Energy Saving Trust Website

I can seriously recommend this website. Log on to www.energysavingtrust.org.uk to check it out. There are some really good sections:
An interactive, simple and understandable explanation of what climate change is and how we all impact on the rate of change can be found on the site. It is not too "preachy" and explains the science behind global warming.
If you do log onto the site - spend a few minutes completing a home energy check. Just by answering some simple questions about your own circumstances, the trust will give you a free, impartial report telling you how to save up to £300 per year on your household bills, and around 2 tonnes of carbon dioxide. If you prefer you can call 0800 512012 to get a paper copy of the questionnaire.
You can also search for grants and offers for your own house, just by typing in your postcode.
For anyone interested in the whole issue of saving energy, global warming or the environment as a whole - this an essential website to check out.

Light Bulb Humour

Q: How many surrealists does it take to change an energy saving light bulb?

A: Two, one to hold the giraffe and the other to fill the bathtub with brightly coloured machine tools.

Compost Recipe

I've been reading up on how to make good compost! This is a little different to my normal bedtime reading but I'm hoping to get some lovely brown organic matter to dig into my veg. patch next spring so I'll just have to grin and bear it.
Apparently I need to get a good mix of materials - dry and wet - to get the best compost. So here is my idea for a good recipe:

Basically I need to have layers of materials so I get the right mix - if its too wet it goes smelly and slimy, if its too dry it doesn't do anything at all!

Dry Stuff - Dead leaves, small twigs, egg cartons, scrunched up or shredded paper, cardboard, straw, loo roll inners, sawdust, paper tissues, hair, the contents of my Hoover bag! etc

Wet Stuff - Grass cuttings, fruit and vegetable trimmings, old plants, hedge clippings, weeds, tea bags, seaweed, comfrey, nettles.

Things to Leave out! - Cooked food, meat or fish, cat litter, nappies, perennial weeds, dog pooh, cheese, bread, large twigs or wood.

This type of composting is apparently called cool composting and should take about 6 months to a year to mature.

Of course I have realised that having just one bin does not work (doh!) as when this one is full of lovely compost - I shall need another to fill up for the year after - so, back to the internet to order another one.

5 Things to Do with 15 Minutes to Spare

Here are some super-quick things anyone can do to save cash, help the environment and make life easier in the long run.

1. Gather all your household bills and arrange to pay them online - it saves on paperwork, as well as the need to remember to pay them on time. Plus it saves quite a few trees, especially if you sign up for paperless billing as well.


2. Cast an eye over your book collection to see if you could sell any through http://www.amazon.co.uk/. Make some money and recycle paper at the same time


3. Choose any less-than-fresh fruit in the fruit bowl and whizz them together in a liquidiser to make a smoothie that can be kept in the fridge. Saves waste and check out the cost of a pre-packaged smoothie!!


4. Replace a broken light bulb with an energy efficient one - you all know why


5. Put 10 things in a pile for either the charity shop, jumble sale or car boot sale. Make money or help others to make money.

Recipe 2 - Gooseberry Cake

This is a good recipe to use up the last few gooseberries without turning them into yet more jam! Its also very sticky and gooey - sort of a cross between a cake and a pudding. YUM!

3oz/75g margarine
3oz/75g natural yoghurt
4oz/125g caster sugar
2 eggs - free range
5oz/175g self raising flour
1oz/25g butter
4 tbsp golden syrup
10oz/300g gooseberries (tinned/frozen are OK if out of season)

1. Heat oven to Gas 4 180c 350F.
2. Grease an 8in loose bottomed cake tin
3. Beat margarine, yoghurt, sugar and eggs together
4. Add sifted flour , mix until smooth
5. Spoon into tin and bake for 20 mins
6. Melt butter and syrup together , add gooseberries and cook gently until just soft.
7. Spoon/pour the mix over the half cooked cake. Return to oven.
8. Bake cake for a further 30/40 mins until golden and bubbling.
9. Remove and cool in tin.
10. Serve cold or warm with cream.

Quote of the Day 5

This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

~Douglas Adams - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Success!!

My first cash/energy success arrived this morning - courtesy of my quarterly electricity bill. I've saved £22 on my normal bill. These is very good news, and I put it down to changing all the lightbulbs in the house for energy saving ones and only boiling enough water in the kettle for my actual needs. These are the only 2 changes I've made over the last couple of months.
I'm now very keen to see how much more I can save over the next quarter. More news soon.......

Recommended Reading Plus 10 more Tips

There’s a really good book that has been produced by the Friends of the Earth which is called “Save Cash and Save the Planet”

Top tips featured in the book include:

• 
  -Fit energy saving light bulbs around the house and save yourself £7 a year or £65 over their lifetime. Switch to a green energy tariff and do the planet a bigger favour
  -Eat less meat – meat is expensive and meat farming is resource intensive and a major source of pollution
  -Insulate your home – draft insulation makes your home warmer and also saves money, while insulating your roof will save up to £180 a year
  -Use lemon juice and white vinegar to clean kitchen and bathroom surfaces – and leave the bottles of bathroom and kitchen cleaner on the supermarket shelf
  -Join a car club and save up to £3,470 a year on the cost of running a car. If you are buying a new car, chose a fuel efficient model – it could save you up to £900 a year
  -Learn how to drive fuel efficiently, so reducing the cost and the level of climate changing carbon dioxide emissions
  -Take the train and not the plane. Flying is the fastest growing source of carbon dioxide emissions and going by train can be cheaper and may even save time
  -Buy less – swap and share items like garden and diy equipment instead
  -Reduce your rubbish – and make your own compost.
  -Save water in the home – have a water butt in the garden and a hippo in the loo
  
  Good Book! I'm definitely going to try to implement quite a few of these ideas.

Quote of the Day 4

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.

Cree Indian Proverb

Pigeon Attack Update

What with the lousy weather and a concerted attack by pigeons - my poor veg. patch is suffering a bit! I have constructed a particularly ugly barrier around my broccoli plants. Its a cross between a junk yard and a second world war Dig for Victory garden! However it does seem to be doing the trick and my plants are making a slow recovery.

I have dug up all my new potatoes now - approx. 30lbs. Great! Now all I have to work out is how to store them properly so that they don't rot. They do taste superb though. I shall definitely grow some more next year.

I have also just started harvesting some courgettes. They are a little pale - according to wise old neighbour this is due to lack of sunshine - sounds completely plausible to me. No problem though - they taste fine.

First cropping of broad beans and peas should be soon now. This is also a little late due to the weather, but I'm looking forward to them.

Quote of the Day 3

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards

Aldous Huxley

Where there's muck there's Money!

My new compost bin has arrived! I'm overly excited about this as I can now create lovely homemade compost at absolutely no cost to me!

My local district council ( North Devon) provide pretty comprehensive doorstep recycling services already. The following items can all be recycled:

Newspapers, Magazines, Catalogues, Telephone books, Clean old clothes, Shoes (in pairs), Handbags, Belts, Sheets, Curtains, Pillow cases, Duvet covers, Junk mail (no plastics) Glass bottles, jars, Plastic bottles (i.e. milk cartons, shampoo bottles etc, Food tins, Drink cans, Aluminium foil, Aerosol cans, Bark, Hedge clippings, Grass cuttings, Weeds, Cut flowers, Plants (no soil), Windfalls, Untreated sawdust, Wood shavings, Clean straw, Egg boxes, Cardboard (not with plastic attached) including food packaging and washing powder boxes.

This is very laudable, but I wanted to get even more from my waste. As my new garden efforts require some rich compost to be successful I decided to get a compost bin going.

They (NDDC) have teamed up with WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) http://www.wrap.org.uk/ to offer North Devon residents the opportunity to buy discounted compost bins. The bin cost me £9 - free delivery and is a large 330 litre composter. This means that instead of buying a 40litre bag of peat compost at £4 every time- I can have free compost for ever. Now that's what I call a good deal!

I'm sure that North Devon is not the only council to be running this type of scheme - so it would probably pay you to check out your own council to see what deals they are coming up with

Growing My Own - 2

Well, even with this dreadful weather - (apparently this is what we can look forward to due to global warming - rain, rain and more rain!) - I have started to harvest some of my own veggies. Now, I'm probably not going to be able to open an organic farm shop just yet - but I have picked:

• Raspberries - loads, they like the rain


• gooseberries


• red, white and blackcurrants


• variety of herbs - basil, sage, chives, rosemary, mint


• NEW POTATOES - seriously - there is nothing better


• Variety of lettuces and radishes.

I am so chuffed - everything tastes amazing, and I feel very virtuous as there are no airmiles involved, no chemicals and it has cost me pennies so far.

There are lots of veggies that are still growing, so I'm hoping that the weather does not spoil them before there are ripe.

5 Key Ideas to Saving Cash the Green Way

Sometimes its really difficult to know what I can do to look after the planet, but at the same time save money. So here are my 5 key ideas:

1. Buy Less Stuff! It can be really depressing to see how much rubbish one person can create in a week. Take a look at the overflowing black bins on any street on any day to see the extent of this problem. So my first key idea is to stop buying so much stuff and try to re-use things I already have in creative and money saving ways.



2. Cut Down on Energy Use! This will include cutting down on electric and fuel costs in the house and trying to cut down the amount of petrol and oil I use in the car.



3. Use local food! I can cut down on the air miles that my food clocks up by either growing my own food or by buying food from local markets. If I buy food in season it should cost a lot less.



4. Do Whatever I can! its too easy to say "oh, i can't afford to buy organic food/ deluxe lambs wool loft insulation/etc" and then forget about doing anything at all. My 4th key idea is to do something, however small, to increase my green lifestyle. Every little bit helps



5. Spread the Word! at work, or through this blog, or just through conversations with other people. If only one other person does something for the environment instead of against it - I have made a difference.