the storks have returned to Monsanto.... far too early!!

can upcycling fabric help save the planet?

Today on my drive back from dropping Marlley at his wood working course I noticed the storks have returned to their nests which is unusually early for this migratory bird.
This is a sign that the days will start growing longer & that the Winters are becoming milder because they no longer feel it necessary to venture South to Africa for the Winter. Their instincts have changed, their behaviours adapted to suit the current climate. I googled this & apparently they stop in the Algarve instead of heading overseas, which makes sense because there they have an abundance of trash to feed on all year round, the dumping sites are filled with white storks catching an easy meal. It is kind of sad & quite disturbing to be honest but I guess this is the world we live in & we have to accept it & do our best to live a life that does not impact our environment, as much as we can.

Nature is an amazing indicator of time, of seasons, of change & I find it quite fascinating to witness the possible effect of climate change through the actions & reactions of wild animals in our area. When we first moved to Portugal I am quite sure that when I did pay attention to the storks timing or their unusual arrival, it was mostly in March time, around the same time that the cuckoo bird starts haunting my early morning sleep with that hideously noisy call & the nightingale birds start singing all through the night.

This is just my observation for the day, solstice is fast approaching & the days will be getting longer again. As we head into imbolc & Spring will spring itself once more. I suppose that as I get older time starts to mean something to me, years become seemingly faster, days shorter, moments are more precious. As we slowly build the foundations of a life off grid, time passes us by, we have lived in Portugal for almost 8 years now & are still some way away from completing the build, but we enjoy our life, we live with the seasons & this Winter I have truly allowed myself to rest, besides the fire with a good book or my crochet project.

With the storks in mind it makes me think about the world, the environment, the impact we are having on the planet as human beings that are connecting to AI & attempting to reach other planets so our existance in this universe can continue for the next however many hundreds or thousands of years. But with all this looming we are still using up all our resources, destroying the natural world & fighting eachother to gain control over the technological sphere. I have been listening to too much Joe Rogan possibly…. podcasts about AI, the future, aliens, energy consumption & I heard that google want to build 3 new power plants to power this next edition of ChatGPT or whatever next AI model they come up with to try to turn the human race into cyborgs.

So this next year I am going to do my best to resist this madness, to not contribute to the capitalist system that is our current consumer driven, tech obsessed & destructive current society. I will not buy any new clothes, I will continue to grow my own organic vegetables, plant trees that are bought from local people ( not big companies in the city ), save seeds from the heirloom varieties the local Portuguese have had for decades, cook meals from scratch at home instead of supporting big companies in the city, I will keep up-cycling old fabrics into new outfits & hopefully spread some love with that because I do not wish to live in a world where storks no longer migrate due to climate change & human beings are basically robots plugged into the meta verse.

Here is one I made earlier….

I guess I am kind of in a state of panic about our future on this beautiful earth & I needed to write this to let it all out - learn to grow your own food people!!

Big hugs

Jaymie