Another special tour due to demand

Due to demand I’m offering another special tour of the house with a copy of the new book, Sustainable House, so the lessons learnt here over the last 14 years can be looked at and discussed on site.  It’s at 11 am to 12 noon, Saturday 30 October. For information and bookings: Special tours of Sydney’s Sustainable House – 23, 30 Oct  Read More

Appropos beauty

Of beauty. Looking south to Bronte Let us consider this day and some of what it offered. I went to Bronte to swim, thence to sit and watch, thence to walk up to Mackenzie Bay (the bay just south of Bondi). From shore to sea The photos are taken sitting just down from the coast walk path.  There’s Mozart, Schubert, silence of ages, Beethoven’s last quartets, surging... Read More

Can you put plastic bags in compost?

Not ordinary plastic but some  - that is, SOME, only.  (I’ve used some bags which do not decay despite their labelling assertions.) But. Council officer, Helen Bradley said this to me: ” . . . biodegradable bags do take longer and start by breaking down into pieces and breakdown over a period of time. If they can empty the bag and then just tear it up a bit it will... Read More

Measures of happines

On this so sweetly beautiful day, another one where Earth sings out triumphantly, “look at me, look at me”, and when I’ve just come back in from watering my garden (with my recycled sewage) to this computer screen, my thoughts have turned to the question, “Why do I feel still, easy and  . . . dare I say it, ‘happy’?” Part of the reason... Read More

Gardening as a frolic

At the end of the morning: L to R: Xavier, Norman, Colin, Charles and potato sacks New mulch crate, Rose St Well, such a frolic in the gentle, caressing rain this morning. About ten or more of us. We found a new mulch crate that Kris alerted me to.  I went with John and together we took it to Rose street and half-filled it with branches and things which won’t compost.  The... Read More

Upon being a centrefold . . .

Steady. Pause your beating heart, and breath. Sustainability has today gone centrefold. Ok, so I’m being dramatic, but it is such a B E A Utiful day, I hope there’s a song in every heart that shares it. (Don’t you reckon Earth sometimes can’t resist herself and she puts on days like today when she sings, “Look at me, Look at me . . . “; mmmm ah... Read More

Lovely writing and thinking by Monbiot this week

It’s here: www.monbiot.com… And here’s a taste: ” . . . Progressives, he shows, have been suckers for a myth of human cognition he labels the Enlightenment model. This holds that people make rational decisions by assessing facts. All that has to be done to persuade people is to lay out the data: they will then use it to decide which options best support their... Read More

Bronte pool this morning

Bronte pool today at 619 am Walked through some gentle rain, lured on by flashes of breakthrough sunlight out to sea, and then into the pool, 17.1 degrees, brrrrr. The definition of exquisite:  that first dive of abandonment into the water counter-pointed by the return of warmth after a few laps, topped off by the simplicity within after a few laps.  Read More

When your pump runs dry

No, this is not a song. But it can help to sing when your pump runs dry; who knows, it may bring peace to your otherwise un-abluted flesh and grumpy heart, and distract you from the debris of a shower that won’t work in the morning. Pumps are pretty simple creatures but can put a Buddhist monk back years on the path to simplicity and inner peace. For now, let’s list... Read More

How to roast your own coffee beans

Every type roasts at a different rate because of a different  density When a bean reaches its individual temperature it cracks, like popcorn pops This first ‘crack’ is caused by the physical expansion of the bean as water and carbon dioxide split and carbon dioxide is released (ah, it’s everywhere this stuff!).  This first crack opens the central ... Read More