Forget that image of birds dating or flapping their wings happily during spring: in my balcony, there are no peaceful white doves. Ever since some parakeets started to come by daily, starting at 6:00 am, what I see the most are bird fights.

In one of their brawls, three parakeets monopolized the can of sunflower seeds and didn’t allow a forth one to get anywhere near it. The poor thing tried to approach from one side, then another, but it was always thrown back. I decided to come up with a larger bird feeder—preferably shallow and very long—to keep those sharp claws and beaks very far from each other.

I made do with a flowerpot hanger, made of iron. It holds a large rectangular tray which, luckily, fits perfectly in the bottom part. This allows me to pull it from the hanger as if it were a drawer to take off the shells before replenishing the buffet. The new device was welcomed with excitement by the greenies, as you can tell by the large number of tails and wings here.

Today, in the middle of a quarrel, I saw a tiny little head fighting for seeds, very noisily. I ran to tell the Omblogsman: “We have a baby-parakeet!” Still sleepy, he took a look at that beaky thing and told me with amazement that he had already seen one of them in our balcony. “I thought it was a sick parakeet… it kinda looks like a leper, doesn’t it?”

In fact, the “thing” looked like a product of a voodoo session: its wings are already green, but its chest and head are still covered with that feathery fuzz so typical of birds that are barely out of the egg. After a closer look, I realized that there is another baby. However, this one is a little more “well-finished,” let’s put it this way.

Judging by the pace of the births, my window will become greener and greener…

The 5-feet tall “cleaning tractor” crosses the office and heads to the balcony, carrying a bucket, a broom, a mop, rags, a brush and the vacuum cleaner… Ops, the vacuum cleaner? I tiptoed to see what Val was doing and caught her—looking really mad—on top of the bird drinking fountain, attacking the air using the vacuum cleaner’s hose.

– Val?
– …
– Val! Vaaaaaal!!!
– Did you call me, Carol?
– Turn oooooff the vacuum cleaneeer, Vaaaaal!
– Oh, right!
– Val, what the hell are you doing with the vacuum cleaner, woman?
– Sucking up the bees, Carol.
– !
- Didn’t you tell me that hummingbirds die when they are stung by bees? I saw that poor thing’s agony, flying from here to there, unable to reach the drinking fountain because of the bees.
– Val, you weren’t trying to suck up the bees with the vacuum cleaner… Were you?
– Of course I was… I’ve been doing it since last week. Didn’t you notice that the bees have disappeared?

Ever since we moved to this apartment, we only had a cleaner coming here once. My daughter doesn’t like to have people touching her things. So, I resort to my eco-friendly cleaning tricks and use vinegar and baking soda to leave our place spotless.

I like to use vinegar; it works great and doesn’t leave a smell. I soak a sponge with vinegar and rub it on the mold accumulated on the tile joints. Then, I just rinse it up. If you like, just leave it from one day to the next without rinsing it. You don’t need to use any chlorine or bleach. When the tiles are very dirty, I add a little bit of baking soda, in the proportion of four coffee spoons for 500ml of vinegar. You can find some other cool and practical tips here, on this post: An exceptional wine.

My next experiment with vinegar will be to erase the scribbles left by Little Princess on the walls, while a new coat of paint doesn’t come. I’ve already tried it on a tiny piece of the wall and it worked like a charm. Pure vinegar or vinegar mixed with an equal part of hot water can erase every trace of color pens, crayons and color pencils.

My back complains. I need to convince my daughter to change her mind and call the cleaner back. After all, cleaning white tiles and a wall full of scribbles is not a piece of cake!

It’s been five days since I last ate meat. I’m active, not sleepy—and eating less. Tomorrow I’m going to weigh myself. I forgot to do it on the first day although this is not the real goal.

I decided to take on this challenge for these main reasons: mitigate the impact that meat consumption has on the environment and decrease the suffering—or better put—the torture to which these animals are submitted before and while they are slaughtered. And, naturally, by following a healthier diet I will not need to go through hormone replacement therapy. I believe that cancer, heart diseases, animal cruelty, the slaughtering of a fellow creature, environmental disasters—any of these reasons should be enough for me to rethink my terrible habit of eating animal flesh.

Today I’m going to prepare some soy protein, which I deeply enjoy. I’ve been using soy and green vegetables as a protein source for a while. In the last two years, I’ve cut down my red meat intake to almost zero—after seeing videos and reading about the horrors to which these animals are submitted before and while they’re killed. On that occasion, I made a decision: do not eat any kind of meat anymore.

However, I didn’t take my decision seriously. Some types of sausage and ham-based sandwiches still tempted me. And I continued eating chicken and fish. I’ve now decided to be serious about this challenge: I’ll go 30 days without having any meat, including fish and chicken. I don’t intend to become a vegetarian, especially because I haven’t given up eating eggs and dairy products.

I think I should eat more vegetables and fruits and not just for environmental reasons, but because my health depends on how well I eat. Since we are part of the environment, by eating healthy food, we are protecting not only ourselves but also the Planet. Now, to the challenge.

Photo: meat-free kibbe (see recipe here)

30 days meat-free

Is boxed water better for the planet? This peculiarly named company—“Boxed Water is Better”—says it is. Similarly to milk boxes, the box produced by the company is 90% made from trees harvested from managed areas. Unlike regular plastic bottles, which come from petroleum.

The boxes are manufactured in a folded and flat shape, which reduces in 80% the carbon footprint of the packaging and distribution process, in comparison to plastic bottles.

Another nice thing is that twenty percent of the profits go back to “nature”. Ten percent go to foundations for the preservation of water springs and reservoirs, and the other 10 percent go to reforestation foundations.

Regarding this package, tetrapack has elaborated a guide (pdf file) explaining how it differs from plastic bottles.