We've been reading "The Art of Happiness" again, it's just nice to remind ourselves of what the Dalai Lama has to say & this has led us to sign up to "The No Impact Experiment", which starts on Sunday January 2nd.
No Impact Project » The No Impact Experiment
We already live by most of these principles, but it's good to continue challenging ourselves to live with less & think about ways of improving how we do things. This is what makes us happy! We got very excited before Christmas when we received a letter from Ecotricity (our electricity provider), saying that our usage has halved over the last year, so our monthly direct debits are being reduced & we got a refund for an overpayment! We've also cut our heating oil consumption too & have all got used to wearing extra layers when it's been really cold.
Yesterday, was our local rubbish & recycling collection day & it never ceases to amaze us just how much "stuff" our neighbours put out... Just wished we'd had the camera! Houses with just 1 or 2 people put out between 6 & 8 bags of rubbish - that's just in a week!!! We recycle as much as possible & put out 1 bin liner of rubbish, which is never full. Next week, we aim to just recycle & have no rubbish at all!
Sal & Ryan, our eldest & her boyfriend, made all their Christmas presents this year & they were fantastic; Hand painted treasure chests containing delicious chocolate truffles, jars of cookies, jams, chutneys & face cream - really inspiring. Next year, we will definitely find the time to make more... We also wish to make more effort to bottle & freeze foods, eat according to the seasons, stop buying canned foods (baked beans & tomatoes) & get back into making our own beer (which we haven't done for months)!
These are the books we're going to buy for inspiration:
Our only guilty pleasure is owning a car & using it more than we should... Though after this next road trip, maybe we'll rethink our future holidays. We quite fancy walking more of the Cornish coast or doing a long distance footpath, so perhaps that will be the next trip, but we haven't flown since 2000 & we're very proud of that!
We're really looking forward to 2011 & know that there will be lots of exciting times ahead - yipee!!!
Happy New Year!
Kay & Simon xx
Comments
You encourage me to try harder.