Action 96: Pumpkin pasta sauce
Allow about 100g of pumpkin flesh per serving.
In a little oil, fry some chopped garlic and a couple of sprigs of thyme. Add the chopped pumpkin flesh. Stir and cover pan. Allow to soften over a medium heat. After about 5 minutes add a little water and 1 dsp of yeast flakes per serving. Cook till soft. Blitz with a hand blender to a smooth sauce. Add pepper to taste.
Mix the sauce with a pasta of your choice. Top with a sprinkling of chopped nuts.
One of the largest sources of carbon dioxide that contributes to our domestic carbon footprint comes from heating our homes. We can reduce this part of our carbon footprint by turning down the heating in our homes and/or reducing the number of hours we have the heating on. Of course it is important that we don’t get cold. We can keep warm by wearing extra layer of clothes and by taking regular exercise. Today’s activity is a nice extra – a hand warmer.
For this you will need a piece of cotton fabric – about 14x28cm. Fold this in half with the pattern on the inside. Sew the fabric together alone two sides.
Turn the fabric right side out so that the rough edges are inside what is now a pocket.
Fill the pocket with uncooked rice. Use a sheet of paper to make a funnel so that you can more easily pour in the rice. Fill about half full.
Tuck the unseen edges inside and stitch the sides together. Use small stitches so that the rice can’t escape.
To use the hand-warmer, place in a microwave and heat for a minute. It should be warm to hold.
You can reuse the hand-warmer several times but do be careful: over time the rice will bake and might eventually burn and scorch the hand-warmer.
All of have to find ways of reducing our carbon footprints. One area of life which can have a large footprint is transport. Diesel, petrol and aviation fuel all produce large amounts of carbon dioxide. On the other hand walking and cycling have a zero carbon footprint. If you – like me -enjoy cycling, you might want to encourage other people to cycle too.
Today’s project is to make a tag to go on the back of your bicycle.
For this you will need the wooden lid from a empty box of Camembert cheese. Carefully remove the staples that fasten it to its sides.
Choose two of these holes that are opposite each other and mark them with a pen. Imagine a horizontal line between these two spots so that you can orientate your tag.
Use the lid to draw a circle on a piece of paper. On this piece of paper draw a design for your tag.
Once your are happy with your design, use permanent felt tip-pens to draw your design onto the wooden circle.
Thread to paper clips through each of the holes and then hook the paper clips around the metal supports under your cycle saddle.
Every time you go for a ride, people will see your tag and will think, Cycling is a good way to travel!
Action 95: Heating our homes is one of the biggest components of our domestic carbon footprint. This autumn the weather is still quite mild. Why not see how long you can keep warm with out turning the heating on? And thereafter see just how many hours it needs to be in each day to keep you warm? On the Eco Tips page you will fin suggestions for alternative ways of keeping warm, including thermal underwear.
Caring for our future is about caring for all different sorts of creatures. We are continually learning how important so many large and small creatures are for keeping the environment healthy – be that worms who keep the soil fertile, ladybirds that keep aphids under control, ants that eat parasites, geese that stop lakes silting up, pigs that loosen and fertiliser soil under trees.
Today’s project is making a bug hotel. It is a place where small beetles and insects can overwinter ready to resume their activities in the spring. For this you will need a tin.
Using a skewer make two holds at top and bottom on one side of the tin. You might like adult help.
Thread a paper clip through each of the holes.
Collect from your garden bits of dead twigs and plant stalks. Choose ones of different thicknesses. Cut these into equal lengths, just long enough to stand upright in the tin.
Fill the tin with these twigs and stalks. Ensure they are well packed so that none can fall out. The little gaps will provide the hiding places that insects seek.
Take a piece of string and thread it through the paper clips and tie the ends together. Hang the bug hotel outside in your garden. Find somewhere sheltered from the wind and rain so that your bug hotel won’t become flooded or blown away in a storm.
How we use, spend or save our money, makes a difference.
Action 94: Review your spending. Go through your bank statement of credit card bill. Where are you spending your money? Who is benefitting from it? Is it promoting greener, sustainable businesses or activities, or is it propping up carbon greedy businesses? Is it supporting businesses or activities that have respect for their employees and their suppliers? Is it helping our society transition to a more sustainable, more equitable world?
Action 93: A week to go until the start of the COP26 conference on climate change. We shall be expecting a lot from world leaders: radical plans, actions and financial input. We too need to be part of the solution. What radical action could you take to make your life style more sustainable?
Having a concern for the environment is also about taking note and taking care of it. For today’s activity I have made a collage with leaves and seeds. There are so many lovely colours and shapes of leaves at this time of year, and so many different types of seeds: conkers and acorns, thistledown and apple pips. Taking time to notice and admire what is around us in the natural world is important – and what we see and love, we are far more likely to protect.
Having made my collection of leaves and seeds, I took a sheet of coloured paper. Then I arranged the leaves on the paper … looked at them … moved them around … until at last I had a pattern I liked. Then I used some glue to hold them in place.
I also took a photo as the leaves will not last for ever.
I like the idea of making something without having to buy lots of things. The less we have to buy, the less damage we do to the environment.
Why don’t you have a go and make a collage too?
24th October 2021, Proper 25
Jeremiah 31:7-9 (https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=501918569) Hebrews 7:23-28 (https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=501918639) Mark 10: 46-52 (https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=501913875)
Reflection
The reading from Jeremiah is so upbeat and full of joy. God is bringing together all God’s people, from the very ends of the earth, those who have been disadvantaged and sidelined, the marginalised, the young and the old. God will bring them back together, console and lead them, caring for them as a loving parent. The passage begins with a call to the leaders that they should praise God and pray for salvation. Will our nations’ leaders do the same for us at COP26? There are plenty of people around the world waiting for a time of celebration!
The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that we have in Jesus the ultimate companion, guide and priest. The one who will always be with us, who will always be the means of our salvation, and who will always intercede on our behalf. At times of seeming hopelessness, we need to be reminded of this certainty.
It is not often we learn the names of the people that Jesus encounters. We hear of the woman with haemorrhage but not her name, of the paralysed man – ditto, the Syro-Phonecian woman, Peter’s mother-in-law: all are anonymous. But here we know the man’s name and that of his father too, and we know where he lives: he is Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, resident of Jericho. He is a beggar so maybe life’s opportunities have passed him by. As a crowd gathers along the road side, people are less than generous towards Bartimaeus. They scold him for calling out to Jesus – are they embarrassed by him? Do they think people like him should be kept in the background? Do they think Jesus should only meet upright, ‘proper’ people?
If so, they have not been paying attention. Jesus is often sought out by the vulnerable, the excluded, the despised, and each time his response to them is always focused on their needs, full of love and compassion. Once Jesus has responded to Bartimaeus’s call, the crowd shifts its approach and now encourages Bartimaeus to get up and meet Jesus. How fickle a crowd can be!
Jesus’s question to Bartimaeus is interesting. He doesn’t assume that what Bartimaeus wants is sight – indeed may be Bartimaeus’s first desire was to be heard. People labelled as disabled, don’t always see their difference as something unwanted, as something they wish to be rid of. Rather what they may want acceptance and understanding, an place of equal standing in society. In this instance, Bartimaeus does want to regain his sight, he wants to see again. It transpires that what Bartimaeus doesn’t want to do is to stay where he is. He doesn’t want to remain by the roadside on the way into Jericho, the butt of people’s shifting opinions. He wants to go with Jesus, to follow him and become part of the transformative society that Jesus is creating.
In that there is a message for us. What do we want, both for ourselves and our society – our world? And can we be part of the change? Next Sunday sees the start of COP26 in Glasgow. Decisions made there have the potential to transform for the better, the lives of so many. Let us make sure our voices are heard, our wishes declared.
The Green Tau 