Back in 1979, I remember standing at Oxford Circus handing out fliers on animal testing (not a popular thing at that time), but even then there were animal friendly alternatives - not many granted, but they were around and I was using them. If I remember correctly, it was just Yardley, Innoxa and Beauty Without ...
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As those of you who read my articles will know, I have a wonderful bed of wild garlic and Alkanet that’s been a star in my garden for about fifteen years now (I believe I posted a picture of it in my article on organic gardening). Over the past few years though, I started to wonder what it would be like if I let ...
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Where I live, there’s a van which pulls up opposite early each morning to wait for somebody to get into his van. People have to work and I have no problem with that (as I do myself) but this man leaves his engine running Mondays – Fridays whilst waiting, sometimes for up to fifteen minutes. He is doing this on a ...
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The environment is close to our hearts here at Watts Gallery - Artists' Village with environmental awareness and responsibility deeply rooted in the Trust's ethos. Environmentalism was a key concern of G F Watts. His love of birds as a small child influenced one of his first Royal Academy submissions, The Wounded ...
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My garden is completely surrounded by mixed deciduous hedging with a little bit of holly at the top – and I love it, as do the birds! I have to admit that I’ve watched with dismay as some neighbours have pulled out their hedging, only to say some years later how much they miss it. I’m writing this month, therefore, ...
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I hope the articles I’ve written over the past year have proved helpful to my readers. Starting this month I thought it might be interesting to feature some of the rooms in my home, to provide an understanding of my thought processes and lifestyle choices in action! The main theme is always think: ‘REDUCE and ...
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Me wearing the pink coat I bought in the 1980's that I still wear today There's such a lot about “sustainable clothing” in the press and on social media at the moment, and I’m amazed it’s finally become fashionable. If I’m honest though, I also worry at how much of the clothing that manufacturers say is ...
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From time to time, I hear people ask which is more important to buy: organic or local food? I think a lot of people automatically think that buying local is better, but that’s not necessarily the case! Obviously, if you grow your own organic food in your garden or have an organic allotment locally, that’s brilliant. ...
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Following on from my previous article about electricity in October 2020, I wanted to talk this month about “green” gas – well, first of all you may be wondering what it is and how it’s possible for any gas to be green. You could well be right as so-called “green” gas isn’t necessarily eco-friendly. It really depends ...
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One of my previous articles highlighted the main things we can do to help fight climate change and at the top of that list was changing our diet. Meat and dairy and their production (in terms of grazing land and/or growing crops for animal feed) accounts for a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. Some people may ...
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