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I have been pondering or brooding on this for a while and now the time has come to write it all down. For a long time I have had my concerns for the environment, but lately they have grown stronger. We've always taken steps to limit our impact on the environment, recycle glass, paper, clothing, old furniture, composting material, use less electricity (no dryer) and gas, eat less meat, use the car wisely. We even have solar panels on our roof Energy wise we will make progress when the new kitchen is installed. It will have a gas hob, which is better than cooking with an electric hob and I will have two ovens, one normal size and one half that size. So if I have just one casserole or a tray of muffins I can use the small oven. We'll also have a new dishwasher (I couldn't convice Frank to leave it out) and a new freezer, both very energy efficient. Because of our new woodburner (I just love the heat from a wood burner and we have free wood from old bridges and such, because of Frank's work Personally I have made a few decisions, very little tv, I already don't watch very much, but sometimes I tend to watch whatever the others are watching (would like to get rid of the tv alltogether, but I still get outvoted), even if I'm not really interested. I just have to make myself go do something else. Less computertime, sometimes I get carried away and spend too much time on the internet, the problem is that there's so much interesting stuff to find. Use the car only if I can't do it on my bike, because it's too far (ok that's debatable, but I think 12 km or 7,5 miles, one way, is still doable) or if I have to carry too much, and I can haul quite a load on my bike, I have bags on my rear rack and a basket on the handlebars. We have bought a rainbarrel for our back garden, but Frank hasn't been able to install it yet, he will do so in the coming week. I still have to figure out if we can have one in the front garden as well. And we're looking into another powersource, but that's still at an early stage. I'll let you know when I know more. I'll probably think of more things to do or implement in the coming weeks, months or years. I've been very lucky that Frank supports this all the way and even thinks things up by himself, we are a good team. So, let me know what you are doing or planning to help keep our planet healthy! On the garden front I have had a productive weekend, I have spent quite a lot of hours weeding and have planted paksoy, leeks, sellery, kale and my third little rhubarb plant. I still have some broccoli and sellery to plant. Everything, including the weeds, is growing beautifully, I have a pumkin the size of a small football and more to come, harvested several zucchinis and a LOT more to come, the french beans have lots of flowers and there are several kohlrabies ready for harvesting later this week. I just love spending time there. Although we have had rain the last couple of days, it's still very dry, but more rain has been predicted. This morning I picked the first blackberries of the season! blessings, Ellen
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. After reading the books 
, we will have more vegetarian meals (dd and I have been vegetarians before, but are not at the moment), because it's more sustainable to eat less meat, but also because we want to buy organic meat and that's very expensive. I have been baking our own bread for a while now, but I also want to start making our own yoghurt and cheese, but will have to find a milk supplier not to far away (still working on that part). We have made our own elderberry wine last fall, but haven't tasted it yet because it has to age in the bottle for one or two years 
, and Frank wants to try make his own beer when the kitchen is ready.
), we'll be using the central heating a lot less and that will save gas as well as electricity.
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Posted by Cathy