Sustainable Living February

03 March 2020


This blog has always been about living life in a mindful and intentional way, for me this means that most of the decisions we make have been thought about carefully, even if we decide to continue as we are a decision has still been made.  When we take a product from a shelf in a shop or tap a button on a screen, should we stop and think about how it has got this point before we do so?  It can be hard to make decisions over many aspects of our lives, we are often far removed from the means of production and it can be hard to find out how this operates.  Maybe we shouldn't be thinking is there a more sustainable replacement for something, rather do we really need it at all?

To help me keep on track I have come up with some words that I will be using to keep my decision making mindful and intentional, and my life in general as sustainable as I can make it.  If you you want to join me you would be most welcome, either using the same words for inspiration or your own that are more meaningful to you.  These are the words (you can read my thoughts behind some of them here) that I been using in February.


Nourish
It never ceases to amaze that the busier I am the more I seem to be able to fit into my days.  A certain teenage boy is always hungry in this house, homemade snacks are more nourishing and usually healthier than bought ones so I have been doing a lot more baking this month.  The kitchen often looks a whirlwind has been through when I do this as I make use of the oven being on and do it whilst I am also cooking our evening meal.  I do love the smell of a biscuit cooking, it is a particular isn't it?  Alice decided she wanted to get on the act and made us all some delicious shortbread, she needed a little help with some of the words in the recipe - reading is a work in progress for her - but none with the cooking.  I am so glad that she loves to spend time in the kitchen.  I now have a supply of muffins in the freezer which can be eaten with soup (savoury ones) or for breakfast with fruit and yogurt.  I am hoping that I can continue to maintain this supply throughout the year.

The baking has also been a distraction for me as I struggle with the contents of our veg box at this time of year.  When the root veggies make their appearance in the autumn I am always glad as I do love them, but five months on and they are starting to loose their appeal.  I am ready for when the spring vegetables start appearing.


Lessen
We bought ourselves a new bed in January, it was bigger than the old one which meant new bedding. It was time for me to go through the old bedding and repurpose or re home some of it.  A friend was in need of some new bedding so she had most of it but one of the duvet covers had several small holes, not suitable for re homing so it was turned into two pillowcases and rag cloths useful for mopping up those messes that you don't want to use the dish cloth for.

I have read a lot about microfibre recently, how it sheds tiny fibres into the water stream, fibres so tiny that they pass through any processing and stay in the water, washing out in our water courses and eventually in to the sea.  I have been replacing all our microfibre cloths this month either with the rag or knitted ones, I had a small stash of the knitted ones so it was a quick replacement.  I have another on the needles and will knit up a few more so that I have a constant supply in between washes.

I also did some repairing this month and cleared my darning pile.  I had a few cloth shopping bags which had seams coming apart and my husband had worn a hole in a pair of his cycling trousers.  They are all patched up and back in use once again.

Thankful
My country has been battered by storms this month, we seemed to have had a near constant weather warning in place for either rain, wind or snow.  The water supply in my village was off for nearly a week, a main supply pipe had burst and took some time to repair the dreadful weather making it an even more difficult task.  I am so grateful and thankful that we were only inconvenienced by these events rather than having our life turned upside down by flooding, my heart goes out to those who have been.  I am so thankful that I have a warm, safe place to call home as this time of year.


Create
I always seem to do more making and creating at this time of year, it goes hand in hand with hibernating.  Alice's tunic is finished, and she has been enjoying its warmth.  My socks are finally complete, they have taken at least three years I think!  I now have three pairs of hand knit socks, I started the year with one pair so maybe this could be the year of sock knitting for me.

A friend who is moving house and having clear out bought a big bag of fabric she no longer wanted to a group I host, I selected amongst other things a piece that I thought I could make into a simple skirt for Alice.  I sewed it together to make a tube, turned over the hem and made a tube for elastic round the waist.  It took me a couple of hours, I already had elastic in my sewing box and the fabric was free, perfect!  I have also started making a linen skirt for myself, I found a piece of linen in a charity shop and loved the colour.  I have washed it and cut out the pieces now it needs sewing together.

Sanctuary
After writing about the importance of sanctuary in my life I realised that I wanted to include it in this round up. Being sustainable is more than our awareness and actions that preserve the beauty of nature and Mother Earth, it is about looking after ourselves too, looking after our health, and well being keeps us sustainable.  My sanctuary this month has been time spent outside.  I have managed at least one good long walk each week and every time it has been the rare occasions that there has been dry moments , I seem to have done well to have achieved this especially when most of the walks were planned in advance as I was joined by friends.  The weather has been so wild and unpredictable this month that these moments outside have been all the more special especially when they have been with nourishing company.

Learn
The state of our climate is in the media all the time now.  Whilst it is good that it is on the agenda and being talked about like never before, some of what is being reported is worrying.  I have read recently that some people are experiencing climate anxiety.  There is a huge pressure on all of us to see climate issues as our individual problem, that it is the up to the individual to change their lifestyle. Whilst there is some merit in us being mindful of our personal choices this is a huge weight for any of us to take on and has the potential to take a huge toll on our well being.  It shouldn't be just about the individual, coming together with other people either in real life or online to support each other, perhaps, if it is something we are comfortable with, demanding radical change through organised protests .  We need to praise each other for any success however small that may seem, lots of small steps add up to big changes over time.  I heard an interesting analogy recently which seems like an unusual one but it made so much sense to me.  It related smoking to climate change, bear with me I have not gone mad.  We knew as early as the 60s that there was a link between smoking and lung cancer, it wasn't until the 80s that research was published on the effects of passive smoking, in that same decade smoking was banned on underground trains, advertising was banned in 1997, you could smoke on planes until the early 90s, you could smoke in pubs and restaurants until 2006 and in enclosed public spaces until a year later (this is all in the UK). It took a long time for these changes to be made, could we have imagined back in the 70s that we would be where we are now?  People smoked everywhere then, nowadays you rarely see smokers in public places. I have realised that we need to think the same way about climate change, we can make changes to public perception, behaviour and law, it won't happen overnight but we need to continue to think that we can.


Fun
You are probably going to think I have completely lost the plot when you read about what I enjoyed the most this month.  Cameron and I have been doing quite a bit of conservation work at a local nature reserve owned by a wildlife trust.  We signed up for a few days this month and for one of them we were putting up an electric fence around a area where we had previously planted several thousand plugs of wild flowers.  It sounds like a job that shouldn't have taken all day but it did.  The area we were fencing was half way up a steep hill, we had a quad bike and trailer to get all the equipment up there, the ground was very wet to cut a long story short we ended up carrying most the stuff up the hill and we encountered several other problems including persistent rain and biting winds.  Somehow none of it mattered, we had such fun as group thrown together by our desire to get the job done which we did.  

Thank you once again for reading through this very long post.  I realise that it may seem that I do an awful lot, I suspect you do to, if you were to write it all down like I have here.  You are most welcome to join me, either use the same words or your own which mean more to you, let me know in the comments below and I will head over and have a read.  I will post my Sustainable Living March roundup on Thursday 2nd April.

25 comments:

  1. Great blog post, I too am trying to be more sustainable and over the winter month cleared out vasts amounts of "stuff" repurpose, donated and gifted. Many of the things were not needed in the first place, I find myself buying things just for something to do. I have saved so much money over the last two months.
    Have just cut up a bed sheet to use as rags, and I was not aware microfiber cloths could be damaging.
    Amanda x

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    1. Hello and thank you for visiting. I am glad to hear that you have saved money, I hope you have managed to find other things to do too.

      I didn't know about microfibre cloths either until I read about them in several different places recently.

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  2. Don't ever apologise for a long read, in an age of sound-bites and politics via a 140-character limit, it is a pleasure to take the time to absorb good writing such as yours.

    Lovely words, enriching ideas, and yes - you are right that there also needs to be fun.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words Jayne. You are right that we are in an age of sound bites, I am glad that you are good with a longer read. I love to settle in and read a long post so it is good to know that there are others who want to do the same.

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  3. What an interesting post. I agree about climate change - we can all do little things and if we do, it will add up to big things. It's about doing what you can.
    It sounds as though you have found a great balance for your life.
    Best wishes
    Ellie

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    1. Thank you Ellie, I enjoyed writing it. It is a good way of documenting several areas of my life, I love looking back on posts like this.

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  4. It's true, if we all do our bit, no matter how small, it will all add up to one huge effort and we can make a change. I remember when Daniel was a teenager, you can never seem to fill them up at that age, can you?

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    1. Teenagers are bottomless pits when it comes to food. When I left home my mother cooked the same amount of food and it all got eaten, I have two younger brothers!

      I think it is important that we hold on to doing out bit and it will make a change, if we are talking about it to each other either online or in real life it will help us to feel that we are not the only ones who are doing something.

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  5. You are quite right to use the analogy of smoking and climate change. Though action is still far away on climate change from government action. Envy your ability to write such a long essay and so thoughtful as well.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words Thelma. I am glad you don't think I am mad to compare smoking to climate change in terms of changing peoples perceptions.

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  6. I love a nice long blog post!

    I know very much the perils of climate anxiety as I suffer from it from time to time....it's hard when there's just SO MUCH that needs to change and I'm the sort of person who takes on that responsibility -- first-born syndrome, I think ;). But you're quite right -- it's the little things adding up and the encouragement we can offer each other. There's nothing more demoralizing than the zealots who insist it's all or nothing. That's not helpful at all.

    Time outdoors is my favourite tonic...I'd go so far as to say it's an absolute necessity.

    I had to giggle at your ever-hungry teenager...I've got one of those. I keep trying to make large batches of things to freeze but they seem to never quite make it off the cooling rack. :) Ah well, I'm enjoying the excuse to be baking. xo

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    1. I am smiling at you baking not making it off the cooling rack, that happened here yesterday I made some biscuits. I came back to the kitchen after leaving them to cool for a while and half of them had gone!

      I am a first born too and yes I do think we take on more responsibility. I think it is so important to support each other and talk about what we are doing, I really think that everyone is doing more than they realise. We live isolated lives, in our small family units so talking about it is even more important.

      I am glad to hear that you love a long blog post.

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  7. A lovely post with some good reminders. Yes, we must all do what we can and not be disheartened, change may seem slow but it does add up. I gave up meat when aged five and grew up keeping my vegetarianism to myself. There were no veggie meals back then, now it's commomplace as is veganism.xxx

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    1. Thank you Snowbird. It must have been hard to keep that to yourself, it doesn't sound like it was easy for you to be vegetarian as a child.

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  8. We also try to be more sustainable but it is slow progress and I sometimes feel a bit defeated. On the other hand, I am fortunate enough to have the energy, some time and resources to think about this, and make changes where we can. Muffins never make it in the freezer in my house, they are usually eaten before they are cool. I might do some baking next time I work from home, that way the muffins can be in the freezer before the children return home from school. Look forward to seeing your linen skirt. For some reason when reading about the fabric, a pale blue colour popped in my head. Have a good week, hopefully with loads of outside time.

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    1. I think it is so easy to feel defeated, the media has a lot to answer for in the way that they report it, it is often all doom and gloom we don't get to hear about the positives. I have to guard my muffins so that they make it to the freezer, I often make biscuits at the same time as a distraction! It has been a good week this week, with lots of time outside, yey!

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  9. fun to read post. a few years ago I emptied out my linen closet and was stunned at what I crammed in there. I donated the 'good' sheets and towels to salvation army. The worn items I take to our vet who uses them for emergencies or to comfort the animal. When our Zoe was sick she laid on a pretty blanket that was donated which gave me the idea.

    I feel any little bit down for the planet is a good thing. I drive my recyclables to a center because we do not have pick up. I also try to buy with the least amount of packaging as possible.

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    1. I have cupboards like that too Karen, it is all too easy to forgot what we cannot see. I have not thought of passing things onto vets, that is a great idea. How lovely that sick animals get to be comforted by thoughtful donations.

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  10. I repurposed my gran's old cotton sheets that had been wedding presents to her and made pillowcases from the less worn parts at the edges. That was about 30 years ago and I am still using them today. Repurposing or re-homing items is something I am focusing on this year. lvely to read this post it is one of those I will keep returning to. x

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    1. Wow they must have been really good quality sheets. I too have a sheet like that which I plan to make more pillowcases with when the middle finally wears out. There is something rather magical and special about repurposing things it feels like it is not only the right thing to do but also makes you think and be creative too. I am glad you enjoying reading my words.

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  11. Love your choice of words! I recently cleaned out my linen closet too and was able to donate a set of sheets, tear another into ties for the garden and cut two worn cotton pillow cases up to use as rags. I have not made any progress on my mending pile though. Meg:)

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    1. Thank you Meg. Oooh another great idea - ties for the garden. I am going to use some of the old duvet cover for that, thank you. My mending pile is rarely empty, and it is not a job for the warmer months either when the temperatures start to fall........

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  12. ha, i just took a break from the darning to read your post! Always a lovely part of Sunday to read your posts, something that focuses on whats the most important, family, food, and loving and living in harmony with what and whom is around us. While theres always more that we can do, i always appreciate myself for the long term ways that i have lived trying to reduce and reuse. But we can always learn more, i just bought some replacement micro fibre cloths as until i read it here, i had no idea that wasn't a really good thing to do! We learn and grow and change.

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  13. What a wonderful post. Just popping over here from Three Ravens, very happy to have found your blog, I shall enjoy following along. You have inspired me to go and make some knitted/crocheted cloths, I have some odd bits of yarn that would be just right for it. I can relate to the hungry teenager, three hungry boys in this house, and all baking disappears very quickly. CJ / Above The River

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  14. Brilliant, thoughtful post as always. Question about the microfibre cloths - are you talking about cloths for cleaning surfaces and just wondering how the knitted alternative works? Thank you for making me think about things in different ways.

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