I trundled home very happy with myself, loving the almost-quietness of westmead; where complete quietness is sporadically accentuated by the subtle sounds of people having tea on their balconies, a man riding a bike down the shop, a lone car off for the day somewhere, morning birds chirping and whilstling, a lady walking down the street in her flowing orange weekend saree with an almost undiscernable pit-pat of her slippered feet, and the little indian kid next door playing cricket with his dad in the park at the end of the street. The sky, equally blue and clouded with light grey marshmellowing shapes, created a cosy, shaded, but bright, clear and clean type of day in the streets of Westmead.
Despite my positive outlook on life here I deeply desire to be somewhere else.
I have had a pretty stressful couple of weeks at work because I am really passionate about what i am doing, and the problems that crop up make me want to study all night when I get home and get there as early as possible the next morning to start back on them again. I decided that this weekend I would have some Rachel Time, and do what I love - bushwalking on Sat, lazing and cooking and reading on Sunday. So today I got home from my shop and had an invigorating shower and tended to my scratches from yesterday (went for an exploratory walk in the Wollemi) and watered my ferns on the balcony.
I then cooked a delicious breakfast: Smoked salmon, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, shallots and perfect poached eggs with toasted yeeros leb bread.
Anna, a friend of my sisters, has a blog on home cooked food and I would like to thank her for inspiring me to make one so I can share my experiments. Her Blog is here.
Anna and my sister Julie work at WWF and are organising Earth Hour 2009.
With this in mind, I calculated my carbon footprint this morning after breakfast; My outcome is 1.7 earths. It isn't good, but it could be worse. It makes me feel driven towards building my own sustainable house - because at the moment that is the only thing I cannot change. I eat fresh produce, use energy efficient lighting and candles at dinner, gas stove, not much meat (though not much fish - I should increase that) and dont drive a car much at all. I ride my bike and grow as much as I can. I will keep getting better into the future. I want to plan my life away from the city. I have to listen to myself and know where I want to head, where I will find a home one day. It wont be here.
Calculate your carbon footprint here: (it doesnt take long)
http://wwf.org.au/footprint/calculator/
