15th October Blog Action Day 2009 - It's Here!

I run several blogs and have put up a different post for this day on each of them. I wanted to try and reach a balance between being informative and providing a means of taking action.

Climate change can affect us in so many ways. It's not all about the global catastrophe that may occur tomorrow or in 500 years as depicted in films such as The Day After Tomorrow, there are very real and small changes occurring all the time, the impact of which may not be realised until it is too late, or until the impacts of multiple events take us too far.

The Environment is effected by our current way of life. I am not qualified to state whether the changes to our planet would occur regardless of our presence however I think is it true to say that our actions are acting as a catalyst.

The smaller changes we can measure year by year have a very real affect on people around the globe. Food sources are affected, economical resources are over stretched, and diseases are mutating and becoming more significant to all living things on our planet.

So here and now I would like to recommend a small and quick way to help.

I know so many people who are passionate about climate change and willing to do their bit, however we all have demanding lives, responsibilities to family and friends, and frankly time is short.

What I am suggesting is that you take a small amount of time out of this day to visit this site and then click the large button that says...

'Click Here to Give - it's FREE'.

The tabs along the top of the page that say: Hunger, Breast Cancer, Child Health, Literacy, Rainforest, Animal Rescue all have the same one click button so try and visit them all and click your mouse!

Then make a commitment to them to click your mouse; just one click every day, week, month or even year, and it will make a difference.

The site is run by The Greater Good Network. Their sponsors pay them for each click they receive in exchange for advertising space and the results of just clicking the buttons are astounding.

The pie charts below show the resources generated from clicking verses purchases via the site in the first 6 months of this year alone:

The Hunger Site has generated 30.1 million cups of food from clicking alone!

The Breast Cancer Site has provided 1,376 free mammograms from clicking alone!

The Child Health Site has 374,121 children from clicking alone!

The Literacy Site has donated 215,162 books from clicking alone!

The Rainforest Site has protected 248.9 million square feet of Rainforest from clicking alone!

And the Animal Rescue Site has generated 37.4 million bowls of food from clicking alone!

Making this small commitment and clicking your mouse can make such a huge difference.

If you do wish to do more you can add one click badges to your blog or website, sign petitions which regularly appear on the website or even make a purchase, but I hope that everyone who reads this post will commit to making that one click every day.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and please feel free to visit my other blogs and Blog Action Day Posts at Evolved and The Green Man. Happy Blog Action Day 2009 to you all.

To see other Blog Action Day posts on Climate Change click here.

(Pie Chart Image and Information Credit: The Greater Good Charity Site)

Porcupine Tree

I went to see PT last Friday, they were awesome! They played the first disc of The Incident as the first half. It is an amazing album, I feel as if I have know it for years, it is a thing of beauty and I cannot get enough. Here's a bit of it!!

Sky Watch Friday # 50 - At Last it Rained

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Heavy Cloud, No Rain

I have had this song in my head for days. I am desperate for rain and we have not had any significant rain for over 6 weeks now.

I have newly planted trees drooping all over and my clients do not want to pay to water them. It is a costly affair but so very vital.

Drought stress can cause irreversible damage to a trees ability to photosynthesise, to feed itself.

This is one of my favourite albums ever. I love the whole album without exception and think it to be Sting's best.

If you are not familiar with it I strongly recommend you give it a listen.



Image Credit: Albumy Rock & Metal

Sunday is...

For me Sunday is the best day of the weekend. I am used to a more relaxed routine, the chores for the weekend have been taken care of on Saturday and there is little left to do other than the things I want to do.

We have leisurely walks with the dogs, walks around the garden with sporadic bouts of weeding, I get to visit blogs I treasure and post some things myself, and in the afternoon I cook.

I really like the kitchen in my house. It is reasonably big and the afternoon sun streams in through the window.

I like to cook something special for a Sunday lunch and am usually joined by the dogs. By the afternoon they have had enough exercise to warrant an afternoon kip but they like to be around the nice smells and close enough to see if it is going to be roast chicken, a meal from which they always benefit!

I think that it is also reminiscent for me of childhood weekends, the smells and routine reminding me of my family. My Mum is a wonderful cook and the house at the weekend in particular was filled with the smells of delicious home cooking, and the sounds of my Dad relaxing in the living room with Grandstand on. (British Sports Show.)

As a family we would all relax and wring out the last drops of the weekend together.

This afternoon I have cooked Cottage Pie and Quorn equivalent for me. Shepherds Pie and Cottage Pie are two of my fellas favourites. The dogs do not do so well out of this meal but the weekend is a spoil time for us all and there is always a treat for them.

Camera Critters 7 # Lapwing

I visited the local reservoir again yesterday to enjoy the strong winds we had by the waters edge, and to see how many birds were there still. There were not many! However these little chaps seem to be there all year round.

They are so graceful in flight and remind me of bats. They are however shy and I had to try and sneak up on them to get some shots.

The pictures in flight were taken with my big lens without tripod on multi exposure setting.

I took just short of 200 shots in all and probably only got about 10 that were good and in focus however it was worth the effort, and thanks to the joys of digital photography an extravagance that I can afford.

I had a few more to post but have had trouble all day uploading pictures and am just happy to have managed these two! I hope to be abot to upload a few more the next time!

To join in or see other participants in Camera Critters click here!

Sky Watch Friday # 49

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Blog Action Day 2009 - 15th October

I have been planning my Blog Action Day posts for the 15th October as I want a different post for each of my blogs. The post for this blog is done and I am quite excited about getting it out there!

I have an idea for The Green Man and have also started on my post for Evolved.

It's been a very thought provoking process. I want the posts to reflect the purpose of each blog.

The blog register for the day itself has increased by over 200 blogs since this time yesterday. Here is a little more information about the event.

Camera Critters #6 - Four, Three, Two, One...

I visited a local nature reserve a while back and got these shots of the Canada Geese that reside there for the summer. It was a great afternoon.

Now that autumn has arrived the Geese are massing for their migration. They fly over our house in ever growing numbers collecting at the larger water holes to prepare for the off, and as usual I find myself wishing I was going with them.

I love all four seasons for different reasons. Autumn displays stunning colours, fruit and leaf fall, and brings the sunrise back to the time of day when I am going out with the dogs for their morning walk. But I also yearn to follow the sun to warmer climates and longer daylight hours, and the birds will be missed during the winter.


To join in or see other participants in Camera Critters click here!

Blog Action Day 2009 - 15th October, Climate Change

The 15th October 2009 is Blog Action Day, powered by Change.org. In their words:

‘Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.’

I have taken part in Blog Action Day for a couple of years now along with my Sister and Mum and it really is an amazing event. This year’s topic is climate change.

I have begun to notice over the past few years while attending seminars and courses that we can be very good at getting together, uniting to a cause and planning action however a period of time elapses, nothing happens and then before you know it we are all sitting there again discussing the same issues and noticing that we didn’t actually take any action.

This day to me is a day of communicating the wish for change on mass across the blogosphere, but it must be followed up by action.

Please take the time to register you blog for this important day, make a post for the 15th that discusses an aspect of climate change that concerns you, and then take a moment to follow the other links and help bring about the change we need, TODAY!

Register Your Blog Here


Promote Blog Action Day on Twitter, Facebook or by Grabbing a Badge for your Blog Here


Take Action Beyond Blogging Here

Sky Watch Friday #48 - Twister

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16 Days to Go!

Church Spire

These are the views we had of the church spire yesterday while hurtling parachute sporting teddy's off the roof!

The tiles are made of wood which is quite common for old churches, something I did not know until yesterday.

The black dots you can see are flies which were swarming around the steeple.