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