I love hearing from people who are doing amazing things to protect and care for our present and future environments for the generations yet to come.
I genuinely feel very excited to be one of many optimistic green activists, at a pivotal point in earth’s history; we are the generation that will make incredible positive changes.
Gillian Trott dropped me a line recently with information on her Earthships; do read on, I think you’ll find they could be right up your street… Continue Reading »
Of all the Literary Festivals I’ve appeared at this year, Ways With Words at the beautiful Dartington Hall in Totnes is the one that has given me the biggest squidgy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
The annual festival takes place from July 10-19 at Dartington Hall in South Devon and my slot is carved into the schedule on Monday 13th at 2pm.
“Few people who visit Dartington Hall are untouched by its magic,” explains Festival Director, Kay Dunbar. “The combination of the medieval courtyard, the majestic Great Hall and the extensive gardens and woodlands creates a captivating setting for a literature festival,” she adds.
Meet mum of 4 and ‘mumpreneur’ Christine McRitchie.
She somehow manages to fit in running 3 flourishing internet eco-businesses, alongside the demands of family life.
Plush Pants Cloth Nappies was her first venture: “I took on Plush Pants when my youngest baby, Victoria, was just under a year old. It’s been a labour of love and there was a lot to do as the business had been run down, so I’m very proud of how big it’s become in the last five years and in particular the popular Nappy Trial Scheme, which I’m a huge fan of, as it’s how I came to use washable nappies myself.”
Recently, I had the pleasure of driving with Joe Wadsworth in the Brighton to London Eco-Rally. Aside from being a great co-driver, he’s also partly responsible for waving the flag for the ingenious Firewinder.
Here, Joe shares his views on renewable and sustainable energy, as well as letting us into the secrets behind one of the hottest eco-products to hit the market this year.
Q – What is the Firewinder, who invented it and tell us more about them?
A Firewinder is a wind powered lantern – the Original Windlight. It was conceived by the founder of the Firewinder Company, Tom Lawton, and resembles a three foot high pasta twist with LEDs on the edges that light up when it spins in the wind. Firewinder breathes with the wind, the greater the windspeed the brighter the lights.
A dear friend recently lost her father and his living wish was for his body left to medical science, but unfortunately, because all the necessary paperwork hadn’t been completed, it wasn’t able to happen.
Consequently, I’ve found myself in a somewhat pensive state, questioning life, the universe and everything, with particular reference to what ‘I’ would like to happen in the untimely event of my early demise…not that I’m planning on going anywhere, anytime soon; I’ve far too much work to do on Mother Earth.
But clearly, our most intimate wishes for post-mortal coil need to be communicated with the ones we love, all relevant authorities, they need to be witnessed, documented, signed, sealed and delivered.
I started carrying an organ donor card many years ago. It’s kicking around in my bag somewhere…I’m sure it is…at least I think it is.
This post has been inspired by the lovely Emily C who made flatbreads for the first time recently.
So many of you write and share your Great-Breaden experiences (sorry, that was truly awful) and I thought it would be fun to let you all loose in my virtual bakery!
I nipped on Amazon this morning (as you do) and The Book of Rubbish Ideas popped up (as it does) and there’s a new ’sneaky peek inside the book’ thingie widget to play with…!
(How sad – so easily pleased…)
Anyway, I thought perhaps new readers to the blog might like to have a good sniff through some of my rubbish ideas.
Click here to read them and if you feel a burning urge to purchase, come back and do it direct with the publishers by clicking on the book icon on the right.
I believe they’re still offering the best deal at £4.54 or £3.50 for Sawday’s Travel Club members – RRP £6.99.
Thanks to you all for your continued support of my work and the book and feel free to Tweet it up!
Good grief, it’s almost July and that means one thing…
The race is on for work-at-home parents up and down the country to crack their most important jobs out before the onset of the 6-week school holidays.
I’m not trying to make it sound like it’s a torturous event, on the contrary, it’s an honour and privilege to share the break with them (quite often something we only recognise after they no longer ‘need’ us) but I’m a firm believer in balance and there will be times when I rely on Spielberg and the electronic babysitter to give me a welcome rest.
A few creative mums and I usually get together once a week for a bit of cutting, sticking or Morsbagging and today we decided to draw pictures all over each other – henna pictures to be precise and what a giggle it was.
We used a couple of the henna book complete kits by Alieen Marron, (The Henna Body Art Kit and Tribal Tattoos) which contained a few transfers, a tracing pencil, some tracing paper and all the other malarkey.
I’ve been hankering after a tattoo of the earth on the sole of my feet for ages. I wanted it there, not for anyone to see particularly, but as a symbol for what I’m trying to do; spreading the message about ways to be kinder to the environment by ‘lightening our footprint’.
Every householder should have a copy of this guide to reducing household waste and stopping wasteful behaviour. Containing step by step projects, the book takes a top down guided tour through the average family home.
