Eco audit: country mouse

These days, it’s quite trendy to holiday in the country.  As countrified as you can.  Glamping.  Staying on eco farms.  All that sort of thing. One of the great gifts my parents gave me was to take us somewhere in the country for our summer holidays.  Not quite off-grid, in modern parlance, but sometimes, that …

Eco audit: one foot, two foot

If you put one foot in front of the other, often enough, pretty soon you’ll discover that walking is the way to get about.  No parking.  No timetables.  And, with a rucksack to hand, you can even schlep your things about too. Not really a huge discovery.  Except that it’s got to the stage that …

Eco audit: to heat or not to heat

I’ll confess this now.  I’m writing in bed.  It’s possibly my favourite place to write.  And, when you get the luxury of the house to yourself, you get to do what you want a little more. But another reason for writing in bed is because it’s cold.  It’s still February.  Snow is coming and going. …

Eco audit: holidays without flying

At the time when my environmentalism was starting to develop, flying was not an Issue.  It was mostly out of reach – back to factors of cost.  (I dare say we might have found package deals to Spain, as a family, but we didn’t.) So by my mid-teens, I had been abroad about four times. …

Eco audit: bringing your own food and drink

Back in the holidays of my childhood, if you were travelling – you brought your own food.  Yes, there were service stations, and you might occasionally be allowed to buy a cup of tea. But you had your packed meal with you, and that was that. I recognise now that cost was probably the main …