Mmm vegetables

After reading the Grow your Own guide that came free with the guardian a few weeks back I have fallen in love with the idea of growing my own vegetables. As I'm only renting, I won't be starting a vegetable plot any time soon so my love will not be put to the test.

But I can happily look at drawings of fresh delicious vegetables! These I found on http://www.panteek.com/fruit.htm where I believe you can buy prints :) Mmmm.

My more immediate plan is to do drawings of vegetables. Much more doable than actually growing them!

James Lovelock - The Revenge of Gaia

This book has left me feeling terrified and hopeless. It is a good book though and I've learnt alot from it, how every aspect of the planet affects each other and works together. And how people are over paranoid about certain things yet do nothing really about climate change. That like during war, people accept hardship and rationing, that we could pull together and do something, and yet we don't, we won't really believe we need to until something catastrophic happens. By which time it may be too late if it's not already.

I now understand that we need to use nuclear power and stop using fossil fuel asap. Nuclear is less wasteful, more efficient, less harmful to the planet. Renewable energy isn't advanced enough for our needs yet and we need nuclear until it is. We are paranoid about nuclear for the wrong reasons, it is dangerous but we don't mind many more dangerous things.Lovelock uses a village near a dam in China and a village near Chernobyl as an example. About 75 people died as a result of Chernobyl. If the dam burst, millions would die.

I've been feeling like what can I do, I can't persuade people to accept nuclear energy, I can't get nuclear power stations built. I can't change peoples opinions and behaviour. Other folks like James Lovelock are trying and not really succeeding. Yeah he got me, but I aint doing anything. And I almost didn't read the book because it had gaia in the title and I thought it was some hippy book. I read it because it was borrowed to me. People who don't already care about the environment probably won't read it. Then again, like Lovelock says, fiction gets through to people. Maybe design too. Maybe I can do something... Bah. So much to think about :( I don't want to preach to people or anything. And there's so much I don't understand.

Recycle Chair :D

A while ago my housemate brought these massive rolls of corrugated cardboard home that they were chucking out where she worked. They sat quietly and uselessly here for months. The card is weak and there was so much and no one wanted it. It was decided they should go to the dump. This made me sad...so much cardboard wasted :(

My friend Stephanie at Garbage! might want them for her recycling project I cried!

Are you going to roll them to her flat? Everyone else asked me.

The answer was no, and Stephanie most likely has plenty of rubbish to be recycling and making into exciting new things. But I thought maybe I could do something with it, even though my housemates hated the cardboard and wanted to get it out of the house and didn't want me being silly....so I accidentally enslaved a friend who was staying with me into helping me make a rocking chair. By cutting out layer by layer with scalpels. It only took an hour! :)

The result was good. My housemates actually like it! A roll of card has been saved. And it's quite comfy. Yay.

I heart Poland

I had such an amazingly good time in Poland! We stayed with family I never knew I had before as our families had lost touch. They are lovely lovely lovely, cooked us lovely food and took us about. These are pictures from their home and from our visit to Pszczyna which had a castle museum place (where you must wear slippers over your shoes) and the cars got clamped dammit!

Karolina (my new distant cousin) and I showed each other music and videos on youtube which is where I picked up Efterklang and the shadow video in my March posts. She got good taste :) We also watched some Lost which made me want to watch it properly...and now me and Stu are spending far too much time watching Lost from the beginning.

Krakow is beautiful though I've not put any pictures in. My favourite favourite is the interior of St Marys church. It is stunningly beautiful! I'm not religious but I love beautiful churches and cathedrals. I never take my own photos inside religious buildings, I feel weird about it. But I will look for other peoples in a bit.

Salt mine is incredible too..salt miners carvings, statues and a whole church made of salt!

I can't remember the last time going abroad made me this happy...I usually find it a bit exhausting.

Have now looked for photos of St Marys but I can't find any that do it justice. Here's a link with other reactions and a description though - http://www.cracow-life.com/poland/krakow-st-marys

Pretty Cupcakes

I love baking :) yumyum :) I tried to make Peyton and Byrne looking cupcakes for my friends engagement party. Think they came out quite pretty. Definitely came out delicious. I always bake extra for myself (I got to make sure they're fit to give away! :D )

Flickr

Looking at shadow photos on flickr, never really browsed flickr before. Is fun. Having trouble posting them though so I'll just post this one for now. I like it, so simple and dramatic.

Pedro and Frankensheep :D

I can't believe how little I've posted lately! I've been enjoying a much needed rest. I'm loving pottering about the house, cleaning, cooking, watching tv and making furniture(!) have also been to Poland. Individual posts coming up, this one is for the amaazing cartoon I have just discovered! Pedro and Frankensheep! I've seen only two but I love the drawing, the voices, the songs and the storylines! It's short and snappy (which means it can hold my attention) and genius :D if only I could always be home at 3:25 or whenever it be on!

Ah! I can watch them online here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/watch/?category=pedro yay :)