naturewitch

The Flu and All That Jazz

2009-05-02T08:53:00.008+10:00

There's been plenty in the media about the latest potential influenza pandemic. the question is: do we need to be concerned?

According to Dr Mercola, probably not. His current influenza article is a little long to read, but quite informative and entertaining. I recommend it.

To stay well during the flu season, he recommends that we:
* keep up our vitamin D levels
* avoid sugar and processed foods
* get good rest each day
* exercise
* have plenty of omega-3s (eg, fish oil) and avoid trans fats
* wash our hands
* eat garlic regularly
* avoid hospitals and vaccines

Sounds like a pretty good list to me. To this I would like to add:

* drink a cup of thyme tea first thing each morning, preferably with one teaspoon of manuka honey and juice of half a lemon (unless you are allergic to thyme). The thyme boosts your immune system and helps prevent you succumbing to viruses. The manuka honey also contains immune-enhancing properties and the lemon juice will help to alkalise and cleanse your body. To make thyme tea, pick 2-3 small sprigs and infuse in 1 cup of hot water for 5-10 minutes. Add the lemon juice and honey and drink. Delicious!

* keep up your zinc status - around 85% of Australians are deficient in zinc and it is essential for the proper functioning of the digestive and immune systems. You can get zinc tests at health food stores to check whether or not you are deficient and one bottle will do the whole family.
If you find that you need to take a zinc supplement, take it after you have eaten, as you might feel nauseas otherwise. Also you might take a lower dose 3-4 times per day, rather than one large dose.
Aim for 100-200mg per day for adults; you probably won't need to stay on them forever, just top up every now and then. Children under 10 need about 10mg per day and over 10 about 15mg per day.
Or you can get your zinc from foods such as beef, baked beans, cashews, egg yolks (soft boiled eggs), ginger, herrings, liver, milk, lamb, oysters, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, whole grains, yeast.

* think about including vitamin C as a supplement, or including vitamin C foods in your diet, such as blackcurrants, broccoli, citrus fruits, guava, parsley, peppers, pineapple, potatoes, raw cabbage, rosehips and strawberries.

* the bioflavonoids can be really useful in building your immune system as well - enjoy plenty of buckwheat, citrus fruits, green growing shoots, skins of fruits and vegetables.

Look to nature for guidance - in these cooler months she supplies us with lovely fresh citrus, tropical fruits, broccoli and cabbages which are all good foods for building our immune systems.

And remember to stay active, stay warm and stay healthy. Bugs just love stagnant bodies to grow in, kind of like weeds growing in neglected gardens. Look after your body garden and you will stay well this winter.

love and light
naturewitch

Autumn Gardening

2009-04-06T19:48:00.005+10:00

Autumn is such a wonderful time to be in the garden. Although some plants are finishing up their main season and may look a bit tired, it is a great time to plant perennials. The soil is still warm enough and the weather cool enough to prevent major transplant shock. And Autumn is a great time to plant spring flowering bulbs.

This morning before class, instead of hitting the books (like I should be!), I escaped into the garden to put some plants into the ground. Quite a few of these are bee plants and many of my specimens were ones I salvaged from the sad bench at our local Bunnings store, although you wouldn't know it by looking at them.

Here's the newly planted lavender hedge. It's an Italian lavender, Avonview. The plants should grow to 80cm tall and 60cm wide. Apparently, it has a long flowering season, so I'm hoping to see lots of happy bees buzzing about the blossoms.

The lavender hedge was planted in a bed previously occupied by camellias. Although they were meant to be sun hardy, the camellias never thrived in the full sun position, so they were moved about a week ago to a partly shaded position. Although reasonably advanced, they moved very easily and look happy in their new spot. Now they're not getting so much sun, I hope they'll bush up somewhat.

This little hebe just moved into its new neighbourhood this morning and looks settled already.

The Chinese Star Jasmine was planted a couple of weeks ago and will soon be ready to zoom up the trellis.

Now, I know we're not meant to have favourites, but I just love this Gentiana scabra. The photo is quite washed out compared to the intense purplish-blue colour of the flowers. They truly are lovely.

I've listed my plantings in the side-bar. It was a very satisfying morning's planting.

Now that I've got the shrubs in place, though, the area under the trees looks like it needs some sort of ground cover. I'll have to do some research on suitable ground covers that bees like. And that will mean a trip or two to plant nurseries or at least online . . . ;)

Hope your Autumn gardening is going well.

love and light
naturewitch

Yesterday's Adventure

2009-04-05T06:42:00.007+10:00

Yesterday, a friend of mine ran a gorgeous workshop - How to do an Aromatherapy Facial.

It was absolutely delicious and the very best facial I have ever experienced. We also learnt how to make a few products.

Now that I know how to do one, friends around Canberra can expect to receive these for pressies. ;)

For those of you in Canberra looking for a lovely body work therapist in Canberra, have a look at Vanessa's website: http://www.holistictherapies.com.au/

Apparently, her hot stone massage is divine. I'm thinking of booking one for my birthday coming up soon.

love and light
naturewitch

What Did You Do for Earth Hour?

2009-03-29T21:52:00.004+11:00

Last night, our lights, television and computers were turned off for Earth Hour.

We chose to go for a walk to our local oval, mini telescope in hand, and lie down on the grass and watch the stars. It was quite magic.

On our way to and from the oval, we walked past many houses with their lights still blazing. My partner's eleven year old son summed it up with "I reckon about 80% just don't care". Unfortunately, I think he was right.

While some people in our neighbourhood, like the lovely peeps next door, had their lights off, about 4 houses in 5 still had their lights on. Some people are elderly and I can understand why they wouldn't turn out their lights - falling hazards and all that. But some appeared to have all guns blazing, almost as a defiant gesture. What will it take for them to learn?

We thoroughly enjoyed our Earth Hour, with the trip to the oval to watch the stars being something we want to do again.

How did you spend your Earth Hour? What was it like where you live?

love and light
naturewitch

The Simple Things in Life

2009-03-28T17:52:00.003+11:00

I catch the bus most days to and from work and study. I enjoy catching the bus, but sometimes the experience is less than optimal. Yesterday afternoon, suffice to say that the ride home was not the most pleasant, in terms of odours emanating from nearby passengers. I was very glad to alight and of course, spend some time in the garden breathing in the lovely fresh air.

While watering the garden, I refilled the bird bath. A short while later, a family of small birds were drinking and bathing in the water. It was a lovely sight and fully restored my humour. Such a simple thing and yet so powerful.

At the moment I'm on an elimination diet trying to work out what foods I keep reacting to. Now me and the word diet just do not go together (it's up there with jogging and photos! NOT something I do), so I was a bit apprehensive as to how this would work out.

Well, I have surprised myself. Not only am I not craving chocolate and other sweet treats, I'm really enjoying the food I'm eating. The diet works on a four day rotation plan, with meat (or other protein source), fruit and a carbohydrate source specified each day. To this you can add certain amounts of specified foods such as cabbage, lettuce, celery and plain rice cakes, etc.

Today I get to eat pears. Pears have never tasted so good. Tomorrow it will be pawpaw. The point is, by appreciating what I can have rather than concentrating on what I can't have, this diet is not the horrible beast I thought it would be. I'm really enjoying the plain simple tastes.

It's really all a matter of your attitude, I think, and you can gain pleasure from even the most mundane things. By appreciating what you have, you lose the desire (well, quite a lot of it ;)) for what you don't have. It really is the simple things in life that matter; we just forget sometimes.

love and light
naturewitch

Bee Update

2009-03-17T21:06:00.004+11:00

The weekend before last I opened the hive to notice that the bees were still not moving into the top box, so I removed the queen excluder between the two boxes.

At this stage of the season, they really need to get in as much honey as possible to feed themselves over winter. We won't be getting any honey this season, which doesn't bother me as long as they have enough to survive over the winter.

Last weekend, I noticed quite a few bees near the front of the hive and I was concerned that they might be getting ready to flee, rather than move into the top box. So, I donned the gear and opened the hive to find a squillion bees in the top box, as well as a squillion in the bottom box.

Sooooo, I'm guessing the little darlings have had another hatching. Yippee!

The weekend before last also saw me on a nursery crawl to find bee plants. We came home with more herbs (rosemary, mints, lemon balm, pineapple sage and winter savoury), native bushes (leptospermum and banskia) and flowers (lupins, salvia and columbines).

Putting the plants into the garden proved to be fun, especially when the bees started to take a keen interest in the lemon balm I was planting near their hive! LOL! While I moved away from the hive, I still had some lemon balm seedlings in my hands and the bees followed. I eventually shook them off (out of my hair, actually) and planted the lemon balm a little further from the hive (about 3m). They're just going to have to fly for it!

This autumn and winter, I'm going to start work on a hedge full of bee plants. This will be within about 10m from the existing hive, so there should be plenty of food for them close by. The trick is finding plants which are evergreen, suitable for hedging, which the bees love and which flower over different times of the year. I have a list of potentially suitable plants and have started getting them. This will mean, of course, numerous trips to online and nearby nurseries - a difficult job, I know, but someone has to do it! Maybe I need to talk to the Evil Plant Buying Alliance to get some ideas??

love and light
naturewitch

Does Pampering Lead to Miscontent?

2009-03-15T20:27:00.003+11:00

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of going to a hair and beauty establishment to enjoy one of my Christmas presents - 3.5 hours of pampering. It started with a Swedish massage, followed by a facial and hand and feet treatments. Then a hair cleanse, cut and blow dry. The people running the salon were very professional and really lovely and the whole experience was utterly delightful.

Enter evil little creature from stage left, who suggests "wouldn't it be great to be able to do this all the time!". Mmmm - if I booked in every couple of months and limited my expenditure to say $150-$200 each time (which includes the hair cut, etc), I may be able to afford it.

Enter rational brain from stage right - "but then you'd end up spending in excess of $1000 a year and isn't that a lot simply to spend on vanity? And what about important things like water tanks and chook sheds and wicking beds, eh?"

"Oooh, but I do work hard and study hard and then juggle all that with home, don't I deserve a little pampering every so often?"

"Well, you could do your own."

"But it's not the same."

How often do we all have conversations like this with ourselves? How often do we deny ourselves some pleasure in the pursuit of the bigger environmental sustainability picture? Are we doing ourselves a disservice?

Or is it simply that having been pampered, I want more and the consumerist devil which lurks somewhere beneath the surface of all of us is just too ready to emerge at the slightest provocation? Does pampering lead to discontent? After all, I probably would never have entertained these thoughts except for being pampered.

love and light
naturewitch

Blogging Mojo and Beached Whales

2009-03-08T06:12:00.004+11:00

I've felt like I've lost my blogging mojo the past few weeks. I thought maybe it was to do with all the events over summer (which are still continuing - fire and floods, etc), but just now reading the Crone's post, I realise that she has expressed my feeling exactly. Something is up with the world and we'll find out soon.

Speaking of which - recently, very sadly, there was a mass beaching of pod whales on King Island, off Tasmania. I've often noticed that when the whales beach themselves there is an earth quake or similar disaster shortly afterwards (up to 2 weeks). It happened before the Tsunami and the quakes in Pakistan and now there have been quakes in Victoria (although reasonably mild).

One of the theories for the latest beaching was that some dolphins herded the whales into shore. Can you imagine a whale being intimidated by a dolphin? Seems a little far-fetched to me, but then again I'm no expert on marine animals and their habits. Personally, I think that the whales are sending us messages; it's just that we don't know how to interpret them.

love and light
naturewitch

Handmade Help

2009-02-17T20:38:00.003+11:00

If you're looking for a more practical way to help people affected by the bushfires, check out the Handmade Help blog: http://handmadehelpsout.blogspot.com/

There are three main streams of help being organised:

Craft - restash a crafter, quilt making, toy making, fund raising, etc
Cooking - submit recipes for a book
Gardening - this is currently being formulated, but a separate blog will be available soon

Have a look and see if any of it appeals to you.

love and light
naturewitch

Around the Garden and in the Kitchen

2009-02-17T20:13:00.004+11:00

Remember Kale Cauli? Well it grew up and was duly harvested. Kale Cauli ended up being a bit green and a bit purplish.

The texture was similar to cauliflower and the flavour was something akin to the taste of very mature kale leaves, ie, a bit strong. Kale Cauli was edible, but not sure if I'd want to eat it too often.

There are a few more baby Kale Caulis in the garden at the moment, so my thoughts are going down the pickles track at this point.

Meanwhile, a few weeks ago, in the kitchen drawer where I keep potatoes and onions, a sweet potato decided to sprout. This is the first time I have ever seen a sprouted sweet potato in Canberra - must have been the hot weather.

The sweet potato is growing well and I'll have to put it in a pot and see what becomes of it. Because the cooler weather will arrive before it's finished growing, the bathroom is starting to look good as a new home.

Have still been bottling like a crazy woman and last weekend I made my first tomato paste. Sure, I could have bought the same quantity of thicker paste for just a couple of dollars, but at least I know where this lot has been.

Also in the kitchen, I've started a couple of batches of wine brewing - one with elderberries, blueberries and plums and the other with peaches and rose petals. The first one will be a red port-style wine and the second will be a white/blush dessert wine. Drinking will be a while away, but it sure does feel good to be making wine again!
And yes, dear Crone, I'll put up a post soonish to tell you how to go about it.

love and light
naturewitch

Preserving to Recession-Proof

2009-02-14T22:11:00.009+11:00

During the great depression in the 1930s in Australia, housewives were urged to bottle their own fruit and make their own jams in order to help their families survive the times. Fowlers Vacola bottles experienced a surge in sales during this time, as their icon, Mrs B Thrifty, helped to spread the message about preserving.

This summer in Australia, we have experienced heat waves, fires, floods and drought, as well as a declining economy. The federal government is implementing policies to hopefully soften the economic blow and the Australian community is rallying like never before to assist those in need. But it strikes me that we all need to ensure we have adequate supplies in our cupboards to get us through potentially tough times ahead.

One way of achieving this is to bottle or preserve food while it is abundant and relatively cheap. Many in our blogging community are already bottling their produce or are contemplating it, so I thought I'd share a couple of tips handed down to me - yes, I'm a second or third generation bottler, depending on the family line.

Vacola bottles and preserving kits can be found from a range of sources: new - online and in hardware and kitchen ware stores; or used - via local classified ads, garage sales, deceased estates, etc. I assembled my collection over a few years by scanning the classifieds every now and then. By all accounts it is getting more difficult to obtain bottles this way because people are realising the value of them. Most importantly, make sure your bottles have chip-free rims and no cracks.

There are basically two types of lids - the cheaper ones and the stainless steel ones. The cheaper type is shown on the left in the photo. These are OK for bottling fruits such as peaches and pears which are not highly acidic, but I wouldn't use them for tomatoes or for anything I wanted to store for a long time. If you can afford them, invest in the stainless steel lids. They may be double the price, but they will last forever. Well worth the investment.

The clips placed over the lid will exert a little more pressure and help the lid to seal better if there is a small coin placed under them. A 2c piece is ideal for this, but if you can't find any, try a 5c or 10c piece.

Now to the seals. These are designed to be single use only. It is important that they are placed in the groove around the neck of the bottle without any twists. Wetting them prior to placing them on the bottle helps and I usually get the twists out by flicking or gently rolling the seal with the fleshy pad of my thumb. Do NOT use any sharp instrument or fingernails, as doing so may damage the seal and compromise your preserves. Also, make sure the groove is clean before you place the seal on and that there is no food caught underneath.

After the bottles have been processed and have cooled for a day or so, you can remove the clips (and the coin). Immediately turn over the bottle and inspect the seal. If all is good, you should not see any leakage. If you spot any leakage at all or there is a break in the seal (which does happen occasionally, although I can only remember a couple times in nearly 20 years of bottling), put the bottle into the fridge and eat within the next few days.

Hopefully, you will end up with a collection of bottles like these.

If you do not have a bottling outfit and cannot afford one, do not despair - you can still bottle food. In this case, use glass bottles that have metal lids with a rubber seal and the pop-up thing in the middle. Prepare the food as usual (with syrup, brine or vinegar) and secure the lid on the jar.

Place in a large pot (eg, boiler) and fill with cold tap water to the neck of the jars or just below. Bring the water to simmering (NOT boiling) point over about 45 to 60 minutes.

For peach, pear and apple slices in syrup, leave at simmering point for about 20 minutes; for tomatoes or tomato based products, leave at simmering point for 50 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave to cool in the pot before removing. You should find that the centre area pops down when the bottles are totally cooled and you'll have a good seal.

Whether you are using Vacola bottles (or similar) or reusing glass jars, you should hear a hiss or a pop as air enters the bottle when you open it. If you do not, check very carefully for signs of food spoilage and if there are any, discard the contents.

Now here's an offer to any Canberra (or nearby) bloggers who are interested in getting started in bottling. Email me (naturewitch@grapevine.com.au) and we can arrange a time for you to drop over and have a bottling lesson. Over the next couple of months, I'm likely to be bottling from time to time and am more than happy to show you the ropes.

Edited to add: Forgot also to say to make sure the lid is on straight and not skewed to one side. You can use just one clip and I do if I don't have many free because of processing lots of batches on the same day, but my preference is definitely to use 2 clips. With 2 clips you can get the lid on straight in two directions and you get less failed seals.

love and light
naturewitch

Hot, Burning, Drowning

2009-02-08T17:51:00.003+11:00

Our beautiful country is suffering.

People in Victoria are suffering horrendous losses of life and property due to the bush fires. At least 65 people have been confirmed dead, more than 300,000 hectares are burnt out and 640 homes have been lost at this stage. And the authorities think that most of the fires have been deliberately lit. What kind of heartbreaking lunacy is this?

Across South Australia and Victoria the heat wave conditions of the past few weeks have also cost many lives, particularly elderly people who did not have cooling or fans or refrigeration when the electricity was load-shed. And all because of the heavy energy usage going on.

In Queensland, floods are destroying property and livelihoods. There doesn't seem to be much in the news on loss of life, but there was an item about a five year old boy being taken by a crocodile.

And what about the native animals and plants? We've seen the pictures of koalas approaching people to get them a drink - a rarity as koalas usually get their moisture from the leaves they eat. But what about the animals now losing their homes to fire or flood? What about the plant species that may be endangered as a result of our "weird weather"?

Please spare a thought for all creatures currently being tested in ways many of us can never even begin to imagine. Many have lost loved ones or homes or livelihoods. And to all of those wonderful volunteers who are out there helping - a big, heartfelt thank you!

For those of us sitting in the relative comfort of 40C, with our fans or coolers and cold drinks - we can donate money through the National Australia Bank or the Bendigo Bank or the RSPCA or Wildlife Rescue service. We can also donate household items and clothes through our local charity collections. And we can pray that this will all end soon, without further loss of life.

love and light
naturewitch

Preserving . . .

2009-02-05T23:03:00.002+11:00

Wouldn't you know it, the heat has caused some things to ripen up quickly.

This morning before going to work I picked a bowl of tomatoes, one of zucchini and button squash and a very large one of peaches. Not that I'm complaining . . .

Tonight I picked leeks and stewed them up with zucchini, button squash, tomatoes and herbs. Then into bottles and into the steriliser. And the maximum today was about 38C! I must be nuts!!!! LOL

Instead of preparing the peaches (there's only so much heat a girl can take), I made butter. The peaches will have to wait until tomorrow night. It's still going to be hot, but I don't want to waste the fruit.

I'll post some photos of the finished results later.

love and light
naturewitch

My New Love

2009-02-02T21:49:00.006+11:00

I have a new love in my life and I'm embarrassed to admit that it's not a who but a what . . . our new juicer!

The juicer arrived today, and already it has made some extremely refreshing carrot and watermelon juice and also some macadamia nut butter. And it is relatively quiet! And easy to assemble and clean.

As well as being able to produce fruit, vegetable and sprouted grain juices, it can make nut butters; extrude pasta, noodles and breadsticks; mince; and make baby foods and sorbets. It has a 20 year warranty on the motor and 5 years on the attachments - a machine built to last.

Because it uses a low rpm gear, it maintains the enzymes in the food it processes. Apparently centrifugal and high speed juicers often denature the delicate enzymes because of the heat generated by internal friction.

There's a few different models of this type of juicer on the market, some with twin gears. Some of them cost thousands of dollars; this one cost a few hundred.

Here is our new baby . . .

We bought it online through Nature's Wonderland. The price was the cheapest we could find and the service was terrific. They have a good range of sprouting seeds, juicers, dehydrators, etc. Well worth having a look at their site if you are in the market for any of these things and more.

love and light
naturewitch

Ramblings About the Garden

2009-01-31T21:53:00.004+11:00

Following on from my previous post, here's a photo of the sweet corn and the maize. The sweet corn is on the lower left corner of the photo and as you can see, has not suffered damage due to the heat. The maize in the adjacent bed, however, is suffering quite a bit.

The main difference is the preparation of the sweet corn bed before planting - it received a double dose of manure. Although I have watered the maize more than the sweet corn and given it seaweed extract, it is less resilient.

Clearly, bed preparation is going to be paramount in the years to come.

Despite the hot weather, it's not all bad around the garden at the moment. The elder has decided to have a second flush of flowers, reminding us that elderflower cordial is particularly cooling in the hot weather. The recipe I use is from Self-sufficientish. We've been enjoying this today, mixed with mineral water and ice.

With the warmer weather, many seeds are ripening in the garden. This morning I collected a mix of broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage seed, which I'm calling "brassica surprise"; mignonette lettuce seeds, carrot seeds, white beetroot seeds and calendula seeds.

All the seeds are looking very healthy, thanks no doubt to our little buzzy friends.

While watering the roses this morning, a thought popped into my head about planting lettuces between the roses. I consulted the companion planting books to find that mignonette lettuce make a great companion for roses, as do garlic and onions. Well, now I know where those lettuce seeds are going . . .

love and light
naturewitch

Keeping Our Plants Alive During the Heat

2009-01-29T20:23:00.007+11:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about how we can keep our gardens going and keep producing food during the hot weather we've been having.

Maybe the main culprit is not the heat but the dryness of the air? Certainly here, the humidity is usually close to zero during the summer heat and the air seems to suck the moisture out of everything.

The beans form nicely on the climbing bean plants, but they almost dry on the bush before they are fully developed. The plants look fine and are mulched and watered, but the air is so dry it dries out the fruit as it hangs on the plant.

So, I've been trying to think of ways to reduce the evaporation from my plants. Things like the old sheet canopy I put over the carrots to get them to germinate or possibly some sort of shade tunnel that could also be used to ward off the first few frosts? Or get the food forest thing happening in the orchard . . .

Then last night I was visiting Molly's blog and she had a post about some online resources. Adding to my heat-induced sleep deficit (yawn!), I decided to pay the site a visit. I found an article by William Albrecht which claimed that the absence of water was not what damaged plants during drought, but the fertility and depth of the soil. That is, plant hunger, rather than plant thirst!

Dr Albrecht's basic argument is that if soil is prepared and made fertile to greater depths than used in conventional agriculture that the plants will use the available water in the soil more completely and more efficiently. He cites experiments to support his theory.

Interestingly, the vegie bed that is best surviving the heat at my place is the one in which I grew the oats last winter. The oats left the soil in a very fine tilth, although not that deep. Because I thought the oats might have taken out a lot of nutrients, I gave that bed twice the amount of manure that I normally do. I also gave it a good dig over to distribute the manure. This bed is planted up fairly densely with sweet corn, tomatoes and rockmelons and is coping much better than the maize in the next bed.

The other bed still coping very well is the asparagus bed, which I heavily manure twice a year and give the odd dose of seaweed extract and fish emulsion. The asparagus are barely fluttering a fern with the heat.

Well, it could be canopy cover - both of these beds have good leafy coverage. But so do some of the other beds. It could be the plants, but the same plants in other beds are not coping nearly as well with the heat. It could be the mulch, but most of the other beds are mulched as well, if not better. And, if anything, the maize bed gets more water than the sweet corn bed and certainly more than the asparagus bed.

So, maybe William Albrecht's studies have something to show us - prepare the soil well and deep to maximise fertility and the plants will survive. It's certainly made me think about doing much more preparation in the garden this winter to try to build the humus and soil fertility.

Which brings me to another point. In naturopathy, we talk about a person's vitality. The theory is that the more vital the person (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually), that the more likely they are to be resistant to disease and the more resilient they are likely to be.

Surely the same must apply to our gardens. We can't stop the heat, but maybe we can build our gardens to be more resilient to it.

Forecasts about climate change are predicting temperature rises of 0.4C to 2C by 2030, with more hot days over 35C.

This means we need to build our gardens to be able to cope with more summers like this one. I'm going to be putting some serious thought into this and I would love to hear any ideas you may have about how we can help our plants survive. I'd also love to hear if you have some areas of your garden surviving the heat better than others and what the differentiating factors might be.

love and light
naturewitch

Lightbulb Dilemma

2009-01-27T21:58:00.006+11:00

This morning going into work, there was a segment on our local ABC about the energy saving light globes.

Yes, they save energy (between 60 to 80%, depending on the brand), but they also contain mercury and they have deleterious effects on some people's health, eg, those people with radiation sensitivity and some people with epilepsy.

Like many people we "greened" our lighting several years ago, but now we are having second thoughts.

So, I thought I'd do some calculations so we could compare the energy savings with the other environmental factors.

Assume an average household has about 20 lightbulbs (including outside lights, lamps and room lighting) - count them up and be surprised!

If these are all energy savers, which have about 5mg of mercury each, at any one time, there is about 100mg or 0.1g of mercury plugged into the light sockets. There are currently about 130,000 households in Canberra, so if everyone is using energy saving bulbs, there is 13,000g or 13kg of mercury plugged into our light sockets in Canberra alone, not counting the amount used by business and government.

Across Australia, if everyone used energy saving bulbs in their households, we'd have in excess of 800,000g or 800kg of mercury. And that's not counting businesses, schools, government, hospitals, etc, etc. That's a lot of mercury to dispose of safely!

Now to the energy side of the equation. Assume each household uses 4 lights for 4 hours each day, amounting to 16 lightbulb-hours. If these are (on average) about 70W bulbs, each house would use 1.12 KWh each day for lighting or 408.8 kWh each year. If the energy saving bulbs save, on average, 70%, the energy saving per household each year would be 286.2 kWh.

In Canberra, this would save about 37.2 GWh each year. Across Australia, it would be more like 2346 GWh. That's a lot of energy!

It takes about 1 tonne of coal to make 2500 kWh of electricity. So, each household using energy saving bulbs would save about 114 kg coal. Across Canberra, this would be about 14,882 tonnes of coal. Across Australia, it would be 938,700 tonnes of coal. Not to mention the water and other resources required.

So, at the end of the day, in order to light Australia's households, we have over 800kg mercury vs nearly 940,000 tonnes of coal.

I'm really not sure how to balance this equation. It's a lot of mercury to dispose of safely and it's a lot of coal to dig out of the ground.

Because of the potential health risks, we've decided to use the old incandescent lightbulbs as long as possible. But we minimise our lighting and strive to have only one light on at a time at night, maximum two. I'm not absolutely sure we are doing the right thing. But then I'm not absolutely sure that the new energy saving light bulbs are the right way to go either. So, it comes down to a personal decision.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this one.

love and light
naturewitch

Bee Food Plant Buys

2009-01-24T21:10:00.008+11:00

I simply can't be trusted near a plant nursery. But I didn't actually go near one - honest!!! Just went to the local Farmer's Market this morning and there were all these people selling plants and well, you know the rest . . . .

Having said that, I'm rather pleased with what I bought, most of it being able to provide food for the bees:

12 English Lavender
3 Rosemary bushes (upright)
1 Thyme
1 Lemon Thyme
1 Lemon Scented Verbena
2 Hibiscus
2 Penstemon
1 Liriope
1 Daisy bush

And all of this for the princely sum of $58. Most impressed.

Now speaking of the bees, I opened the hive last week to have a look at how they are going. They've pretty much filled the bottom box with brood and honey and I'm hoping they'll move up into the top box soon.

Not sure if we'll get any honey this season, as we need to leave enough for them to overwinter. But I'm just happy that they seem to be doing well.

love and light
naturewitch

Frugal Friday Food

2009-01-23T19:51:00.006+11:00

This Christmas, I bought a tray of mangoes, as the children always love them. Wrong! They've "gone off them" it seems and so although I was munching away, the heat was threatening to turn all the remaining mangoes to mush.

Hating the thought of throwing them out, we turned them into mango chutney, which goes brilliantly with curries. Here's the recipe, modified from one online at the ABC.

Mango Chutney
1kg mango flesh, diced
330g onions, diced
500g raw sugar
300ml white vinegar
250g sultanas
2 Tblspn finely chopped ginger
0.75 tspn each of mixed spice, ground cloves, mustard seed, curry powder, nutmeg
1.25 dessertspoons salt

Place all ingredients in a pot. Bring to the boil, stirring often. Cook until the mixture is thick. Bottle and seal.

This makes a sweet mango chutney. If you like it hot, you could add spice / chilli accordingly.

I love raw homemade muesli, with chopped nuts, seeds and dried fruits. However, I'm the only one in our house who does and so I recently made a toasted muesli or granola to tempt the others.

The finished result is a little sweet (for me), so I would halve the amount of honey next time. But the others loved it, so I thought I'd post the recipe.

Toasted Muesli
2 cups rolled oats
0.5 cup shedded cocnut
1 cup almonds
0.5 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1 cup sultanas
0.5 cups chopped dried apricots
1 cup apple sauce / puree
0.5 cup honey
0.25 cup oil

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the apple sauce, honey and oil together, then combine well with the dry ingredients.

Spread the mixture onto baking trays (on paper) and place in a cold oven. Set to 150C (300F) and come back in 30 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the muesli to cool in the oven for another 30 minutes. When cold, store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

This toasted muesli can be eaten as it is or in a bowl with milk or milk substitute. It could also be pressed into a tin prior to baking and you'd get muesli bars (although I haven't tried this out).

Happy eating!

love and light
naturewitch

WooHoo Wednesday!

2009-01-21T18:03:00.007+11:00

Well, I had the scan this morning and picked up the results this afternoon. It is all OK. The residual mass is still there but it is not growing - it appears to be what they call "scar tissue". All is good.

Added bonus: while waiting for the scan this morning, I noticed one of my favourite people in the waiting room. We had a good chat before our scans and met up for coffee and a chat afterwards. We had a few good laughs and I'm sure it made the whole experience better for both of us.

The last 48 hours have been truly amazing. Last night it rained (5mm) and so the garden has been revived. We may even get more rain in the next few days. Yippee!

I also found out yesterday afternoon that the course I had been saving for in February has been postponed to later in the year, so I now have more than enough money for the juicer. And to top it off, my out of pocket expenses for the scan were about half of what I'd been expecting.

Those moths? Well, they pushed me into thinking again about going all glass in the pantry. This afternoon in between the scan and picking up the results I went into one of the local shops and found beautiful big glass storage jars quite cheaply.

All this has made me think. The universe really does provide, even if not in the ways we would expect. If it hadn't been for those moths, I wouldn't have found the bottles so cheaply. And seeing my need for the juicer, the universe arranged it so I would have enough money. And my lovely neighbour offered to lend me one.

I feel so blessed and looked after right now. Not only in material ways, but also spiritually. It has been a great reminder to trust that everything will be alright and that it all has its place and time, even if I can't see it at the time. I feel somewhat embarrassed I posted about my fears now, as they all ended up being groundless. Must remember that next time I get myself worked up.

All is good. I truly hope it is with you too.

love and light
naturewitch

Maudlin Monday and Gratitude

2009-01-19T21:50:00.003+11:00

Well, today's one of those days when I'm in danger of letting my fears and anxieties get on top of me. And tonight I received a wonderful email about gratitude from a dear friend and it's helped me get back on top of things.

Just before Christmas two oft-used appliances decided to go belly up - the food saver and the juicer. In addition, my computer has been a bit cantankerous for the last six months or so - it took me over two hours to get it to boot up and be stable yesterday. It's old and it's dying and I need to replace it.

So, I've been a little concerned about juggling money around to replace the above items. The new food saver was found at a sale on Friday YAY! We tried it out Saturday morning and it works better than the old one ever did. Double YAY! And I'm really grateful that we found it and it was on sale and that it works better than the old one.

I thought my computer was definitely kaput yesterday, so went window shopping on my partner's machine and found what I think is a pretty good deal. I've also done some juicer research and narrowed it down to a couple of choices.

So, if I buy the computer (which I really do need when studies resume in a couple of weeks), I won't be able to afford the juicer for a little while (and I'm really missing my vegie juices!). But I'm grateful that if I just have a little patience and prioritise my spending, I will be able to afford both items.

Tonight I went to the cupboard to get some rice for our dinner. To my dismay, I found that the cupboard was infested with moths (how is it that they are suddenly there?) and that most of the rice that we had stored has been ruined. But I'm grateful that we did have some rice left unmothed and that they didn't get into the next cupboard which houses all our flours and other grains. And that my darling man helped me clean up the mess they'd made.

The summer sun is also testing me at the moment. It's damaging a lot of plants and my visions of bumper crops are rapidly waning. But I'm grateful that the citrus seem to be doing well and there are small oranges on one of the trees. I'm also grateful that I can turn on a tap and water the garden (within restrictions, of course!).

Now to the biggie. I have a CT scan booked for Wednesday to check on the residual mass from the lymphoma I was diagnosed with nearly seven years ago. I really do not like having the scans because there's always the possibility that the wretched thing is growing again.

This scan is a kind of critical one - it's just a few weeks before the five year anniversary of my stem cell transplant. So, if everything is alright, as it should be, then I'll have reached a pretty important milestone. But there's always the worry that it's not and then what? But I'm grateful for the medical know-how that's kept me alive so far and for the support of my wonderful partner, family and friends.

I'll probably be a bit of a wreck for the next couple of days until I have the scan and get the results, but I'm hoping Wednesday might be Woohoo Wednesday!

Reading this over, I realise I'm really very fortunate if these are my major concerns. After all, I live in a free country in relative luxury, compared to a lot of people in the world. I could have been born in Bosnia or Iraq or Ethiopia or Zimbabwe or . . .

I'm so lucky! We're so lucky! Enjoy your life. It's a good one.

love and light
naturewitch

Open Pollination and Natural Hybrids

2009-01-13T20:15:00.005+11:00

One of the great things about growing your own food is being able to by-pass the hybrids produced by multi-national agribusinesses and use open pollinated varieties. This enables us to save our own seed, but sometimes the results are a bit interesting.

Exhibit One
In one of my garden beds I planted kale seed purchased from a supplier of open pollinated seeds. The result is shown at left LOL!

It's hard to see it in this picture, but the actual colour of the kale-cauli is a soft lemon-lime green and there are small leaves in between the florets. Not quite what I expected, but I'm sure it will be good eating.

Exhibit Two
Last year I saved an assortment of zucchini and squash seeds. On this bush, we have a cute little stripey button squash and on the same bush, there is the regular light green button squash. Go figure!

Exhibit Three
Local rumour has it that this is a natural hybrid occurring between a cougar and a domestic cat. Hmmm . . .

Now to a completely different subject - the carrot seeds I sowed in the peat moss have sprouted! The trick obviously works. But I might take up Stewart's suggestion and try seed raising mix in the furrow next time.

love and light
naturewitch

Consumerism Rampant in Canberra

2009-01-11T21:26:00.004+11:00

In the local free paper, there was an article which claimed that Canberrans, on average, spent $1475 each year on products they either never used or threw away. Counting the cats as consumers (well, you've seen the size of them! ;)) and given the children are here part-time, we thought that would amount to our household wasting in the vicinity of $5000 per annum.

Across Australia, if all Australians lived like this (and I'm guessing they don't), this would equate to about 30 billion dollars wasted each year. This is staggering.

My partner and I thought about this - wasting $100 each and every week. We had a good chat and realised that we couldn't actually afford to waste this much money - we've other priorities for our money, like chook houses and water tanks.

Yes, some items may be bought ahead of when they are actually used, but they are eventually used. Very little food ever gets thrown out - it usually gets preserved in some way prior to that happening. If we have something we no longer need, we generally find someone to pass it on to or donate it to charity. We've streamlined gift giving with the wish book and put a halt to Christmas gift exchanges with many family and friends, so we've minimised receiving something we won't use.

I'm not saying we are perfect - far from it. I'm sure we could easily live with less than we do. But we are trying to be conscious about our purchases and only buy what we will use or give to others.

I'm still astounded at this level of waste in our society. What do people buy to cause such waste? Really interested to read your thoughts on this one.

love and light
naturewitch

Saturday Savings . . . and Spendings

2009-01-10T22:23:00.002+11:00

A few weeks ago, I was a bitt miffed when I went to buy some dolomite at the local hardware. They were charging over $11 for a 5kg bag. This morning I bought a 25kg bag for $8.50 from the produce store. Yippee for a frugal find!

This afternoon I blew any frugality by going on a plant and garden buying spree. Here's what I came home with:

1 bird bath
1 arch for the roses in the front garden
4 bags of potting mix and a small bag of peat moss
1 yard broom
2 lavenders
1 Chinese star jasmine
1 buddleia
2 blueberry bushes (Denise variety)
1 hebe
1 Mexican mock orange
assorted punnets - salvias, petunias, snapdragons, cornflowers, dianthus, daisies, dahlias, gazanias, vincas and verbenas

In my defence, the front garden, long neglected, will get a make-over tomorrow. I've decided that rather than neglecting the pretties, I need to encourage them. After all, the flowers often make good bee food, as well as being food for the soul.

Frugal Friday

2009-01-09T22:59:00.006+11:00

Following the lead from The Crone, I was thinking about doing a "Frugal Friday" spot. Given I'm not very good at keeping to regular things, let's just see how this goes.

The tip for today is for people who like to sew (I was going to say for the sewers! ;) LOL).

Annoyed with the cost of thread? Invest a few dollars in a cone thread stand for your machine. You can then use overlocking thread for your sewing, which works out a lot cheaper than regular sewing thread (a 2000m spool is only about $2-$3).

I have been doing this for years and I find there are fewer thread breakages than with normal sewing thread (and I used to use top name brands!). Even though it is polyester, I have also found it will stand up to a hot iron when pressing seams in quilts. This thread is suitable for just about any sewing you care to do.

The one drawback with using overlocking thread is that it only comes in a fairly limited number of colours. So, I use it for the bulk of the sewing on a garment or quilt and use the more expensive thread for any top-stitching (if needed). Often, I am able to make a garment without purchasing any thread the exact shade of the fabric.

You would be surprised at how much this can save you.

love and light
naturewitch