Julia Hailes MBE

Sustainability Pioneer

I love electric bikes (Jun19)

Sailing through the countryside. Exploring hidden routes. Getting some much needed exercise…  It’s wonderful.   The strange thing is that when I say that I’ve taken up electric bikes, one of the most common reactions is for people to say that ‘it’s cheating’.  It’s as if I was doing something ‘synthetic’ rather than ‘natural’ – […]

Supermarkets vs french markets…. (Sept08)

Even with the wind and rain lashing around our beach hut on the Dorset coast, we had a great couple of days. There were sunny spells and we had lots of visitors. Somehow the weather didn’t matter that much. We stocked up for supplies from the large supermarket in Bridport – but this was more […]

Getting into the swim (Sep07)

Last year I didn’t have a proper holiday – a couple of days camping in the rain in Cornwall. In fact I can’t remember when I last had a holiday in the sun. So this year’s family trip to stay with friends in the South of France was really exciting – the first week in […]

Holiday dilemma: fly or drive? (Jul07)

My family are going to stay with friends in the South of France for our summer holiday. But how should we get there? We’re going by ferry and by car. In theory this is greener than going by plane – that was certainly part of my thinking when I planned the trip. But I’m not […]