So. I used shampoo, didn't celebrate Earth Hour & fruit fly are in my starfruit. Meh.

Thank you all for your terrific suggestions for coping with my no 'poo hair issues :-) I tried combing both bicarb soda and cornflour (separately) through my hair and they both did a reasonable job of absorbing excess oil - my hair was better but not great, you know? Had I not been going to a wedding of one of my husband's workmates (and was therefore socialising with his other workmates) I would definitely have just stuck to this method of oil control. Having greasy hair is not a good look with people I don't know very well however, so I ended up succumbing and using a mild kids' shampoo over the weekend while we were away. Ironically, I ended up having a wardrobe malfunction, when I lost the heel off one of my shoes during the wedding ceremony and had to wear my 'round-the-house scuffs to the reception! Not a good look, but at least I could hide them under the table for most of it ;-)

I will probably end up using shampoo again for the next wedding this coming weekend, because - predictably - my hair is even worse this morning after using 'poo and stripping all the natural oils out. However, at least I know now that I have a method of coping while my hair adjusts back to it's natural no 'poo state afterwards! Lovely Jenny also pointed me in the direction of this post which includes a dry shampoo of bicarb and ground oats (thanks Jenny :-) - I will definitely be trying this also.

Following on from that, as we were at a wedding reception on Saturday night, we didn't participate in Earth Hour (nor did the wedding party acknowledge it & I doubt they knew about). To be honest, I seriously ambivalent about Earth Hour anyway. I understand that it is a tool in drawing attention to Climate Change and the environment, but in my experience that vast majority of 'regular' people have not gone on to make any significant changes to their lifestyle afterwards, whilst the rest of us continue to try and reduce our impact in a myriad of ways every day anyway. In the Hunter Valley where I live, apparently electricity use actually increased by 2% during Earth Hour. Meh.

And in unrelated events, we returned home to find nearly all of our starfruit on the ground under the tree. Closer inspection revealed that they've been stung by the Queensland Fruit Fly which have also infected my Meyer lemon :-( I couldn't find any hatched larvae in the fruit I cut open, but they have sting marks, the typical brown spots and are rotting from the inside which makes them fall off the tree. We've bagged and binned at least 10 kilos of fruit (22 pounds) so far (probably more actually). Fortunately I ordered some exclusion bags from Green Harvest which arrived last week, so although there are very few green fruits left on the tree, I will try bagging them so that we can get a dozen or so for ourselves to eat! I'll also be hanging a couple more Wild May male fruit fly baits (they seem to be working well on the lemon) and I'm going to try Eco Naturalure too I think.



Never mind, we did have an awesome weekend at Riverwood Downs in the beautiful Barrington Tops, where it was still warm enough to swim in the Karuah River. Throw in new kids to play with and a wedding where kids were welcome (not to mention staying up late dancing!), and the girls declared it "the best weekend ever" :-)


Cheers,