Tangled Bank Foraging and Fibre Crafts
Learning about and trying to live lightly on this beautiful planet. The natural world, inclusive bushcraft, evidence-based environmentalism and sustainable living.
Back in January last year I wrote about Loop, an online grocery shopping system offering goods in reusable, refillable containers that had launched in the US and France. This week Loop launched in the UK, finally giving me a chance to try it out for myself. It does seem to me utterly perverse that we … Continue reading Out of the Loop?
As the British government continues to fumble its way through its response to the covid-19 pandemic, it is becoming increasingly apparent that if our leaders cannot provide guidance on how to protect ourselves and one another we will have to make our own judgements. We absolutely should not be in this position, with the government … Continue reading We all wear masks
I've now had a little time to process the results of December's elections, and move on a little beyond the shock, grief and very real fear (two of my disabled friends have explicitly stated that they don't believe they will survive another five years of austerity driven cuts) that were my immediate reactions. I shared … Continue reading Where do we go from here?
A photograph of the children's book Antonio's Rainforest by Anna Lewington, which has a young smiling boy and a picture of sunlight shining through vast trees on the cover, lying on grass with daisies in. This year for my five year old niece's birthday I bought a lovely book by the ethnobotanist Anna Lewington, about … Continue reading The Amazon is still burning. What can we in the UK do to help?
https://youtu.be/WT8NemS6FmQ Greta Thunberg is currently crossing the Atlantic in the sailing yacht Malizia II in order to attend the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, which in addition to being an exciting adventure for her of which I am extremely envious is a CO2 neutral alternative to a flight that would have released two … Continue reading How Greta Thunberg’s Atlantic crossing is accidentally tackling period stigma
There has been a fair amount of alarm in sustainable living circles recently over an an investigation conducted into bamboo mugs by the respected German consumer testing organisation Stiftung Warentest, published here(pdf) and kindly translated into English by my father here. The report found that they were often misleadingly labelled as biodegradable when they are … Continue reading “Bamboo” mugs – not as green as we thought?
Dandelions growing along the edge of a shingle road at the base of some concrete steps. Stuart Rankin, CC0 licensed I love foraging for wild food, as a way of exploring new flavours, learning more about the natural world around me and deepening my connection to it. My walk to work across the university campus … Continue reading “Let them eat weeds”: Foraging is not a solution to food poverty
Why you shouldn't leave your packaging at the supermarket checkout, and what you should do instead The growing awareness of the impact of plastic pollution is being matched by an increasing awareness that plastic recycling is not the panacea it has been sold to us as - plastic can only be recycled into a lower … Continue reading Packaging, piñatas, and punching up not down
A froghopper larva (Philaenus spumarius) on a stalk above its foam nest. Photograph by Elke Freese, CC0 licensed. Citizen science The University of Sussex, the Royal Horticultural Society and Forest Research have recently launched a campaign encouraging the public to record sightings of cuckoo-spit (the distinctive frothy foam created by various species of froghoppers) through … Continue reading Don’t blame the bug
For World Environment Day, which this year is on the theme of air pollution, I was invited to write a blog post on the Library staff blog about the plants I grow in my office at work. You can read it here.
Tangled Bank Foraging and Fibre Crafts 