Last December, I discovered how easily even women managers can ignore the most basic needs of female workers. This revelation came to light at a seminar about ‘Women in the Environmental Profession’ run by the Environment Institute of Australia and… Read More ›
A pile of concrete greeted me on my return after a recent holiday. When I saw my neighbour a few days later, he asked, “Are you happy with the concrete?” What he really meant was, “Were you serious when you… Read More ›
I never cease to be amazed by the range of high quality exhibitions, talks and other events on offer in Canberra. Not bad for a big country town (that just happens to also be a national capital). In particular, there are… Read More ›
Anyone can find a few clues, but not everyone can solve a crime Recognising an opportunity or uncovering a new piece of information is only the first step in the journey. You also need to appreciate its significance and be willing… Read More ›
I’ve been trying my hand at fiction lately and am very excited about winning the YWCA Canberra Frugal Feast Writing Prize. You can read my short story about eating and farming insects at the ACT Writers Centre Blog (here – http://actwritersblog.com/2016/01/11/how-hungry/).* The content… Read More ›
The sign in this food store near the Campo De’ Fiori in Rome reads ‘Ugly but good’. I regret not tasting one of these cakes while I was there. It’s great that some suppliers are now taking a similar approach with odd-shaped… Read More ›
I just ordered new business cards with my name, twitter ‘handle’ and website address as I often want to give these to people without the rest of my contact details. I chose a company that advertises ‘budget-friendly’ cards – but had to… Read More ›
I’ve just finished reading about Australia, Singapore and the Malay Peninsula during the Second World War in a novel called ‘To Love a Sunburnt Country’.(1) The story provided a fascinating insight into life at the time and how Australians responded when war… Read More ›
Yesterday I attended the Krebs Lecture 2015 at the University of Canberra given by Peter Garrett AM on the environment, climate change and ‘five simple steps we can take to save the hand that feeds us – our planet’.* Garrett’s credentials include former… Read More ›
The holidays are great for relaxing with the sort of books that you don’t normally read. One of my choices this Christmas was ‘Horrorstör‘ by Grady Hendrix. The novel opens with a stench of zombies (‘the barely living dead’) that are… Read More ›
‘The Magic Pudding’ is a classic Australian children’s book that was written and illustrated by Norman Lindsay – supposedly as an alternative to stories about fairies. It was first published in 1918 and tells the story of the Noble Society of Pudding… Read More ›
This post starts out with a ‘citizen’ backyard bird survey and ends with me deciding that a kelpie or other sheepdog is the Australian ADHD equivalent to a squirrel. Confused? You should be… but the connection is actually very straightforward…. Read More ›
Eye contact is our strongest form of non-verbal communication and plays a critical role in initiating emotional relationships between people (and other species). Photographers, for example, know that getting subjects to look directly at the lens of the camera is… Read More ›
Today I attended a conference about sustainable energy, water and waste management in Melbourne and couldn’t resist the temptation to publish a few of my favourite quotes. Tap into water data ‘We need to tap into big data to facilitate smarter… Read More ›
I spent a lovely afternoon at the Canberra Spring Orchid Show last Sunday. What an incredible and diverse family of plants! It was great to see these magnificent plants in the flesh – including a spectacular Sydney Rock Orchid sporting large spikes… Read More ›
In case anyone is unconvinced about how serious the competition is for tree hollows in Australia, I have made a short film about something that really happened in my neighbour’s backyard in Canberra yesterday morning! It also acts as a warning for people thinking… Read More ›
Orchids go to great lengths to attract the insects that are vital to their survival. Like humans, they put on a pretty dress, slap on some lipstick and perfume, flirt and promise sexual favours and gifts (but do not always… Read More ›
Spring has arrived in Canberra! Gardens and parks are bursting with the glorious colours of wattle, blossom and bulbs – and are every so often topped with a rainbow halo after much-needed seasonal showers. The large eucalypt outside my living room… Read More ›
I am very excited to report that my copies of ‘We go to the gallery’ have just arrived!! Some of you may remember my previous posts about Miriam Elia’s satirical look at contemporary art in the form of a 1960s ‘Ladybird Book’… Read More ›
A large outdoor sculpture in a small Australian country town has faced more than its fair share of debate over the past two decades. The sculpture, known as ‘Dreamer’s Gate’, provoked a series of complaints from members of the local community and… Read More ›
It was great news that UNESCO unanimously rejected Australia’s bid to delist a large of area of old growth native forest in Tasmania earlier this week (especially as these areas were only awarded World Heritage status last year). However, the… Read More ›
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all of the information available at your fingertips? Or find yourself totally blown away by what new technologies can do and how they are changing our lives? No sooner do I begin to get my head around… Read More ›
If faith is where you turn when there seems to be no place to turn (to paraphrase Zig Ziglar), then comfort food is what you eat at that time. So what happens if you already feel bad and then you feel worse because… Read More ›
When I visit buildings and developments that claim to be ‘green’, I like to ask the building owners and facility managers about the details. Not details like ‘What type of corner joint did you use here?’ or ‘Did you use recycled PVC… Read More ›
Once again Australians are being encouraged to buy chocolate bilbies instead of Easter (feral) bunnies. (To learn more about bilbies, an endangered Australian marsupial that looks a bit like a rabbit with a long nose and tail and a pouch, check out this Radio… Read More ›
For fans of ‘Charlotte’s Web’, imagine if Wilbur (the pig) had instead watched Charlotte (the spider) being taken away to be slaughtered and eaten? Would animal welfare groups such as PETA and the RSPCA have objected and fought for spiders’ rights… Read More ›
Someone commented recently that property managers are the unsung heroes of many organisations. Most people don’t think about these quiet achievers until something isn’t working or a utility bill hasn’t been paid. In promoting energy and water efficiency, we encourage… Read More ›
Moths, grubs, ants and other insects were important sources of energy for indigenous Australians whose traditional bush tucker diet was high in carbohydrates, protein and nutrients, and relatively low in fat and sugars. Witchetty grubs, for example, were a staple… Read More ›
Apart from macadamia nuts, most people (including many Australians) know very little about Aussie bush tucker – despite the fact that we have an amazing variety of edible plants, such as lilly pilly, quandong, wattle seed and lemon myrtle, on… Read More ›
I have always loved ladybirds. I grew up repeating a nursery rhyme about them whenever I saw these insects in the garden (but never really understood the line about their house being on fire). Gardeners know that the common spotted… Read More ›
The avenue of poplars (mentioned in this post) in the Tuggeranong Town Park follows the line of a heritage-listed dry stone wall that once marked the boundary between two rural properties in Canberra (one of which was featured in another post – here)…. Read More ›
Anyone who knows trees may have thought that the Lombardy poplars (Populus nigra ‘Italica’) beside the woolshed in a recent post seemed out of character. However, poplars are ideally suited to Canberra’s hot, dry summers and were quite common near homesteads in the… Read More ›
The original design of Canberra drew heavily on ‘City Beautiful’, ‘Garden City’ and other aspirational town planning movements that placed a high priority on the landscape. But have the ideals and vision of Canberra’s founding and subsequent ‘parents’ and designers resulted in a… Read More ›
![By Gilles San Martin (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://pipmarks.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/512px-scarabaeus_sp_20110414_163326_1987m.jpg?w=120&h=120&crop=1)
Back in August I saw a post with the intriguing title: ‘If you had 5 minutes to talk to a Dung Beetle, what would you say?’. I don’t know what your response would be – but I suggested that anyone living in… Read More ›
The world celebrates its first UN-sanctioned World Toilet Day on 19 November. The Day aims to raise global awareness of the serious health, privacy and other challenges faced by the 2.5 billion people living without access to clean safe toilets. Check out this animated promo encouraging people… Read More ›
It is one thing to talk about plastic bags and water bottles and other things that we can see and can make a conscious decision about (i.e. whether we buy or accept them in the first place and then how… Read More ›
A fantastic water conservation project at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne proves that reservoirs and tanks, not just ponds and lakes, can be things of beauty and landscape features in their own right. Over the past few years, ‘Guilfoyle’s… Read More ›
A recent article* posted on The Conversation suggested that we should ban the word ‘sustainability’ due to the common practice of using a small number of performance indicators to compare companies or products while ignoring the real issues.** The article also… Read More ›
Recycled paper used to be grey with lots of flecks that would invariably end up in your printer. The one advantage was that you didn’t have to actually write ‘Printed on environmentally friendly paper stock’ on any print outs as… Read More ›
Buying antiques and pre-loved items from secondhand shops is good for the soul and for the environment – as the greenest products are the ones that are already made. Your purchase avoids these discarded treasures being buried in a landfill,… Read More ›
While I really enjoyed watching the four year old in this video cross lots of things off his bucket list (and hope you enjoy it as well), it is very sobering to think that many communities still dream of having… Read More ›
When I used to talk about supporting a water project in Africa, I always pictured a modest and fairly unremarkable structure (such as the hand-dug and drilled wells built by organisations like Well Wishers and charity: water). Something not very sexy but… Read More ›
Do you care about the environment? If not, do you at least care about energy prices, food security and natural disasters? Participants at a recent workshop in Australia did not think that climate change and green buildings were important issues… Read More ›
Check out this video about a music school at a slum in Paraguay. The instruments are made from oil drums, crates, tin cans, plastic pipes and other waste scavenged from the landfill. Before I saw this, I thought rubber tyre swans… Read More ›
Are you willing to pay more for an environmentally friendly wine of equivalent quality? If sustainability means using less water, less power and fewer chemicals, then maybe you should be paying less (not more)? Obviously it is not quite this… Read More ›
I was very concerned (but not that surprised) to read about Legionella bacteria being found in the hot water systems of a number of Queensland hospitals and linked to at least one death last month.* This incident serves as a… Read More ›
Sustainability soapbox 