Climate change

It is apparent that Climate Change isn’t something that President Trump is willing to take seriously. Pulling out of the Paris Climate agreement is short-sited and foolish. I know there are a lot of people out there that will be desperately disappointed at his actions.

When you dig a little deeper there is a lot of climate change denial that seems to go around the world and it’s troubling that it seems to run through the rightwing side of politics. Whether it is protectionism and a need to looking after your own this isn’t something that is going away or something we can pass off as a political idea.

Just for instance that you don’t think that global warming is real and that the ‘planet can take care of itself’ as one ex-Top Gear presenter once said. Just for an instance, you think that all of these scientists were wrong. Wouldn’t it actually be responsible, for future generations, that we look for alternative fuels that don’t rely on removing stuff from the earth? There is only so much coal and oil that we can remove from the ground.

I got my electricity and gas bill the other week and it was the first time I noticed that on it was how much CO2 I had caused/used during the last few months. I was shocked that it wasn’t in grams or smaller amounts but a huge amount of CO2. Just me. Sitting in my own house. One out of millions just in this country.

So whether or not we care about the world we live in or whether our political beliefs lead us to deny climate change, we should take a moment to think that maybe in a hundred years time the people who are on the earth might wonder what we did to keep this planet healthy. Did we deny it and think that it’s someone else problem or too busy to even care.

Real fire

One of the things that I have always wanted in my house is a real fire. I know that from being at my grandparents house it always lent a cosy atmosphere to the place. Very homely. I was always put off by people say it will take a lot to clean and all that. But I have  decent central heating to the point that I don’t use the gas fire currently in my house.

I am thinking of possibly an open fire like this or a contained fire in a stove and the technical name ‘inglenook’. There are three chimneys in my house and I know that there are fireplaces in each of the bedrooms. I might explore the possibility of opening them up again and using them on and off. Local council says that you have to use smokeless fuel and this is easily bought from firms in the north east.

Last year my gas bill which includes the boiler for the central heating and a gas hob was approximately £800. I find this extortionate. I am being charged a fixed amount even if I don’t use the gas. What a total rip off. I know that once the fire(s) are cleaned and ready for use that I will look to see what the lowest possible tariff there is for gas. I could use it for times when the house becomes very cold. The amount solid fuel I could get for half of that amount would last beyond a few months during winter months.

 

Trees

There are two things that I adore. Trees and Chester-le-Street. I love them both but if you were to make me choose between them trees would always win. There is something mystical and transfixing about trees that I really love. They are massive. They are sensible enough to cut back on energy use in the winter and then when the warmer weather starts up they will then burst back into life.

I have two trees in my garden the first is a cherry tree that was planted in the year that I moved to my current house. It faithfully blossoms each year and provides rest and space for some of the visiting birds within the garden.

The other tree is a Victoria plum. I bought it years ago from a garden centre who were selling them off cheaply as the poor thing looked like it was on its last legs. It has thrived in my garden and each year displays the most beautiful of blossom. It provides me with satisfaction knowing that I could grow a plum tree well despite my parents telling me years ago that the north east climate was too cold to sustain a fruit baring tree.

It was this in mind I was intrigued to read in the Chester-le-Street Advertiser that land that once held the local voluntary bureau and other charitable organisations was being sold off and that a construction company was going to build houses. My concern is that the beautiful trees that grow there will be cut down or mauled as they have been previously in other areas that Durham County council have sold.

You can see here the trees that stand on this plot and some of them have been clearly marked by spray paint.

Here you can also see the outcome of the council decimating the trees that once stood on land that occupied a council run nursing home. I hope that the council will think clearly about the impact that this causes on the aesthetics and most importantly the environment in Chester-le-Street.

These trees could survive this mauling but I believe there future has already been earmarked. I would like my town to look like the trees that stand opposite the closed nursing home rather that a post-apocalyptic war zone.

Ostara

I had the misfortune of reading an article in The Sun ‘newspaper’ the other day that claimed that Easter eggs had been banned. They hadn’t. It was just another atrocious attempt by the right wing gutter press to get a reaction from the idiots that actually believe what is written in this so-called newspaper.

Christians have been bouncing up and down like demented Easter bunny’s today. At every moment I have looked on social media they are ready to implore that a preacher that lived two thousand years ago defied all laws of biology and science and came back to life after being brutality killed in an act of crucifixion. A version of a  Frankenstein’s monster is somehow seen as a way of getting rid of the worlds problems by delivering us from own thoughts and actions.

In my ‘christian’ days I would have been proclaiming this. I would have stood proudly in the middle of my town acting out some play or singing some songs thinking that I would be able to change the world and imploring others to join me. It was all a futile process.

I believe that looking at the changes of the world around us we should be thankful that plants are begging to waken from their winter sleep and animals will produce young at a time when in the northern hemisphere marks Vernal Equinox.

 

Ostara or Eostra is an Anglo-Saxon goddess who represents dawn. It is a new awakening. She oversees the fertility of the earth and watches over births. The egg is the perfect symbol of fertility and Christians and non-so believers will incorporate this into Easter celebrations without really realising it’s pagan origins.

I love the beginning of spring as you can see blossom on the trees and daffodils rising up from the cold ground to give us hope of the forthcoming of time when new life appears all around us.

Greener living (update part 1)

I tried the surface cleaner product and the washing up liquid tonight and I would say I really like them. They didn’t have that acrid pungent smell of some of the branded cleaners.

I will certainly be using them from now on. I have put the dishwasher on tonight using the tablets. I will let you know tomorrow what they are like.

Greener living

I am going to try to be a bit more “greener” over the coming months and try these products out. I want to see if I can leave behind those hideous chemicals I keep pouring down the drain.