TIME FOR REFLECTION

From time to time I reflect on how things are going and what areas I want to be concentrating on in the future. I want to say thank you for all your comments so far, it is encouraging to see that the debate on how to practically upshift or downshift and creating a balance in our lives and for the planet is alive and well. I have to tell you here that I am just an individual, I have no agenda other than my values and beliefs that as a person I can make a difference to what is happening to the planet. It has to start with me and my blog is here to show you what I am considering and how I get on. I am not perfect, I make mistakes.

The areas I am working on at the moment.

• Bread
• I am making bread using the no fail recipe every other day. I still use the breadmaker and will continue to alternate until I can manage to confidently produce enough loaves as demanded by a 5 people household.
• Slow Food
• I am working on eating seasonally, cooking our food from scratch and preserving what I can. I am concerned about what is available, how far I need to travel for my food, and how far it travels to get to me, its quality, its price etc etc.
• The garden
• part of the above is to create my own greengrocer in the garden. This means that I need to identify the vegetables I can grow in my climate and plan a succession of vegetables we can eat. Its a work in progress again, and each month I will let you know what I am doing and how I am getting on.
• Recycling
• Anything that can be composted is being composted in this household, but again, it probably can be improved. We used to have 5 rubbish bags to go out every week, we are down to 2 now and I am still working on reducing that. We have 3 compost bins on the go.
• Clothes
• I am evaluating the amount of money we spend on clothes and whether this is realistic.
• Transport
• One of our main categories in the budget. After housing costs, transport costs are the highest and I am considering why we travel, how we travel and whether there are alternatives.
• Energy debate
• Still working on reducing our energy requirements. Monitoring how much we used has provided some ideas for reducing that. I am looking at the costs of solar power but again, its a work in progress.