I know it is Earth Hour tonight and while the idea is admirable I find the execution of it irritating.  The whole idea of events where people are actually encouraged to travel to a central location, thus using more resources, seems somewhat ludicrous to me.  How many of the people who turn their lights off for an hour will give any serious thought to the need to reduce our overall carbon footprint on the planet once 9.30pm comes?  What we need is for people to be striving to reduce their reliance on finite, non-renewable resources every single day – not for 1 hour out of 8760!!

We have 20 solar panels (3.7kW system).  This generates more than what we use so it is a bonus both environmentally and financially.  Nevertheless, I am always careful with our use of power and one thing I routinely do is cook more than one item when I have the oven turned on.  This is nothing new as I remember it being standard practice for both my mother and grandmother.  Tonight I made apple crumble for dessert so I took the opportunity to roast some garlic ready to make Crockpot Refried Beans.  You can find the recipe here.