I found this article on the BBC news website earlier whilst surfing during my lunch break. It's all about the current "fashion" for making home made gifts Blue Peter style. Well, if Brad Pitt's kids are doing it then I guess it must be fashionable!Like all articles these days this one comes back to the Credit Crunch as a reason behind why we're all trying to save a few pennies at the moment. I do feel quite cheered though to see that there are children out there who still want to do things like this rather than just hanging around on street ... read more
Waddesdon Rubber Tree
I've been meaning to blog about our trip to Waddesdon Manor for a while now, but as usual life keeps overtaking my plans. I must however make time to tell you about this fantastic tree that we found in the grounds. This fantastic sculpture was made up using recycled tyres and inner tubes as part of the June 2008 MAD about Waddesdon festival. Ann Carrington was the woman behind the tree (along with some help from local schools I understand) and reading her website and various press articles it seems that she makes a habit of using recycles materials in ... read more
Working Party Sunday
Another working party Sunday at the WWA this morning. Quite a lot of work to do as the whole site seems to be springing up in front of our eyes. My efforts today concentrated on removing nettles and brambles that were starting to overhang the paths in the Orchard. Others worked on clearing more of the butterfly garden and removing overgrowing plants and weeds from the channel between the River Ver and the Mere on the reserve. The summer heat made working conditions very different from the May working party but equally difficult in their own way. The refreshments (cold apple juice and homemade ... read more
Japanese Recycling
I came across this article on the BBC news website last week and ever since then I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Kamikatsu is a village in Eastern Japan that is described as "zero waste". Everything there is recycled. Individuals have to take full responsibility for all their waste and there are no waste collections from houses. Admittedly the scheme is far from perfect, but it is interesting to read about some of the things that they are able to recycle that we can't here in the UK. The incentives that are mentioned are also an interesting idea - I personally think that glass ... read more
First steps towards self-sufficiency
It's now over a year since I started to put much more thought into my life and how it wasn't at all green at the time. I also started to be somewhat concerned about the lack of skills that I had when it came to doing the things that so many of my grandparents generation, living through the war years, would have taken for granted to aid their survival and help the war effort. At the time I was quite a useless cook, only really did cross-stitch as any form of sewing and was generally quite useless at many practical things. I therefore started to teach myself (with the aid of many, many books ... read more
Earthworks Summer Fair
Today was the Earthworks Summer Fair here in St Albans. Earthworks is a local charity that offers trainees, often with learning difficulties or mental health problems, work experience and training in horticultural and land-based skills. They have a site in St Albans where they manage it on environmental principles and they use it to grow fruit and vegatables that they then sell at the monthly St Albans Farmers' Market. Mr C and I were helping out on the WWA stand and took a nice walk down the Alban Way to get there this morning. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been kind to us today and ... read more
Outdoor Summer Fun
Yesterday was the annual summer event at our local nature reserve. Mr C and I were helping to organise the pond dipping. A couple of years ago the whole mere at the site dried out. Since it re-filled with water we have seen evidence of several different bits of wildlife and thought that the summer event would be the ideal opportunity for us to see what was living under the surface and to teach some of the local children about what they can find living in the water. Armed with some fishing nets we started to explore under the surface and we were quite amazed with what we found! Not only did ... read more
Hugh’s Chicken Out fight against Tesco
I'm quite disappointed to hear on the lunchtime news just now that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has failed in his attempted to get his special resolution passed at the Tesco AGM for them to improve their chicken welfare standards. I understand that Hugh managed to get 10% of the vote. Unfortunately Tesco had stated that he needed a whopping 75% for the resolution to be passed. Since Hugh launched the Chicken Out campaign I've been following his progress with interest. His television programme showing the conditions in which many chickens are forced to live certainly made me think again about ... read more
Wombles
A second BBC News magazine atricle has also caught my attention today, but this is one that I'm not totally sure what my views are... Lucy Kellaway's article is entitled Making good use of the things that you find, and starts by talking about taking some her late mother's possessions down to the tip to dispose of them. When she talks about getting rid of things though she refers to it as "an enjoyable leisure activity - a bit like a sport" and then says "the other beauty of getting rid of stuff is that it leaves one free to go out and buy some more". Now I'm afraid that this started to get me ... read more
Freecycle madness
Mr C and I have done a fair amount of de-cluttering recently and as a result we've been creating a large pile of things that we want to dispose of. In the past I may have just taken then to the tip, or the local charity shop, but today I'm making the most of the St Albans Freecycle group. This is a fantastic way of passing on things that we no longer have use for to people who are able to use them. So far this morning I've been flooded with e-mails from people interested in taking things off our hands, now I just have to hope that they will all head out on a rainy bank holiday afternoon to ... read more