We Australians live in a continent of extremes. In New Zealand they have earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In Australia we have floods and fires and droughts. We all learnt Dorothea Mackellar’s famous poem at school. It’s called My Country. Read the words if you don’t remember them (Australians) or have never seen it before.
We’ve had a few years of momentous floods in Australia, courtesy of La Nina on one side of the country and a negative Indian Ocean Dipole on the other. Up North the Monsoon has arrived along with Cyclone Ellie and the normally dry rivers are flooding. Nothing illustrates the ups and downs of Northern Australia quite so well as rivers like the Fitzroy River, a line of deep pools separated by sand in the dry and a raging torrent when it gets really wet. Here’s what’s happening in Fitzroy Crossing at the moment. Flooding inundates homes in Fitzroy Crossing.
The scale of the water is unprecedented. As you’ll read in that article, it’s having a huge impact not only on people and infrastructure but also wildlife. I think the local crocodiles won’t be short of a meal. In that very isolated region it’s difficult to get help in by any other means but air.
This is an unusual event, an amalgamation of a cyclone and the annual Monsoon. I’m sure it will be put down to climate change. The doomsayers will come out with their click bait headlines like “Stanford Scientists Warn Civilization As We Know Will End in the Next Few Decades” and “Slashing greenhouse gas emissions key to saving Earth’s glaciers, study finds”. That’s just this morning in my Facebook feed. The world isn’t going to end, it’s going to change. And the sooner we learn to live with that fact, the better off the next generation will be. /rant
Which isn’t to say there’s nothing we can do to help “save the planet”. For example, the state of our rivers and oceans is something we can help change.
Peter came across a segment in Better Homes and Gardens that explained how you can make your own household cleaning products. We thought we’d give it a try. And folks, it works! It’s every bit as good as the expensive cleaners you buy in the shops. We particularly liked the mould killer – mould is a huge issue up here in Queensland.
And here are the recipes:
DEGREASER
For bench tops, oven doors, sinks/baths/showers
400mm cold boiled water
2 Tbs pure Castille soap
20 drops pure essential Orange oil
NATURAL MOULD remover
To deter and remove mould from nearly all surfaces
250mm cold boiled water
250mm white vinegar
10 drops pure Tea Tree oil
30 drops clove oil
SCOURING SCRUB
For cleaning sinks/baths etc. Easier and less messy than Jiff.
1 cup baking soda, (bi-carb)
20 drops pure essential Orange oil (so it smells nice)
We sourced the liquid soap online (pictured above – buy the orange, though, to go with the orange oil in the other recipes), found preserving jars (to make a shaker for the powder cleaner) in Big W, and bought the brown glass bottles from Spotlight. The plastic spray attachments are easily reused from existing spray bottles but it’s probably better just to use a cloth and wipe.
The really good news? Using this stuff is far better for the environment and it works. No harsh chemicals, glass bottles instead of plastic – and it’s cheaper, too. Give it a try.
For anyone who thinks there’s no room for artists anymore, what with AI art, maybe this site will dissuade you. I’m not sure if I agree with the winner, though.
I’m making some progress on a new book, once again a mystery/adventure set in space. I’ve set up a new account to showcase my writing, photography, and digital art. It’s very new so it’s just books at the moment but I’ll be adding other stuff in due course. I’d love you to take a minute and have a look.
Here’s the link. And, of course, tell your friends or your kids or grandkids. Or all of them.
That’s it for this week. See you next time.
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