Category: Sustainability

I was recently incensed by an article in a mainstream paper. The columnist chose to use his piece to complain about how inconvenient and unpleasant it was to visit his father-in-law’s second home in Cornwall. He went on to say they used to go there for a week every summer with his family, but now […]

These last two weeks have been a particularly hard time for me. On Friday 16th February we said goodbye to Finn, the youngest son of one of our closest friends. Finn had taken his own life. His older brother Dean died by suicide two years ago on the 24th February, and life without Dean was […]

“Say it with flowers” goes the saying, and as today is Valentine’s Day, it seems an appropriate subject to mull over. We spend a lot on flowers. A quick scan of the internet suggests the spending on cut flowers nudges the one billion pound mark, with 86% of those flowers coming from abroad. A carbon […]

Sometimes I find myself craving good news, and this month more so than usual.  It’s been a difficult start to the year; a dear friend’s child took his own life. It’s been a heartbreaking few weeks, and I’d like to make a plea to my readers; don’t suffer in silence. If you feel low, do […]

The recent dry spell has been much appreciated, but the colder weather has turned my thoughts to birds. Bird numbers have been challenged over the last few decades, and they need our help.  Feeding birds with bird feeders has become very popular. It is a great pleasure to see birds congregating outside the window. However […]

The turning of the year always feels significant; we make promises we fully intend to keep, we think about the person we would like to be, which is usually a little less flawed than the person we actually are.  Remembering Kim – a good friend who was always generous with her time My mind has […]

This month has been a very exciting one for me personally, because our business, Railholiday, had the great honour of winning the Most Sustainable Small Organisation at the Cornwall Sustainability Awards. As my husband Dave and I headed to the podium, I had to do some quick thinking as to what I would like to […]

I have to confess I have very mixed feelings about Christmas. I have always struggled with the spend-fest and waste element, which I think for many of us is stressful. The pressure for perfection, and having the best ever Christmas, only adds to the anxiety. It can also be a time when loved ones are […]

It’s certainly winter storm time, and the beaches are, as might be expected, full of plastic washed in with high tides. This needs to be cleared as quickly as possible, before it finds its way back into the water to play havoc with fish, birds and other sea farers.  Some of the plastics washed up […]

I read an interesting article recently that suggested that we should forget about our own carbon footprint and focus instead on the places we work. I don’t entirely agree with the statement; I think our carbon footprint is something we own, and can do something about. By working on our personal footprint we can learn […]