Greening hotels (Apr09)
I stay in hotels all the time. And I quite often give feedback. Most hotels are incredibly wasteful. Common practices include: -Leaving lights on in bedrooms when they’re unoccupied -Double beds with lots of pillows for only one person (resulting in lots of unnecessary laundry) -Individually wrapped soaps, shampoos and other products -Over-heating or cooling […]
Off to Kenya and street lights closer to home (Mar09)
Denuded landscape near Mombasa Sustainable agriculture training plot near Mombasa The offending street light on Coker Hill Rural view from my house Another morning digging ourselves out of the drive. As I was heaving large mounds of snow into the bank I was thinking about where I’ll be in a couple of days […]
Shopping Trauma (Feb09)
I don’t really like shopping – particularly when it entails actually going out of the house. I do most of my shopping on the internet. Earlier this week, I went into Yeovil for a few things. It made me even more committed to purchasing with my ‘mouse’. First on my list was an energy-efficient, decorative […]
NT – Energy efficient light bulbs (Jun08)
ABOUT TIME TOO – NATIONAL TRUST ENERGY SAVING LIGHT BULBS I was a tenant of the National Trust for nearly 10 years. My husband and I rented Tintinhull House in Somerset from 1995. It’s a beautiful house with gardens, made famous by Penelope Hobhouse, open to the public during the summer months. The public reception […]
Easter Holidays (Apr08)
Snow fights and snow men are unusual activities for an Easter holidays. We’ve managed to fit them in around camping – it wasn’t that cold – Easter egg hunts, a rope assault course, dens, bike rides and a trip to London. Went to see Mamma Mia in the West End. With adaptations of Abba […]
Changing lightbulbs (Feb08)
First a confession. I have spotlights in both my kitchen and living room, which are adjoining – and not all of them are energy efficient. When the spotlights were first installed I made sure that they would take energy efficient bulbs. I then ordered the 100 watt replacements, which were 23 watts each. But when […]
Street light rant (Feb08)
There’s been some discussion recently about councils turning off lights between midnight and dawn. Hooray. Actually, I think there are lots of places where they shouldn’t be on at all. And others where some lights might be a good idea but not nearly as many. Street lights are big energy guzzlers because they have to […]
Christmas waste (Jan08)
One of the most striking things about Christmas is the amount of waste we all produce. Waste heat, waste light, waste food and most of all waste packaging. Actually, quite a lot of presents are wasteful too. I wonder what percentage of gifts are actually appreciated and how many of those are useful. I have […]
Woman’s Hour 2007 – 2008 (Jan08)
At the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 Woman’s Hour ran a series of interviews with me about greening your home. Links below are no longer working but we’re trying to resolve this! /// •Recycling • Green Fashion • Water • Lighting • Laundry • Electricity
How green is the London Eye? (Oct07)
Much as I love having my children at home, a two week half term at this time of year can be quite difficult because work is in full flow. However, I had a brilliant day in London with my youngest son, Monty, who’s eight. Monty enjoying the view We went to Trafalgar square on the […]
Gay Times – I interviewed Kristin Digby (Sep07)
One of three interviews I did for the Gay Times – Kristin Digby . See also Peter Tatchell and Paul O-Grady “I don’t even know how to read a f***ing fuel bill”, Kristian admitted when I asked him to tell me how much electricity and gas he was using. I arrived at his house somewhere […]
Gay Times – Peter Tatchell (Sep07)
One of three interviews I did for the Gay Times – Peter Tatchell. See also Paul O-Grady and Kristin Digby With piles of paper balanced precariously almost to the ceiling (it reminded me of Dr Seuss’s Cat in the Hat), Peter’s flat is not only his home but his campaign headquarters too. Animal rights, human rights, […]