Overshoot day

Really interesting reading

Have you heard of overshoot day, I have been reading here, once you go past our country (world) overshoot day, we are using more than our Earth can give us and last year as previous years almost every country on our Earth did.

A lot of people will shrug their shoulders and say nothing we can do, but I believe we all can do things, people power does make a difference, lots of small acts mount up. Look how quickly we have changed to reusable bags to carry our shopping home, that was led by government, but plastic straws are becoming less used as is coffee chain throw away cups, which is people led. 

All we have to do is think about what we care for, and how we can make small changes towards ensuring our world is here after we have gone.

When I was growing up, I loved Star Trek, I thought we would be living in a clean, equal world, where the powers who ruled our Earth would stop wars, famine and everyone would live a good life, well I was young and hopeful. 

So with small steps I believe we can turn things around, I hope the children on this world, are taught to learn from mistakes made and are shown how to ensure their world is better than ours. 

I will continue with my saving and add other small changes, here are a few we like to do already.

• Twice a week we eat meat free - it takes more resources to produce meat.
• We purchase from local supplies where possible, helping local producers.
• We do not upgrade, unless the item is broken, this was harder, but we are getting there. 
• We have cut back on buying clothes, we have loads to use up before we buy more. 
• Books are now purchased secondhand, if we are not able to get them from our local library.
• We try and not bring into the house one use plastics, this is much harder, and can be more expensive, but we are always on the look out for greener packaging.
• Any plastic in the house and garden will be used until it wears out and replaced with a greener item, if we can. 
• I carry my own shopping bags, plus reuse plastic and paper bags so I don't need more wrapping paper. 
• We do not pop to town each week, having less to purchase, means our trips are not worthwhile, saving fuel on unnecessary trips. If we need to go out, we plan so we get all journeys done on the same trip. 
• We are looking at ways to save and store water, and reuse as much as we can. 

My list is just some of what we do, every one does different things, but us small people can make a difference, that's if we want to. 

Flowers

A mixture from my garden and the new plants.

All planted

My raised bed flowers were looking straggly and not giving many cut flowers, so we went to a local nursery to purchase more. I love dahlias, they have so many different flower shapes and colours. I cut some of the blooms from the plants as they were top heavy with flowers, making this beautiful bunch for inside. The cost of these plants were added to my stash spend list. I did the work Friday evening as it was cooler and the smell not so bad. I was asked if it could be plants making the smell, sorry no it's the large number of cats living in a summer house and garage at the bottom of next doors garden. 

I threw caution to the wind and planted my Bouganvilla, I am hoping the raised bed will give it chance to survive the winter, plus if it grows as big as it can, the back section of fence will be full of flowers. I have a plan to protect it through the winter cold spell. I was asked if it was a spiky one, yes it is, which helps it grow up things.
I have room at the front of this bed for spring and early flowers, plus bulbs. It is a tiny space but I want to make full use of it.
Saturday we had a local car boot sale, I have not visited one for years, so I enjoyed my quick walk around, it was only small, 5 cars and even less people. I did pop into the library, it was busy and a rude man put me off staying, I will pop in on Monday for more books.
I sat and painted my nails, something I rarely do, as a gardener it never worth it, but as I'm inside I would make my hands look better. Lazy evening inside, with a lovely fish tea, caught up on a couple of recorded TV programmes.
Today, I have again nothing planned, I am going to check out my dressmaking patterns, I'm sure I will have one for a top for the beautiful lace silk.

Life in a heatwave

Bouganvillea Amarilla

 Last two books from last weeks visit to library

 A bit more stitching

Beautiful silk

 I see some new clothes. 

The heat earlier in the week made doing things easier, but now the temperature and humidity are much higher and I am again spending time inside. Plus the smell of cat pee is really bad in our garden again, so doors closed sat inside.
The Bouganvillea I have had for years inside, but it needs a bigger pot, I am thinking to put it in the raised bed at the back of our garden, I would need to protect it in the cold winter months, the soil is free draining, which is good for the plant. It has never flowered inside, so is it a risk I should take?
I read a couple more books, Amanda Prowse writes about real life problems, I will need to pop to our library again for more books.
I was searching the drawer in our bed and found all the lovely lace, it was left over from making my daughters wedding dress, I have had it for years, it's now with the rest of my stash, I will look at patterns for a nice top or two, I love the feel of silk against my skin. Our bedroom is all put back, nothing has changed, we used paint left over from last time, I have not purchased anything new for the room.
Lazy plans for the coming weekend, hubby is away on Saturday night, so a couple of please myself days, which I love.

Still inside

 These are so pretty

 Three stems

New babies forming

 Another good book

 Some stitching, and yes unpicking.

The heat outside is rising again, so I do outside jobs early, as yet I have not watered my garden, just the greenhouse. I have a good harvest of salad crops and blackberries. The chili peppers are starting to turn red, they will be dried and stored for hubby to use, plus some for SIL, but won't be ready yet.
Hubby has done most of the bedroom, just the final push today. The curtains are on the line, I will iron them later and pop them back up, we did look at our carpet, but decided not to change it, so once we put back the few bits of furniture, upstairs is finished.
I has been fresh and cool for a couple of days so I did some cross stitch, I love this mandella, I know how I will finish this stitching, and I will use a couple of finished ones from my stash box, it is sad they just get packed away once I have done all the stitching, but I'm not a fan of having loads on my walls and there is only so many cushions you can have.
The book above was good, I still have not read the first three books in this series, and our library can't get them, so I have ordered off Amazon all second hand and cheap.
I popped to the market yesterday, but passed on the plants, there was not a great choice, I can pop to a local nursery, who grow most of their own plants.