you can buy. If you
have a creative hobby – use it to make gifts instead of buying
them. If you don’t – find a hobby or activity that puts you in
touch with natural things.14. Stop using pharmaceutical drugs and chemicals and go natural
We are in a culture where medical consumerism is the norm.
Explore some of the alternatives like using your food as
preventative and curative medicine, or learn about the herbs and
spices that have traditionally boosted mankind’s health for
millennia. There are many gentle ways to find, promote and
maintain health and you will find some excellent examples at the
StarFields Network.15. Join an environmental group Express your energy in a
collective way by joining a group that voices your concerns. Put
your energy into changing the situation for the better by
directly sponsoring a specific environmental cause.16. Use natural materials from a sustainable source over
synthetic materials The more natural a product is – the less
pollution is usually incurred in its production. Support your
environment by valuing natural materials over synthetic, for
example (organic) cotton over polyester. Think about where
building materials or other resources have come from and the
processes it takes to make them.17. Feed your neighbour A quick story based on Dante’s Inferno:
Dante (or someone like him) visits Hell and finds a room of
‘food torture’. The inhabitants are glued to chairs round a
large table covered with food, but they all have their arms
replaced by 10 foot chopsticks. They lift bits of food high over
their heads and drop it down onto their faces in a pathetic
attempt to feed themselves. Later, our hero visits heaven and
finds exactly the same situation except for one thing. The
people in heaven are feeding each other across the table !18. Dance, sing and laugh. Look after yourself and have fun If
you are happy, fulfilled, in good humour, enjoying life’s
journey and so on – the chances are that others around you will
be able to feel that way too. This moves us all along.19. Don’t fly in airplanes If possible, take a ship or train for
long hauls or holidays. Aircraft are extremely expensive in
pollution terms. Enjoy the sensation of travelling more slowly.
Accept the journey as part of the trip.20. Take an action holiday Why not donate your energy to a cause
like helping indigenous people set up sustainable economies ?
There are many companies offering the experience of useful
voluntary work overseas. This is a most direct way to contribute
to a sustainable world and gives you face-to-face contact with
other cultures.21. Grow more plants indoors Enhance your pact with nature by
turning your home into a plant haven. Even simple spider plants
can improve your space by bringing nature in and cleaning the
air. Plants are pretty undemanding compared to pets and they
bring life in and produce air. Go the whole hog and grow some
trees.22. Consider changing your employment What does your ‘means of
income’ do in energy terms ? If the ‘ethics’ of your employment
is distant from your own values then you have essentially sold
your soul for money. Think carefully about the consequences of
your employment. Consider finding employment that is near to
your core values and you will find a more fulfilled ‘you’.23. Review how you are investing in your own future Concerned
about pensions ? It is certainly looking like someone has pulled
the plug on that one. Anyone under 45 should be looking to
exactly what they want in older years and finding ways to
achieve it that may not involve money. There are serious flaws
in our investment systems that are becoming more and more
evident. Co-operative or communal solutions to support in older
years will be an increasing solution to lack of money.24. Review your usage of water If you have metered water, review
how much you use and where savings might be made. For example
bath water (without chemicals) can be used to water plants, a
brick in the water cistern saves flush water. Can you use the
water that lands on your roof that you pay for the privilege of
having removed ? Water butts are cheaper than ever and some
local councils offer price reductions to residents. There are
many water filters on the market that improve the quality of
tap-water and water is a key issue in health, we are mostly made
of it ! Water is a key issue on planet earth in the 21st
century.” Nearly 97% of the world’s water is sea water or otherwise
undrinkable. Another 2% is locked up in ice caps and glaciers.
This leaves 1% to meet all of humanities growing needs,
including agriculture, manufacturing, community and personal
household needs. Of that 1%, one quarter of the world’s fresh
water is found in Canada’s lakes, rivers and streams.” (CPS June
2004)25. Cut down on noise and light pollution Many birds in cities
sing at night as it’s the only way they can make themselves
heard. Generally birds in cities have to sing louder and the
stress this causes gives them shortened life spans. Listen for a
moment now – what can you hear beyond the hum of computer fan?
How much of this noise is really needed? Wouldn’t just some
‘quiet times’ be nice? Get together with your neighbours and see
if you can negotiate a local ‘quiet time’, like a Sunday
morning. Unnecessary light also interferes with wildlife and
even worse – it blocks out the stars – a source of wonder till
the end of time.26. Start your own herb garden Grow your own medicinal and
culinary herbs. Many of these are easy to grow on a windowsill,
in a window box or tub somewhere. The direct growing and use of
plants ties you into natural cycles and rhythms – you could even
learn about ‘moon gardening’ cycles and biodynamics !27. Grow your own food Even simple growing such as mustard cress
or delicious sprouting seeds contributes to a good diet. A
surprising amount of your own food can be grown in a little
space by using ‘potato stacks’ or climbing fruits. There is no
better feeling than harvesting your own crop and eating it with
friends. There are many dwarf bush varieties of fruit, some even
have more than one fruit type on the same bush.28. Downsize Think about how you can work less and keep a good
quality of life. Balance quality of life with standard of
living. Contribute less to GDP and the national/global economy
and more to a wholesome local and global ecology. Think global
and act local.29. Go organic Whatever you consume, source it from a place that
values natural processes over industrial ones. There are many
enterprises providing organic food, drink, clothing or materials
from sustainable sources. Take pride in tracking these down and
using them in preference to more exploitative practices.30. Spend time with nature Take the time to visit nature and
spend time relating with it. Find and adopt special places where
you can go to feel the cycles and forces of nature and know that
it is an aspect of you, and you of it. Many people are forming
‘collectives’ to protect or improve special places they valueSECRETS OF CREATIVITY by Simon Mitchell
A
revolutionary ebook from a top internet author. This ebook gives
you the ULTIMATE POWER TO CREATE with structured courses to
improve your personal creativity. Unleash your SECRETS OF
CREATIVITY at:http://www.si
monthescribe.co.uk/secrets.html
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