...shipwrecked...

Shrinking my big, fat carbon footprint...first step...

It has finally happened. After living in the UK for 8 years, I'm officially a daily train commuter. After the big move to Surrey, I was driving more than an hour each way to get to work - and that was in ideal conditions without huge traffic jams which have been common. Not counting the time and drama of fighting traffic on the M4 twice a day, it was looking to cost close £400.00 in petrol money (for the US readers that's about $650.00 a month). Beyond that - I was racing up and down with the world and his wife running the constant risk of being caught in the traffic jams which apparently only require a strong wind to happen. And at the end of the day, then there's the environmental impact of continuing to drive the car all over the place every day.  Filling up my gas tank every three days brought that impact into stark clarity.

What's a girl to do? Give up the car and catch the train of course! I've never been a big fan but I've now decided I love it! I catch a train to very close to my place of work and a free shuttle bus to my office. Easy...cheaper...and best of all...WAY more environmentally sound! I love my car...but I love knowing that I'm doing something good for the environment even more. Yes - initially the motivation was the impact on my wallet but the whole exercise has made me consider the concept of carbon footprints and ways to do more than just recycle as a way to lessen my impact the environment.

Do you know your carbon footprint? I've done one calculation before the big commuting change and it came to the idea that I'm currently living my life as if we had 3.53 planets to live on. And the carbon footprint? 18.46 tonnes of carbon per year!!! YIKES! And I always thought that I was fairly environmentally conscientous! Try it...it's a good exercise: http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/ And now I've recalculated given the change to trains and buses for getting to work...and if I'm honest, I had hoped the difference would be more dramatic. I'm now down to 3.24 planets and 14.46 tonnes of carbon.

Hmmm...I'm signing up for the WWF email now to learn about what else I can do. What are you going to do?????

And one more thing...

I'm still TRYING to do the daily photo project but at the moment, all it's doing in England is RAINING! Funny how that makes it a bit difficult to take pics outside which is always my preference! Still...I'll be uploading a few once I'm home tonight...

Country gifts...

Life in the country has it's challenges. Septic tank issues, anyone? No? You surprise me. At least that particular challenge is once again under control.

Thankfully, life in the country also these tiny moments that you just wouldn't get in the city. These moments are tiny gifts to be sought and savoured.

In England, there is a type of small deer called a muntjac. And we are blessed to have them all over the surrounding farmland. Despite their numbers, you don't see them often and you certainly don't see them for very long as they are extremely shy creatures. Still - you do get lucky every once in a while. Last Sunday, DAC and I were coming home from lunch and there were three in our lane - clearly a family group of a mum, dad and baby. They were so lovely and sweet and swift to move away from us. Naturally, I didn't have a camera to hand...we won't make that mistake again.

The good news is that on Thursday we were a bit luckier...

  

Wildlife...wildflowers...wildness. The gifts of life in the country...

Oops on Day 14!

I turned the alarm off in the middle of the night and completely overslept! Oh well...these things happen. My plan is to just stay up a couple of hours longer tonight so I can be certain to have my extra hours in the day. But at least I did grab my camera in my haste...I love cornflowers! Of course - I'm no gardener which has been established previously and this wee bunch is growing up out of the sidewalk next to the planting bed by the house and not IN the planting bed. But that's OK - they are still just so pretty and delicate. The photo does not do the colour of their blue flowers justice.

Day 14 and all is well...I'll become an "early bird" yet!

Day Four of Being an Early Riser...and Compost Daffodils!

It is day four of the "get up earlier than you need to approach" and so far I LOVE IT! Let's see...

~Day 1, Friday - 5:45am
~Day 2, Saturday - 6:00am
~Day 3, Sunday - 7:00am
~Day 4, Monday - 7:00am

So - yes...believe it or not...these times are at least an hour earlier than necessary on the day. I'm sure this seems like no big deal to loads of people. But for me? It's big. I can already see how this single tiny change makes a difference. Each morning I've had time to think about the day ahead, to plan a bit, to consider life a bit more. It's quiet in the AM and I enjoy that. The house is tidier since I can't help but faff around a bit in the morning knowing I have a bit more time. In all...I can see how this little change makes a HUGE difference...at least to me!

It's been good too because I've been forcing myself to NOT obsess about making the "must do" list any longer than this one thing. It's sort of like simplifying your expectations. I tell myself in the AM - OK, get up now...before you need to...before the alarm goes off...before giving in and going back to sleep. Everything after that feels like icing on the cake of my day.

And then there's more daytime to enjoy now! We put the clocks forward in England this weekend. I love that moment. It's not losing an hour from your day - it's gaining more sunlight! This weekend I noticed that even my almost-a-compost-heap corner of the garden is happy. Yes - I have daffodils growing out of my compost heap! Now clearly - I'm not very up on the gardening thing. However - these compost daffodils just make me smile! Late last summer, I cleaned out all of the "weeds" from the beds around the house. Thing is - I clearly don't know a daffodil bulb when I see one. SO...all the weedy dirt went on the compost heap and now I have compost daffodils.

These flowers are proof that more sunlight is a good thing. They are proof that life conquers all. They are proof that even a big change (i.e. being tossed on a compost heap!!!) isn't enough to keep spring from coming or life from blooming. They are my lovely compost daffodils...And if they can grow on the compost heap than I can become a morning person! :-)

All things in life are possible!

Redefining "shipwrecked"...

 

Definitions of a "shipwreck":
* to ruin utterly; "You have shipwrecked my career"
* to suffer failure, as in some enterprise
* a wrecked ship (or a part of one)
* an irretrievable loss; "that was the shipwreck of their romance"
* an accident that destroys a ship at sea

My husband DAC and I live in the country. Not just close to the country or on the edge of the country but truly 100% in the English countryside. There are about 10 or 12 houses around us. There is no post office, no off license or shop, and no pub. Apparently, this is called living in a "hamlet". The closest pub is a half-hour walk over road and a bit longer if you go through the fields. This week has proven to be a very interesting one where living in the country is concerned. After two years of joking with people about how we are now living in 1882 [with a nod to Clarion and her obsession with M*A*S*H*], we have finally arrived in the 19th century.

For geographic perspective, we live almost across the street from the Uffington White Horse:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-chl/w-countryside_environment/w-archaeology/w-archaeology-places_to_visit/w-archaeology-uffington_white_horse.htm.

The photographs on the link really show off the White Horse Hill very well. The photo I've included here in this post does not. It does, however, show the White Horse Hill on Thursday [05.Feb.2009] afternoon. Trust me...there is a hill AND a white horse in the image...even if you can barely tell the sky from the land. I've included another image which is the view over the valley from the Ridgeway escarpment [http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/Ridgeway/]. It's beautiful but we've been cut off from the 21st century for a week now.

Anyone watching or listening to international news this week will have heard about the insane amount of snow and ice deposited across England, Scotland and Wales. Our cottage in the Oxfordshire countryside is basically in the middle of this snow and ice storm. It began to arrive on Sunday, 01 Feb 2009 and as of today [Friday] it is still not finished. DAC has been off work from school snow days almost all week. I've been "working at home" for the publishing job as much as possible. And I'm relieved to say that I've accomplished more than I thought I'd be able to do which is good news. We did manage to dig out the 4-wheel drive car yesterday for a pub lunch and some siege mentality shopping. Of course, last night we had several more inches of snow and ice arrive and haven't been out yet this morning.

So - what on earth does all of this have to do with the word "shipwreck"???

Well - it's a philosophy in development, one which has gained a great deal more substance in light of our being "shipwrecked" in the countryside by snow, ice and bad driving by people who only see this level of snow once every 20 years. This philosophy in development formed the spark for this blog and it is my intent that this new philosophy will inform 2009 and my life to come beyond a single year. As you will have seen at the beginning of this post, there are numerous definitions to the word shipwreck. As someone who is studying the environmental aspects of actual shipwrecks [http://warningphdinprogress.blogspot.com/], the idea of shipwrecks is ever present in my life. I have learned, among many other things, that a shipwreck is a transformative process and not a static event. And a transformative process, by the very definition of those two words, is something ongoing and changing, something that evolves and changes with time, something which takes an original construct and completely alters it for a new outcome. An outcome which is itself then capable of being further transformed through time and the expenditure of energy.

The definitions at the beginning of this entry are all very negative in their connotation. But I'd like to think that a shipwreck can also be seen as something positive. Therefore I'm redefining the word shipwreck to suit my needs and all of the English majors in my life will need to adapt...

SHIPWRECK = a transformative process which takes the philosophical outlook and the way of life which a person has been living and then forces change. It is the vehicle through which they create the life they've always wanted or a least of version of that life which is open to constant change and personal evolution.