Petrol update

The fuel light came on in the car so I had to fill it up again on Tuesday - that's five weeks on one tank of gas, which makes me feel a little bit better.

However, I'd done about 475kms on my 34L of petrol. That's about 7.1L/100 kms - noticeably more than the 6.1L/100 kms the EECA fuel efficiency website rates the Honda Jazz at. I guess that's partly because I have just done short trips around town, but I feel there's plenty of room to improve my mileage here.

Number one priority: check my tyre pressure.

Drip drip drip tick tick

Still going on the tank of petrol - I think I'm about 2/3 through now.

Saving water

With Wellington's water crisis, talking about ways of saving water has gone mainstream.

As well as saving the baby's bath water for the garden, we've started showering with a bucket.

My Dad is catching the water from his washing machine in the laundry tub and siphoning it onto his garden. I reckon I might try doing that myself when I wash the baby's nappies today.

Save the environment - cut down the trees!

It's not often that someone will try to sell you a sawn-off tree as being good for the environment.

In this case, though, these trees are on the northwest of our house, shading everything with their big, leafy, albeit carbon-absorbing branches.

So although trees are good, pruning them to reduce our winter electricity use is way better.

They're growing on the neighbouring property, so this summer we approached our neighbour, who turned out to be absolutely lovely and very accommodating. He gave us permission to cut the trees right back.

The difference has been amazing. It's been way sunnier and warmer.

And the trees are already starting to grow again.

Compost Bloke earns his stripes

Compost Bloke isn't as interested in all this eco stuff as me, and, to be fair, is somewhat bemused by my efforts.

However, he's fully earned his name - and composting kudos. He's not super big on gardening, mostly sticking to mowing the lawn and pruning things, but for years while I wasn't here he faithfully dug all his compost scraps into the garden.

As a result the soil is brilliant - rich, dark, free-draining. So in spite of my somewhat scrappy efforts this season, the garden has taken off.

Now that it's late February the cherry tomatoes are booming. 

And here's the payoff for Compost Bloke - he's rather partial to those little sweet tomatoes.

Conscious Consumers go mobile

Conscious Consumers have created a smartphone app to help you find accredited cafes and restaurants while you're on the move. Nice.

Car confessions

So, yeah, I have a car now. No more pleasant sense of eco-virtue from being carless. (When I lived in my city apartment I sold my car and walked, took public transport or a Greencab when it rained, and occasionally made use of car-sharing scheme City Hop to reach less accessible places. It was good.)

But here in the suburban hinterland it's harder to do without. I have at least tried to minimise the environmental impact by choosing a small car, so it's relatively fuel efficient. (It's a Honda Jazz.)


I've vaguely noticed that I don't fill it up very often, but maybe it would be good to start paying more attention. So, as a little challenge to myself, I'm going to take note of how long it takes me to burn a tank of petrol.

I filled it up today - from fuel light on to full (34L worth - $75!!). I'll let you know when it's empty again.