Change the World Wednesday – 26th Mar

Not cheap

Disaster!

I threw out some food and some wine.

What’s worse, it was my cooking and the wine wasn’t cheap.

Yesterday, I decided to use the last of the sole (halibut) fillets in my freezer. I have never heard of, but couldn’t see why not use fish in a lasagna. Problem was, I had no lasagna; shopping day today. But I did have some macaroni, so a base of white parsley sauce, peppered sole fillets and more white sauce macaroni on top.

I opened the wine, it looked more like iced-tea, and was definitely musky.

Musk = glandular secretions from animals such as the musk deer, not that I am in the habit of sniffing around musk deer butts. I am using my powers of imagination here.

It wasn’t pleasant on the palate at all.

The ‘lasagna’ I ate one plate for lunch, I wouldn’t make it again. The problem was that I made enough for three meals, and had only eaten one.

It had to go. The guilt trip lasted the rest of the afternoon.

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On with CTWW. I didn’t realise, this Saturday is that lights out thingy.

Yes, Earth Hour 60+.

I consider this to be symbolic rather than effective.

Earth Hour – March 29, 2014 at 8:30 pm (local time)

I have never been convinced that even if the whole world participated, the use of alternative light forms, candles, torches, etc does not offset the switching off of lights.

But it doesn’t hurt to have symbols to raise awareness.

This week, in honor of Earth Hour and to raise awareness, please take photos of what you, personally, are trying to protect. Perhaps it’s a beautiful spot in nature that you particularly love. Maybe you are protecting the clean water which comes out of your faucet. It could be a photo of a river, a favorite tree, an animal, or the sky. The idea is to share, visually, your reasons for living green. You can post the photo on your blog or, if you wish, send them to me (HERE) and I’ll include them in next week’s post (put “CTWW” in the subject line so that I’ll be sure to see the email).

 

OR …

If you’d rather not do the photos, please observe Earth Hour by turning off your lights for one hour beginning at 8:30 pm (your local time) on Saturday, March 29, 2014.

My photo is of the local praça (park) in front of my house. It’s not particularly obvious, but under the bushes there is a lot of rubbish.

Rubbish under the bushes that surround the praça

Plastic water and soda bottles, beer cans, disposable cups, and those nasty things shopping bags. I am constantly picking up what I can, and trying to raise awareness of the locals on the issue.

Our green spaces need protecting, whether they are urban or rural it matters not.

I try my best to live a greenish lifestyle, I’m not always successful (as above with my ‘disaster’) and suffer a measure of angst when I do something that goes against the grain. It raises my hackles when I see people not even trying.

As for the lights out… I probably will  because at that time I will be watching the news, I can do that in the dark.

Change the World Wednesday – 19th Feb

No major problems this week.

The rain arrived, and we have had three days of cooler weather.

Two nights ago I had my first suco de goiaba (guava juice) from my tree, the ripe guava gave me enough to make a full glass.

Glancing around the tree, I won’t get a fantastic crop, but enough to make life interesting.

You may remember a few months back, I rationed myself on beef because beef is the meat that requires more water and resources than other meats. Making the first and third week of each month ‘beefless’. Well, an update; I am not so rigorous with the beefless weeks now, not that I have given up, rather that I find that beef has taken a lesser role in my diet.

Without thinking about it, I rarely have more than two beef meals a week. My meat now is mainly chicken, pork or fish.

Even when I go to my favourite BBQ restaurant, I find myself enjoying the beef, but also eating more of the other offerings.

My trip to the dairy farm yesterday to enquire about fresh milk, led me no further ahead, the guy that does the business wasn’t in. So I’ll have to return. But the plan is still on.

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On with this week’s CTWW.

This week, pick up litter and dispose of it properly. As you go through your day, pay attention to the area and clean as you go. You might see trash as you walk between your car and your office. Perhaps you’ll see plastic bags, etc. in the parking lot of a market. If you enjoy nature walks, browse the side of the trail. Get your kids involved and take litter walks or organize a neighborhood cleanup of a local park. The idea, this week, is to rid the area of litter!

Well, Small must have her crystal ball out.

I have mentioned that we have lixo seletiva (a rubbish collection that just picks up recyclables) that passes each Tuesday. I now collect all my plastic, glass, metal and cardboard for this collection.

Yesterday, as I put my Tuesday rubbish out, I noticed that there was a lot of plastic strewn around my part of the praça (park) and in front of the bar. So I grabbed a large plastic sack and filled it just in time for the truck to pass. It wasn’t a big job, took me all of ten minutes, but it did clean the area up a little.

The orange posts make the bins a little more visible

The job is not complete by any means.

Last week the council came and trimmed all the bushes that line the praça which made the horrible truth apparent; under the bushes it is literally littered with plastic bottles and disposable cups. I talked with the council workers who were cleaning up the praça and and painting the playground equipment and they have painted the posts with the orange rubbish containers orange to help with their visibility.

But as you can see there is a disposable cup right under the bin. Maybe it was an honest attempt to dispose of it properly, maybe just laziness.

There is a lot of work to be done educating the people here. But, things are becoming better, sometimes you see genuine efforts to put the rubbish in the right place.

 

Change the World Wednesday – 6th Nov

Running late again, it has not been a good day. Read Well, Bugger Me! to find out why.

Nothing really to add to last week’s post, and not much has happened since then.

Although this week is not a beefless week, I had a wonderful pork leg chop the size of a dinner plate for a BBQ lunch at home, BBQed the potatoes in their jackets as well.

Let’s get on with this week’s CTWW.

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This week invite someone to join you in a green activity. Need some ideas? Invite a friend to go for a walk … and perhaps pick up litter as you go. Ask a family member to help you plan and cook a meatless meal. Swap clothes, tools, books, etc., with a neighbor. Start a “green club” with your friends and meet occasionally to share green tips and ideas. Host an Eco-friendly cleaning party at a friend’s home. Do laundry together … or join forces to rake up leaves. Be creative and have fun. The idea, here, is to share an experience so that a green activity which you care about will become important to someone else as well.

 

OR …

If sharing an activity isn’t really your thing, then please share your passion by writing a post about a favorite green activity.

I don’t really have friends whom I could invite for this type of activity, although when my kids are over for a BBQ, I do get them to help keep the area that we use in the park tidy, and see that we don’t leave any rubbish. They know full well, my views on litter, and do help. We tend to leave the area tidier than when we arrived.

So, I am going to affirm my passion for gardening and preserving produce; that would have to be my favourite green and healthy activity, albeit in modest proportions now that I don’t have a garden as such, just many buckets and paint tins with plants.

My best year was the first in this house. I had passion fruit growing up the side of my neighbour’s house.

With beautiful big fruit.

And lovely flowers.

I also had tomatoes.

Things like chili peppers and cayenne peppers get bottled in olive oil and I now have a pot with a healthy growth of parsley, which gets used often in the kitchen. Then there are my two goiaba (guava) trees, the acerola and pineapple.

My ‘garden’ isn’t big enough to grow beetroot, onions nor cabbage, but I buy them when they are cheap and pickle them as well.

So, yes, gardening and preserves would have to be my favourite green activity.

Change the World Wednesday – 18th April

Time Flies - I found this on a photoshop contest, I've probably broken every copyright rule in the book, but you see more hre. http://www.freakingnews.com/Big-Ben-Pictures----1925.asp

Wow, the week has gone fast… again.

I find that as I get older times flies. It does, much faster than it used to. It seems only a short time ago that I used to comment on how fast the years went. Now I’m measuring the lightning speed of each week.

This week is weird. Monday, was normal, until the moment I put my foot out the door. Tue – Fri I have split days; yes, almost a week where I go to work twice in the same day. That’s incredibly tedious. I have already been to work, 7am start, and I have been back home for three hours. It has taken me that long to get back into my routine. If you do happen to flip back and read the Monday post, you’ll find that I have a very clever cat.

I have fish thawing for lunch. I am going to try a new idea. I have some Alaskan pollack, that I am going to poach in homemade tomato sauce with capers.

My big surprise last week. I won a prize.

Prizes just don’t normally enter my life. I have won very few and then of little value or consequence, so I was rather chuffed to win a copy of Born to Blood during the promotion week on Reduce Footprints guest post by SB Knight. Rather made my day.

I began reading it on reception. As I don’t have an eReader or a Kindle, Brian was kind enough to organise and send me a .pdf copy.

It’s the first novel that I have attempted to read via ‘the screen’ and it’s rather hard going. As an avid reader in the past, I do enjoy that ‘papery’ feel.

However, the book is worth the extra effort to concentrate. I’m a little more than half the way through, and getting to the interesting bit. I’ll keep you posted.

On with this week’s CTWW challenge:

This week take a walk and pick up trash. Then, come back here and tell us what you found (photos of what you collected would be great)!

Hmmm, great. This is something that I do as a matter of course. Especially around our local little praça (park). I hate seeing trash littering up the kids playground and the pathways. I used to make the effort on Sunday mornings, but since I have been confined to the walking stick, it’s not so frequent. I still do it occasionally. I pick up the roadside litter in front of my part of the street and wander along until I have filled a plastic shopping bag. No, not from my house, I find one somewhere in the park and use it; thereby recycling as well.

Some of the local kids in front of the praça

My camera is still having an identity crisis. Sometimes it decides it wants to be a camera, and sometimes not. At the moment it’s having an apoplectic fit and the battery cover is held in place by a rubber band. I have to get a new SD card as well, the one I have has decided it wants to be ‘read only’ and won’t let me erase images to make some room. Isn’t technology fun?

So there won’t be any pictures of me, or the rubbish. But I will give you a glimpse of the praça. The kids actually walked off and left the bottle and disposable cups on the ground, but threw them in the rubbish mumbling “velho caduco” (grumpy old man) after I drew their attention to the fact. A grumpy old man I maybe, but the praça is better for it. The photo is the view out my gate. Notice the old paralelopipado (paving stones) that make the roadway. Unfortunately they are being replaced by ashphalt as the road requires mending.

There you have it.