i'm obsessed

i love my garden. my turf has taken really well and is growing with gusto. i have some deep blue, hot pink and yellow flowers in bloom. my tomatoes and courgettes have definite buds that are looking suspiciously like flowers...which mean food will be growing soon! my strawberries are flourishing and i have my first pea shoots!

look at my first pea shoot!

i'm so impressed with myself. last year i couldn't even keep a house plant alive and now i have a full on garden as well as 3 house plants thriving. my black fingers have turned to green thumbs.

i cannot wait to eat you.

my garden: the update

you didn't cross your fingers and hope for the best did you? the strawberry plants i saved have all died but one so i went in search of living plants that will give me fruit. i ventured out to my school's local garden centre and found the plant perfection i was seeking! i even found a bat box, ladybird house, bee house and a variety of bird feeders...i'll pick up some of those next month.

not only did i get 2 huge and healthy strawberry plants - with flowers and fruit already, far yellow tub - i procured purple sage and moroccan mint to accompany my basil, coriander and garden mint already in my herb tub - far orange tub. i purchased a plum tomato and cherry tomato plant - close yellow tub - along with 2 courgette plants - close orange tub. i also picked up some pea and broad bean seeds - small black tubs - guaranteed to sprout in 7-10 days.

so my garden is now complete. except maybe some mulch or bark for around the flowers to help smother the weeds. i love every aspect of the garden up-keep but i can't say i enjoy weeding.

i cannot wait to eat some of my own fruit and vegetables! i'm so impressed with myself.

earth hour

earth hour, i almost forgot! luckily i read this article about 60 things to do during earth hour with 20 minutes to go...

alex and i think we'll start out with a number 16, followed by number 24...which will lead nicely into number 26 and then we'll finish the evening with number 19.

what are you going to do?

have fun!

behold the glory of the dragon

i bought a dragon fruit, or pitaya, the other day purely because it was so beautiful.


now i know that buying this fruit contributes to global warming and as much as i try to adhere to the ideals of the 100 mile diet, sometimes you just have to explore other fruits, apples are starting to bore me.

anyhoo, the fruit sorta tasted mildly of melon crossed with gooseberry. it was yum.

i love educational BBC documentaries

i'm currently in the middle of the climate chaos season on the BBC and i have to say it has been a horrifying and fascinating journey. david attenborough plays a large role in many of the episodes and tonight is the 2nd part of his most recent documentary 'are we changing planet earth?/can we save planet earth?'. it's apparently the first time he has spoken out about climate change. i'm looking forward to it with a great deal of trepidation, the first one made me cry.

speaking of crying about the earth, the planet earth series that was recently on also brought me to tears. i only watched 2 of the 5 but i will not hesitate to recommend the series. it is the most beautifully shot

ambitious factual series ever commissioned by the BBC. It is a breathtaking exploration of our world.

6 more episode should be coming out in the autumn. i plan on buying the first 5.

i thoroughly enjoy the BBC and any of you canadians that have the fancy cable tv packages should really invest in the BBC channels. sure you have the CBC and david suzuki, but did the CBC dedicate an entire season to climate change? maybe they did, i don't know, did they?

UPDATE: i cried...a baby elephant dead because of drought in africa. doom and gloom! the icecaps are melting, the amazon will burn up, the coral is dissolving. but things can be done. don't leave your appliances on stand-by. eat locally. take the train. drive less. switch to wind or solar power. only fill your kettle with the amount of water you need. this was a good article...technology already exists to stabilize global warming.

calling all the evil petrol consumers

i just purchased a terrapass.

Your car puts several tons of CO2 in the air every year. With TerraPass, you can take it back out. TerraPass funds clean energy projects like wind farms, methane capture and more.

every little bit helps. of course if i really wanted to save the planet i would stop driving all together, but i cannot go back to the 1.5 hour epic tube, train, bus journey to AND from work every day when i can conveniently drive in 35 minutes.

my name is robyn and i am an evil petrol consumer.

breaking news

the first documented polar-grizzly bear was discovered recently in canada. it had...

thick, creamy white fur, typical of polar bears, as well as long claws; humped back; a shallow face; and brown patches around its eyes, nose, back, and one foot, which are all traits of grizzly bears.

unfortunately an american hunter shot and killed it. his mother must be so proud.

to recycle, or not to recycle: that is the question

i used to mock the uk for being very behind the times when it came to environmental issues. but i've recently come to discover, it's not all bad here, the government is sometimes trying to be green.

the point of all this is that i'm having an issue with my recycling. my borough has only recently implimented a recycling plan.

gasp horror! only recently?!

yes, only recently. it's not the first area in the london sprawl made to recycle, but it's also not the last. the problem is that my recycling hasn't been picked up for a month. my block is no longer in the computer system. no one knows how it happened, and so of course no one knows what to do. i started to get into a flap over this but then noticed something yesterday morning. the recycling truck came down my street and i watched as everyone else's recycling got picked up. there was no sorting, there was no seperating, there was no distinction between rubbish and recycling. a large, pink rubbish lorry collects the recycling -from the hot pink recycling bag- and crushes it all together. how can that work? surely it's easier to seperate first, instead of picking bits of broken glass out of the cardboard.

then it all started coming together in my head. recently watched bbc documentaries came flooding back. rumours in the news flashed into my head. apparently, a british journalist travelled to china, sorted through the dumped recycling and retrieved a bank stamement from someone in yorkshire.

but then i read that china is buying the recycling as fast as it can. i just don't know what to think.

trying to live a greener lifestyle because i'm an evil petrol consumer, is not the easy way to go.

oh a happier note, i got a new mobile and know exactly what i'm going to do with my old one! i'm going to dedicate a tree.

making change one number at a time.

i just made a yummy seasonal vegetable couscous, i'll post the recipe later. the reason it is so yummy is because it is totally organic. ethical food just tastes better.

the reason i discovered this jem of knowledge was because my carbon footprint was 4.5. that is unacceptably high. so i picked a number from the quiz and decided to change my answer.

i picked number 2. so i now get a weekly grocery delivery that is completely organic, unprocessed and locally sourced. the organic delivery company is great! if you live in london check out if they deliver to your area.

i tried to get my family involved with small potatos urban delivery, but i don't know what they think of it yet. so i encourage the victoria people to try them and let me know.

which number should i change next?

"but if i ran the zoo", said young gerald mcgrew, "i'd make a few changes, that's just what i'd do..."

i just woke up with the sunday morning bbc style show. it's a good program but doesn't have a website, so i can't share it with. it usually has environmental undertones and a green bias and today's show was about the 'fashionable safari'. the subject brought up all the moral and ethical issues of; fake fur, african safari, local endangered eco-systems, etc. one segment involved cameras following the keepers at paignton zoo in devon. what amused me was how much the keepers dislike the public.

i like the idea of conservation and research zoos on paper. but then i visit one, and i remember why caging up animals is terrible and feel guilty about supporting it.

but this zoo in devon has peaked my interest. is it the wide open spaces and natural atmosphere portrayed? probably not.

but, a weekend away to the devon/cornwall region could be good fun! devon has some of my favourite british countryside. and who isn't a fan of cream tea and cornish pasties?

and i could go back to the eden project. everyone should go there at least once. it's waste neutral!