I got water for Christmas

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The oldest daughter gave me this interesting gift for Christmas. 1 Litre water features a unique integrated cup, which makes refilling the bottle practical since you can avoid contaminating the bottle with your filthy, germ-ridden mouth.

Of course, this isn’t just any pedestrian bottled water. It is, according to a press release issued by the company, “bottled directly from the pristine Au Sable State Forest in the heart of northern, lower Michigan.”  (What? Where’s “northern, lower Michigan”?)

Further, the water is “naturally filtered as it percolates through the glacial sand and rock in a confined aquifer. With a perfect PH balance and low mineral composition, the artesian spring water’s taste is exceptional, clean, crisp and invigorating.”

I’m not sure about all that, but it is quite sporty and the concept sits well with this southern girl who was taught that is always quite rude to drink directly from a container.

Water beautiful sight, happy tonight

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More festive water towers pimped up for the Christmas season.


Seen in Oxford, Mississippi by gasolinehorses on Flickr.


A futuristic look in Malmo, Sweden, from Flickr and photographed by by Kristian M, who notes “The light is red during the christmas time and blue the rest of the year. The tower was finished in 1973. It is 62 meter high and contains about 10200 cubic meters of water. And the room on the top serves now as an educational center. Before there was a restaurant.”


This one from Alexandria, Louisiana looks more jellyfish than Christmas icon. By jlkwak on Flickr.


Now that I’m struck with Christmas water tower envy, perhaps this could be an acceptable substitute for the bare water towers in my locale, the “BELIEVE” water tower with Blinking Star. The 112″ high, 48″ wide decoration is available for $350 from store.theholidaylightstore.com.  Sign me up.

Water bright time, it’s the right time

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Christmas lights and water towers seem such a natural combo it’s surprising we don’t see more of them. Perhaps they interfere with the increasingly prevalent cell antennas. Anyhow, here’s a few for your holiday enjoyment.


An annual tradition: Camarillo, California water tower from venturaweekly.com.


Branson, Missouri, from Flickr by Antonia Quest.


Larned, Kansas on Flickr by photo.klick.


Mandeville, Louisiana by David Schexnaydre on Flickr.


Flickr-er jhwk_errant photographed this one in Lyons, Kansas.

Keepsake Water for the Holidays

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Available now at Sams Club, Merry Christmas Keepsake Water in 3 festive designs. These feature hand-applied crystals! And according to the website, “makes a delightful decoration for the holiday season for home or office. A perfect keepsake for years to come.”  At $19.88 each, this water spills out at about 79 cents an ounce…a precious keepsake, indeed!

Water Bottle Christmas Trees

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Seen In Bangkok, Thailand in 2007, photograph from Flickr by Rob in London.

2007 in Malta, a tree constructed with 4100 bottles by the students of San Swann primary school Santa Bernadette, guided by teachers and artist Joe Barbara.  Photo from gozonews.com.

An unusual display at the 2008 Methuen (Massachussetts) annual Festival of Trees. Photo by 2blueyeboyz on Flickr.

Seen in 2006, Taipei Taiwan Hualien – Taroko Gorge, and photographed by Flickr-er quicklymilktea.

A 2008 brand-tastic tree constructed of full water bottles in Shenzhen’s Hua Qiang Be, a display called “perverse” by Flickr photographer Rock the Bike.

Angels they do thirst on high

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A testimony to the mysterious, spiritual nature of water.

It’s pure hell in the bottled water biz

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The bottled water industry is mad as hell and is not going to take it anymore. The Independent (UK) features a detailed story by Martin Hickman on their strategy for stopping the sales slide: Troubled waters: Why we fell out of love with bottled water (and how the industry plans to win us back)

Among the huge amount of information in the article is this tidbit:

Admittedly, carbon labelling is in its infancy, but the work done so far suggests that other soft drinks have a carbon footprint up to 10 times higher than bottled water. Danone, which has lightweighted its bottles and uses the train in France, calculates that production of one litre of Evian emits 198 grams of carbon dioxide.

When Tesco checked the Co2 of its orange juice, it found a litre cost 1,040 grams. Even the environmentally friendly Adnams brewery in Suffolk cannot reduce the Co2 of its East Green bitter below 864 grams.

CLIMATE CHANGE (Co2 per litre)

Tap water …….. 0.2 grams
Bottled water ……… 198 grams
Smoothie ……… 686 grams
Beer ……… 864 grams
Orange juice ……… 1,040 grams

Oh my, could it be we’re seeing a pattern? It’s not clean, healthy bottled water, but alcohol, that is the real villian in this story! And OJ is the real killer, after all!