Relaxation for Business Success
Hello all! As you can see, I’m still sharing sporadically here. I just heard about this event in Richmond, and wanted to let you know about it, in case any readers are from that area. It sounds amazing. Enjoy!
What does relaxation have to do with running your business?
Everything!
The benefits of relaxation to you and your business are huge. Relaxation has been proven to lower blood pressure, strengthen the immune system, improve energy levels and give an overall sense of wellbeing. It means you’ll be healthier, work more productively, and be able to cope with the busy pace of business life a lot better.
But do you know how to relax effectively? This practical workshop will show you:
- How not learning to relax could seriously damage your health
- The top 3 mistakes people make when trying to relax
- Different relaxation exercises you can fit into your day easily
Please wear comfortable clothes and feel free to bring a yoga mat, or something similar.
When: 27th April, 8pm to 10pm
Where: The Dysart Arms, Petersham Road, Richmond, TW10 7AA.
Price: £12.75 when booked in advance or £18 on the door
Please note that this is a women-only event, as it is one of Kingston & Richmond Women’s Network’s meetings.
To book go to: www.kingstonwomensnetwork.co.uk
For more information, contact Anne Williams on 0208 546 2122 or e-mail anne@transforming-health.co.uk
Garbage Warrior
This documentary has been on our list since last year (like many others we’ve been watching lately), and we just got around to seeing it. Garbage Warrior is the story of an innovative New Mexico architect and his struggles with local authorities to build a sustainable housing development, designed with thermal mass and energy-independent homes he calls “Earthships.”
For 30 years Michael Reynolds and his green team have devoted their time to building self-sufficient, off-the-grid communities, gradually improving on previous designs and adding new aspects to homes that have been designed to maintain a comfortable room temperature with snow and -30°F temperatures outside. Some homes were shown with full gardens inside them, including tropical banana tress.
After years of development, these experimental homes create conflict between Reynolds and the local and state authorities, and the architect lobbies for the right to create a sustainable living test site to allow his team to continue their development. In the process, he is forced to give up his architecture license.
As the battle wages on, natural disasters strike around the world, leaving communities in India and Mexico devastated by tsunamis and hurricanes. Reynolds and his team travel to these countries to use their skills to benefit those who need it most, building sustainable housing in places where many of the locals have lost their homes.
Director Oliver Hodge says, “I met Mike Reynolds in May 2003, when he and his crew arrived in the UK on a two-week visit to build a prototype Earthship house in my home town, Brighton. I was inspired by Mike’s apocalyptic view of the future, and by the urgent means by which he and his crew were preparing for it.”
This is an inspiring movie about a visionary with creative solutions. I highly recommend it! We need more homes like these.
The World According to Monsanto
The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin that was originally released in French as Le monde selon Monsanto. The film is based on her three-year investigation into Monsanto’s practices worldwide.
The first thing you’ll learn is that Monsanto is about more than GMO seed, as if that weren’t enough. They’re also the company that produced Agent Orange and is currently producing the bovine growth hormone used in US agriculture. After having seen Dirt! The Movie just a few days before this one, I was especially horrified with the details of Monsanto’s products and practices. And speaking of Dirt!, you’ll recognize Vandana Shiva from that documentary.
And it’s amazing the influence Monsanto has with the US government, where Monsanto often got its way in the White House by exerting influence over policymakers via the “revolving door”.
Watch the full documentary and find others at Top Documentary Films.
King Corn
Yes, another documentary! When I see a good thing, I immediately want to share it here.
I can’t remember where I heard of this movie, but it had been on my list since last year. King Corn documents two friends who move from Boston to Iowa to grow an acre of corn. In the process of determining where their crop will end up once it’s harvested, they learn all about the increasing use of corn in the US food system.
If you’ve read much on food these days (think Food, Inc. or Michael Pollen, who’s interviewed in the film), you probably have an idea of the role corn plays in US food. Still, this movie focuses just on corn, and it was really interesting to me, despite already having an idea of where all the corn goes in the US (basically, everywhere). Almost everything Americans eat contains corn: high fructose corn syrup, corn-fed meat, and corn-based processed foods are the staples of the modern diet.
If you see this just after Dirt! The Movie, as I did, you’ll be horrified by everything they spray on their crop: ammonia fertilizer and herbicide (they’re using GMO corn that’s resistant, more on that in tomorrow’s post). And that’s how it’s done these days on US monoculture farms.
If you’re interested in other documentaries, director and Producer Aaron Woolf directed Greener Grass: Cuba, Baseball, and The United States, a WNET-ITVS co-production that won a Rockie Award and aired on PBS. In 2003, Aaron directed Dying to Leave: The Global Face of Human Trafficking and Smuggling, which won a Logie Award and aired on the PBS series Wide Angle.
Dirt! The Movie
I will never forget a college horticulture professor (yes, before I was an English major, I was an ornamental horticulture major) nagging us not to use the word dirt: “Dirt is what gets under your nails,” he would always say. The proper word is soil. So despite the fact that I was just a little uncomfortable with the title, I loved the documentary, which was inspired by the book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by William Bryant Logan and explores the relationship between humans and soil.
This documentary is just as important to see as Flow. Most people just don’t realize what we humans are doing to the soil (or the water), which the movie rightly calls the “skin of the Earth.”
Check out the official movie website for more info. Enjoy!
Composting made easy
Remember my quest for finding the perfect compost bin in Argentina? I never really found the perfect one. The bin I designed and had built by a carpenter never produced compost, and I honestly think it should have considering the time it had been digesting kitchen waste.
Here, our county offers government subsidized compost bins for just £5. And if you buy more than one, the second is half price. Each household can purchase up to four. Wouldn’t it be amazing if all local governments made it so easy for people to compost?
They also offer a special worm compost bin for £50, which is quite pricey for a wormery, though it’s supposedly suitable for smaller households. All bins are supplied by evengreener.com, which also offers a worm café for larger households. I just had to add the last two options because you know I love worms.
Now, if only we had a yard…or something larger than our two balconies! Though, maybe the smaller wormery could fit…
September/March: Think end of summer fruit and veggies
Image via Wikipedia
As I’ve done in previous months, I’m updating with the list of fruits and veggies that appear as seasonable on the organic farm website that I was ordering from in Argentina. I’m going to keep updating with their info until I complete the year. What’s actually available down there appears in bold below. This may, of course, vary from area to area. So this post is for September in the northern hemisphere and March in the southern.
At the same time, I’m updating older posts with the current UK availability with fruit and veggies that are available locally in the stores up here. At some point, I hope to have a fairly comprehensive list. I know seasonal availability varies greatly, with some climates having a much wider range of available produce at any given time, but some things are pretty standard.
Fruit: cantaloupes, grapes, honeydew, persimmon, plums, pomegranate, quince
Veggies: cucumbers, eggplants, lettuce, peppers, pumpkins, spinach, squash, tomatoes, zucchini
Then there are odd, out of season things available such as: apple, cabbage, carrot, chard, onion, and pear.
