Living in the Moment

It's always fun to peek around at other's blogs! I love the Tiny House blogs & sites - which can keep me occupied for hours!!

When I lived at the retreat center, one of my homes was 9'x19,' & another was an octagon, 17' across, so I've lived small. I had *stuff* in storage, but find small homes quite comfortable. & loved living in the octagon for a year, & later in a yurt for several months. The Yurt (a bit larger) had its own kitchen & even a bathtub! A little wood stove, as it was at the end of the geo-thermal line, but also radiators. Sigh - living off the grid as well, . . .

Found some neat bits on composting - this from a Brit site. She mentions a study showing ~ 1/3 of the items in the landfills there are biodegradable, & could have been composted! 'Compost Woman' writes: "Amazingly, by composting all their food, garden and cardboard waste, an average individual would prevent about 5kg of methane per year from landfill, which is equivalent to just over 100kg of carbon dioxide per year."

& goes on to say: "An average household that composts this waste would prevent emissions of 13kg of methane per year, equivalent to 280kg of carbon dioxide per year (just over one quarter of a tonne of carbon dioxide). By comparison, a small petrol car doing 40mpg will need to travel about 1000 miles to release one quarter of a tonne (250kg) of carbon dioxide, and a small diesel car doing 60mpg will need to travel about 1200 miles to release the same amount."

Here in town, we're lucky that our local Garbage service includes 2x monthly recyling pick-up, & that we can take yard trimmings etc. to be composted (& resold).

I did buy their compost one year, when beginning my raised beds, but found that the chemicals used on many lawns made for weird growth on my plants, so have avoided it since.
I'd love to get one of these composters! Also from Brittan, so the shipping would be exorbitant - but they look so fun - & practical!! What goes in must come out :) & my grandkids would LOVE it!

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My women's spirituality group has read a couple of books recently about 'presence' & living in the moment - this poem by Robert Frost puts it so beautifully - enjoy!

A Prayer in Spring

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

~Robert Frost