Sunday 23 September 2012

I Woke Up This Morning ...

On sitting down to write "I woke up this morning ..." it occurred to me that many did not, so I am thankful to be here and a good day to all who are.

I woke to the sound of a woodpecker; pecking away at the tree outside my window. The shortlived peace of the Sunday morning was however soon shattered by the mechanical sound of a lawnmower  starting up in the distance. Not expecting to see the bird I eventually opened the windows, but all was not lost as it was a lovely dawn to a new day with the different hues and colours of the new leaves of the East Indian Mango Tree sparkling in the morning sun to the sound of unseen birds. Hopefully I will see the woodpecker another day as I have done in the past but for today this was enough.

Green Idea/Tip!

Later in the morning I went outside & my sister was mowing the lawn (not the mower that shattered the early morning quiet) and I noticed clumps of chewed up and spat out pieces of grass which she said came from the lawn mower when she hit a rock. Immediately I had an idea for this readymade mulch.  I picked up the clumps and spread them around one of my new papaya trees to act as a protective cover for the soil around the plant and to keep more heat and moisture in, thereby enhancing plant growth (or so I've read).
 

Next time your lawn is mowed leave the cuttings to disintegrate and meld back into the soil. This is good for the soil and creates less material to be disposed of. (Small Step on the Green Pathway)

 
Isn't it interesting that the same thing can be a blessing as well as a curse (the mower that disturbed and the mower that provided readymade mulch for my garden). It is said, when given lemons (or limes), make lemonade, so make lots of lemonade today as limes and lemons are in season.
They are also very alkalizing for the body. Live Green & Healthy!

 

Brawta! (Extra!) - Sorrel Lemonade

Add some sorrel sepals to freshly made lemonade and let sit for a while to allow sorrel colour & taste to infuse the lemonade. Use as little or as much as you like to get a hint of colour or to make it very red, in which case you might need to add more water and sweetner. (Fresh sorrel sepals can be used, but you could also re-use the sepals that were used to make a batch of sorrel. These can be kept in a sealed container in the fridge for a few days or frozen for weeks.) 

Saturday 22 September 2012

Merging Saturday Morning Market into Healthy Green

I have been very occasionally writing a blog about shopping at the Coronation Market, downtown Kingston, Jamaica since 2008; but since then I've become interested in a lot more things than just buying greener food, so I'm starting a new blog that will incorporate most of my new interests without abandoning the old. 

                   



"On A Mission" (In Search Of Healthy)


Ever since being diagnosed with 'Graves Disease/Hyperthyroidism'  a few years ago I have been in search of 'healthy'; new ways of living well on a much larger scale than before. (See previous post originally written in November, 2011)  I believe Health & Wellness go hand in hand with Green Living hence the new title, "Healthy Green" will cover most of my new and older interests of wellness and greenness.
Food is a large part of the new mission, so I'm eating mostly green (plant based food), sometimes raw and hopefully always healthy. This of course means making most of my own food, a daunting prospect, but with some preparation can be accomplished most of the time. Like everything else, it's a work in progress. Also, finding, using and sometimes producing healthy green products is another area of interest that I have delved into as the search continues.  I invite you on this journey of green health and wellness. It will be one of discovery as the steps are not set in stone but will need to be deciphered in the shifting of the sands as I walk along the edge of the water where the waves come in and rearrange the scape of the beach. 

In search of Healthy

I'm on a search for healthy. I've been on the search for a while now but I haven't really found it yet. Maybe it's the journey that counts. I've found some interesting things along the way and I've even tried some.

I've also been trying to go green or become greener for a while now and I think the two concepts are somehow intertwined, hence my 'Healthy Green Blog'. I believe that if one could go completely green one would be healthy but it would be practically impossible to do in the here and now of the modern world. Maybe if I lived on the moon; I assume there's no pollution or any humans creating pollution there but we have to work with what we have; so I'm attempting to go green and become healthy in the suburbs of Kingston, Jamaica otherwise called St. Andrew.

Good health is a fragile thing. If you have it,you need to cherish it because it's pretty scarce. One's health is impacted by so many things, the things we eat, where we live, what we do for a living, how we live and play, the things we did in the past, our ancestors and much more.