Weekend

First ever apple and autumn fruit fair at nearby Waddesdon Manor. Fun but nothing compared to Brogdale where we might return during the upcoming half-term break. Beautiful crisp weather.

Blog Action Day - Climate Change

“Climate change is the biggest threat to all our futures. It will affect every individual, every family, every community, every business and every country" -- Gordon Brown

Do your bit towards reversing climate change:

• Turn off lights when you leave a room
• Only boil the amount of water you need in your kettle
• Turn off televisions, videos, stereos and computers when they are not in use - they can use between 10 and 60% of the power they use when on
• Close curtains at dusk to keep in heat
• Let your clothes dry naturally rather than using a tumble drier
• Turning down the thermostat for your heating by 1 degree could cut your heating bill by 10%
• Use economy programmes on dishwashers or washing machines
• Use energy saving lightbulbs - they use a quarter of the electricity and last much longer
• Insulate your hot water tank and pipes
• Fit seals to externals doors, skirting boards and floor boards to reduce heat loss - 15% of heat is lost through draughts and 15% through the floor
• Make your windows draught proof or fit double glazing - this cuts heat loss in half - up to 10% of heat is lost through uninsulated windows
• Fit loft insulation - which should be at least 200mm thick to be most effective - 25% of heat is lost through an uninsulated roof
• Fit wall insulation - up to 33% of heat is lost through uninsulated walls
  

Do Good!

Fabulous

Beloved Dust

And you as well must die, beloved dust,
And all your beauty stand you in no stead,
This flawless, vital hand, this perfect head,
This body of flame and steel, before the gust
Of Death, or under his autumnal frost,
Shall be as any leaf, be no less dead
Than the first leaf that fall, --- this wonder fled.
Altered, estranged, disintegrated, lost.

Nor shall my love avail you in your hour.
In spite of all my love, you will arise
Upon that day and wander down the air
Obscurely as the unattended flower,
It mattering not how beautiful you were,
Or how beloved above all else that dies.

-- Edna St. Vincent Millay --