Casa Rosales

Casa Rosales

Friday 28 September 2012

Eco showering and stair rods.


Last night, I had a long, steaming bath filled with divine smelling bubbles, courtesy of Clarins' Eau Dynamisante Shower Gel. It was the first bath I've had since about April. I read whilst I was steeping - George Orwell's 'The Road to Wigan Pier' - and had a cup of tea as well. It felt rather like being back in England - just missing a bit of Radio Four, seeing as I have to listen to that via the computer. I thought better of setting the laptop up in the bathroom.


Today, the rain has been falling as heavily as I have seen it anywhere and much of Andalucia is on red or orange alert as storms and strong winds are predicted, along with up to 150mm of rain falling in a 12 hour period in some areas. This is definitely comparable with the rain that has recently hit the UK and caused so much flooding and damage, with here, the homes of more than 1000 people under serious threat.


One big difference being that in a few days time, here, the sun will be out again and will probably stay out for quite a while. The UK has certainly had its fair share of rain and bad weather this year, judging from the news, comments by friends on Facebook and fellow bloggers based in the UK. It's even rained in Knutsford! (My mum lives there and the sun always shines on her...or so she has always had us believe!)

I was thinking about my washing habits over the summer. I rarely showered in the bathroom as FR had the wonderful, ecological idea of putting our (not so ecological) plastic bottles to a practical use. He'd fill them up with water and leave them all day on the roof terrace. By evening time, the water would have reached a perfect temperature and as a family - with the exception of Mateo, who much preferred his privacy - and usually just before bed, we'd go up to the terrace and ceremoniously pour several litres of warm water over each other and ourselves - the temperature usually having dropped just enough for us to then feel a welcome coolness as the water dripped off our shoulders. We told ourselves that no one could see us up there. I also decided that if anyone could, they would avert their eyes in future.

This has to be a very economical and eco-friendly way of showering, although as I look out the window just now, I think the very best thing would be to put all those bottles on the terrace and wait for them to fill with rainwater. It probably won't take very long!

And when it rains very heavily, I am always reminded of my father's attempts to speak to people whilst on holiday outside the UK. Whereas my mum has a wonderful, natural talent for languages and has mastered Swedish, Italian, French and German, my dad would always become totally unintelligeable when faced with non-English speakers. He would seem unable to put a sentence together and become twice the Yorkshireman he usually is. Camping in Italy once, it began to rain very heavily and everyone ran for their tents. Shouting across to the next tent, he said, 'By 'eck, it's comin' down in stair rods!'  Which you now know means 'raining heavily' in Yorkshire dialect! Probably a small area of Bradford dialect, actually...

So baths, rain, showers, plastic bottles and stair rods.

And whilst I can pat myself on the back for showering using natural energy to heat the water, I find myself with a heavy conscience still. It's those plastic bottles.

For years and years, we have drunk water from them. It was a habit I accepted from FR when he first moved in with me about 17 years ago and he had the habit because up to the time he left Spain, it wasn't always safe to drink water from the tap.

Makes you think - this is just a tiny portion of what is used every five seconds in the US.
See Running the Numbers for more shocking facts delivered in an arresting way.

Well, water is safe to drink in Spain now and although there is evidence that there's a lot of 'cal'  - the stuff that goes hard and flakes off in kettles and can ruin a cup of tea - in the water here, it cannot be as bad for the individual and society as the problem we cause with the endless production of plastic bottles. We are quite eco in our habits whenever we can be but I have been closing my eyes to the dreadful situation we are creating by buying and disposing of endless plastic bottles. SO NO MORE! (I still have the argument to win with FR, of course, and the children who have always had mineral water to drink all their lives. But I'll get there.) This is my green step for today.


Lovely image courtesy of freegreatpicture

19 comments:

  1. Hello Annie:
    What a wonderful watery start to the weekend which, as we write this, we trust will have worked its way out of your weather. And here we have a fairly half hearted attempt at alliteration which actually serves no purpose and any amount of repetition of the letter 'w' fails to suggest rain, let alone 'comin' down in stair rods'.

    Outside showers, in country areas, are quite common here with large tanks set up on poles, so to speak, into which rain water has fallen and is then left to be warmed by the summer sun. Such fun, we imagine.

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    1. Thank you Hattats, Jane and Lance! Wet, wet, wet. I know the locals are delighted to get some rain but I've already had enough, thank you, though it's slowed to a drizzle.

      The only other outside shower I really enjoyed was on holiday once on a yacht where we left big bags of water on the deck to heat up during the day. It was beautiful. But 'al campo' suggests insects, dust and other unpleasant things so I'll stay on the terrace I think!
      Axxx

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  2. Good morning Annie, I love the showering ritual story....and think the idea of storing bottles of water to heat up during the day is brilliant. I have a very eco minded cousin in Autralia.Each day her husband literally hoses her down with water from a rain butt. I think your version sounds more fun.
    It amuses me when visitors to Caunes ask if the tap water is safe.....Brits do often assume that only British water is safe to drink. We just refill a few plastic bottles with tap water each day and keep them cold.....now I might be filling a few to warm up a little.
    I hope the rain has eased ...those stair rods look quite menacing. Jxxx

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    1. Janice, I used to drink bottled water in England too...this time, I'm really going to change the world and reduce that plastic bottle mountain. We have to do something.

      We used the hosepipe and rain butt water when we were in Leon this summer. The water there is definitely not 'sun-warmed'! It proved too bracing for me. 6 litres reaches a temperature that is just a degree or so too cold on a good day on the terrace, whereas 5 litres gets to a temperature that is absolutely perfect.
      Axxx

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  3. My grandmother...not from Yorkshire but from deepest Oxfordshire... used to say that it was raining stair rods.

    I drank bottled water in France because our water supply was over chlorinated and the well water was polluted by the nitrate from the farming fanatics in the area....and don't even think about the river with the unreconsructed sewage systems...

    Here we have water from a spring on the mountain...and I now know what people mean when they talk about 'sweet' water. It is delicious! It also serves the shower which has an electric heater (known to American expats as a suicide shower).

    I call Costa Rica the land of the plastic bag because everything comes in one....from your salsa with a screw top plastic pouch, to a fruit drink in an ordinary bag twisted round a (plastic) straw...and you should see the landfill problem!

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    1. I'm glad to hear my father would have been able to communicate with your grandmother! He is more of a linguist than I had previously believed...:-)

      If the water isn't good enough from the tap, then we are lucky to have an alternative but somewhere along the line, we have to stop with all the plastic we produce and use, don't we? We always recycle and separate out our rubbish to go into the various different bins but I had become appalled at how much plastic we have to ditch each week and I know it doesn't all get magically changed into something else that's useful. I'm glad to say the children have embraced the idea wholeheartedly. FR hasn't yet noticed that I'm doing what Janice does and filling the one bottle up over and again from the tap! Axxx

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  4. I drink mineral water of the fizzy kind, especially when I'm in France. The only still bottled water that I prefer to tap water is Evian. When we lived near Evian we would take large containers to fill from the Evian source.

    I think its a good stand to take and I'll try my best to join you. I should drink more water. I've virtually given up tea and coffee in favour of hot, very weak, grapefruit barley water, in an effort to stay more hydrated and ward off the headaches!

    BTW, my favourite body cream is the Eau Dynamisante. I just love the feel and fragrance.

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    1. I too love fizzy water, Gaynor, and it's been super-necessary during the hot weather. How lovely to fill up from Evian's source. We are quite near Lanjaron, so perhaps we should nip over and fill up from there.
      Isn't Eau Dynamisante just perfect! I have run out of the spray - I've used it for years and would often just spray it in my office at work in the afternoons as it really is a good 'pick-you-up'. Can't find a local supplier so will have to go into Granada one day to get some more. (Oooh, I could ask my mum to get some as she is coming out to visit next week!!)
      Power to the reduce-plastic brigade!
      Axx

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  5. I have always had a problem with the buying of bottled water. We have water good enough to drink here (although my other half disagrees and buys bottled). When you think how many people on the planet struggle and walk miles for water it just seems wrong to buy it and all the plastic that contains it when we have it on tap. I am certainly not an eco warrior by any means but at some point we all have to wake up to the damage that is being done.
    I loved the sound of your outside ablutions!

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    1. I think you hit it on the head here, MPM. It's common sense and moral sense that needs to abide - no need to be in warrior mode at all.
      (The sound of our ablutions was definitely better than the sight!)
      Axxx

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  6. We get our water delivered in 20 litre plastic bottles. The empty one is swapped for a full one. Our summer outside shower is fed by a long pipe, a few cms under ground, so we get hot water all day and well into the evening. I like the sound of the family roof showers.

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    1. I know there are still many places where water - drinking or otherwise - is not 'on tap'. This sounds like a pretty effective system you have, Annie, and I do hope you can always rely on it.
      I can't wait to find our own home where we can take advantage of solar panels and pipes like yours. This house, although very practical for our current needs, is not at all eco-friendly, so the roof showers are our best effort to reduce waste!
      Axxx

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  7. You have reminded me yet again that the world should be ruled by a team of benign dictators - women. Market forces, education & freedom of choice just don't seem to work. Mums of the World unite & take charge!

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    1. You know, Nilly, you are really onto something with this comment. There is such a strength of mind, thought and feeling that comes from fellow bloggers. We really do seem to be exactly what you describe the world needing. Let's DO IT!!!
      Axxx

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  8. Hi Annie, I have been away from blogging for a while now - but I'm back and reading your blog reminds me what I have missed!

    I think I'm so lucky living in England as our tap water is fantastic, I just don't even think about buying bottled.

    Can you give me any reading suggestions. I keep going to the library and finding nothing I like (picking up a few books, not reading them and taking them back over due!)

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    1. Lovely to hear from you Mia! Hope all is well. I have to say our buying bottled water is unnecessary because although the water here is a bit harder than Yorkshire water (best in the world) it's much better than southern water which I always drank when I lived there.

      My favourite books - well, I love 'Our Spoons Came From Woolworths' by Barbara Comyns - or any of hers; also I loved 'The Shipping News' by Annie Proulx or try anything that the people above have suggested as I'm sure they will be good! Enjoy! Axxx

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  9. I just love the account of your ecological family showers, Annie. Such a good idea. We're on well water here in Wales and the tap water in Scotland is very soft too. In France our water can be a bit heavy on the chlorine sometimes, but I still only buy bottled water when we're travelling. Not only is the bottle mountain unsustainable in the long term, but it seems such a waste of money to pay water rates and then buy bottled water.

    I watch the TV coverage of your torrential rain and flooding and it looked dreadful. I do hope it's now stopped raining. Incidentally I grew up in Lancashire with the rain coming down in stair rods. :-)

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    1. You are right that the bottle mountain is quite unsustainable - we have to do everything we can to reduce it. So far, no one has noticed that I'm filling our bottles over and again with tap water - proving that we've definitely been out of order for some time. No more bottled water!

      There has been some awful rain in parts of Andalucia with some dreadful results - whole bridges coming down, as well as great chunks of roads, as flash floods have hit Malaga, Almeria and Murcia. We had rain - stair rods (a much wider-known phrase than I'd realised!) - on Friday and only light drizzle yesterday. Sunshine today and a lovely warm 25 degrees. Lovely to hear from you again. Axxx

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