Change the World Wednesday – 11th Jun

Got coffee, raring to go!

Can’t eat a football – image: BBC News

Tomorrow is the kick off for the FIFA World Cup. Half of Brazil is excited, the other half complaining/protesting about the costs of a one month sports event while social services are left to starve.

Dilma Rousseff was on TV last night with a damage control presidential message.

I love the world cup, but the thing that disappoints me is there is no effort in promoting awareness nor solutions to the world’s chaotic environmental issues when you have the largest TV audience in the world as a captive audience. I consider this to be a major failing of FIFA.

Lots of big fat juicy worms

As a part of last week’s CTWW, I turned over the compost heap. I didn’t find anything to transplant, but I do have a wonderful crop of worms, big fat juicy ones.

I was happy to see that I have two out of three pretty plants in my yard. My chillies and passionfruit; they do make wonderful displays.

I must take issue with Small on a comment in her ‘Final Thoughts’, “made me wonder, not for the first time, why we (society) choose ornamental plants and trees over varieties which provide food.” I think we have to look beyond pretty/ornamental, and look at what these non-food bearing plants do. While they may sap the ground of nutrients, do they also not provide composting material? Thus, returning to the ground what they have used. Think about all those leaves you rake up every autumn, wonderful for the compost heap; and then you grow veges. Do they not pander to the bees to make honey and feed birds like humming birds? I think that ornamental plants and trees do have their place in the scheme of things, maybe not direct food, but in the long run.

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On with this week’s CTWW.

Reuse!

This week, before placing items in either the recycle or trash bin, see if you can find new uses for them. For example, an empty ketchup bottle could be used to dispense pancake batter onto the griddle. An old cooking pot or tea kettle could become your newest planter. Got some empty medicine bottles? Fill them with coins and keep in your car for toll booths or times when you need a few pennies. The idea, this week, is to find a use for things which might otherwise be thrown away.

I do that, I try to find a use/repurpose for everything. It is the core of my life; and not only at home.

Even as I walk along the streets, I scour for something that I can reuse or repurpose.

Here’s some examples:

Two sewer pipe off cuts found near a construction site make a bench

 

What’s holding up my tomatoes? An old broom handle

 

My old stove is now my work bench and garden storage

 

Repurposed bricks and small jar in the kitchen

So I do, I do it all the time, it’s an addiction, I’m incorrigible.

…maybe I should go to meetings 🙂