Heat island being measured in Chippendale

Sydney City Council has begun to publish the temperatures of two roads in Chippendale at: - the intersection of Myrtle and Abercrombie, in Myrtle on the southern side about 20 metres from Abercrombie:  this section of road receives direct eastern and western sun, is black, treeless and causes a lot of avoidable heat - in Buckland street across from Levey Street; this section of road is shielded from the sun by buildings and trees with good canopy You can tell where the temperature... Read More

Special tour Sydney’s Sustainable House – Saturday 26 May 2012

Special tour To celebrate the publication of the second edition of the book, Sustainable House, and to make the information about it more widely available, I’m offering a special tour of the house, including a signed copy of the book if you bring a copy with you or buy one during the tour. No bookings  but places limited so please arrive ten minutes before the tour begins so you may pay and the tours may begin on time. 1130 am – 1230      Saturday  26 May 2012 We’ll... Read More

The accidents in the street that sustain us

First the restive, urgent, surprising rain this morning as first light fumbled it’s way here, then, later in the day, this lovely email from a Chippo gardener, Paul: ” I want to give names for the compost bins…. Maybe pull name sugestions from a hat? My 1st proposal is Thomas (the bin thats had the highest temp) after Thomas the tank engine because it’s always steaming away….. “ The accidents of the street – such as this – are rich... Read More

Another special tour due to demand

Due to demand I’m offering another special tour of the house with a copy of the new book, Sustainable House, so the lessons learnt here over the last 14 years can be looked at and discussed on site.  It’s at 11 am to 12 noon, Saturday 30 October. For information and bookings: Special tours of Sydney’s Sustainable House – 23, 30 Oct  Read More

Appropos beauty

Of beauty. Looking south to Bronte Let us consider this day and some of what it offered. I went to Bronte to swim, thence to sit and watch, thence to walk up to Mackenzie Bay (the bay just south of Bondi). From shore to sea The photos are taken sitting just down from the coast walk path.  There’s Mozart, Schubert, silence of ages, Beethoven’s last quartets, surging Bach, a whole mighty orchestral magic.  Free for the looking, hearing and loving.  We’re crazy... Read More

Can you put plastic bags in compost?

Not ordinary plastic but some  - that is, SOME, only.  (I’ve used some bags which do not decay despite their labelling assertions.) But. Council officer, Helen Bradley said this to me: ” . . . biodegradable bags do take longer and start by breaking down into pieces and breakdown over a period of time. If they can empty the bag and then just tear it up a bit it will break down quicker. As long as there’s not massive quantities of the bags going into the compost... Read More

Measures of happines

On this so sweetly beautiful day, another one where Earth sings out triumphantly, “look at me, look at me”, and when I’ve just come back in from watering my garden (with my recycled sewage) to this computer screen, my thoughts have turned to the question, “Why do I feel still, easy and  . . . dare I say it, ‘happy’?” Part of the reason I’ve asked it is that on my way back to the house a friend, Nathan, has shown me these 2001 figures... Read More

Gardening as a frolic

At the end of the morning: L to R: Xavier, Norman, Colin, Charles and potato sacks New mulch crate, Rose St Well, such a frolic in the gentle, caressing rain this morning. About ten or more of us. We found a new mulch crate that Kris alerted me to.  I went with John and together we took it to Rose street and half-filled it with branches and things which won’t compost.  The photos shows it; lovely, almost stylish (?) and made for the site.  It’s a left over crate... Read More

Upon being a centrefold . . .

Steady. Pause your beating heart, and breath. Sustainability has today gone centrefold. Ok, so I’m being dramatic, but it is such a B E A Utiful day, I hope there’s a song in every heart that shares it. (Don’t you reckon Earth sometimes can’t resist herself and she puts on days like today when she sings, “Look at me, Look at me . . . “; mmmm ah lurves her then.) Anyway, in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Style liftout section today there is... Read More

Lovely writing and thinking by Monbiot this week

It’s here: www.monbiot.com… And here’s a taste: ” . . . Progressives, he shows, have been suckers for a myth of human cognition he labels the Enlightenment model. This holds that people make rational decisions by assessing facts. All that has to be done to persuade people is to lay out the data: they will then use it to decide which options best support their interests and desires. A host of psychological experiments demonstrates that it doesn’t work... Read More