It’s apple picking season. This time of year is full of reminders of my lovely mother, who, together with Dad, planned and planted our family orchard, and loved harvest time. She would have been eighty last week, so this year is a particularly poignant one. Cornwall is full of small producers. There are organic farms […]
Christmas. Don’t you just love it?
There are some things I love about Christmas, and some I don’t. It’s certainly a season that comes with its fair share of fanfare, and like many festivals has been engulfed by commerce. One thing I do love is the decorations. Each year the box of memories comes out. There’s a little leather camel that […]
It’s harvest time! Learning how to preserve fruit and veg will reap rewards
I love this time of year. It’s blackberry time, and I’ve got an eye on the walnuts, hoping I can harvest them before the squirrels do. Dad’s expertise in the vegetable garden means we are often the lucky recipients of home grown produce. Of course this bonanza doesn’t last. Our ancestors were well aware of this. […]
All about apples – a poem in celebration of my wonderful Mum
A poem for Mum, who would have turned 80 on Wednesday 2nd October. Kerensa Aval Sometimes when I press apples it is your hands I see scooping chopped pips and flesh, picking wasps from juice soaked cloth, filling yellow buckets with pulp for the cows. Just as I hear your voice at picking time, hat in […]
Grab a bag and gather your friends, it’s beach cleaning time!
This week is National beach-cleaning week, so if you do nothing else, do make a trip to your nearest beach with a bag and do a litter pick. The tides are exceptionally high at the moment, and with wind added to the mix, there’s likely to be plenty of plastic to collect. I’ve been a […]
Society is a great consumer. But what do we do with the waste?
At one time landfill was a problem; increasingly large swathes of lands were needed, with all the ensuing problems of methane leakage and forever plastics. When landfill sites were full to capacity, rather than tackling the problem holistically (what can we do to reduce waste?) we sidestepped and introduced waste incinerators. These incinerators currently provide […]
Why cash is the new currency
Some time ago I watched a film on environmental issues in New Zealand, in which someone made an interesting comment. We are, they said, working simply to pay interest. Much of what we earn doesn’t go into wealth, but paying banking systems. There is a lot of truth in this; certainly my own outgoings include […]
How to take the scenic route with a holiday on the rails
If we are to be serious about tackling the climate crisis, we need to stop flying. By taking a long train trip, the journey becomes part of the holiday. I first went interrailing in 1989, when I was eighteen. At that time it was a young person’s game; interrail passes were only valid until the […]
Party time! Join the community celebration by volunteering to help
Ilive in the village of St Germans. We are lucky to have may highlights throughout the year. One is undoubtedly the St Germans May Tree Fair weekend. It’s a time when the community gets together to enjoy live music, tug-of-war, stalls and more. The weekend is full of fun; there’s a mock mayor election on […]
Take the bus! On the joys of slow travel
Do you ever feel the pace of your life is too fast? Much has been made of the importance of slowing down. This trend has inevitably been monetised, with a proliferation of wellness channels extolling the virtues of slow living, with books and merch to match. But are we heeding the advice? It’s quite hard […]