Tree Planting Pledge
Jul 30th 2008sophiewebstuff & portugal & climate change
Archive for the 'webstuff' Category
are we grimly capitalistic?
Jul 11th 2008sophiewebstuff & self-sufficiency
we received this comment on the blog yesterday:
“Ethical geocachers…organic permaculturers….yet dealing in the buying and selling of property…grimly capitalistic. Not being critical, just wondrin how you reconcile the very different things you do.”
so … are we grimly capitalistic? we advertise property for sale in central portugal via our website www.pureportugal.co.uk.
we advertise many smallholdings, ruins and renovation projects, abandoned buildings, etc that can be brought back into use in a (hopefully) eco-friendly way and we make our “ethics” very clear on the website. we hope that because we are prominent on google searches that many people looking for property are going to find some possibilities for living that they may never have thought about before.
we pay ourselves minimum wage and any profits the business makes are donated to sustainable living projects via www.ecolivingportugal.org or donated to / invested in other ethical/sustainable/community businesses or projects, for example The Lammas Project, Rootstock, and União Progressiva de Chão Sobral.
i’ve spent a long time beating myself up about what i do not being good enough, not coming up to my own standards. but i’m realising that there’s only so much i can do, nothing will ever be perfect, and there’ll always be room for improvement - so if i do my best then that is good enough.
nowadays i don’t feel the need so much to “reconcile” what i do - i’m beginning to realise i’m justified in being very proud of it 
Geocaching
Jun 26th 2008sophiehorses & webstuff & portugal
We’ve just discovered geocaching, since some guests introduced us to it (inadvertently, by leaving some printouts in the yurt when they left!). We thought it looked interesting so looked it up on the internet and found the geocaching website and were pleased and excited to discover there are a number of caches in our area, some of them even close enough for us to ride to on horseback! So, we’re going to give it a go …
Eco Living Portugal
May 27th 2008sophiewebstuff & self-sufficiency & friends & community & eco villages
Eco-Living Central Portugal has a new focus! We (Quinta das Abelhas) set up the eco-living project with the intention of offering courses, workshops and practical experience of sustainable living on a large riverside quinta we planned to buy. Unfortunately the purchase of this new quinta fell through and we no longer feel we have sufficient space, time and energy to devote to the project. Thus we have, after much consideration, decided that the best use of this website and the funds we have already been kindly donated is to promote and support other sustainable projects in the local area (Central Portugal).
The project’s aims remain the same, and we will now be adding to the funding by sharing the profits from our business Pure Portugal Ltd to help meet those aims:
To support and promote local ecological and sustainable projects, courses and events;
To encourage visitors to gain practical experience of eco-living;
To inspire, empower, & enable people to reduce their ecological footprint;
To bring together communities and individuals working for sustainability, self-sufficiency, and low-impact living;
To collaborate on various projects and share ideas and experiences;
To network with national and international projects on sustainability.
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