Project Gratitude Updates 10. 11 & 12

I decide to lump the updates together seeing as they were relatively small. Lots of other things to write about at the moment, just not got the time for it all. It's very difficult to balance life with the things you love, especially when life is filled with so many things you love...feeling blessed that I have so many wonderful and enriching things to do :)

So what's been going on chez nous the last week or so?...Let's have look

Well to start off I had a little emergency situation! After not feeling well on and off for a few months (migraines, arythmia, moodiness and general weakness and fatigue which I put down to possible hormonal changes) I discovered the cause...my laptop is emitting EMF of 0.3 vm2 right in the centre of the keyboard, and that's with everything deactivated -wifi/bluetooth/mains power. This is a real problem because I recently managed to get some work and need to use a safe computer. This means that the priority for funds (in order to be able to create funds) is to buy a new PC. That's about 300 Euros for a basic wifi-free desktop. Fortunately a gentle soul took pity on my plea for help and donated 500 Euros, thank you Roger Hard!

JC and Denis spent the week dismantling an old barn in a neighbouring village. The aged owners said if we dismantle we can have all the materials...that means wooden beams and lots of stones (plus some free firewood) - restore, reuse, recycle and repair!

There was an exceptionally warm day the other day, before it plummeted again, and the council had been trimming the hedges, so a great windfall for me! The hawthorn berries I couldn't reach before, even with the end of the rake, were all around so I went collecting branches.

A perfect spot in the sun

Berry, berry nice!

As well as a huge bowl of hawthorn berrries for jam and a super rice sauce, there's lots of kindling. Got a few jabs though while stripping the branches and breaking them up for firewood, lol.

Feeling very blessed to be living in the countryside where neighbours leave fresh eggs on your gate post and where there is more of a sense of community than in the city...even though there are very few people around.

After the short spell of sunshine came rain, and lots of it, which is great because it's given us a chance to see where all the water flows, and it does...flow.

All the swales that JC and Denis dug last week around the new raised beds filled up nicely and so did a few places we weren't expecting, lol. You fix one place and then have to fix another - we like to call it the constructivism approach.
Anyway, it was a good time to get more planning done and rearrange the tool shed.

The guys have really done an excellent job with the shelves, all built out of the recycled wood from the old barn they demolished...hoping that these new carpentry skills will be put to use in the kitchen soon as the camping table isn't the sturdiest of worktops and I have no drawers! Come to think of it I don't have a real worktop either...maybe this isn't the kitchen, lol.

Keep the well wishes coming and donations too. They all get put to good use - one for motivation and the other for really necessary stuff.

http://www.gofundme.com/chezgratitude

Love & light
Louise (aka Mermie)

I am ONE

I was musing over my tea early this morning about how to next approach the job of colouring my hair. I have a pack of natural henna for such an occasion, yet I enjoy very much the sun-bleached blonde which adorns the lower ends of my successfully growing tresses.

The henna, while totally natural, will leave everything presently white-blonde a little 'yellow' and as the sun isn't shining so much now I'm back in the throws of winter in France, and it's not likely to come out for another month or two either, then there's no chance of lightening it using lemon & chamomile tea.

Bleached

Nothing for 3 months!

Henna

Then I thought about going to buy a product from the 'Bio' pharmacy, after all they had colours which purport to be 'organic', and a little part of me said "Yes that would be good, do it!" - but the better part of me remembered that the reason I stopped buying wasn't just because of chemicals but because of the effects of the unsustainable use of all the palm products contained in the cosmetics. I also remembered that I had not taken on a job because of this stance of not wanting to support that industry, or in fact any of the conglomerates as much as possible (I am human and admit that from time to time I still reach for certain products when I'm not in a good state of consciousness, usually as a result of PMT ^^).

This took me along a whole other train of thought as I picked at the left-over salad from the night before and returned the piece of bread I had absentmindedly buttered and was about to eat. It was the bread and butter that woke me up actually, I don't eat wheat for many reasons (the topic of a whole other blog post to come) and yet here I was succumbing to my vital for what reason? Did I really want the bread? Was there nothing else that I could eat instead? Was I hungry? Why did I stop eating bread? Was it primarily because of the gluten, or because of the GMO's? If it was because of the GMO's was it because it was bad for me or because of not wanting to support the frankenstein comany that has created the monster crops which are dominating the planet at the moment? What's the point in trying to make a difference anyway, no-one else is bothered, why should I be? Am I doing it simply to make me look good, do I really care? Is my small contribution really going to make a difference and if not then I might as well carry on as before, it would make life a lot easier and cheaper...you see where I went, lol.

So finally, after refusing the bread and relegating it to the plate with the gluten-free and tasty Ginger & Sultana cake (own receipe ^^), and of course taking a piece of cake because I decided I was hungry after all the thinking, I reached a conclusion (not just that I'll go with the Henna, lol). This conclusion is something I think I need to print and stick on my fridge to remind me WHY.

I may just be ONE, but I am ONE all the same.

If my ONE means ONE less tree is felled

If my ONE means ONE less animal suffers at the hands of Man

If my ONE means ONE less drop of oil is used

If my ONE means just ONE breath of air is purer

If my ONE means ONE molecule of water is unpolluted

If my ONE means ONE less dollar in the hands of the adverse forces

If my ONE means ONE more soul on the path of truth

If my ONE means ONE more drop of consciousness on the planet

If my ONE means ONE more wave of love and hope penetrating the hearts of the enslaved

If my ONE means alienation from ONE other because I think and act differently

If my individual conscious actions change ONE small thing, every day...then I'm happy to be ONE

What are you? ONE or the other?

Love & light

Louise xxx