Cardboard Castles, Celebrity Coffee and Social Contracts

I had a busy, productive and inspiring weekend. Don’t you just love those weekends? It nearly didn’t happen – I’d been brewing a cold/virus for the previous few days – but in the end the sun was shining and it all worked out perfectly.

Here’s a quick rundown of the highlights.

The Celebrity Photo Shoot

Well, not exactly “celebrity”, but my boyfriend has been asked to be one of the faces for the new Plastic Free July campaign, which meant a photoshoot at 9.30am on Saturday morning along the main shopping strip where we live. So Glen spent 30 minutes pacing up and down past the shops, whilst a guy with the longest camera lens I’ve ever seen snapped pictures, and Rebecca (from the Plastic Free July campaign) and I looked on. As did a few other Saturday morning shoppers; it’s interesting how people are drawn to the camera.

No-one asked for his autograph though, which I found disappointing.

Annoyingly, I forgot to take my camera, so I’m going to have to wait for the official ones to be ready before I can share them. Hopefully not too long to wait!

The Mosman Park Eco Fair

The Mosman Park Eco Fair is a glorious day out; set in the beautiful community gardens at St Luke’s Church in Mosman Park, featuring all things green, including sustainability workshops, ethical and environmental stalls and with a real focus on reducing waste.

There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer, but after organising the Less is More Festival not too long before, it’s nice to go to an event as a punter and be able to enjoy everything that’s on offer.

The Earth Carers have a big presence as always. In addition to running their Washing Up Station to reduce disposable cups at the event, they also ran a children’s activity – make cardboard castles!

CardboardBoxes

EcoFair2

I wrote about the Washing Up Station at last year’s event (and why I think it’s so important here), but the castle-building was a new activity and a very popular one!

It was really great to catch up with so many people I know, as well as learn about all of the interesting projects that people are involved in, and hear about their latest achievements. Personally, I find it really inspiring and motivating reconnect with people from my community, and I always feel like my passion is re-ignited afterwards.

Permaculture Day

Sunday was International Permaculture Day, and there were some workshops at one of the local Farmer’s markets. I’ve been wanting to learn about beekeeping for ages, and made the effort to trek across town on a rather chilly morning for the 8.30am workshop. It was so interesting! Something to save for another blog post, but I felt a real sense of achievement in having taken a step closer.

My Glass Jar Trade

A few weeks ago I nearly put some of my glass jars into the recycling. In fact I did put them in, but then I took them out again. Most glass in Perth isn’t actually recycled (it’s trucked to Adelaide, turned into road base or landfilled) and I was sure that someone could use those jars. Just after I retrieved them, a friend requested jars for bottling her honey. I exchanged several of my finest jars in exchange for one jar of her finest honey. An awesome trade! I wouldn’t have got that from the recycling peeps!

Honey

Even better, once home I turned the honey into a delicious cake. Yum!

CakeThe cake is a chocolate pear rosemary cake that’s gluten- and dairy-free. You can find the recipe here; I used honey rather than sugar and it was perfect!

The Social Contract

In my last blog post I mentioned that I didn’t have a “no junk mail” sticker on my mail box. I know I needed one, I’ve been talking about it for months, but I could never quite get round to getting one. In fact, I didn’t just mention it once, I mentioned it 3 times. I didn’t want anyone to miss it.

Why? Because if you have an intention, there is nothing better than to tell EVERYONE your intention. Comments were made to me both on the blog and on Facebook about how should get a “junk mail” sticker. People taking an interest not only reinforces what I already know (that I need to get a sticker), but also makes me feel guilt and shame for not getting on with it. I don’t want to be asked by these same people over the next few months whether I’ve got one and have to say no – so this is a great way to force yourself into action!

I’m pleased to say I’ve been and got a new sticker. No more junk mail for me! Except, it still needs to be stuck on. A minor detail!

JunkMail

So that was my weekend. How was yours?!

8 replies
  1. sarahn
    sarahn says:

    Wow what a weekend. I love the idea of making play things for the kids who are visiting with all the boxes, that is great. I must make that cake, it looks so delicious! Thanks for some great links.

    Reply
    • treadingmyownpath
      treadingmyownpath says:

      Box castles are awesome! It was a really popular activity, loads of kids got involved and had a great time. Both money free and waste free (the cardboard was salvaged) – the perfect combination!

      The cake is delicious – a friend gave me a bag of potato flour she had no use for and I just could not find a recipe that used more than 1 tbsp, and then I found this one! I still have 700g or so of the potato flour (it was a kg bag) which means I will have to make this cake at least 7 more times! Hurrah!

      Reply
        • treadingmyownpath
          treadingmyownpath says:

          What did you want it for? (Aside from the cake recipe I linked to!) If you have any other ideas for using up my 700g please suggest away!

          Reply
  2. MargotBarbara
    MargotBarbara says:

    That sounds like such an optimistic weekend. I love how much joy kids get from cardboard boxes! I did a beekeeping day course a couple of years ago. It was fascinating, but I don’t think I breathed properly throughout all of the bee handling parts of it! Perhaps it’s not for me after all. I shall keep my bee supporting activities to planting schemes and eating local honey :)

    Reply
    • treadingmyownpath
      treadingmyownpath says:

      This was only a short talk, but I was blown away by how much there is to know, and how much humans have to intervene. If I ever wondered why vegans don’t eat honey, after this talk it was a whole lot clearer! Hopefully I can go watch when my friend handles his bees to learn a bit more. The guy taking the talk said that if you keep bees, you WILL get stung. From what I remember, bee stings hurt. Hmmm!

      Reply

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