It’s been a busy time for protests. In late May a friend and I took part in a Surfers Against Sewage protest against water pollution, standing on the pontoon off the Tinside in Plymouth, waving a banner with a simple message; clean oceans. Clean water is enormously important, both from our taps and in the […]
How to fall in love with the future.
I have been lucky enough to encounter the positive eco-guru Rob Hopkins twice in the last few months. His new book, titled How to Fall in Love with the Future is out on June 17th, and I’m eagerly looking forward to reading it. So this article is dedicated to the work of Rob, and those visionaries who create positive […]
Say it with flowers? Fresh, local, home grown are the ones we love the best.
“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 […]
For Finn and Dean – a tribute to the lives of two much loved young men.
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 […]
It’s a win-win. Show compassion and solve a labour crisis.
I feel myself fortunate to have friends of all nationalities. Of these friends a few have fled from conflict. These include a conservationist, artist, musician, doctor, economist, chemist and locksmith. The countries they have fled from are as diverse as Iran, Serbia and Trinidad. All showed enormous bravery in coming to an alien territory to escape […]
Festive Fun in Devon and Cornwall during November and December 2025
Christmas is fast approaching, read on to see what seasonal delights Devon and Cornwall have to offer at this festive time of year. Please check out the links for the most up-to-date information. Railway themed fun: The South Devon Railway – 28th November to 23rd December THE POLAR EXPRESS™ TRAIN RIDE AT SOUTH DEVON RAILWAY “This is more than […]
We can be heroes. Celebrating extraordinary ordinary people.
The last few days have been very busy. Because our web providers accidentally wiped out our Railholiday blog (rather than the subscription to our band website that we’d asked them to cancel), I’ve had to start again from scratch. Luckily Dave found an Internet Archive website, with a very useful function called Wayback Machine that […]
On a quest for the best recycled toilet paper
It’s extraordinary to think that four years ago we were in deep lockdown, and life was so radically different. One of the memorable incidents of early Covid was the sudden rush to stock up on essentials leading to empty shelves, and a toilet roll shortage. Of all the things we felt we couldn’t manage without, […]
How to keep resources in the circular economy, Railholiday style
We live on a planet with finite resources, but we often behave as though our resources are infinite. A circular economy is an important cog in the tools we need to keep our planet healthy for generations to come. But what does circular economy actually mean? The term circular economy relates to resources. Once a product is […]
Why we should be giving away our billions
Or at least spending it locally… Inequality is a massive issue when it comes to climate change and social unrest. The wealthy, through their powerful media channels, are great at scapegoating the lower echelons of society. The truth is that the wealthiest are most likely to have the highest carbon footprint, through greater energy costs, […]