My newest quest

The fabric club has been going for five years now. Sometime last summer I ran out of the tissue paper I had been using for wrapping the selections before putting them into the envelopes to be shipped. I was using that because it was there – I had at some point bought it to wrap quilts in, which I found rather tedious, though, because the sheets were smaller than most of my quilts and basically I had turned to making fabric bags for the quilts. After I had run out of those tissue papers, I kept thinking I needed to get some additional protective wrapping, but I was busy with the refugees, sometimes low on money – I was putting it off. So I took an easy way out and sent the selections in the plastic bags which up til then I had only been using for the packages to be sold at market. One friend asked me whether that was going to stay like that... no, it wasn’t, but then I went to New Zealand, I was stressed out, and I just did not have the leisure and nerve to sit down and look for a new solution.

After returning, I tried to find a good deal on bags made from recycled newspapers, but wasn’t successful (yet).

Then I read an article about a blogger in Germany, and heard about her on the radio, who is trying hard and – according to the marketing – successfully to live a life without plastic. I bought her book (the title translates as ‘Better living without plastic’) and, as much as I love her approach, I realized that although it is a very worthy cause, it is very difficult to follow through. Try to go shopping without buying anything in plastic – impossible! Even in an organic store. And out here in the country there is no such thing as one of the obviously coming shops for 'shopping without plastic'. What is worse in terms of effects on the climate change and environmental pollution – driving 60 miles to Munich in order to get to such a store (time, energy, pollution, cost!) or buying a packet of something sealed in plastic?

I have long since stopped taking plastic bags in supermarkets (we don’t have the big brown paper bags as they do in the US), I always carry a little bag or basket with me, and I have even had a little bit of success in driving the point home with my husband.

So I resolved that I would try hard(er), but not stress myself about it too much: be aware, look for options, but don’t stress myself or fret if it’s not possible.

What I have done is I sewed a few reusable see-through bags (organza) for packing fruit and other loose items which I take with me when I go shopping. They prevent apples from rolling around, they are washable, and they last much longer than any plastic bag which, of course, could be reused as well. Organza rather than any other piece of ordinary fabric so that the cashier can see what's inside, and doesn't get upset.

They make a good present, too. I 'wrapped' a present for my friend into one of these bags a couple of days ago, so that made two presents for her! 

I’m also thinking about designs for these reusing scraps, but that is still in the very beginning.

And on Friday I finally sat down and ordered my paper bags for the coming fabric club selections. 

Saving Toads, while Japan...

This morning I was a first time volunteer to help carry toads across the road.

I had agreed to volunteer for this kind of work during last summer when I read a notice in the newspaper that the local chapter of the German Bund Naturschutz (environmental organization) was looking for more people to help staff an additional protective fence during spawning season. Unfortunately I was not present for the erection of the fence two weeks ago, because that coincided with the first day of a long-needed week of holidays. Which I had not really calculated on when I signed up as a volunteer in the first place. Nor did I know then that I would be traveling to the US in April for three weeks with my son, which also will prevent  me from being a toad guardian. In any case, it will work out a few times that I will go and check the fence before I leave for North Carolina.

This morning we had heavy rains – definitely good weather for amphibians on the move! Luckily, a beginner such as I am is given a personal instruction by the official representative of the organization, and, even more importantly, I was given a small brochure which has pictures and descriptions of the kinds of amphibians I am going to find in the buckets. Because I do have to admit that that’s not exactly my field of specialty (yet?). I did know that female toads are larger than male ones, and that they may occur as a pair, him being carried by her. But how was I supposed to tell an Alpine newts (Triturus alpestris) from a common newts (triturus vulgaris)?

The first bucket was filled with water and had to be emptied carefully in order not to miss anything that might be swimming in there. The others were not filled to such an extreme with water, but more successful on the amphibian side. When I had finished my rounds, this is how the contents of the bucket looked:

Common toads and various newts
in one of my buckets formerly used for dyeing...

The total count of today’s efforts amounted to 29 male common toads (two of which were so tiny that we thought they must have made a mistake with regard to the season when they were born), 3 females common toads (2 of which already had a male on their backs, while one was traveling solo), 11 Alpine newts and two common newts. (Add to that one particularly fat and long earthworm which was not included in the trip across the street, several bugs, and one drowned big fat rat and one drowned small mouse.)

The toads who were carried across the street and released to continue on their journes had to re-direct themselves, but most of them quickly found their bearings again: down to the water!

taking new bearings: keep going towards the water!

This couple was a particularly impressive pair:

Female common toad carrying male spawning partner

In the context of the current ongoings in Japan, after the earthquake and the tsunami, and the atomic catastrophe of which we still don’t know where it is going to take us (is it going to be the end of the world as we know it right now, or not just yet?), this might be a petty thing to do – carrying a few toads across the road to prevent them from being squished flat by cars. However, especially in this catastrophic context the whole thing had a soothing effect on me today, and was exactly what I needed on a day like this. The catastrophe of Tchernobyl was not that long ago, really. Just about twenty-five years later we again have a situation of which we were always told it would never happen, because after all, it hasn’t happened yet, so never will. Just how often do we have to be confronted with situations like this, until we finally understand that anything that could possibly happen might actually happen – and is even pretty likely to happen for real?

I received two requests via e-mail asking for quilt donations for Japan. One of these I would like to include here, because I think it was meant to be passed on to as many others as possible.

Dear Dorte
I am OK.But my family are in Sendai and they are at very difficult
situation.
It is still bad situation now in Japan but it is not terrible.
We are still nervous about shaking and radiation,but no way to escape.

I start to announce to the quilters to send us comfort quilts for the
people who are suffered.I would like to do it to the world quilters.
We will deliver the comfort quilts to the people who are very difficult
situation.
Could you please help to announce it to the quilters in Germany?

We accept any size of quilts(baby to adult).new or unused.
The deadline would be the end of May or later.

★Send the quilts to:
（until the middle of April）
Naomi Ichikawa,Editor of Patchwork Quilt tsushin
Patchwork Tsushin Co.,Ltd
5-28-3,Hongo,Bunkyo-ku,Tokyo,Japan zip:113-0033

（after the middle of April）
Naomi Ichikawa
Patchwork Tsushin Co.,Ltd
2-21-2,Yushima,Bunkyo-ku,Tokyo,Japan zip:113-0034

I will appreciate if you help me.

Naomi

While personally I think it makes a lot more sense to donate money to aid organizations which have the human and financial resources to actually get to the people what they really need in times of crisis, such as food and water and medical supplies, I can understand the not-immediate-victim’s desire to present another, real victim with comfort, and what can be more comforting than a personally-made quilt blanket to wrap oneself into. Like carrying toads across the roads... (We won’t talk about the danger of radioactive contamination here just now...)