Tibetan Children's Colouring Book II

We just had a really magical time colouring in these amazing drawings on the computer with the children (Troy and Luke). Being the artistic type, I always have to exercise self-control to prioritize their learning, remembering that the entire point of doing it is for Troy to do it herself. Troy is really good on the computer now, and had a really good time. She was extremely proud of herself. Luke was very exact and precise in using the mouse, controlled over what was happening, but as far as choosing what to colour was a crazyman. I had to control his choices. He wore out quickly - especially because the head of the creature he chose was a ridiculously more complex than his level. He filled in the shell and tailpiece though. Then, since he wore out, I actually went crazy on the rest of his "Harmony Snail". Troy's drawing was a Harmony Fish Otter, according to the label.


Children really help you relax and do things. I got a good vibe for future projects from this one.

By the way, I got this amazing colouring book from a website called Eternal Creation, which sells Tibetan children and babies fashion mainly. They are in Dharamsala, the refuge town in India for many Tibetan people (including the Dalai Lama).

Do your kids school you about going green? article by Lindsay Coulter ("Queen of Green", David Suzuki Foundation) Canada

Recopied and posted on Nonnie's blog fromhttp://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/queen-of-green/2011/04/do-your-kids-school-you-about-going-green/



A journalist recently asked me "How do you encourage families to instil green practices into their children?" But she was asking a one-sided question. "Real life" parents tell a different story.

There's a new kind of social pressure among six-year-olds, says one Mom I know. Two girls were teasing her son, but not because he didn't have the coolest gym shoes. Because he didn't have a truly litterless lunch! (Queens of Green in training? I can't be certain.) Dad ran out to buy reusable containers that night — no more plastic baggies. Now their son can eat his lunch with pride.

Are your children teaching you about going green? Is your little one begging for a backyard compost bin or rain barrel of his or her very own? Or, do you beg your kids to go play outside, like you did once upon a time?

Fact: we're raising a generation of indoor kids. In her survey, Dr. Rhonda Clements (PDF file, page 4) found that American children spend less time playing outdoors than their mothers did when they were young—even in rural areas. They go outside less often and for shorter periods of time.

Fortunately, there are exceptions. Last summer I spoke to 2,300 Girl Guides. And Girl Guides across Canada participate in:

•Park and community clean-ups
•Recycling milk bags into bed mats for the homeless
•Planting trees to green urban spaces and help alleviate soil erosion
•Water quality testing in the backcountry of Banff National Park
•Growing thousands of kilograms of organic vegetables donated to local Food Banks
It's an impressive list (and by no means exhaustive) of collective action by youth. I think we can all take something from the Girl Guide playbook.

You already know that green spaces like parks and forests are good for the birds and the bees. But did you know that people who live near green spaces are actually healthier? Green spaces encourage people to be physically active, and being active means reduced stress.

Get outside. Embrace your inner Girl Guide — guys, too! Voice your support for preservation of existing parks, sign-up for a local stewardship group or clean-up day, write to your city council asking them to create new parks. A little greenery goes a long way.

Teach your children well — kids who connect with nature grow into adults who care about protecting it.

How do you encourage your kids — or how do they encourage you — to spend time in nature?

Sincerely,
Lindsay Coulter, Queen of Green

Waveney Warth and Matthew Luxon' Rubbish Free Year website guide and store

By the way, for all the collecting I have been doing of people and their efforts, I had recently missed some of the main people in NZ that famously did zero waste, "Rubbish free year", Waveney Warth & Matthew Luxon, in 2008. (I had heard about them a few years before, but was a little overwhelmed by it at the time.) They have a really beautifully designed and easy to use website and online guide at http://www.rubbishfree.co.nz/. They also have an online store for really cool durable items like wooden toothbrushes, and stainless steel lunch boxes, and reusable sandwich wraps.

Add to my list! (Ok, top of the list for NZ local area.) Great job, guys! You're beautiful people too, like Bea Johnson in the USA!

Binn Inn - from an idea to reality

I love Binn Inn. I first found it a few years ago, when I had very little money and a new family. I was slowly researching and figuring. I was a pretty poor mom with a motley collection of washed out containers and a new idea. (This was the same time I made a clipboard sign-in sheet for our rubbish bin.) Although I did come in a few times, I lived too far away from a Binn Inn to make it a regular viable shopping location. I did however buy some various amazing grains and seeds that I peppered my family's food with.

But now that I have a household that I can run with a plan, as we are living more the country lifestyle out here, and near a few wholesale suppliers such as Binn Inn, I am really excited to go nearer to zero waste, refilling containers instead of buying new each time. Those aisles of huge containers of molasses, olive oil, liquid soap, shampoo, bins of baking soda, dishwasher powder, pet food, flour, beans, peas, linseed and quinoa, beckon to me. Everything you need, and nothing that you don't want. (Like a pile of plastic pollution.)

I am going to make a big list of anything that we already buy that we can get instead at Binn Inn, or My Bread Mix supplier, both in town nearby. Pasta, soup mix, yeast, moroccan spice, sugar, rye flour, what else does one need? Neat containers that are sturdy, and well organized in the pantry. Iron will to take over the shopping, as certain other partners are a bit more casual about zero waste, although supportive (and more "socially normal" too).

Grey-water recycling system

So, we inherited 1) raised veggie beds, 2) some fruit trees 3) a Jones-style food storage cupboard, and there is a 4)! The very industrious South-African couple that sold us their home had actually put in a system to reuse their washing machine water. It's a really beautiful system. There is a pipe across the footpath (behind Troy) embedded in the concrete. If you switch the hose above the washing machine to "garden", the water goes through there and into a bathtub with a wooden cover. It's so cool!

Since we are on tank water (water collected from the copious amount NZ winter rain) it's really great to have some water you can literally throw around. If it has been raining alot, and you don't have time to bucket it out onto your garden (or there is a hose from the tub, but it is low pressure and slow), then you can just choose to waste it and switch the hose to the drain.

Now that I see how it works right there in front of me, it is very simple. Each load of washing fills the tub about 50%. I can't believe how much water I have used, and wasted, doing all the loads of washing I did on the North Shore, when I wasn't aware at all of the water leaving the washing machine - and how much water is wasted by the entire North Shore! In general, having a limited water supply just makes you aware of water waste all the time, of my wasteful water habits.

Happy Fossil-Fuel Subsidy Day graph posted by the Sierra Club, Alberta, Canada 2011-04-18

Sierra Club: I remember hearing about the Sierra Club when I became involved in the green movement myself, back in Canada. It's a "grassroots" movement, meaning that it grew from the ground up (not organized from top down). Grassroots movements are truly altruistic, they don't actually have alot of power in that cold money based corporate climate over there - it's hard to understand unless you've lived there. In NZ I think so many things are already valued or protected - their battle is over there is very great. http://www.sierraclub.org/

Link for the article which follows:http://sierraclub.typepad.com/sierradaily/2011/04/happy-fossil-fuel-subsidy-day.html

"Apr 18, 2011
"Happy Fossil-Fuel Subsidy Day!

"While you're sweating out the value of those old shoes you donated to Goodwill for your itemized deductions, spend a moment to consider that Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Valero, and ConocoPhillips paid no federal taxes last year, and all received substantial refunds or rebates. But rebates are just the froth on the bubbly for Dirty Energy. Here's the ugly picture of how taxpayers subsidize the fossil-fuel industry, courtesy of the Environmental Law Institute:

"Yeah, you read that right: For the period from 2002 to 2008, Dirty Energy scarfed up $53.9 billion in tax breaks, with total federal subsidies totaling $70.2 billion.

Don't forget to postmark by midnight! --Paul Rauber

Posted by Sierra Editors at 12:52:18 PM

Reposted here on Nonnie's blog.

Breadmaker to avoid all the plastic bags

Another implementation I have been waiting a LONG time for, and is really fabulous is a breadmaker. Due to new home syndrome and unexpected blessing of some extra funds at this time, we bought one. Not only does it provide me the structure for baking bread (I used to make it by hand but I no longer have time since I work), and I can experiment with making all different kinds of bread and putting healthy ingredients in (seeds, whole grains) I CAN NOW AVOID the horrible packaging from buying bread.

We have been buying bread for a few years now. My novel idea was to get a breadmaker, and flour in bulk, and totally avoid the plastic bags. I met a lovely friend here already who told me of a local wholesale supplier of flour (MyBreadMix). Yay! I have also been saving plastic bread bags from my years in sin. And now I have many to use for the bread I make. My parents made bread using a very large, good quality food processor with a "dough hook". Memories of their drawer full of plastic bread bags, crumbs and all, and reusing them over and over again...

It's just a really good solution if you are living in the real world and want to make bread. Realistically, in the sped up world, I would never have made bread even with a food processor and dough hook. It takes about 5 minutes to throw the ingredients in, and while it is a pain to do it as frequently as we need bread, it is fun - and I do enjoy the feeling of avoiding all those plastic bags.