Of course it's green in Oz

And here's the news from the island:

Maybell is now known to be afraid of dogs, cats, cows and apparently donkeys.  Learned this on a recent walk.

General Conference weekend, awesome.  Obviously the time change makes watching the sessions at the chapel at the exact times difficult.  Saturday they showed the Relief Society broadcast in the afternoon and the Saturday morning session in the evening.  Sunday morning was the priesthood session, 1pm was the Saturday afternoon session, followed by the Sunday morning session at 5pm and the Sunday afternoon session at 9pm.  We didn't go to the Sunday afternoon session at the church but it still made for a marathon day, especially for the Scarecrow.  It was really amazing, especially the Sunday morning session.  For those unaware, General Conference is the major conference held twice a year in Salt Lake City, UT.  The president and other general authorities of our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, address the world on topics that are important and relevant to our time.  Things like dealing with adversity, family relations, all kinds of things.  Here's the link to watch the broadcasts if anyone is interested:

182nd Semiannual General Conference


Elsewhere in the news, Scarecrow, Toto and I are all trying to be more active.  I was really proud of Scarecrow last week.  He plays soccer off and on with some fellas but he's been "off" for quite a while now.  So he's going to start playing with these guys again on Wednesdays while Toto and I are at the church for Young Women.  As for me, I'm trying to get back into yoga.  I was practising earlier and realized how COMPLETELY out of shape I am now.  Downward dog is always uncomfortable at first.  When I first started really seriously with yoga I finally got to the point where it was what it was supposed to be, relaxing.  Let's just say that today downward dog was more like face planting chihuahua.  So thank you, Yoga Download, you and I are going to be good friends after all is said and done.

 And now, we come to the portion of our program where we highlight those pleasant little oddities of Oz.

Many of you who know me know that I'm a bit of eco-geek.  In a lot of ways, Ireland is ahead of the States when it comes to cutting down on waste, saving energy, etc.  And so, here are a few of my favorite GREEN things about the island that has 40 shades of green:

• If you want a plastic grocery bag, you have to pay for it.  Check out this NY Times article on it Bagging It.  It's not a lot, 5 or 10 cent 22 cent (shows how often I pay for a bag!), but it's enough to make you stop and think.  Even better, it's enough to make you think before you leave the house, "Do I have reusable bags in the boot?"

• Alright, so I felt like a bit of a lunatic taking these next couple of pictures.  What freak goes into her bathroom and takes a picture of her shower?

The thing is, our shower is just that awesome.  It has a tankless water heater which has a lot of great perks.  A) You only heat the water you need ($$$) and B) the water is hot almost instantly which makes for a blissful shower experience.  And yes, that is nice to have.

• This one is somewhat self explanatory.  It's becoming more popular even in the States.  You too can have a little more control over your water consumption.  So one dot is for, ahem, "One" and two dots are for, well, "Two".  The waterways thank you for making the informed decision.

• So this thing, while more energy efficient, is a bit annoying at times.  It's a condenser dryer and doesn't need a vent, meaning it can be anywhere including interior walls.  There's a water tank under it that you empty out periodically.  Hence the "condensing" bit.  If you put really damp clothes in it doesn't always dry that efficiently.  But once the clothes air dry (which is what we do) it gives them a nice fluff.  And your conscience feels good about being kinder to the environment.

And so begins another week.  Here's to bluebirds and rainbows.