Ethical Shopping

A couple of weeks ago I was delighted to receive an email from the Pine Rivers Climate Action Network offering an ethical shopping tour of the Samford IGA. As I generally dislike grocery shopping and the never ending balancing act bewteen buying australian, trying to keep packaging down, avoiding companies with bad reputations etc, I jumped at the chance for someone to show me around my new grocery store.
Armed with "The Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping" we trawled the aisles and discovered all the australian companies that are now foreign owned, the Japanese company involved in funding the military opposition to the Aung San Soo Kyi and more happily the many local companies that this IGA are happy to stock. 

But what was most exciting was the discovery of a brand new store just opened that is dedicated to selling only locally grown and produced goods.  Fresh Local Provisions  (www.freshlocal.com.au)  is dedicated to buying fresh home grown produce from local people (I hope to soon be one of her suppliers) as well as basic products made in the area eg. goat milk soap, artisan bread, hopefully some of Stefano's timber products?  Luckily for me the owner and manager also lives on the same road that we are moving too so we had a great chat about water catchment and sewerage systems and other glamorous topics.  It is good tobe meeting people in the community before we even move in.

Next week Isabel and I are off the check out the local primary school - couldn't believe more coincidences; the receptionist also lives on our road, no its not the only road in the area, and used to go to New Farm State School (Isabel's current school) as a child!

Now if we can just sell the house.

House for Sale

As the new land is nearly ready for settlement we have finally taken the plunge and put our house on the market.
So we have been busy decluttering, painting and cleaning to transform it into something we hardly recognise - check it out at http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-new+farm-107985316

So we wouldn't have to stress about tidying up every day we went to Tasmania for the 2 weeks of school holidays while they started "the campaign".  We had a lovely time motorhoming around the apple isle (although more and more apple orchards are being replaced by vineyards) and enjoyed both the natural delights of the many national parks

Russell Falls

Freycinet from lighthouse lookout

 

 

Royal Botanic Gardens Hobart

And all the beautiful gardens blossoming in spring

Echium on the beach

Banana in Pete's Patch - what happens when we try to plant things that just aren't meant for the climate.

Tino - I can't grow cherries in Qld and bananas aren't meant for Tasmania!

We also really enjoyed the convict and settler history and the overwhelming feeling that we had stepped back in time.  I can really recommend visiting the historical estates around the heritage highway; Clarendon which is a National Trust property, Woolmers Estate, and Brickendon where the 7th generation of the founding family are still living and farming.

Oh well.  Back to the reality of real estate agents and price negotiations.  Aaaaaaaagh!!