Bumpy landing

So we got back from Canada about a month ago and re-entry into city living has been a bumpy ride. The first week everything seemed so loud and fast; the second week I felt a strong compulsion to make plans and have dates in the diary and since then I have been moving at an escalating pace - having lunches, meeting people, keeping up with current affairs, taking Senan all over town and spending an inordinate amount of time on buses and the tube. It really has been interesting to watch myself transform back into an urban gal.

We followed the principles of slow living while we were away - we ate meals together, did physical work in the fresh air every day and went for long walks on the beach as a family in the evenings. We watched no TV, ate fresh food from the garden and drank practically no alcohol. Reflecting back on this time what I have noticed is that when we were out there I did not get any kind of a sense of "lack" - I never felt like I was missing out on something, even though we were doing very little. Nor did I see any mundanity in my daily routine of feeding, walking and playing with my toddler.

However, back in the "real world" (more analysis of this ridiculous concept later) I am keenly aware that I get bored or irritated with the repetitiveness of visiting the same park every day or doing the same chores. I suddenly feel that being a stay at home mum is hard work - there seems to be no time beyond the childcare and housework for a glamourous lifestyle or the important "proper" work I see all around me in this city.

But I don't let it get me down and I try to remind myself that that fabulousness is merely an illusion. So many people (including myself sometimes) busy themselves because they feel that this is what they ought to be doing (mums seem to be the guiltiest of all at this!), and they feel acute discomfort being still and not doing anything at all. But perhaps being comfortable in not doing anything is one of the important steps to living a low impact life. It ain't easy in the big city, but I am going to try to recapture some of the peace we experienced on the island and bring it back into London life.

I like this quote:

Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

Does my bum look big in this?

Being out here on the island, away from the rapid pace of life in London where it is easy to get caught short, I am putting Senan in washable nappies. I have been using eco-friendly disposables (ie: those that are marketed to busy mums with a desire for a greener lifestyle), but now that I am not so busy, i have no excuse not to go washable. Here are my observations:

A washable nappy...

• provides a softer landing to a baby who is learning to walk and keeps falling on his bum
• makes a baby look like he has a fat ass even when he doesn't
• is not the easiest thing to deal with when out and about - think large scale pooperscooping
• requires at least one full change of clothes a day - making yet more washing...

I'm glad I'm not adding yet more crap (fnar fnar) to landfill, but there is a fair amount of water and electricity in this washable thing. I'd say so far I have averted 40 nappies to landfill and run probably 15 washes (with other stuff obviously), I need someone clever to run the numbers on that one to find out which has the larger overall impact.

Today is Senan’s first birthday – what a difference a year makes. This time last year he had black hair, bold eyebrows and a nose too big for his face. Somehow in a year he transformed into an angelic-looking blond toddler. Happy Birthday Senan!

Senan today in PEI

Uncomfortable reading

From my outpost in the middle of nowhere, Canada (as my facebook friends will know, we are so rural here that the village liquor store's opening hours made the headline news the other day), I have been reading while Senan sleeps and Brendan chugs by on a tractor or is up on a ladder fixing things. So I thought I'd share...

I have just finished "Hell and High Water, Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition" by Alastair McIntosh (of Soil and Soul fame) and I felt compelled to suggest it as a good read as it looks at climate change issues head on (in a similar vein to Monbiot and Lovelock), but then addresses the internal work of the human condition that we will need to undertake beyond the government cuts and sustainable lifestyle choices.

I loved Soil and Soul so much that I dived into this book with zeal, and it was not quite the joyous read that I expected, sometimes it is very very poignantly sad, but there is a chapter which could make a great reading on consumption and marketing. I would highly recommend it and of course if you haven't read S and S yet - start with that - it is the daddy (or should I say mother) of all them enviro-books.

I am now reading the Power of Now and struggling with "surrendering" which is an illuminating challenge. Bren has taken the baby down the beach to give him a dunkin' and I am practicing not worrying about it at all. er... I'll let you know how long this zen buzz lasts.

Day 6 in Country House

This is a test more than anything - I am starting to write down my emerging thoughts about how to live within my own ecological means... I really should do some thinking about it before I start telling the world what to do!