Green Patches

Recycled Greenpatches - Psalm 51

 

From February 2008 - Psalm 51.

Too much choice!

According to a recent article in the Church Times, the average woman in the UK owns 13 bras, though only uses eight of them regularly. This was news to me: the Greenpatch lingerie drawer, though adequate, is hardly going to keep M & S in business. Anyoldhow, the reason for my visit to the Patron Saint of the High Street today was in response to both the CT's original highlighting of the Bosom Buddies scheme to recycle unwanted bras to a homeless charity in the North of England, and to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance charity,who also collect them to sell to schemes who sell them on to third world countries. Here, as is pointed out, bras are a necessity,not for reasons of fashion, but because a woman without one may be seen as a target for rape.

A sobering thought. Which brought  a deep sigh, (and a concerned assistant rushing to see what was the matter with me ) as I picked my way through the undies department to stock up on my own account before going through my own drawers (no pun intended!) at home. What a choice!  Wired, non-wired, plunge, high- cut, balcony, lacy,T-shirt, 3-way adjustable, sports, lycra, balcony (I thought that was somewhere to park   your pot plants), black, white, pink,blue, spotted,striped, 2 pack, romantic...Aaaagh! Whatever happened to one white, one black,and once a year,  (usually Christmas time) your Significant Other joins all the other Significant Others in agonies of embarrassment in a well-intentioned but misguided attempt to get you a little romantic something or other. Choice and necessity; wants and needs; airness and unfairness.  Such a contrast.

Flushed with pride: Home Counties 'Poo Power.'

credit www.freedigitalphotos.net

Climate change strategy reaches new heights (or should that be 'depths!') as a water company gets back to the soil with its  exciting new strategy for cutting fuel consumption and greenhouse gases.

Read all about it here, courtesy of the BBC.

And from the sublime to the ridiculous

I love the sound of breaking glass.  Though not the original version, unfortunately. As I mentioned earlier, the green boxes and sacks are neatly arranged outside the back door, (much to GP dog's delight) and the new kerbside recycling collection is due to launch any day now. Yes, there's been a certain amount of confusion when trying to remember that cans and glass no longer go together, and the council's definition of recyclable plastics is somewhat limited, but never mind, it's a start. It's noticeable how much longer it takes for the kitchen and wheelie bins to fill up now that plastic bottles and card  are separated out. From now on, sneaking packaging into the pedal bin because you can't be bothered to step a couple of feet outside is an arrestable offence - in the same category of heinous crimes as squeezing the toothpaste tube from the wrong end and leaving the toilet seat up!

Where God Is

Christians don't take God into the world. They discover God actively working there for good through all sorts of people and situations whether Christian or not. God challenges us all to join in with his mission of love to the world.

- After Sunday

Thanks to Dave Walker of Cartoonchurch for pointing me in the direction of this site.

Summoned by smells

Sorry! I just couldn't resist the pun.  Leafy Surrey has taken creativity to new heights. (Or should we say depths?!).

A scale model of a cathedral has been created from rotting vegetables to inspire people to compost at home.

Sand sculptor Mark Anderson built the miniature version of Guildford Cathedral as part of

Surrey

's 3Rs - "reduce, reuse, recycle" - campaign.

The 4ft (1.2m) replica, which is made from green waste , is on display at Bocketts Farm near Fetcham,

Surrey

for two weeks.

It is designed to encourage residents to make their own fertiliser.

More here.

If you look over to the far right of the photo, you can see the Lady Chapel where Mr GP and I were married nearly 25 years ago. Do you think we could persuade them to preserve it for  another four months? It would make such an attractive tablepiece!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I feel the Lord is calling me to reconstuct Michelangelo's David out of the Greenpatch compost heap. 

Are You Self-Sufficientish?

Asks Eco-Worrier over at  the 'Times.'  Anna Shepard passes on Ten unexpected benefits of being self-sufficientish from Andy and Dave Hamilton, urban guides to almost self-sufficiency. There are some great tips on their site for you to follow. Thus spake the Greenpatches whose sole effort to grown her own produce just now consists of cultivating a rather forlorn basil plant on the kitchen window sill. (Next to the would-be Honesty plant).

I wonder if Mr GP might be interested in the Hamilton's recipe for nettle beer?  It'd provide me with the ideal excuse to put off that weeding for a little longer!

La modification de l'environment

Cartoon Wallpaper : For the Birds

Found  earlier in a box of old photos: an essay written by Ms Greenpatches back in French primary school, many years ago. Just look at the fiddly graph type paper they had to write on, and proper pen and ink; none of this new-fangled  free expression nonsense in those days!

It's the following paragraph that made me smile:

C'est vrai que c'est plus cher d'enterrer les cables electriques que de les pendres a des poteaux, mais ca gache le paysage. Et pensez aux pauvres oiseaux qui se perchent dessus...

A  St Francis in the making, there! Even if her scientific knowledge hadn't quite caught up with everything else. Oh, and anticipating protest from my now adult offspring, yes, I know I missed off the accents. All this HTML is beyond me! Click below if you want to read the real thing in all its glory.

 

Here I am Lord 2008

Or to put it another way - Let's Go Round Again. The title seems quite apt, though not the lyrics in this context!

Yes, it's That Time  Again as well as being almost a year since the start of the Greenpatches blog. What on earth was I thinking about when I threw caution (and commonsense) to the winds threw in my lot with the Methodists and signed up for their No New Shoes Lent campaign? Come to think of it, what murky motives lie behind the 2008 Greenpatch foray across denominational lines as the campaign is extended throughout the whole of the Methodist Church UK?  Spend Less, Live More launches any day now.

I can remember wondering what on earth I'd got myself into. Fellow bloggers might well remember me agonising over what constituted the little essentials of life with much reflection on the definition of 'underwear' and whether tights fell into that category or not. I was following a well-established tradition here. (You'll need to go back to the original post to read about Adrian Plass's disciples and the sandals dilemma!).

To an onlookers if might all have seemed somewhat superficial at times, but in retrospect it marked the beginning of a definite learning experience about what constituted my 'foundations,' which extended beyond shopping, eating and consumer habits. The learning, I discovered, was as much in the process as in the actual practicalities of the journey. Running parallel as it did with both a college course on Chrisian response to environmental issues and with the start of my first novice year with The Society of St Francis concentrated the mind wonderfully.

A year later, I can't claim to be as green as Kermit the frog, nor yet possess the simplicity of St Francis. But, there's definitely evidence of small amounts of slimming down  - more mentally and spiritually than physically, (to my horror, I've  started to develop the beginnings of a spare tyre!).  Never mind. You can't win them all!

God 'doesn't do waste' - Archbishop of Canterbury's New Year Message

But hitting the delete button instead of 'save' does! Try again.