provoking thought...

do you consider yourself an environmentalist?

i watched a very thought provoking documentary on global warming last night – ‘meat the truth’ – presented by Marianne Thiem - member of parliament for the Party for the Animals in the netherlands - "the very first party in the world to champion the rights of non humans in a national parliament"!!

you no doubt all know about global warming – believe that it IS happening… some of you may have even seen al gore’s documentary ‘an inconvenient truth’ where he exposes the problems of carbon emissions… you may also be aware that transport is responsible for 13% of all greenhouse gasses... but did you know that methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide?

and where does methane come from? the intensive farming of animals for human consumption - an industry that is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions! yep, that’s more greenhouse gases than every single car, bus, train, plane, tractor and scooter put together! (a very inconvenient truth for Al apparently, who totally ignored this statistic in his documentary - does that show the power, influence and fear exerted by the intensive (factory/battery/brutal) farming adherents?)...

as Paul Watson (founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) so eloquently puts it - "a vegan driving a hummer would be contributing less greenhouse gas carbon emissions than a meat eater riding a bicycle."

want more of this sort of information? 'meat the truth' has it...

for example, take the interview with Howard Lyman – known as the mad cowboy – i found it to be extremely encouraging...

“a fourth-generation family farmer in Montana for almost 40 years, I speak from a background of personal experience when I say that chemically based agricultural production methods today are unsustainable, and therefore ecologically disastrous. My experiences range from working in a large organic dairy to raising registered beef cattle to owning a large factory feedlot.

I was involved in agriculture at a time when the call dictated getting bigger and better or getting out. I was educated in modern agriculture, and I can tell you from firsthand experience -- it is not sustainable. I followed all the modern advice and turned a small organic family farm into a large corporate chemical farm with a thousand range cows, five thousand head of cattle in a factory feedlot, thousands of acres of crops, and as many as thirty employees. I saw the organic soil go from a living, productive base to a sterile, chemical-saturated, mono-cultural ground produced by my so-called modern methods.”

after an illness - his epiphany perhaps - howard became a vegan 20 years ago and hasn’t looked back… what’s more he’s become a voice for the animals!!!

"The question we must ask ourselves as a culture is whether we want to embrace the change that must come, or resist it. Are we so attached to the dietary fallacies with which we were raised, so afraid to counter the arbitrary laws of eating taught to us in childhood by our misinformed parents, that we cannot alter the course they set us on, even if it leads to our own ruin? Does the prospect of standing apart or encountering ridicule scare us even from saving ourselves?”


the lack of empathy for 'farm' animals is terribly disappointing and disheartening to say the least, and definitely hard to comprehend - it's strange to me that most people will make statements along the lines of "i love animals" yet ignore the cruelty involved in the intensive farming industry which inflicts heinous suffering on these beautiful, sentient creatures... but if you’re the sort of person who believes we need animal flesh and the 'by-products' of this industry to survive you might find yourself questioning that premise after hearing the people interviewed and the information they impart in this film…

having read extensively and viewed heart-wrenching footage on the subject over the years (hence my long-term vegetarianism and finally my total conversion to veganism) i was already aware of the cruelty of factory farming - i've also walked through an abattoir and been  horrified and totally distressed at what confronted me - the sound of the animals keening, wailing, screaming broke my heart - so did the sight of the battery farm where i witnessed the appalling treatment of chickens - and we've all seen the horrifyingly cramped transport vehicles and smelled the fear of those destined for the slaughterhouse - yet still some things shocked me terribly in this 'expose' - the mutilations, the experiments, the unnatural foods they're forced to eat, the use of antibiotics, the anti-stress medication being given to pigs to "help them deal with their unnatural living conditions"!!!

i lived in the country for a number of years and was fortunate to have shared my life with many different animals - Millie the goat, a 'commercial milker' who after years of slavery providing kids and milk for humans to consume was to be sent overseas as part of the live export trade to face a terrifying death (needless to say that didn't happen!) - there was Xenobia (Nobes for short), another member of the 'menagerie' and goat company for Millie - then there were the many hens saved who were no longer 'commercially viable' and destined for a brutal death... there was Rudie, the biggest (scariest, and most psychologically damaged) rooster i've ever known, and Errol, the handsome bantam boy - there were Annie & Ishie, the sheep - to name a few...

i marvelled at their enjoyment of life, laughed at their idiosyncracies and funny antics, was amazed at how far the chooks ranged in a day and how protective the roosters were of the hens, and appreciated the serenity and equilibrium they brought to my life... i sooo miss the country - and no, i didn't want to come back to the city - but that's another chapter of my (her)story and not what this post is about!!!!

so, is it possible to be an environmentalist without being a vegan? it's an obvious answer to me, but the choice is yours to become informed or not - and that means reading and viewing things that are sometimes very distressing, always perplexing - but hey, there's always the choice to bury your head in the sand... but i'll hope some of you watch this documentary and at least question the status quo... for the sake of animals (human and non-human) and the environment...

"our lives begin to end the day we become silent

about things that matter"... martin luther king jnr

by the way, there's a newly formed political party here in australia - the Animal Justice Party... i look forward to learning more about them as they establish themselves - who knows, i may even find that they're worth voting for - something i haven't had the inspiration or inclination to do since the 70s...

one of 'those' weeks...

well, me mum's 'cold' did turn out to be pneumonia!! we had to race her into hospital last sunday because she couldn't breathe... we got to emergency about 1 pm and left her in what we hoped were capable hands 7-odd hours later...

'they' did just want us to sit in the waiting room until she could be seen, but after convincing the triage nurse that she needed oxygen we got her onto a trolley albeit in the corridor but it was at least on the right side of the doors!!! the corridor turned out to be a busy area, but she was soon moved into a cubicle and onto a proper bed where she stayed most of the night for monitoring and was then moved to the acute medical unit where she spent the next few days...

going to the emergency department with a chronically ill person can be a problem though... they treat the obvious symptoms but we had a time and a half getting them to understand the chronic nature of the renal failure she's dealing with which can be impacted by the medication they were giving her... and then they were quite prepared to send her home once she could breathe properly - until the treating doctor finally took in "she only has 14% kidney function"... that's when she was told she'd be staying overnight and seeing a renal doctor... and that's when it was decided she would need to be observed for most of the week... she wasn't happy at having to stay there!!!

i can understand her hesitation at the thought of hospital - last time she had pneumonia she was given the wrong medication that almost killed her... then she had 'keyhole' surgery on her gallbladder which was where the kidney problem originated - they 'nicked' her kidney which has caused her renal failure... nah, she doesn't have a good time when she goes into hospital - nor does she have any confidence in 'them'!!!! and of course, there was a major incident when they gave her a steroid to help her lungs, which made her blood sugar level skyrocket to 19 millimoles per litre - the average for most people is somewhere between 4 and 8 - so that was dangerously high - they had to give her insulin to stabilise her but there was a real possibility of her falling into a diabetic coma - lucky they didn't just send her home with that medication!!!

the staff were lovely though... oooh, i should qualify that - the nursing staff and allied services staff along with the junior medical staff were wonderful - not so the senior teaching doctor (the alfred is a major "tertiary referral teaching hospital") that was dealing with her 'case' - he was such an arrogant prick (even the nurses agreed with that) - does that come with the 'territory' - the 'better than' attitude - the specialist 'i get paid a lot therefore i'm better' syndrome?? he very rarely acknowledged her and when he did actually speak TO her he treated her like a child, as though she couldn't possibly understand (or be interested in) anything about her own health - oh, he didn't acknowledge the family might be interested either but just spoke in 'doctor-ese' to the junior staff as though none of us were present - definitely no bedisde manner there!!!!

anyway she's home now and starting to feel 'fighting fit' (well, as much as a chronically ill older person can!!!) and we've finally been able to talk her into home help, which has been arranged by the hospital and will continue through council and community services and will be ongoing to enable her to stay living independently - and that's a fear a lot of older infirm people live with - the fear of losing their independence, their home, their friends...

okay, i think a fitting end to this post would be some more pictures of me mum... she was between 14 and 16 when these were taken so it was around 1945...

funny the things we don't know about our parents... i never knew she could ride a horse until i saw this photo (and asked her whether this was just a 'posed' shot or whether she could actually ride!!!) - this would have been at either the relo's in healesville or romsey...

and i can tell from the stance and lack of smile that she wasn't impressed when this one was being taken... and for some reason i think of 'little bo peep' whenever i look at this photo!!!

and this one is with me nan (and by the looks of it possibly me nan's birthday with a card sitting in front of her!)

there used to be a wonderful cafe (or was that tea-room, restaurant, or eatery) in collins street where time seemed to have 'stood still' - you went down a very steep wooden staircase to enter into a bygone era, but i can't remember it's name now - i can tell by the decor that's where this picture was taken - it seems many generations of melburnians enjoyed this little gem over the decades - probably just 'the norm' in dining in me mum's era but it was definitely a little bit of 'old world charm' in my more modern world!!

changing times...

you may (or may not) have noticed i've changed my  blog a tad - the header actually... hey, they say a change is as good as a holiday... so i went on a 'journey of discovery', scrolling through image after image... i had a minimum requirement - it had to contain a womon, a book, and an animal...

well, i found a graphic i really liked... it's by an artist named Jim Warren - "From the wild & whimsical to the sweet & sensuous, for over 40 years Jim Warren has been painting his way into the hearts and minds of people the world over. Already considered a "living legend of the art world", Jim continues to surprise and amaze"... opposite is his original and i just couldn't resist it... i love the illusion of the sand as mattress, and the water as blanket... i might have to use more of his graphics on my blog!!!!

i may one day even change the colour scheme of my blog - or not - but that is certainly for the future...

anyway i've spent quite some time on this little project so the post is short because now i have to go and tend to me mother - she needs some shopping and just can't get out (pity her son, my brother, doesn't think to drive over and help out - yeah, he's got a car, but when you need him there's always a reason he can't make it)... she's been really unwell - a bad cold on top of everything else - so long as it doesn't evolve into pneumonia she'll be okay (sort of)... but she's just about had enough now because her kidney disease is wearing her out... weakness, fatigue and inability to go anywhere are taking their toll...

an early sensory treat...

what a delight it was walking into the supermarket today and being enveloped by the wonderful fragrance of jonquils...  they're known as mid-winter through spring flowering bulbs so they're a tad early - but i'll enjoy 'jonnies' whenever they want to bloom... i don't think there's anything more beautiful than scented flowers - i remember when i was young you could actually smell a florist shop 'a mile away' (my that seems like an aeon ago - huh, not the case now so i was taking the opportunity to buy three bunches - a bargain at $6 a bunch - i would have bought more but unfortunately that was all that was left!!!)...

The world seems sad

mid winter's gloom,

But all is well

when the jonquils bloom.

(from the plantanswers website)

along with daffodils, jonquils are part of the narcissus genus - their botanical name being narcissus jonquilla - narcissus is derived from the greek word narke - meaning deep sleep, numbness. stupor or paralysis - there are varied interpretations out there so take your pick... some attribute the naming of the flower to its narcotic fragrance...

of course there is mythology and folklore associated with the origins and medicinal properties of the plant...

"Myths tell their own version of how the flower came to be. Long ago, according to Greek mythology, a mountain nymph named Echo fell madly in love with a mortal named Narcissus. He was a handsome but vain youth who was preoccupied with his own interests: hunting and admiring his good looks. He rudely ignored Echo’s efforts to interest him, so she sadly hid in a cave, suffering in grief until she died and faded away. Only her voice remained, which still haunts caves and canyons today. After her death, Narcissus became so absorbed in looking at his reflection in the water, that one day he fell in and drowned. The gods changed him into the flower that bears his name to remind us of the consequences of vanity and egoism. Similar versions of this myth exist in Roman, Arabic, Egyptian, Spanish, and Portuguese cultures.

The Romans believed that sap from the daffodil could heal wounds. However, it contains tiny sharp crystals called calcium oxalate that may actually irritate the skin. These crystals keep animals from eating the plant and are the reason that when daffodils are combined with other flowers in a vase, other flowers will wilt.

The powerful perfume of the daffodil can sometimes be overpowering, a reference to the word narcotic, which is related to narcissus. Although narcissus bulbs are poisonous, they have been used for centuries in medicines when mixed with other ingredients."  from authorsden

and who could forget dali's famous surrealist representation - metamorphosis of narcissus... an article by Rosa Maria Maurell i Constans entitled "Dalí and the Myth of Narcissus" makes interesting reading on his interpretation of ovid's version of the myth...

perhaps narcissus was gay - another interpretation expounded by some - you can listen to "narcissus and ameinias - gay love story" here... and then there was the brilliant and ebullient (but now deceased) performer and 'gay icon' freddie mercury who deserves a mention here for his reputed quote "i'm as gay as a daffodil, my dear"... now he was the true epitome of a narcissist if ever there was one!!!!

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you might remember i mentioned getting new glasses a couple of posts ago... it hasn't been going too smoothly... there was a promise of them being ready within 10 days of my eye test - well, after a few phone calls and 17 days later they were finally ready for me to collect on friday - i'd arranged to leave work early, taking toil for the saturday morning (i was working the full day at st kilda!!!!) - i was soooo looking forward to getting them... i happily headed off to the optometrists, tried them on and wouldn't you know it - i couldn't read a thing with them... distance, that was okay but hey, i need to be able to read too... i was one very disappointed and pissed off womon... so close, and yet so far!!!! so i had to go through the tests again so the 'measurements' could be checked... yep, seems like the laboratory fucked up - after waiting so long i had a feeling something was going to be wrong!!!!! so it looks like another 'less than 10 days' wait... at least i got me old ones tightened while i was there - who knows how long they'll have to last!!!!

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and here's an update on stefania's and pietro's travels - they started out in malta, then it was on to italia - according to steph's latest email they're in ascoli piceno, near the apennine mountains - i'm checking out a trip tracker widget at the moment but am having problems embedding - i'll keep working on that one... she says ascoli is a lovely medieval town with a population of approximately 50 thousand... it's full of interesting medieval buildings and a roman bridge dating back to the augustan era... oh, she also says it's cold!!!!

and hopefully the next post will have an update with really good news about the land in malmsbury... things are looking good for a sale soon so fingers crossed!!!!

a costly addiction...

but then, aren't they all!!!!

i do wonder why the government chose cigarettes over alcohol to recoup some of their losses from 'failed schemes' such as the insulation debacle - of course alcohol would have been my preference knowing its impact on my life (and on the lives of countless others who have dealt with an alcoholic) - these days it's a very rare purchase for me!!!

but unfortunately it was ciggies that went up yesterday – a 25% price hike - i paid $16.15 for a pack of 25s… that was in 7/11 (not my usual 'haunt') – 'only' $14.75 in iga today… smoking a pack of 25s a day has finally become way too expensive … now’s the time to go back to the cheaper option of rollies… so it'll be the occasional pack of 20s (i do prefer tailor-mades in a mull!), with drum menthol my preferred tobacco (yep, strange preference when i don't smoke menthol cigs!!)... i actually preferred rollies for a number of years - champion ruby originally, then drum - but neither came with such a wonderful graphic on the pouch like this 'vintage' chewing and smoking tobacco...

and no, i'm not ready to give up at the moment - that would just add more stress to dealing with me old 'girls' and their needs, life in general with its ups and downs, work and it's physical and mental stresses and strains (it's been another frenetic working week after a public holiday) and dealing with some of the idiosyncratic public isn't always easy!! nope, it's not the right time yet - and i don't want to, so therefore i don't have the right mind-set...

nah, my best solution is to just carry my tobacco in future and save me ready-rolleds for home - now that should save me some money (sorry to those street people that used to 'benefit' - i would give away 2 per day (but that was my limit) - that won't be happening now - blame the government please, don't abuse me)!!!! i'll share my tobacco with anybody, but the reaction used to be "oh, tobacco - you smoke menthol?! um, nah, ahh, no thanks, it's ok..." guess the drop-off in people 'botting' was one of the influencing factors years back to smoking menthol tobacco... i mainly drifted back to tailor-mades because when working and 'on-the-move' they're just easier!!

talking of 'mull' (i 'fleetingly' mentioned it in the second paragraph) - this is a strain of dope that'd make a stunning colour display in the backyard - it's called purple haze - ohhh for the decriminalisation of dope - i could even contemplate growing this beautiful plant in my courtyard then - and i'd save so much money!







but of course, it's more likely to end up being legalised and then monopolised and patented by the big tobacco companies and possibly look something like this...

there's been a lot of activity in the stairwell here today... someone movin' out... so i thought i'd check online and see which flat was being vacated - and couldn't believe how much they're asking for it... $330 per week!!! that's $80 a week more than my place... granted, it does look a tad more modern inside so it's been renovated at some stage - but it's only a 1 bedroom flat with a balcony... at least i've got a courtyard... and with me old girl still ploddin' on i was offered another lease here with no rent rise (or property inspection apparently) so i've decided to stay here a bit longer... the land's been put into the hands of agents now but even if it sells quickly it'll take a few months to get the paperwork in order and my 'retreat' built... so hopefully summer/autumn of 2011 will see me in malmsbury... sad isn't it that $20,000 would do what i need, but due to life's 'hurdles' (don't think i need to expand on those!) it's way out of my financial league...

changing topics altogether, i've been wanting to try agave syrup (used in numerous sweet vegan recipes i've come across) so when i 'happened upon' some while shopping i just had to buy a bottle (and immediately make some vegan pancakes!!)... it's been compared to maple syrup and honey - it's a similar consistency with a flavour (i think) somewhere between maple, golden syrup and treacle... it's definitely yummy and can be used in baking or just poured over pancakes and waffles... it's cheaper than maple syrup - but then it is somewhat quicker to produce - the plants are harvested at around 8-10 years compared to the maple tree, which isn't mature enough to 'tap' until 40-70 years of age!!!!

ohhh, did i mention it comes from the same plant as tequila??? "... agave nectar is juice from the Mexican agave plant grown in the volcanic soil around Guadalajara —the same juice that, when fermented, becomes tequila. The nectar is extracted by heating up the plant’s pineapple-shaped core, then pressing it. When the juice drips out, it can be either filtered—to make agave syrup—or fermented to make tequila..." from an article "nectar of the tequila gods"

actually the nectar can be extracted from most varieties of agave - but tequila only comes from "agave tequilana", commonly called blue agave, tequila agave, mezcal or maguey... it's also being used in cocktails these days - apparently it goes well in - surprise, surprise - tequila based cocktails!!

and yes, the pancakes and syrup were deeeelicious!!!!!!!

incidentally, it's may day today...  i've written about it before so if you're interested you can read my previous post may day...pagan and political...

i hope to start mapping steph and pete's travels in my next post - they've been to malta and have 'hit' rome now so i might make a start on that tomorrow... but you know how it goes - the best laid plans and all of that... we'll see...