Living A simple green Life: Menie beats the meanie!

Welcome

Welcome to my wee blog.My name is Andy ( The Dafthermit ) . For the last 20 odd years i have ben trying to get back to a simpler way of life and finally in my old bus up here in the Scottish mountains i am finally getting there. My time now is spent taking pictures of the highlands ,making films to show the world the beauty all around and writing something that has surprised me having had a few of my stories published , Having picked up a camera and laptop in 2008 i have really enjoyeed the journey the camera has taken me on again having had a couple of pictures in national magazines, last year three of ,my films where shown at the Loch Ness film festival. anyway i hope you enjoy your visit to my wee blog

love and light

Andy

Tuesday, 22 February 2011

Menie beats the meanie!

Just had to share this wonderful news with re Donal Trump

Dear andy,

We've had some brilliant news about our Tripping Up Trump campaign - the Press and Journal has revealed that Donald Trump has given up on his plans to evict families from their homes in Menie! [1] That's a huge victory for people power. There's no other way someone as powerful as Trump would have given up on his plans.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with brave local residents and campaign group Tripping Up Trump, we made Trump back down. That means families in Menie can go back to living their lives, without worrying that this year could be the last one they spend in their own homes.

Now, we need to make sure that people living in Menie know that if Trump ever tries something like this again, we'll be ready to send him packing. Click here to send people in Menie a message of on-going support: "we're glad we've got rid of Trump for now but we'll be ready if he comes back in the future".

Click here to add your message today:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/support-menie

Life for people in Menie has been difficult while this struggle has been going on. It's hard to make plans and get on with your life when you know that someone so powerful is trying to chuck you out of your home, so he can build a big golf course over it.

But thousands of us signed our petition, and sent messages to local councillors, telling them that we wouldn't stay quiet while they put profit before local people's happiness. We need to make sure that they know that if Trump tries it again, we'll be ready to pile on the pressure. Then we'll get all our messages together, and deliver them to Menie.

Click here, to send a message to people in Menie:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/support-menie

This is a huge victory for people power. Over 20,000 of us got together to stop Trump's plans for Menie. It shows that when we work together, we can win even when our opponent is one of the most powerful businessmen in the world.

Together, 38 Degrees members are changing events. On Thursday, we found out that the government in London had reversed its plans to sell off forests in England, after a people-powered campaign involved over half a million of us. The day before, we discovered that plans for a cow factory farm in Lincolnshire had been dropped after our huge public campaign. Now, thousands of us will be getting together to decide what we're going to do next. [2]

Click here to add your message to the book in solidarity with the families of Menie:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/support-menie

Thanks for getting involved,

David, Hannah, Johnny, Charlotte and the 38 Degrees team

PS Tripping Up Trump did an amazing job campaigning against Trump in Aberdeenshire, and played a massive part in winning this campaign. Read more about them here: http://www.trippinguptrump.com/

PPS We're still trying to make sure that Rupert Murdoch doesn't get to buy even more of the British media - sign our petition here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/Jeremy-hunt-not-impartial

PPPS 38 Degrees is a people-powered organisation, which doesn't take money from big companies or government. We rely on donations to support our tiny staff team - click here to make a donation:http://www.38degrees.org.uk/Direct-Debit

NOTES
[1] http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2114299?UserKey&UserKey=
[2] Join the discussion on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/peoplepowerchange/) or the 38 Degrees website (http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/)

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A wee film about us on STVs the HOUR SHOW click on STV logo to see the film

Andy the Daft Hermit lives 45 minutes outside Inverness with his wife Mel in an old bus parked in a layby. This current home of theirs is the longest they have ever stayed in one spot. “I’ve been travelling now 25 years,” said Andy Lowe. “Mel’s been travelling 15. One of the reasons we’ve come and stayed up here is because of Mel’s health. I wanted to bring her to the mountains for fresh air and clean water and just a slower pace of life.” Mel has had breast cancer twice, skin cancer once, and for three years believed she had bone cancer after being wrongly diagnosed. Andy’s belief in the restorative powers of the north made them pack up ‘The Black Bus’ that they live in and cross the border into Scotland. New Highland home for hermit couple Andy and Mel “I think we both believe in trying to get to a more simple way of life,” said Andy, “but it’s strange for us because we are sort of hermits, or we like to live separate, but it’s not being anti-social… it’s just the way we are that allows us to be creative.” Andy first began travelling when he left the army. Fed up with bureaucracy he packed a rucksack and left for France and has been travelling ever since. By investing any money the couple have earned into solar panels and wind generators they now live a self-sustaining existence, without electric bills, and collect rain water “straight from Heaven”. “It’s not easy,” said Mel. “There might be time when there might not be enough facilities around, but you always find a way, you know?” Rather than rejecting technology, Andy blogs about his travels online and collaborates with artists from around the world via his ‘Scratchy Heid Film Studio’, which he runs from a static trailer next to the couple’s bus. He explained his philosophy: “My belief is that if you can go through life and you drop dead and you’ve got a balance there that slightly outweighs the good than the bad, you’ve done alright. “Yesterday, with what Mel’s been through with the cancer and all that, I had a woman on one of my sites there that thanked me for the writing, for the positive things, and to me that’s worth everything. You can keep your millions, we’re not interested. That is what we do.” To check out Andy’s artwork and video projects check out his website. MORE FROM THE NORTH