engaging with the water we use.

Beautiful rivers are central to what binds me to this landscape.

Many of my favourite childhood memories are set near rivers:

• collecting wild mint with my Nana.
• collecting water from the river with my Grandad.
• swimming at the local river with my mum and sisters on a hot Summer's day.

This love of rivers developed in my formative teen years when I spent all of my spare time either kayaking on rivers, swimming in them or tramping next to them. It became part of who I am.

During this whole time we always drank straight from the rivers.
My children won't experience this simple freedom.

With big decisions about to be made about the future of our local rivers (read more here) and having watched this beautiful film, we wanted to raise our consciousness around our water consumption again.

One of strategies we wanted to reintroduce was "shower buckets"; the simple task of taking a bucket or two with you as you shower.

From this one simple step, this is what happened.

• Your partner immediately limits his showers and chooses more "stand-up washes" having seen the amount of water that is used during what he thought was a "quick" shower.
• You speed up the showers you have anyway because manoevring around the bucket is slightly awkward.
• The sound of the bucket filling heightens your awareness further. While the weather is warm you choose to opt to turn off the water whiling soaping up.
• The garden flourishes, having been mainly watered by these "shower buckets" and produces a bountiful crop.
• Water becomes part of our family's daily conversation: facts are discussed, observations shared and plans are made to further develop our domestic greywater system.