The tide is high..

Its the new moon today, and I am still feeling rather tense and generally stressed, although last night I had a bit of an epiphany and will be working hard to change my patterns. I felt very relieved to read what the Astrologer had to say about today's new moon as well:

The New Moon in Scorpio invites us to bring conscious change into our lives. If you’re like most of us, some painful issues may have come up in the last day or two

It would seem that this new moon is particularly powerful as evidenced by the tidal surge that's happening in the north sea and flooding parts of the east coast of England. The surge was expected to hit this morning starting from the north Humberside right down to Kent, and Great Yarmouth has already been flooded. Residents of Norfolk have been evacuated with police going door to door to warn people, while some surfers have gone out to ride the waves. The height of the surge happens around once every 20 years or so, so this is indeed a momentous week.

How toxic are the kids??

Well I watched the channel 4 installment of toxic kids and am happy to see that my kids aren't that toxic.. yet. I will have to worry a bit as they get to be teenagers but hopefully they will take my lead with natural products. It was pretty shocking to see how many cosmetic products one of the girls on the show used. And she did look better when she wore less makeup, and she reached that same conclusion at the end of the experiment, so kudos to her.

I also couldn't believe that some people have a plug-in or some other sort of artificial air freshener in every room of their house. I've never liked the overly perfumey smell of these so I'm glad I missed out on that toxic concoction. I was surprised to learn though that the ingredient *parfum* isn't one thing as in perfume, it can be up to 200 different unidentified chemicals! The main things to watch out for are the same as in any product and one has to seek out more natural alternatives.

Toothpaste without flouride for kids is a necessity. Its not true that you need flouride, and with many water supplies already flouridated it is not necessary. Not every region of Britain is flouridated and there is a lot of controversy about it anyway. But if you simply must have flouride then wait until your kids adult teeth come in. At least by that point they will understand not to eat it and to use as small a portion as possible. We don't use it and my son who is now seven has no problems whatsoever with his teeth. I suppose watching a programme like this one reignited my interest in reviewing everything we use from washing powder to toothpaste. I'm looking into purchasing ecoballs for the washing, and can't wait to little daughter is out of nappies, which will cut our washing in half!!

Buying organic and natural can cost more certainly, but there are ways of stretching it and I've just found Akamuti's Black African soap which can be used for hand washing, hair washing (including baby), bath soap, so it goes a long way, and its pure and natural. Dr. Bronner's pure castile soap is another jack-of-all trades and one we used frequently in America. They can be found in some health stores here in Britain, or online even from Amazon.co.uk!

I have however, discovered another new online shop for everything alternative and natural in the skin/body/home care dept. LoveLula.com, the organic apothecary has a fabulous selection of brands, including Dr. Bronner's plus they offer reward points everytime you shop, adding up to free items, delivery is free over £40 and 3 free samples can be had with each order. Now I am a loyal sort, so I will still be using Olive Organic, but for those other brands, Love Lula is awesome also!!

Milling around..

Over the weekend we took our mooney heads out for a walk at the local nature spot, Hardcastle Crags. What's a mooney head???
Our word, or perhaps someone else out there uses it too.. it is a crabby/cranky/grouchy/tired/sluggish/unmotivated feeling in your head/body around the time of the new moon and/or full moon, hence 'you have a moon head on'..

The best cure for it is either to a) go back to bed, b) go off somewhere on your own-not really an option when you have kids or c) go out for a walk in nature. So we went to the Crags and for a two mile walk up to Gibson Mill. The mill was a new venture for us and even though we endured some whining along the way, it was a good walk and a perfect day for it.

Hardcastle Crags is known as Britains 'little switzerland' which I only just learned today... it is a beautiful wooded valley which is owned by the National Trust. Gibson Mill was built in 1800 for the textile industry which ended in 1890. Since then it has been among other fascinating things, a roller skating rink (in the middle of the woods!!!), a dance hall and a tea room. It then lay derelict for years, and now has become the National Trust's flagship environmental showcase as a model of self-sustainability. It has been renovated and has no mains electricity, water or sewer. There are water powered turbines which generate electricity, photo-voltaic solar panels which also convert sunlight into electricity, and solar hot water panels. They also use local wood as part of the forest managment for some heating. Despite all the educational opportunities, my son did enjoy it.. and especially looked forward to the food in the cafe (naturally)! There was also a supply of bird watching books, tree-identification books, and other National Trust info laying around that provided an interesting read while enjoying coffee and biscuits.

Vegetarian is earth friendly!

Being a vegetarian is also earth friendly. Farmed animals produce more greenhouse gas emissions than the world's entire transport systems. It also takes less water to grow vegetarian food than it does to produce meat. Livestock production is responsible for 70% of the Amazon deforestation in Latin America where the rainforest has been cleared to create new pastures supplying meat (including fast food giants) around the world.
Read more detailed info on the Vegetarian Society page here: http://www.vegsoc.org/vegweek/reasons.html

This post is written as part of National Vegetarian Week here in the UK.

Love Life

Love Life, I can do that. I'm not a particular fan of Darryl Hannah or anything (nor do I dislike her), but this bit of info came to me in an email newsletter and I was surprised. She is a vegetarian and lives in the Rocky Mountains, off the grid (no hollywood extravagance for her), her house runs on solar energy and she drives a bio-diesel car. She has an eco video-blog DH Love Life that I checked out, and its really quite cool.