Towards Sustainable Living

I'm back, and still in one piece (thanks for asking Eilleen :-)! We were very blessed that all we sustained in the horrible storms that hit the Hunter over Friday and Saturday, was some superficial damage to our backyard. The power was off for almost two days apparently - very luckily for us it was after we had left on holidays. Since we hadn't gone very far up the coast, we had a blackout on Saturday night for a few hours though, for which we were (stupidly) unprepared. You would think we would have thought to at least bring as torch with us! There are still houses here that still don't have power back, almost a week later, and it looks like some will be waiting until after the weekend. (If you want to check out some amazing photos of the flooding and damage, check out my local ABC radio website, here).

But for all the inconvenience and heartache (and my heart goes out to those who lost family members), it is really only a temporary anomaly, a glitch before everything gets back to normal. As I grimly battled for a car park at the only functioning local supermarket last night though I couldn't help but wonder what things would be like if this sort of freak weather were to become a regular occurence in another decade or two. Regular disruptions to food supplies in particular...

Then tonight I noticed that one of the lead news items is that electricity costs are set to rise by 8%, or about $100 per year. I have to say that in light of all that, the organised stockpiling of dry goods (more than I do now anyway) is looking like a more and more sensible option. For great tips on stockpiling by the way, check out this post on Rhonda's blog Down to Earth.

But I digress. The Time Magazine article I was interviewed for is definitely out this week (dated 18 June). I thought my 2 cents worth came across as a bit superficial (although I wasn't expecting anything too in depth), but I was slightly more disappointed that the name of my blog was misquoted as "Towards Sustainable Living". Shock, horror, a journalist getting the facts wrong?! Out of interest I did a Google search on the "new" title and didn't get anything at all that directed me here, so it looks like my anticipation of a few new bloggers dropping by was a little premature, LOL. Ah well, it has still generated interest among the family and friends I have mentioned it to so far (yay!) and I am (just quietly) super-chuffed to rate a mention in the same article as the inspirational Linda Cockburn, Aussie author of Living The Good Life, the book that was, in part, the catalyst for my own journey! I have a link to Linda's blog about her latest Tasmanian adventure in my blog list on the right (Living the Good Life).

I'll leave off tonight with this link - it's the live Surf Cam at Nobby's Surf Club, which they have moved so that it looks straight at the bulk loader the Pasha Bulker, still stuck fast on Nobby's Beach. Looks like it isn't going anywhere until the end of the month either! It's making for an interesting change of backdrop for my DH's lunchtime beach volleyball games, LOL.