Climate movement -just keep on working for change, being the change

I am thinking more and more about resilience -about being 'ready for anything'. In the face of the latest IPCC report on climate change, we are all going to have to be able to adapt as the climate becomes hotter, wetter, stronger, faster, and less predictable. 

The IPCC said it was now "CODE RED" for the climate. We cannot keep doing what we have been doing. But while we can individually do a lot (more on this below) it is now essential that industry and government play their part. I speak as an Australian when I say our government is CR*P at playing it's part -but this must stop. We can't keep exporting coal and gas and expect to get away with it, for example. 

Watch this 2 minute YouTube clip here as a summary: 

 I am a Patreon supporter of Brenna Quinlan. I really love her designs which explain permaculture in such a winsome way, like this diagram below: 

So our home and lifestyle are our attempts to do what we can to work for change and be the change we want to see in our world. 

Our garden is looking great after the winter rains. We are picking lots of snow peas at the moment, along with salad leaves and herbs. My roses are budding. The daisies are in flower. Bees are everywhere on the native hardenbergias. My asparagus is coming up, and the rhubarb is growing. I am shoving seeds in everywhere! I have a lot of sweet potatoes growing in the garden -and if necessary I can always grub some up, add some warrigal greens and we will have food. 

We have an extensive storecupboard of basics to use in our cooking. This gives us options for going for some time without a shopping trip -in one of our regional Victorian cities currently under COVID19 lockdown, they are struggling to get home deliveries of groceries because the supermarket workers are in quarantine! One shopping trip to buy in bulk means less fuel used over a month. I keep bulk rice and flour, lentils and pulses on hand at all times, and have tinned vegetables and fruits as well as all the produce we preserve ourselves. 

Still sharing lemons with our community 

DH and I have had our second AstroZenica vaccines, and are feeling really good about it. We see this as an important contribution to our community as well as to our own health. 

DH got back into his workshop, after recent surgery, and made this table top easel from scrap wood. The grandchildren loved it! Miss 9 said "Now I am a real artist" while her 3 year old brother said it was what he always wanted! 

The ability to make things we need, rather than to buy them, and to turn waste into useful objects, is a skill we both continue to practice. 

Finally, I try to add my activism to my practivism! This means that I attend rallies, sign petitions, write to politicans, support progressive candidates in elections and attend meetings! You might be interested in this Rebecca Solnit article which explains it further. 

Rebecca Solnit article -it is not all our fault! 

Djilba! Waiting for the spring

 NOTE: this post contains messages of support for COVID vaccines. If you don't agree, please don't leave me any messages. I am not interested and will block you. 

We are, we hope, moving into Djilba, a season of the Noongar calendar, where winter rains slowly give way to Spring showers, and the birds and animals and wildflowers get active in their breeding and flowering cycles.  This month has been the wettest July in 26 years, and we actually had 18 days in a row when it rained. We are all feeling it! It is lovely to see the rain recharge the rivers and tanks, but we miss the sunshine. I am missing the hours I usually spend each day in the garden. 

The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted that we will have a drier than average rainfall over the next three months , whilst the centre and east coasts will be wetter. 

We have had plenty to be thankful about this month. DH had important and delicate surgery on his back, and is now at home recuperating. This is yet another example of the wonders of our Australian health care system. The whole thing -his scans, his operation and his hospital stay- was exactly and completely free! This precious Medicare system is one of the jewels of our community welfare system -a part of that 'commonwealth' which every nation should attempt to provide to its citizens. Where there is a need, it should not be money which keeps you away from medical care. This has become especially imporant in the pandemic. My DS and DDinLaw have both had their full COVID Pfeizer vaccines, and we are most grateful. DD -also in their age bracket -however has not been invited in as yet. DH and I will have our second AstraZenica vaccines this month. 

Melbourne's arts community made a wonderful ad to encourage everyone to get their vaccine.  It  highlights the fact that, in order to get back to the good things -music performances, art shows, festivals, theatre -we will all need to be vaccinated. Current modelling suggests we need more than 80% vaccinated to be able to put the vulnerable into a safe situation. Some won't be able to have the vaccine, so the rest of us need to do it for them. 

This month DD and I enjoyed the Stirling Players' production of Into the Woods. My son was playing in the orchestra. We loved it! DH and I also were able to enjoy the Classical Guitar Society of WA's 60th anniversary concert too. At the moment we are without any COVID restrictions in WA, but we all know how vulnerable we are to a break out from quarantine, and it could all go away again. 

I finished my quilt!  I have updated the "Quilting and the creative challenge" page of my blog to reflect this. Just need to wash it and then it is ready for giving away to our Community Quilt group at WAQA. 

I have added a lovely watercolour picture to the dining room wall. I found it in an op shop.DH says it makes him think of fishing boats leaving Oyster Harbour in Kinjarling Albany. I reckon it makes me think of my Welsh relatives who worked on coastal boats operating out of Beaumaris. 

Well, that is about enough of our activities for this post. Thanks for reading! 

Winter garden

Whenever the rain is not too persistent, I get out in the garden and do a bit of work. It is winter, and there has been some pruning to do, and mulching, and of course weeding. I am a bit behind with sowing seeds though. 

This week I spread some compost over the rose bed near the patio, where the compost bin was located, and moved the bin to a spot under the Meyer lemon, to begin fertilising it after its awesome crop this year. I celebrated the end of the Meyer lemon harvest by making a whole lemon cake and drizzling it with lemon syrup. My freezers are full of lemon juice and lemon pieces! We continue to give away lemons and grapefruit to any who will take them. 

My garden  is a working, productive back garden, but I think it has it's own beauty. Passionfruit on the wooden trellis, fig in the brown container, lemons and limes in the background, celtuce and asparagus in the foreground. Snow peas and kale in the cream bed to the left. 

I love things that self-seed! My borage is in danger of taking over, but I do love the blue flowers! I have a lot of irises that I have spread myself in clumps around the garden, and they do look lovely at the moment. 

This week I had three wine barrel halves delivered. I had trialled two grafted fruit trees on the paving in between our freestanding carport and the house, by putting them in cheap plastic bins. I wasn't sure they would like the spot, but a year on and I was ready to make this a permanent installation. Two of the barrels are now properly potted on, and one is waiting for our COVID lockdown to end so I can get some more potting mix from the store. In gardening in a small space I really value raised garden beds and containers, because they turn brick paving into shady, green and growing spaces. 

When not in the garden, I am at my sewing machine. This free motion quilting will add texture and strength to my quilt. I put some music on, and sew away! 

Our COVID outbreak numbers are looking good so far -hopefully we can have visitors next week! 

 

Happy Solstice (bring back the sun!)

 

Perth winters are quite short, but for those of us used to continual sunshine -we have an average of nearly 8 hours of sunshine per day- the short days of winter are a bit of a trial! We alternate a couple of days of rain with a day or more of sun before the rain fronts come back. Don't get me wrong -the lovely rainy weather we are having are quite lovely and so necessary in our dry climate, but I miss being outside in my garden.

On the days when working outside was possible, I finished my verge garden with a lovely load of free mulch spread thickly over everything, to keep weeds down, to insulate the soil from cold and heat, and to keep moisture in. Apart from that it makes the garden look better! 

DH made a very wonderful Makrut lime marmalade from our limes -both Tahitian and Makrut- this week. If you love marmalade, you will adore this one -it is a bit tart, and absolutely wonderful. It is up there with the cointreau and cumquat marmalade DH makes, and that is high praise indeed! 

I have now stripped the Meyer lemons from the tree and am processing the last of them. Meanwhile friends and family are enjoying our bountiful supply of Ruby grapefruit. I have so many we are now juicing them for breakfast! At $6 per kilo, that would be very expensive juice, and we feel luxuriously rich while we drink it while eating croissants and marmalade! When I have juiced them, sometimes I put the skins in the slow cooker and cook them overnight, then add sugar and make a citrus syrup which is amazing on a whole orange/grapefruit/tangelo cake. 

We always mark the Solstice as a bit of a celebration, because from today the days get longer. We had friends over for dinner and I made a lamb roast served with a potato bake and a salad made from greens from our garden. 

June 20 is also World Refugee Day. We always mark this important occasion, too. Learn more here  https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/world-refugee-day.html

New watertank and citrus -what we are doing this autumn

 

This is our new 1500 litre water tank, saved up for and installed just in time for the winter rains. We had to get an extra delivery person to help us get it off the truck and pushed into position down the side of the house. DH was feeling much better recently after being ill with another bronchial infection on top of the back surgery eight weeks ago, however, and was able to get the downpipe installed to send the rain into the tank, which saved us the cost of a plumber. 

It sits under the eaves near the other 3000 litre water tank and the garden bed on the west side of the house. It will solve a problem with water pooling on the paving in that site, because the downpipe did not have a soakwell to put the water into, from the roof. It will also provide extra storage of water for our garden. Perth is not getting wetter with climate change, but rapidly drying. My water tanks are used for extra watering for food plants. 

DH also helped me prune the grapevine on the northern side of the house so that more winter light can get in and warm the place up. It now has a pretty decent structure, and I hope to be able to manage it better when summer comes. 

I am pruning the citrus trees as I harvest the fruit. The mandarins were a bit overcome by the Mediterranean fruit fly this year -I got some nice ones, but I need to remember to bag the fruit on the tree next year I think. 

The Meyer lemon has been prolific. I have juiced some and frozen the juice in bags for recipes later on, but there are plenty to share. I have put 5 boxes full of lemons on the verge for neighbours, and there are more to come. I put a post up on our "Buy Nothing" page and a steady stream of people come by to get the lemons. 

The lemons are just a part of the citrus harvest - I am also processing limes and grapefruit and tangelos! I am pressing them onto anyone who comes near me: "Here, take some away before I drown in citrus juice!" 

We are drying chillis and herbs like oregano on the laundry rack I have in the laundry room. It is a good place for slow drying without power. 

Apart from all of this harvesting, I would like to be able to get more seeds in for the winter crops- I have some snow peas coming up already. I have a lot of self seeded celtuce for winter salads. 

I love my garden, and I enjoy the work I do in it. Sharing it  and saving it are part of the fun. 

Choosing a value driven life

With so much going on in the world, I choose to hunker down here in my house and garden, trying to live a value driven life, rather than a life buffeted by fashions, advertising or even bad news. This is where I can provide those I know and love with my time and the results of my efforts and work. This is where I am nurtured and where I am content. I concentrate on the three big Permaculture values -care for the earth, care for people and Fair Share. The kind of values which most spiritual paths will identify with, too. 

See more about this -click here

I started this blog in 2008, when I was on the first couple of rungs of  the ladder of learning to live simply. I was in a stressful job, and I felt stuck. I needed a plan in which I could be kinder to myself and it wrote about it here

When I go back and read the first couple of years, I can see how much things have changed since then. I have added new skills such as making bread and quilting, along with new garden beds, new habits such as budgeting with YNAB along with a new garden shed. The blog was my way of both documenting and creating accountability for my determination to live a more value driven life. I wanted to be less busy but more happy, to work less and spend less but enjoy life more, and to be more creative and to live out my values. Eventually I was able to move to part time work, then finally to retire, having paid off our suburban home and ready to live more on less. 

This beautiful illustration is from Brenna Quinlan

We are all feeling a bit overwhelmed, I think, by the stresses and changes of living in 2021. Right now we are back in lockdown here in Perth. 

I try to concentrate on what is in our power -to do all the good we can do. Some of these things are remarkably easy to do! But they will 'leave a trace' for others to follow.

Brenna says "We're always talking about doing less bad, but why don't we shift the conversation to one about doing more good? Imagine if your ecological footprint was a measure of how much carbon you captured? Or if the goal wasn't just to achieve net zero, but to assist our ecosystems to thrive once more.  We can all kick start this way of thinking in our homes and communities. We can be a beacon in the dark, inspiring others to do the same, just like so many have inspired us."

MONEY 

We have moved our 'parked' savings to a bank which does not invest in fossil fuels or live animal exports or the weapons trade. They invest instead in projects which will be good for the earth and the community. We are very happy with Bank Australia. 

Find out if your bank is doing this by checking out Marketforces.org or dontbankonthebomb.

We try to spend our money with local businesses and services. I firmly believe we can do good this way, keeping people in work and letting the money circulate in places where it can do the most good. In Australia large businesses swallow up small family owned businesses -especially in hardware, groceries, fruit and vegetables and butchery. I get better quality services and goods from small places and usually reduce the food miles by HEAPS as well. For example, here in Perth one grocery chain sells eggs from Queenslad -over 3000km away. I shop at an independent store where I can get them from either Harvey (a town a couple of hundred ks away) or Gingin (quite close to my northern suburb home). 

We try not to spend it all on ourselves! The past few months I have been using YNAB as the tool for managing our budget. I have no personal or business relationship with YNAB but I can heartily recommend it as a way of giving us power over our money. With the tools and tutorials it offers us, we have been able to feel more completely aware of each dollar and what it is for.  This then means that, because we are in a very fortunate position of having a bit more money coming in than we can justify in spending on ourselves, our charitable giving can be supported.  We also donate to a small number of regular charities. Our long term favourite is St Judes School in Tanzania , The Pat Giles Centre for Non Violence , St Barth's homeless services  and CARAD -Centre for Refugees and Detainees.  

We try to invest ethically. In Australia, we have a superannuation arrangement which puts money into an investment fund during our working life, to use when we retire. DH and I arranged for our superannuation funds to only be invested in ecofriendly investments. No fossil fuels! No weapons! The superannuation manager was a bit surprised, to be honest, that we requested this, but they did have options for people like us-even if he had to go and look it up first! 

One thing I am interested in exploring, is using our money to invest in small, local, eco-friendly business ventures. I don't have much money to spare, but it could just make a big difference to someone starting out. 

These are just a few of the ways in which we can do good with our money. 

Next time I will write about how we are trying to do this sort of thing by living our values with regard to what we buy and how we take care of the things we own.

Here are some links for you to enjoy: 

The shearwaters are doing well this year 

We found some daisies! Check the story here 

A great inspirational book about gardening: 

Happy -when surrounded by nature and especially lots of it

How to keep cool -click here 

Farming productively using old methods here 

Simple days, getting simple things done

Our days have been going on in the usual way, with simple things taking up our lives. We are most grateful for our happy, quiet home.

 In the last few weeks a number of important milestones have been passed -DH and DS both had birthdays, and DH is through his hand and back surgery and well on the mend. We have both had our flu injections for this year -DH got one for pneumonia last year so probably doesn't need it to be done again this year. We are not yet on the list for the COVID vaccine but I will be lining up as soon as I am called. 

The tumbler quilt top I started some time ago has become a flimsy over the last couple of weeks. I will always remember this one for the way my 3 year old grandson enjoyed turning the handle on my Accuquilt Go as I cut the tumblers, and them put them up on the design wall. I am planning to use a collection of orphan blocks on the back. I am trying to think of a name for the quilt, but given the helper I had I am thinking of it as 'tumble tots'. 

It  has been school holidays and we have been having a 'sleepover' with the older grandchildren as a special treat. I took both Miss 8 and Mr 6 to the local pool and they had a wonderful time. The pool is geothermally heated at a constant 32C and it is quite wonderful. When DH is a bit more recovered we both will be using the pool again for our 'walking in water' exercise regime -it is good work but kind to arthritic joints. 

Miss 8 continues to progress in her scrunchy making skills with my sewing machine. I think we have made 3 so far, and each one requires less of my attention.

I took advantage of an early in the season rainfall to start putting plants in the verge garden. After the hot dry summer the earth was absolutely rock hard out there, so I bought an auger attachment for DH's drill to help me dig the holes. I had a couple of indigenous plants ready to go in, and have some more to plant this week. Once the rains fell the earth softened a bit and I hope that gradually we can turn this semi-desert into living soil again. In a couple of weeks I hope DH will be able to help me get a trailer load of mulch to protect the bed and feed the soil a bit. 

 We are eating the butternut pumpkins I grew under the citrus out the back, and just this weekend started harvesting the limes. The myer lemons are colouring up, and will be abundant very soon. I managed to get abut 7 good pomegranates from the tree this year -a smallish crop, but I have frozen some kernels for salads later in the year. I have some rocket now growing -it needs cooler weather -and some seedling celtuce coming up from one I let go to seed. I have prepared some of the raised garden beds in preparation for winter crops. 

The nasturtiums are returning to the front garden, and the autumn flowering daisies and salvias are in bloom again.  

Finally, here are a few good articles I found about simple living and growing things 

Simple living vs Minimalism

Why we should embrace regenerative gardening 

The self-sufficiency myth

https://www.treehugger.com/embrace-regenerative-gardening-5176159