It's been a busy few weeks in the Green Life. Work has mainly consisted of music festivals (WOMAD and Chagstock) with a few village fetes thrown in for good measure. The aim? Explaining how fantastic the RSPB is and why people should support it by joining as members (and you all should, via me so I get the credit!).
But with work on the go, go, go I haven't really had time to catch up on two very interesting green-ish programmes that have started recently.
The first is Kirsty Allsopp's new series Fill Your House For Free. Showing people how to collect, upcycle and rescue furniture to fill their homes for next to nothing. It's not quite free once you've bought paint and hired tools but it is very cheap! the first episode (Tuesday 8pm Chanel 4) was very interesting with a good mix of usable ideas and wacky TV stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the series.
The second is Monty Don's new series on Radio 4 called Shared Planet. I've only caught snippets of the programme which aims to explore the complex issues surrounding a growing human population and the pressures put on our wildlife and planet but it sounds great.
So, while I relax and recover from my festival adventures I'll be relaxing and catching up with these. Why not give them a listen/watch yourself?
Monday, 29 July 2013
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Size Does Matter
...when it comes to food waste.
Another way of dealing with waste is to use it up rather than avoid it all together. I love meals that start as one thing and end as another. Leftover roast from a Sunday can turn into a stew on a Monday, chili on a Tuesday, Soup on a Wednesday and so on. Adding a few extra ingredients goes a long way. Leftover veg or rice and curry make the most delicious sandwich and wrap fillers that make Monday morning blues just disappear.
So that's my message for the week. Size matters. Whether it's the amount we eat, the amount we use or the amount we waste. Pick up a cup and take control.
I can cook meals for four but somehow meals for two or one end up always being meals for about one extra person. This is great if an unexpected guest arrives but otherwise, without a freezer, the extra leftover food becomes a bit of a waste.
Thankfully there are several ways to avoid this problem. The first is to measure things properly. My cooking style is definitely experimental when it comes to portion size. Add a bit of this, an extra handful of that, and suddenly a one person dish is a filling the biggest saucepan. So, I have fallen in love with one utensil in particular, my rice cup. I got it free last year at a green event and I use it religiously now. Before I used any small cup that came to hand and it worked almost as well.
Two cups of rice, 4 cups of boiling water and 6 minutes (stir) then four minutes in the microwave and you have perfect rice for two. For one person just halve all the quantities. No waste.
Another way of dealing with waste is to use it up rather than avoid it all together. I love meals that start as one thing and end as another. Leftover roast from a Sunday can turn into a stew on a Monday, chili on a Tuesday, Soup on a Wednesday and so on. Adding a few extra ingredients goes a long way. Leftover veg or rice and curry make the most delicious sandwich and wrap fillers that make Monday morning blues just disappear.
So that's my message for the week. Size matters. Whether it's the amount we eat, the amount we use or the amount we waste. Pick up a cup and take control.
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Fluttering Away?
All the signs of summer are around this week. The smell of BBQ's, the sound of lawn mowers and lots and lots of butterflies. I remember seeing quite a few back at the start of April but since then these flying gems of colour seemed to be hiding, but not anymore.
I'm glad I've been seeing more butterflies because this weekend is the start of Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count. In its third year now this is the biggest butterfly survey in the world (I wonder how many butterfly counts exist?) and last year there were 223,000 butterflies and day-flying moths counted.
Butterflies are amazing. Painted ladies take six generations to make a 9,000 mile migration from sub-Saharan Africa to the Arctic circle and some of them spend the summer fluttering around in our gardens here in the UK. All that travel, navigation and perseverance from a creature with a brain the size of a pin head. But like the rest of the nation's wildlife butterflies are facing stormy times ahead.
The State of Nature report revealed that 72% of the UK's butterflies had decreased in the past ten years with common "garden" species declining by 24%. What would a summer be without red admirals, orange tips and peacock butterflies floating around the flowers? The large blue has been helped by dedicated conservation projects and is on the way to recovery but the familiar small tortoiseshell has declined by 77% in the past decade. Now we know the damage that has already been done, hopefully new conservation projects will be able to turn the tide on the huge loss of wildlife that our country is facing.
Each of us can play our part. Small tortoiseshells can be helped by growing (or leaving!) nettles around the edges of gardens as this is a favored site for the species. Planting butterfly friendly flowers will encourage many species into your garden which is nice but also provides a vital safe haven in an often otherwise barren landscape for these incredible creatures. And of course you should do the Big Butterfly Count. It only takes 15 minutes and it's another great excuse to spend some time enjoying wildlife in the sun (as if you needed one). So between now and 11th August go and see which butterflies are fluttering near you.
The State of Nature report revealed that 72% of the UK's butterflies had decreased in the past ten years with common "garden" species declining by 24%. What would a summer be without red admirals, orange tips and peacock butterflies floating around the flowers? The large blue has been helped by dedicated conservation projects and is on the way to recovery but the familiar small tortoiseshell has declined by 77% in the past decade. Now we know the damage that has already been done, hopefully new conservation projects will be able to turn the tide on the huge loss of wildlife that our country is facing.
Each of us can play our part. Small tortoiseshells can be helped by growing (or leaving!) nettles around the edges of gardens as this is a favored site for the species. Planting butterfly friendly flowers will encourage many species into your garden which is nice but also provides a vital safe haven in an often otherwise barren landscape for these incredible creatures. And of course you should do the Big Butterfly Count. It only takes 15 minutes and it's another great excuse to spend some time enjoying wildlife in the sun (as if you needed one). So between now and 11th August go and see which butterflies are fluttering near you.
Monday, 15 July 2013
Monday, 8 July 2013
Shopping for Greens
Isn't summer brilliant? Long, hot, sunny days are great for picnics and parties, but also good news for anyone trying to grow vegetables and it's showing in our shops. Last summer's terrible weather hit crops hard across the country but this year the shelves are full of amazing UK grown crops.
With all this fabulous veg on offer I wanted to see how much of my weekly shop I could get from UK growers and I was pleasantly surprised. With any seasonal shopping menu's need to be able to adapt to what's on offer and what's best in season so I swapped my normal staple of apples (this time of year you can only get ones from South Africa or New Zealand) for Somerset strawberries and Scottish raspberries. I found UK lettuce, peas, peppers, mushrooms and onions as well as adding English courgette to my basket instead of the unseasonal squash. I'll have to wait another month or two for them to be ripe enough for shops. Thanks to the late spring there is still British asparagus in the shops too, although I also found some being sold from abroad which seems odd when we have such a fantastic crop here.
With my fruit and veg collected I headed round the rest of the shop to see what other British buys I could find. Cheese, bread, milk and eggs were all successes and a surprise buy of British meringues went perfectly with the seasonal fruit too. This really is the season of plenty.
With the food shop done, and so much wonderful veg available I decided to have a bit of a veggie week since it's been ages since my last one. It's always nice to rediscover how versatile and, to be completely honest, yummy in season, British grown veg is without needing any meat to add to a meal. So, my menu this week looked something like this:
Sunday: Macaroni Cheese (possibly my favourite veggie meal ever, the best comfort food)
Monday: Mushroom stroganoff and rice
Tuesday: Falafel and British peppers in pitta breads
Wednesday: Spicy Vegetable Stew (Kidney beans,courgette potatoes, peppers, sweetcorn, onions, stock, spices)
Thursday: Asparagus and boiled eggs on toast
Friday:Spicey Vegetable Stew
Saturday:Asparagus and boiled eggs on toast
It's nowhere near a vegan week, but I was please how little cheese I used considering it's my normal fall pack veggie ingredient.
So if you haven't already, I challenge you to find something new, seasonal and British grown in the shops this week. You might event discover a new favourtie or an old friend.
With all this fabulous veg on offer I wanted to see how much of my weekly shop I could get from UK growers and I was pleasantly surprised. With any seasonal shopping menu's need to be able to adapt to what's on offer and what's best in season so I swapped my normal staple of apples (this time of year you can only get ones from South Africa or New Zealand) for Somerset strawberries and Scottish raspberries. I found UK lettuce, peas, peppers, mushrooms and onions as well as adding English courgette to my basket instead of the unseasonal squash. I'll have to wait another month or two for them to be ripe enough for shops. Thanks to the late spring there is still British asparagus in the shops too, although I also found some being sold from abroad which seems odd when we have such a fantastic crop here.
With my fruit and veg collected I headed round the rest of the shop to see what other British buys I could find. Cheese, bread, milk and eggs were all successes and a surprise buy of British meringues went perfectly with the seasonal fruit too. This really is the season of plenty.
With the food shop done, and so much wonderful veg available I decided to have a bit of a veggie week since it's been ages since my last one. It's always nice to rediscover how versatile and, to be completely honest, yummy in season, British grown veg is without needing any meat to add to a meal. So, my menu this week looked something like this:
Sunday: Macaroni Cheese (possibly my favourite veggie meal ever, the best comfort food)
Monday: Mushroom stroganoff and rice
Tuesday: Falafel and British peppers in pitta breads
Wednesday: Spicy Vegetable Stew (Kidney beans,courgette potatoes, peppers, sweetcorn, onions, stock, spices)
Thursday: Asparagus and boiled eggs on toast
Friday:Spicey Vegetable Stew
Saturday:Asparagus and boiled eggs on toast
It's nowhere near a vegan week, but I was please how little cheese I used considering it's my normal fall pack veggie ingredient.
So if you haven't already, I challenge you to find something new, seasonal and British grown in the shops this week. You might event discover a new favourtie or an old friend.
Monday, 1 July 2013
Sounds from the Sea
In May I wrote about the Tweet of the Day series on Radio 4. With over 40 tweets now available to listen to it is a fascinating collection, highlighting the huge diversity and wealth of the UK's birds. In particular I've enjoyed the many episodes which reveal the sounds of seabirds.
As an island nation the UK is home to a huge array of marine wildlife; seabirds are some of the most noticeable, and I presume, noisiest on our shoreline. While some, like the gannet, are familiar favorites from Spring Watch and other natural history programmes others are less well known. I had never even wondered what a Great Skua sounded like, let alone be able to guess.
So, in case you haven't had a chance to hear them yet, have a listen to some of these amazing sounds from the sea.
Cormorants are common on rocky shores and in winter gather in large roost of hundreds of birds.
Great Skuascommonly known as bonxies, two thirds of the global breeding population are found on Scottish islands.
Gannets have a two meter wingspan and regularly dive up to 20 meters into the water.
Arctic Terns make a round trip of over 70 thousand kilometers as they migrate. They see more daylight than any other animal.
Manx Shearwaters nest around the UK, mostly on remote islands such as Skomer. Around 90% of the world's population breed in the UK.
Razorbills look beautiful with their smart black and white feathers, although their call is less attractive!
Puffins are one of the most colourful seabirds. Their calls sounds similar to cows moo-ing.
Kittiwakes get their name from their call, and have been nesting on the cliffs near to me at Exmouth.
Storm Petrels just sound bizarre, purring away through the night. They appear to walk on water and are known as "Jesus Christ birds".
Guillemots learnt to fly by jumping off high cliffs. The eggs are pear shaped to prevent them falling off the cliffs and guillemot nests are the smallest of any bird, only 5cm square.
Shags, with their deep green plumage, are true seabirds compared to their black feathered relatives the cormorants. Shags make nests of seaweed and driftwood.
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Journeys
Someone called Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that
Life is a journey, not a destination
and while this may sound profound and poetic I would challenge anyone travelling on a cross country train from Durham to Preston, late at night on a wintry Friday, not to long for the destination and the journey's end.
But I think it's true that journey's are underrated, even the journey from Durham to Preston which, in daylight, has some fantastic views while travelling through the Pennines. I've blogged about journeys before (here, here and here) and I've been thinking about, and going on, quite a few journey's recently (and there are several more to come soon).
Last week I did something I've been wanting to try for quite a while, exploring the Exe by public transport. Exeter and the Exe Estuary are lucky to be supported by a very good transport system. There is a train line that runs all the way up one side of the estuary from Exmouth, to Exeter, and then all the way down the other side too. If I didn't live a 40 minute walk or two bus journeys from the nearest station I would travel on this lovely route much more often. But there are buses too and from our flat this is much easier.
You can (and I did) get the bus from Exeter to Topsham, which is a lovely 15 minute journey. You can either spend it looking out for number 57 buses and guessing which estuary wildlife will be pictured on the side or feeling smugly green about not using your own car and also relieved that you don't have to find somewhere to park it when you arrive!
One of the best things about being car free in Topsham is that as well as exploring the east bank of the estuary you can hop onto one of two foot ferries which take you over to the other bank too. This was what I'd been looking forward to and I took the Topsham Passenger Ferry which is £1 each way and takes about a minute to do the crossing. The ferry man is lovely, he told us all about his recent holiday scuba diving with manta rays, and the added bonus of a small group of signets was well worth the £1 anyway.
Once across the river, you can wander along the west bank down to the Turf pub which is only accessible by foot, bike or boat and enjoy a pint of organic, locally produced Avocet Ale. What could be a better, greener, way to spend a summer afternoon?
If you're tempted by a longer journey (and another pub) the easy walk through the RSPB Exminster Marshes reserve leads to the Swans Nest, and you should see plenty of dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies and birds. You might be lucky like we were and see a fox cub learning to hunt.
After quenching your thirst again, you have a choice. Catch the bus back into Exeter from this side of the river, or wander back down the road to the ferry crossing, have another short but lovely boat trip and get the bus back into Exeter from the other side.
A day out wandering is nice, and the journey really is the main event. There's something special about traveling by public transport, I always feel there are so many options and potentials. you could go anywhere. The odd thing is that this is probably much truer by car, but I never feel the same way when driving myself.
Yesterday I traveled up to Northamptonshire by car, because public transport took longer, costed more and meant you had to travel further. I wish it was easier to do the journey without the car. But I did enjoy counting buzzards as I went. I managed ten over the journey and happily saw two red kites just before the end. A kestrel was an unexpected sight too. This is one species where I do remember there being plenty in the past and fewer now. I'll be entering my sighting into the kestrel survey here so that my sighting can go towards helping solve the problems this lovely bird currently faces. I wonder if I'll see more ore less buzzards on the return trip, although since it will be via Symonds Yat I hope there will definitely be more peregrines.
I suppose the quote at the start of this blog is meant to remind us to enjoy every moment we experience, to really take it all in rather than rushing to the next big milestone. I think that's important. But if we didn't have destinations to aim for, whether it's the next pub on route, a family reunion or the aim of bringing a species back from the brink our journeys would all become aimless wanderings and that doesn't seem very good either. So, enjoy the journey, and take as many stops as you can, but celebrate the milestones too because they mark the progress we've made, and give us a chance to look back at how far we've come.
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