It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

chrisbethany

So sorry to hear of all the job losses - take heart though. Keep in touch with OSers - it's just so encouraging here. There are lots of us in the same boat, and you'll find loads of great recipes and other ideas - wish I'd found MSE years ago!

I took advantage of the really WARM sun this morning and pruned the pear tree - two hours later we were in a snow blizzard - so bizarre!

Love to all

Chris

elizabunny

Hello everyone.

This weather seems to just go on and on doesn't it? Our garden and drive is still covered I think we caught the drifts. Our neighbour has just managed to clear a small part of his drive and now its snowing again.

DS2 visited us from London today an unexpected and lovely surprise, but as he set off tonight for the return journey, I couldn't help but worry about the state of the roads and his safety -the mum thing again:o

One of our dogs had a small stroke last night and was hardly able to stand today. Her balance had all gone and she kept holding her little head lop-sided. Although, she has now regained some of her balance -she is very quiet and off her food. She has been a good and faithful little friend and is 16 now -so has done really well, but I hope she can pull through this and go on for a bit longer, but only if she can have a decent quality of life . I'm just hoping we don't have to make a decision about her just yet.

Unfortunately, DH is still working short-time at the moment (no end in sight) and if it keeps snowing it is really difficult for him to get to work, but if he doesn't get in -he doesn't get paid.

What I keep telling myself is -you can't appreciate the 'highs' if you don't experience the 'lows' and worse things could happen. I'm sure many of us feel this way.

Keep safe eveyone, I think alot of us are due another wintry downfall tomorrow -roll on spring, then we can all get growing

rosieben

fletch3163 wrote: »

Hi

I had a MSE recipe for Naan bread saved into my favourites but it's gone. Can anyone help? Am 10 pages behind so apologies if I'm requesting at a sensitive time.

there are several Naan recipes here

rosemarym_2

elizabunny, I feel for you and hope your little dog does pull through

Almo

Hello all!

I haven't really caught up with this since I last posted (in-laws initially and then the bushfires), but I did see that ceridwen had extended her greetings - hello to you too ceridwen . I thought you made a very interesting point about money, and I haven't managed to articulate my thoughts about it even to myself as of yet. It's a very simplistic thing for me to say but I do think that for many, money makes the world go round.

Life would clearly be very miserable without any money (at least in a society which uses money) but recent events here in Melbourne have really shot home the message that money isn't everything. There are people who have lost everything - including their wallets and so are stuck in emergency relief shelters. Who knows how much they really have cash wise - could be millions, could be none, but now all are equal.

Thankfully, we're safe but friends aren't; or at least their homes aren't. The bushfires really made OH and I stop and think. It seems not impossible that parts of Oz will be uninhabitable in the not too distant future. Water is very scarce here now and the situation seems to be at breaking point. Clearly Victoria wouldn't be viable without water. We'd therefore have a worthless house (perhaps even with a mortgage outstanding depending on timescales) and would be penniless in a world that still values money above all. Very thought provoking for us.

Anyway, before I end this epic, I just want to say that I hope no one is suffering too much with either the cold weather or the job losses. We aren't experiencing such severe job losses but the suggestion seems to be now that our recession is delayed rather than milder as was previously thought, so that may be all to come for us.

Almo

ceridwen

Almo

:hello: I do fear for a noticeable part of the world - and that includes Australia unfortunately - as its been the case, as I understand it, that rainfall has been short for several years now. I hope this all works out for you. Think I might have read something somewhere about desalination plants or summat? I'm not technically-minded - but lets hope something along these lines or whatever can be worked out for you.

I am wondering whether we can find ways forward to have a world without money - barter/gift economies/whatever - some way in which we can function materially-speaking without greedy/selfish people with too much power mucking things up for the rest of us...because that is the way we need to go forward now. I have noticed a bit of a trend for some of the "nicer" variety of very wealthy people to do what looks like some "genuine" giving of huge sums of money recently - a trend I thoroughly applaud. At least some rich people appreciate that they have been "given" that money in order to see if they will be responsible stewards of it and use it for good - rather than flash it around for ephemeral things for themselves personally - bearing in mind the purpose of the Parable of the Talents (from the Bible)?

ixwood

No money would be a huge step back, not forward. Currency is one of the key things that has allowed us to develop the advanced society we have. You can't offer someone 10,000 pigs to build a motorway, airport, hospital, national grid etc etc etc.

Financial crisis happens a couple of times a century and we come up with a new system. There's a rebalancing of power going on.

ixwood

Looking on the bright side, we have a very good supply of the most previously under valued commodity, water.

A lot of places have water issues. Water tables are dropping around the world and rivers are drying up (They're had to reproduce certain maps cos the rivers are gone).

To make things worse, a lot of the poor world export some of their precious water to us in the west anyway (cotton and food requires huge amounts of water in production).

Desalination is possible, but requires huge amount of energy. For that reason, it's often considered partnered with nuclear. i guess places like Oz could make use of the sun and vast spaces there though.

Almo

Yes, the state and federal governments here have given the go ahead for a desalination plant just outside Melbourne. Costs have blown out already (with no building even started) and there are environmental fears. I don't pretend to know enough about it to know whether these are worthy sacrificies, I really don't. I wonder if it will be built in time, the way things are going.

Australia has been in drought for years now, as a country, although ironically Queensland is experiencing mass flooding. From one extreme to the other eh? As I understand, part of the problem was caused when white settlers razed forests and grasslands to make way for settlements (I don't mean that emotively - I'm as white as they come). This altered the ecosystem, and affected rainfall, runoff etc. It also appears that this weather may be partly cyclical. Little is said about the future by the powers that be but OH and I really are thinking hard about what that might be.

Primrose

elizabunny - sorry to hear about your dog. They're so much part of the family. Hope she recovers. Regarding your husband's difficulty in getting to work in the snow. Does he know anybody who lives near his workplace who would offer him a sofa for the odd night when travelling conditions get impossible?
It seems that every day now on here we learn of new difficulties and hardships people are suffering. My thoughts are with you all. We don't know one another personally but that doesn't stop us feeling for you.