Tuesday 20 July 2010

Tuesday 20th July 10

More paperwork today... but I started by visiting the Woodlands MS Respite Care Centre, over the road, to sort out whether I can help with their logs and trees 'problem'. I had a tour round the back with Richard the Grounds Maintenance chap. He's been overseeing some clearing and there is a lot of usable wood. There is also some 'crown lifting' needed. However, if I'm going to go and do that, I have to go through the volunteer process, and get CRB checked etc. What a bind... but I'm going to go for it. It will be worth it in the long run.

I came back and tried to do some paperwork (including the application to be a volunteer) but got distracted, and ended up outside as it was a nice day, warm and muggy but not raining.

Later in the afternoon I visited Rich at Country Fresh, to get veggies and three or four sacks/boxes of recyclables. I then emptied the medium Compostumbler into a dalek and began to refill the tumbler. I also visited some builders at about 4pm who had said I could have a load of untreated timber offcuts from the extension they were building.

Gill made a pasta and home-grown green bean tea (mostly Jack Edwards Pea Beans) which was enjoyed by all. Our eldest made a lemon cheesecake which I liked.

So, a low key day, lots of recycling and preparation for keeping our logpiles well stocked!

In the evening I watched a film I've been wanting to see for quite a while, on More4, 'The Cove'. This is an excellent film about the unnecessary, cruel and stupid slaughter of tens of thousands of dolphins in the town of Taiji, Japan. Very few people in Japan know about this, but the meat is on sale labelled as whale, and it contains extremely high levels of Mercury, which causes babies exposed 'in utero' to have disabilities (see Minamata). The Japanese do not want this slaughter to be exposed, and local people made it extremely difficult for the film-makers to document the practice. But they managed to do some really well thought out covert filming, including cameras hidden in pretend rocks. The film is exciting, moving, shocking, informative and very memorable. For me, it is just more evidence about how we are mismanaging the Planet, abusing other sentient beings and, in this case, polluting our own species!

If you missed the film, you can buy the DVD (or download) There are also practical actions to try to stop this slaughter, which takes place every September.

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