Casa Mandala is situated in an olive finca (farm) on the edge of The Sierra Del Las Nieves, a  ’Parque Natural’  just outside  the small town of Alozaina.

Here the artizans and  artists, John and his partner Anna, are living the greenest of lifestyles one is likely to find, pushing the boundaries of reducing their standard of living in exchange for a beautiful  standard of life.

Here they recycle, create and build, all with an artistic theme and in touch with the flow of spirit and nature.

Though a skilled carpenter, John’s primary interest begins from his concept of living a ‘bill’ free life. Do away with bills to concentrate on life, this is expressed in his preferred method of building, Cob (cob is a mixture of clay or clay soil, 沙子和稻草). His buildings are mainly a mixture of stone, cob, and recycled materials like pallets and washing machine doors (the glass ones!)

John and Anna accept visiting volunteers who come to learn about using cob in art, sculpture and structure, and are accomodated in one of the three small handmade chalets.

The earthen roofed chalet

The Yurt

At Casa Mandala there are no connected services, the electric comes from their 3 kilowatt solar photo voltaic system, the toilets are compost toilets and the water is collected rain water from the previous winter.

Here is the shower!

I asked John, if he was sure he wanted me to show the shower, my first impression was people seeing this may be put off wanting to come and stay but now I understand how much value one can get from Casa Mandala and it is all summed in this shower, I will explain this statement a bit further on.

Water is a precious resource, some of us are lucky to live at the source of a beautiful never ending stream of clean water, some of us are not so lucky. At Casa Mandala water is precious, it is collected in the winter and rationed through out the year, obviously during this time the water can go off but here John has an ingenious way of purifying it and storing it.

The water is left in theses jars for a couple of days, the sun heats the water and this low heat process purifies the water. The water is then transferred to dark glass jars for storage before being used.

So how does the shower represent the value at Casa Mandala?

To live this sustainable lifestyle, a lifestyle that is far more work than our average western lifestyle requires letting go of fear and replacing that fear with trust in who and what we really are beneath our facades. That open shower with one bucket of water strips away our facades, strips away our modesty, strips away our fear of not looking our best, it connects us back to nature and what nature can supply us with. It is natural and allows us to experience who and what we really are. After a hard day’s work of positive energy, a great learning experience and sweat, I would think what it takes to use that shower would cleanse and refresh the soul, the spirit and the body.

To contact John and Anna  send an email to       soul_connection@hotmail.com

Meditation cave

Above is one of the meditation spaces at Molino Del Rey, a centre for holistic retreats.

Molino Del Rey is the first post of hopefully many homes and buildings I hope to visit local to our home whose owners are trying to live a more sustainable green lifestyle.

The complex of buildings were originally two water mills that have been converted to provide a wonderful setting of meditation spaces, caves, streams and waterfalls.

But what really interests me are these -

Not the most beautiful or spiritual view the centre has to offer but these washing machines, made by LG, only use approximately 150 watt hours of electricity for an average wash. The main reason they use such little electricity is because they have no means of heating the water.

Though Molino is not off grid, if it were, any kind of electric water heating is a big drain on the power and battery capacity available, increasing the power requirements and expense of a photo voltaic solar power system.

But if you also have one of these on your roof ,

該 1300 litre solar hot water panels use the sun to heat the water for up to 22 guests and staff and of course the washing machines. Even on a cloudy day.

The two washing machines linked to the hot water panels are a great way to save electricity, reduce the size of the electricity bill and help green the planet.

There is also a back up oil fired boiler, (not so green).

If you would like to know more about Molino Del Rey go to www.molinodelrey.com

The writing on the wall

How can there be any bad news to green living?

在我 ‘成功’ 三部曲 (根據標籤 ‘成功“) 我說的是如何迎合自我摧毀我們自己的社區和我們的星球，但我也相信，心臟成功的平衡與自我的成功可以完成修復損壞.

我不知道，如果是因為我現在是一個脾氣暴躁的老男人或如果其他的分享我的看法，但我相信，我們現在遇到的各種危機, 金融和生態所造成的人類的淺層慾望的增長造成靈性的東西越來越!

隨著中說，我認為這將是一個好主意，前往其他國家的人民找出他們是如何生活的綠色生活方式，所以我可以閱讀和評論的綠色博客, hmmmm大錯!!

我能找到賣綠色生活的博客, 從肥皂到電動汽車, 誠然，有一些反芻主題的新聞博客，但他們本身往往顯得相當可疑的廣告收入支持. (我不是說綠色網站, 只是博客)

我想讀什麼，究竟是誰了綠色的人不得不說, 我不是說他們是不是在那裡, 我只是無法找到他們, 也許搜索引擎谷歌神不看重他們, 誰知道.

那麼，什麼綠色生活對你意味著什麼? 你高興你可以去網上買.

當然，你不會購買實際生活的綠色方式, 你只是購買到相同的舊自我漆成綠色的成功.

綠色生活是生活一個可持續發展的生活, 所以這是什麼樣的生活水準?

以及大約, 如果採取平均的美國公民和他們的生活水平降低四分之三，這種減少將是相當足夠的可持續, 如果你住在英國和減半的生活水平, 再次是不夠的可持續, 全世界人口有同樣的生活水平的基礎上. HTTP:///greenstory_view.php?storyid = 1196

那麼，是什麼人做，如果一個人想不僅要過綠色生活，但推廣綠色生活方式的好處?

以及政府沒有得到一個機會, 政府沒有將要上台投票的基礎上，這是要大規模減少你的生活方式.

不幸意味著大多數如果不是所有的豐富的西方國家政府都躺在自己的人，當他們談論經濟和經濟增長.

那麼，誰真的要犧牲自己的生活方式，返回地球，它的天然色澤。?

好吧，我, 如果你看，也許你會以及.

這是不可能維持經濟增長的一個綠色的世界, 一個綠色的世界，需要持續收縮, 事實上，它可能是不再只是一種選擇. 如果我們不能接受持續收縮，它很可能是經濟和環境的變化，我們正在經歷，將迫使我們.

對虧損的恐懼是大於你害怕的損失.

我相信，綠色生活的關鍵，就是要認真考慮爭取心臟成功, 成功地做正確的事，而不是自我的成功, 正確的事情視而不見，為了有東西和電源的成功.

我們需要做更多的使用較少，但我們需要獲得比賽的有，說我們是誰的小飾物和實現他們說，現在實際上是我們精神上淺. 我的財富是沒有錯的，但財富的標誌, 對我來說, 代表剝削, 利用某處沿著線的人與事.

你可以不買綠色生活, 作為一個整體，你一定要活下去綠色生活.

成為素食主義者 (肉食者說，但我想!) 做多和少用的是一個很好的例子, 它需要規劃，並認為很好吃，是一個素食主義者.

我給你的任何例子將作出更多的努力，並使用更少的資源, 這是比較容易的部分, 難的是改變人們的感知，成功, 真正的成功, 沒有多少權力和金錢你有或你有一個大理石頂部廚房, 法拉利停在外面.

真正的成功是共享的財富資源他人在您的社區, 這是心臟成功, 這是心態的關鍵，這將有助於創造一個綠色的生活和打擊的替代品，這是偷其他的寶貴資源的力量, 較深的替代未來.

例如，讓我們來看看房子的牆壁和屋頂隔熱, 為什麼不是所有的房子建在西方世界，在過去 30 年超級絕緣牆壁和屋頂在設計階段集成?

這不是因為它的成本或設計因素是因為你不能停放保溫外, 或穿一個政黨或炫耀給你的朋友, 不像雙層玻璃窗的成功可以證明，不保存盡可能多的能量，任何接近看不見的絕緣

Green living is fun and I admit this post appears to be removing all the fun away from a green lifestyle but I am just trying to be real.

現在，如果你的想法去綠色是因為所有的東西除了買一輛電動自行車，那麼你是不是真的比你自己的自我幫助任何其他, 但如果你買的自行車作為一種工具, 旅行另一種手段，它會給你我講的心臟成功, 以至於即使在寒冷潮濕的夜晚，在紅綠燈在法拉利的傢伙坐在旁邊拉起你實際上可能為他感到遺憾!!