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When we decided to rent I did have my concerns regarding how healthy and environmentally friendly the home we rented would be!

Our choice of properties turned out to be limited to one in Dawlish, a four bedroom family home laid out for very family friendly living but very un environmentally friendly and we soon discovered it had more than its fair share of maintainance problems.

With the more serious maintainence issue ( like the leaks and electrics) sorted, we set out to improve our new homes environmental credentials:-

• We got our OWL electrical energy uses monitor up and working - thank goodness for our own  A+ rated white goods
• Fitted low energy bulbs through out, we even found some energy saving bulbs for the old fashioned large spot lights
• Created a compost heap for garden waste and made good use of it  – the garden was very wild and full of wildlife which we continued to encourage
• We gardened organically
• Made very good use of Teignbridge Council’s door step recycling service for a wide range of waste and recycled other things locally art the recycling centres and charity shops
• Used the wonderful large south facing windows for solar gain, solar battery charging and solio charging
• As soon as the weather warmed up a bit we planted courgettes, tomatoes and squash seeds from Tamar Organics to complement the herbs we had brought with us
• We used public transport for work, lesiure and shopping – mainly the train but sometimes bus
• And as the house ate gas and was freezing due to many large north facing windows and had no insulation in the loft, we investigated free insulation through the Cosy Devon scheme

By now though alarm bells had started ringing very loud as the rental company refused to maintain the property or were very slow sorting out safety issues, they didn’t take up the free insulation and then we discovered they had been lying to us!!!

We did really enjoy the garden and all the wildlife, Dawlish beach, seeing the water foul and their young on on Dawlish water and exploring various locations along the coastal path though, as well as getting together with our new home education friends.

So we had to find a new home to rent very quickly and again there was a total lack of choice, but eventually found one in Livermead, Torquay.

And this house is lovely, a little smaller but with wonderful views towards Torquay and Berryhead and its own environmental features and challenges.

• A great family area which is south west facing, so gets lots of sunshine and had good thermal mass (and only a couple of very small north facing windows thank goodness!)
• An Aga – so we are learning to cook in a new way and making lots of lifestyle changes to make the most of the stored heat and enjoying it
• The house has mainly modern spot lights, so we’ll be looking at energy saving options for these
• The house has its own white goods and we’re not sure about the ratings – so we’ll be watching our OWL electrical energy uses monitor carefully
• We have three water butts which will be great for watering the garden when needed – the rain has been fairly torrential recently though!
• We’re making good use of Torbay Council’s door step recycling, which is undergoing massive changes and improvements – with weekly collections of waste for recycling and using the local charity shops
• We’ll be getting a compost bin (one thats easy to rotate), gardening organically and looking at ways to make the garden more wildlife friendly without changing its character.
• And we’ve got Cockington on our doorstep – for wonderful woodland walks, great events through the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust and so much more, as well as Occombe Organic farm just a short bus ride away
• And again we’ll be using public transport for work, shopping and lesiure – probably more buses this time as they provide access to more local locations

So plenty to keep us busy, lots more coast line to explore and we live even closer to some of our Devon home education friends

Yesterday we went to the Dojo Eco shop in Manchester, to see and order an organic and natural double mattress and accessories.  Our friend’s have one of the mattresses already and they are great.

We travelled by public transport as usual – train, free city shuttle bus and then a short walk – it’s out of the centre in a more industrial area.

The shop was amazing; lots of wonderful eco products – even more than they have on the website it seemed.

We ordered the Firm/Springy double mattress (£495 – cheapest organic one we’ve found), a cotton mattress pad (£100 – I love my comfort) and two millet husk pillows (£27 each) – all of which we were able to try out first at the shop.

The mattresses are made of organic British wool, organic cotton, natural latex and coconut fibre.  They are made to order in Manchester (ours is even been made to measure at no extra cost) and are delivered in approximately two weeks which is great.

We left a deposit and the balance is due when they ring to organise delivery, which is very fair.

We also bought a selection of FSC wooden brushes with plant fibresbristles (£1.25 to £6.50) , an organic cotton duck soft a toy for our friend’s new baby, an Onya Back Bag (£10 – alternative to plastic backpack),  a ball of natural jute twine (£3.75) and a wooden juicer (£3.50) …..and we could have bought so much more.

There was lots of great eco toys, organic fabrics, organic and eco household furnishings and eco garden products – the list goes on and on………

We also visited the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, which is free except for special exhibitions and was enjoyed by all the family.

In preparation for our straw-bale self-build, from the 11th to the 13th of July 2008 Grandma (my Mum) and I (Sarah) went on a straw-bale building course organised by the Low Impact Living Initiative, run by Chug Tugby (strawbale-building.co.uk) and hosted at Unstone Grange.

There was a very good balance of theory, research based information, and practical.
Even though the building we did was only for demonstration / for us to have a go – we all had chance to learn about and try our hand at most parts of straw-bale building – both weight bearing and infill.

Chug’s knowledge of straw-bale building is astounding, he has gather so much knowledge and her is great to listen too – a very good story-teller whilst imparting his wealth of knowledge too.  See the course details for more information.

The only improvement really would have been working on a real straw-bale building, but the one that was lined up fell through unfortunately.

The staff at Unstone Grange made us all very welcome, the food was great and the rooms were comfortable, but the Grange needs lots of work on it – so it was good to be able to support it financially.  The Unstone Grange gardens are also Soil Association certificated and we were give a great talk on the gardens and the wine they brew (with a tasting) too!
They are having an Organic Gardens Open Day on Sunday 12th August.

A wonderful weekend – its given me lots of confidence for project managing our building, answered my questions and given me vision for the home we can create.

We have also been on Amazon Nails Straw-bale building courses which are great too.

Photo’s coming soo

Last night I got back from a long week end in Glastonbury – totally exhausted due to the heat and climbing up the Tor so many times!

The Tor is beautiful,

so are the views from the Tor,

and the wooded areas around the base and all the wild life – the bird song was nearly deafening as I watched the sun set on Saturday night.

Glastonbury it’s self was a massive surprise and takes a lot of getting used to.
I had this (strange maybe) expectation that it would be quite sacred, a play of pilgrimage, including for us Goddess minded – well it was and it’s wasn’t.

There’s such a mish-mash of architecture, spiritual traditions and peculiar energies (some good, others not) and – in a traditional market town! and it changes from day to day depending on the persuasion of the incoming visitors and what’s on it seems.
People were friendly and there seemed to be a strong sense of community between local people too. From an estate agents window people there definitely had a sense of humour too – for example photo’s of people pulling funny faces between photo’s of the front of houses and kitchens etc!

I personally found the strong Christian vibe, with little lip serve to the ancient traditions/association in the attractions a bit difficult at first and still disappointing – maybe I missed some of them?

But by grounding myself very deeply – thank you William Bloom (see my next post for William’s Sword and Chalice course I attended over the weekend) and been very selective with the energies I allowed myself to experience/connect to, I came away having really enjoyed the place and wanting to go back soon – especially for the Tor, beautiful trees and countryside and the specialist book and Goddess type shops.

It’s a place that opens up to you on many levels, as you search deeper and really open you eyes and heart.

The journey was quite long: Steeton and Silsden to Leeds and Leeds to Bristol by train (aprrox 4.5hrs), then Bristol to Glastonbury by bus (1.25hrs), but with advance tickets the train was only £16 for a single and the bus was £5.20 for a single ticket.

I stayed at a B&B called Hillside – wonderful hosts, an amazing breakfast (fresh fruit salad to start!), great garden and views, lovely rooms and just a couple if minutes walk from the tour (approx 20min walk to Glastonbury centre although I never timed it).

The first place I visited was Chalice Well Peace Gardens and maybe it’s because I’d just arrived, but I couldn’t settle there. The gardens were lovely and quite naturally planted which I like, with lots of birds singing and flying around and the shop was quite good too. Maybe it needs another visit?

And the shops – were quite something else – the usual market town shops, Woolworths, Morrisons, some spiritual/ethnic type shops, amazing crystal shops, (the Glastonbury Experience is good), pagan/witchcraft/Goddess shops (including The Goddess and The Greenman which I love), lots of very good alternative bookshops, a couple of eco/organic shops, a nice toy shop……….unfortunately quite a lot of the stuff was overprices though (even people who live in the south of England said so too).

I went to two very nice vegetarian cafés/Restaurants – Galatea and The Rainbows End Café and they seemed quite family friendly too.
Finally I visited the Abbey
It’s seemed very strange to me that Glastonbury Abbey and it’s grounds takes up an enormous chunk of the centre of Glastonbury that can not be freely used – £5 for an adult!
I didn’t really look at the exhibition – far too Christian for me and just looked at the ruins a little – where King Arthur and his Queen Guinevere were buried – and mainly enjoyed the beautiful park, trees and small lakes as it was very hot and sunny.

I also didn’t get to the Rural Life Museum (which is free) due to been too busy, but locals recommended it.

So a very interesting an enjoyable weekend!

And more photo’s coming soon on future posts.

Is food and drink labelled organic really organic?
Not always!

We’ve found wine labelled organic in supermarkets – where only the grapes were organically grown, resulting in the in the hangover you’d only expect from a none organic wine after only 1-2 glasses.

And own brand supermarket soup – that has organic in big letters on the front, and whilst it contains mainly organic ingredients, it also contains none organic flavouring!

So read your labels carefully!
Here’s a helpful link to the Soil Association website:
How do I know it’s really organic?

I also had an interesting discussion yesterday with a supermarket on-line deliver person – she commented that the own brand organic lines were a lot cheaper than the none organic own brand lines!
Are they marketing them as loss leaders OR are the petroleum based chemical additives in none organic food and the rising price of oil making those foods more expensive?
Another consideration of the impact of peak oil on world food!

Here’s more information on peak oil:
Peak Oil