Sky Photos & Greening End Of Life

Happy Friday friends and fellow bloggers,

I took a few day shots and some night shots to share with you today. The sky was nice and  mostly clear. The weather temperature has taken a noticeable downturn. I felt a bit chilled in early evening but I had taken a shawl to wear if it got too cool. 

I had a busy day attending a specialist appointment. After that I decided to get a foot reflexology session because I haven't had one in a very long while and I felt my feet needed a tune up. Once I had my feet attended to I went for a quick bite of Japanese food before heading to a downtown church for a seminar called "Greening Your Death and Aligning Your Values".  It was a fully subscribed 2 hour session which was information intensive.

 

The seminar was held at the St. Andrews Wesley Church in downtown Vancouver. It brought attendees up to date on alternatives to traditional burials and gave us some insight into the different disposition alternatives and their impacts on the environment.  The greening of final disposition is not very advanced in my province despite some of these issues being talked about for decades. There are however a lot more people working to try and change things;  most of them seem to be women.

I've been looking into this issue here and there for many years but I haven't actually done anything about setting out my disposition wishes. What I have done so far is purchase the burial plot and given some thought to whether I want a funeral service or not. Tonight I met a death doula, well several actually. One of them suggested we sit down and write down my disposition wishes in detail so I can leave a package for my loved ones most of whom don't want to talk about the subject. Having looked after several loved ones at the time of their passing, I know that pre-planning will be a great comfort and help to my loved ones once I am no longer here to take care of things for myself.  This will be a good project for me to work on in the new year.

Now without further ado, here are some sky photos.

The bottom 2 photos are taken at the steps to the Vancouver Art Gallery. This exhibit has been here for a few years now and commemorates the Murdered and Missing Aboriginal Women in Canada as well as the recently identified unmarked graves of many, many Aboriginal children found at several sites of former residential schools. These are very sad incidents of violence and racism against Aboriginal people which the Canadian people, Canadian governments and Aboriginal people (Indian, Inuit and Métis) are working to overcome and heal. It will be a long but necessary process.

Linking up with Sky Watch this week. Thank you for stopping by!

Greening My Air - My World Tuesday

I haven't had any plants now for some time so I bought a small aloe vera plant last summer. It needed repotting then but I still haven't repotted it! Something I know I need to do so it can really spread out and grow.

The aloe plant is well known as a medicinal plant. I've mostly known of this plant for its gel. When one gets a cut or scrape you can break a stem from this plant and squeeze the gel from the shoot onto your cut. It has many other uses besides applying to cuts and scrapes.  You can read more about it here.

The aloe vera plant originates in northern Africa. When I was in Kenya, East Africa,  I saw these huge aloe plants like these ones in the photos below. I was on my way to Marigat, Kenya.

You can see just how dry the climate is by looking at the plants and the ground.  These aloe plants are outside the aloe farm.

Look at how large some of these aloe plants are!

This is the company that is growing aloe plants and seedlings for sale.  I didn't have time to stop and have a closer look at the business operations.

Another plant I purchased in November (see photo below)  is not doing so well. It is of the Dracaena family. I believe it's path to illness was due to an episode of over watering.  I've cut off all the brown and dead leaves but now the plant has leaves on one side only and is looking rather bare.  I have fertilized it.  I hope it can recover and become more balanced looking over time. Perhaps I need to cut all the leaves back, I'm just not sure. I will have to do some research.

The Draecena plants make up an important group of plants used to decorate the home, keep the air clean and "green" private and public spaces.   Apparently there are approximately 40 or so assorted species of this plant and it comes in various shapes and sizes.


The plant above is one of the popular Dracaena fragrans ‘Massangeana’ is more commonly known as the Corn Plant. It is supposed to do  well in low light conditions and its wide leaves are long and arc gracefully from the stalk.

You can't tell from my little plant above, but years ago I did have a beautiful and healthy Corn Plant. I don't remember what happened to it but I believe the movers packed it up and put it in storage when we had the fire. They literally put it in a box and didn't water it. Needless to say it was not thriving when I got it back and it didn't take long before it expired completely. Though it doesn't need a lot of water, it does need some.

I love the leaves on a larger Corn Plant so I had to buy it when I saw it on the weekend.  I think it is good for cleaning the air in my small apartment. Especially during the winter when the windows are seldom kept open.

Hopefully this plant will be with me for years to come and clean the air that I breathe.

For more insight into what others around the world are doing this Tuesday, click here.

Making Powdered Laundry Detergent

Hi friends,

Some of you will remember my first foray into making liquid laundry detergent. I've used about half or just under half of it so far and it is working very well. It doesn't suds at all but that doesn't affect it's cleansing properties. I've even started hanging out clothes to dry on the patio as a way of saving on electricity costs and doing my part to go green.

My mother has been having a lot of skin issues which have baffled the doctors and her skin is extremely sensitive so we thought I should make her some powdered detergent. This is the recipe I used.

Powdered Laundry Detergent:

- 2 cups Washing Soda (I get mine in the laundry section of a local food supermarket).
- 1 cup of Borax (I get this at another food supermarket which is closer to my house than where I buy the Washing Soda).
- 1 1/2 bars of Sunlight Bar Soap (If you don't have Sunlight and you are in Canada, you can use the Ivory Bar soap. In other countries, I understand people use Zote, purchased in Mexican food shops or Fels Naphta).  If none of these are available in your area, have a look on line and order that way.

The process is rather simple. You simply mix the washing soda and the borax together. I then shred the Sunlight Bar soap in my food processor and all it to the powdered mixture and shake it well to mix it evenly. If you do not have a food processor you can grate it all up with a hand grater. It will just take longer.
Now store the mixture in a jar or a plastic baggie. When you want to do your laundry you use only 2 tablespoons of this mixture.

I've never made this detergent before but it is a variation of the same recipe that many others use and post on line so I'm sure it will work quite well. I didn't do the cost calculations per load this time but I may add them  later.

Next, I will be making bar soap for washing my face and body and I hope to post about it in future. I have been scouring the local shops to find lye which is one of the key ingredients. I've found a supply but I've also read on line that the lye is of inconsistent quality. I will probably try it anyway and see for myself. Otherwise my only option would be to purchase the lye on line which will increase the cost.