Welcome

This is our new blog - mine and Dot's. I'm Freya and Dot is my fantastic 9 week old daughter. Together with Dot's dad, who’s a photographer, we've just left Manhattan and moved to our half-renovated 1880 cottage in a tiny village called Milanville, Pennsylvania, on the Delaware river. We did this partly because we wanted to try out rural life, partly to save some money and mainly because our landlord kicked us out of our lovely apartment in the city with three weeks’ notice. Nice.

We might be here till January, when I'm due to go back to my job in advertising, or longer, depending on how things go.

So Dot and I have made a pact to spend the next two months trying to save the planet. We decided this after our first trip to the local supermarket. It was very scary and made us realize how much the American lifestyle trashes the planet. Dot said she since she would really prefer to have somewhere to live when she’s a bit older, it was time to make some serious changes.

We aren’t terrible now. Here’s a list of things we already do to try and be green:
Me:
- Recycle paper and plastic (though NYC recycling is crap – e.g. New Yorkers live on take-out but you can’t recycle take-out cartons)
- Use eco-friendly cleaning products (the cleaning lady insisted on Ajax with bleach, but she stayed in the city) and loo roll
- Traded in gas-guzzling vintage Jeep Wagoneer for diesel Golf off Ebay (couldn’t afford a hybrid and diesel’s more eco-friendly than petrol, plus second-hand is kind of recycling)
- Buy food at local organic farm and farmers’ market as much as possible (well, alright, when I can be bothered)
- Have several pairs of organic cotton socks
- Buy loads of vintage stuff on eBay (what? That counts)
- Have seriously cut down on purchases of celeb weeklies to save trees (and marriage)

Dot:
- Was using a cloth diaper service in the city (found out the service used bleach though – bad). Can’t do cloth here as we don’t have a washing machine and am sure trips to laundry every other day in car would cancel out benefit. Not to mention sanity. So currently using Seventh Generation disposables and feeling guilty although secretly find them much easier. Considering retrying G-diapers – of which more later
- Only buys clothing made from organic fibers (though isn’t above wearing all the beautiful pressies she’s received which aren’t)
- Insists on organic bath and body products
- Sleeps in an organic wool-and-cotton hammock – a lot
- Eats food from 100% renewable resource

And here are some of the things we know we should do but don’t (yet):
- Compost (no excuse now we have a yard)
- Stop working in advertising where job is to sell millions of extra plastic bottles and far-from-organic products to the masses
- Stop flying in planes
- Buy organic fibers in adult sizes too (but the styles are so geeky…)
- Find new husband who doesn’t keep scuppering attempts to be eco-friendly. Well, maybe I’ll work around this one

This blog will chart our progress as we try to green up our act. Hopefully by Christmas we'll be ready to lobby Congress. If you know me and Dot and are now a long way away from us, the blog'll keep you abreast of what the hell we do out here all day. If you’re already a really green person, you’ll probably think we’re a bit crap. And if, like us, you’re someone who knows you should really be doing a bit more to help, you might find it interesting. Hell, you might even pick up a few tips along the way.

Please check back soon for more from Little Green Dot.