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The Coconut Bra

Green Gardening

GreenWood Forest Park’s story began back in 1993 when husband and wife team Stephen and Andrea Bristow started the business, then called The GreenWood Centre by building the Great Hall (the main building at GreenWood today) as an education centre. With the aim of raising awareness about nature and wildlife, the Exhibition includes all sorts of interesting artefacts collected by Stephen during his community forestry work all over the World.

The World of Trees Exhibition focuses on two main areas; Trees in the Environment and Trees and their Products.  At the beginning of the Exhibition you are greeted by a large Californian Redwood tree which, over the years, visitors have been able to touch to feel how thick the bark was.  As you carry on through the Exhibition, you are then told the story of the Celts and their Tree Calendar, and also about bees. The next section focuses on tropical climates where you can feel the heat of the desert on your hands or even feel the strength of a desert sandstorm blast. This shows how trees can adapt to cope in all types of climate.  As you head out of the tropical zone you are led into an African Nomad hut from Kenya. Barrel making, wheelwrights and paper production are then all explained, and tree products such as rubber, gums, amber and frankincense can be touched and smelled.

New exhibits have been added over the years including a video on the construction of the Great Hall, as well as information about the various processes and importance of recycling. The newest part of the Exhibition, which was installed in 2010, is the fascinating tale of HMS Conway.

Although an integral part of GreenWood’s history, the Exhibition is soon to be replaced – the space will be filled with a new café and a new, innovative, indoor play area. The company which began back in 1993 with just the Great Hall has evolved to what we know today- ‘GreenWood Forest Park’, North Wales leading Family Adventure Park which greets thousands of visitors each year.

Co-founder Andrea Bristow had this to say: “We are all a bit sad to say goodbye to the exhibition. I still remember fondly Dafydd Wigley on the opening day in 1993 with our three young sons in the African Hut. Gwenno who became a supervisor at GreenWood had brought in lovely photos of her as a child in the exhibition. So many children, many of whom are now grown-ups, have fond memories. Quite a few of them became staff. Hopefully some of the messages and memories will live on for a long time”.
Andrea’s husband Stephen Bristow added this: “The Exhibition was put together using a large number of artefacts that I collected over many years living and working in the dry lands of Africa.  The story of trees and their importance both in the environment and in our daily lives is a fascinating one, and this interactive exhibition has brought knowledge and interest to many thousands of visitors.  We will all be sad to see it go, but times move on and it is time for a change”

If you would like to see the Exhibition one last time, or have any stories about the Exhibition and what you remember of it, why not visit us during February half term from 10th-19th of February 2012. On 13th or 15th join Stephen and Andrea on a free tour of the park where they will discuss the history of the exhibits, the building and the park.

If you would like to contact us to tell us a story you have about the Exhibition you can email us on info@greenwoodforestpark.co.uk or leave a message on our Facebook page, or by letter to GreenWood Forest Park, Y Felinheli, Gwynedd, LL56 4QN.

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Eco Days Out

One area, where this correlation is at its most pronounced is transportation. According to the World Resources Institute, emissions caused by transportation account for as much as 13.5% of the global total. This figure is reflected in the way we in the west arrange our finances, with the average American spending roughly 18% of everything they earn on the purchase and maintenance of cars, a figure which obviously doesn’t factor in how much the nation spends on other, similarly fossil fuel-intensive modes of transport.

Part of the reason for this high cost is that, economically speaking, petroleum is thought of as being subject to inflexible demand. That is to say, companies can charge high prices for fuel, and people will pay up rather than switch to an alternative way of living, believing that they have no choice.

Of course, this isn’t true. If we were determined, most of us probably could live without cars, though, of course, this may be highly impractical. But the simple fact is that you don’t need to give up car journeys to reduce emissions. We can very easily lower the number of vehicles on the road, even if everybody made the exact same number of journeys as before.

Car shares, allow for huge financial savings and stand to help rationalise the way the world’s increasingly scarce resources are being used. On average, cars on our roads carry less than two passengers per journey. By pooling resources and pushing that average up, people stand to save money as well as cut back on needless emissions.

Getting a car pool together shouldn’t even be particularly difficult as there are many instances where the commuters stuck behind each other in a long line of traffic are all heading to the same place. In certain urban areas, for example, 24% of all traffic is dedicated to either dropping off or picking up students from the local school.

In such a situation, neighbours could very easily halve the levels of traffic on the road by agreeing to carpool in pairs. Indeed, as the traffic is attached to an institution such as a school, who have data on where everyone lives, figuring out the most efficient possible car pool would not be particularly difficult, and the same goes for any number of similar situations, most obviously the morning commute for co-workers living in the same area.

There is of course no need to limit the car pool to those who own a car. Anyone willing to contribute their fare share to the costs of the pool could get involved, as there’s no real need for more than one car.

Expanding on this logic, you soon arrive at the model of joint ownership, which offers a more eco friendly, more cost effective way of having private transport available for those who know that they do not constantly need a car available.

Many businesses have already been set up to provide people the chance to join ‘car clubs’ where a number of people pay for access to a number of cars whenever they need them, saving on the costs of ownership and reducing the number of vehicles needed to serve the needs of their community.

If you already make the effort to use your car as little as possible, you could stand to save thousands from entering into a car share or car pool arrangement with other likeminded people around you. Talk to your local school, your employer and your neighbour as well as looking online to see where opportunities are already available, and where you might be able to create them.

This post was written by Steve Waller who runs ‘Green Steve’ a blog documenting his personal journey to live a carbon neutral existence. He writes on a number of green issues and tries to simplify the often overly-complicated world of environmentalism.
http://www.greensteve.com

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Sustainable Transport

Crafternoon Tea Club is a collective of artists and designers who believe that sustainability = creativity; and Etsy support all thing hand made and vintage.

Their ‘Gift-swapping-re-gifting CHRISTMASH SPESH!’ will be a festive drop-in pop up party with DJs (supplied by the awesome Gaggle!), good times, games and craft – all with a clear message; re-love the pre-loved!!

Guests should bring along unwanted gifts, no-longer-needed knick-knacks (such as an old favourite book), or homemade items (from jam to jewellery) that will be re-packaged, re-distributed via a massive game of pass the parcel, and re-gifted to friends, family, charity, or even anonymously gift-dropped that night!

In the centre the Crafternoon Christmas Grotto will be the ETSY table; full of tons of materials (vintage magazines and newspapers, vintage ribbon, wool, fabric etc) and tools so our guests can create bespoke gift tags and wrapping paper to personalise each re-gift. There will also be gifts to get people started in case you come empty handed!

It will be a playful, free, accessible and spontaneous DIY CRAFT PARTY FOR ALL!

…best of all, entry is free, booze is free, and all the goodies are given away FOR FREE!!!!!!!!!!

So razzle on over for a low carbon, creative, CHRISTMAS MASH UP (Christmash!)!

Please hit ‘yes’ to let us know if you are coming so we can make sure there is enough to go around – and please share, blog and tweet the party!

Title: Crafternoon Tea Club ‘CHRISTMASH SPESH with ETSY!’

Date: Thur 8th Dec 2011

Time: 6:30pm – 10pm

Age: 18 – 80 (children welcome but must be accompanied by an adult)

FREE ENTRY

Address: The Etsy Christmas Grotto, The Trampery, 13-19 Bevenden Street, London, N1 6AA (2 mins Old St tube)

Created by: Crafternoon Tea Club (Beccy McCray & Hannah Elbourne)

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Green Events

Green Gifts

Together they have been working over the last 5 years to transform food culture in schools and communities across England.  They work on all aspects of food – from growing in schools to visiting farms, as well as cooking and dining.

They have been reaching out through schools to give communities access to seasonal, local and organic food, and to the skills they need to cook and grow fresh food. Have a look at their website to see the wonderful success stories and to see how you can get involved!

www.foodforlife.org.uk

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Environmental Campaigns

Green Charities

Environmental Education

It’s great fun to play and educational too. Use your wheelbarrow to move around the board to collect fruit, vegetables, pigs and chickens. The winner is the first to fill their garden and allotment with the most produce and animals.
Seems simple. It is. But the ‘Green Fingers’ cards turn up unexpected twists and turns. So you’ll have to protect your chickens from foxes, sell your crops and livestock at the village fair and avoid drought, bird flu, and your animals escaping. And to make things even more interesting there’s ‘Natural Selection’ cards – thought-provoking multiple choice questions you answer to win hay-bales.

Now, are you ready to Go Green?

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Green Gifts

Environmental Education

Composting and Gardening

The sort of places we deal with are most often built according to traditional methods and with local materials and many are off-grid. They are also generally not permanent, which means that as well as not having an immediate impact in terms of energy consumption, they also have no long term impact on their surroundings.

As well as the obvious ecological advantage of this kind of holiday, we, as a company do our best to minimise our impact on the environment. Here are some of the things we do at the moment, but we are always open to suggestions:

1.Guests are encouraged to travel greenly (we partner with Sustrans) and most of our places are in the UK, with a few hand-selected in France.

2.We help creative people with grand ideas to set up luxury camping sites, and on the way lead them to ethical suppliers, craftspeople, and our banking and insurance partners Triodos & NatureSave – from open field to finished canopied space.

3.Operating online reduces our paper use to zero

4.Parent company Alastair Sawday’s is a respected green pioneer in the travel guide publishing world and Canopy & Stars share their day-to-day values and commitment to sustainability. Our office was refitted to incorporate the most efficient energy saving techniques and minimize its power usage. Outside are chickens, pigs (that will go to a local restaurant soon) and an allotment, run as a community initiative with local growers.

We love what we do and the places we discover and we hope you will too. Get in touch if you want to know more about what we do, or how you can get out glamping, or if you’ve got your own special place to stay.
www.canopyandstars.co.uk

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Eco Friendly Holidays

What is Glamping?

This year we have moved to a new location – Dormer Place Conference Centre in Dormer Place.

The Green Fayre will take place from 1:30 – 5pm with other activities throughout the day. Expect fairtrade and ethical gifts as well as information about the local green scene. There will also be a film showing of ‘The Economics of Happiness’.

The event will promote green businesses and projects around the Leamington area. Money raised from the Green Fayre will be going to Zoe’s Place (children hospice in Coventry) Activities will run from Lunchtime into the evening. Please get in touch if you’d like to get involved.

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Green Events

The organic gurus at Lucy Rose have lots of natural ideas for keeping skin and hair looking great and nourished all through the winter, while regular beauty treats over the colder months will boost not just your appearance but your mood too.

Green People Organic Self Tan Lotion 200ml (Rosehip & Sandalwood)

Maintain that gorgeous sun-kissed appearance over the winter months with the award-winning organic Self Tan Lotion from Green People.  Safe, non-streaky and effective, it not only creates a genuinely natural tan colour but smells pleasant with rose, geranium and sandalwood essential oils.  £17.35 for 200ml. Tip:  Use a good body brush to boost circulation and rid all dry skin before applying Self Tan for even natural results.

Barefoot Botanicals S.O.S Refreshing Foot Balm 75ml

If wearing sandals throughout the summer has taken its toll, the SOS Refreshing Foot Balm from Barefoot Botanicals is an intensive emollient balm packed with nourishing organic ingredients.  Shea butter and witch hazel restore toes and heels to their natural softness, while grapefruit, lime and Himalayan cedarwood create an invigorating aroma. £13.95 for 75ml.

Tip:  Apply a generous layer of balm before going to bed and wear cotton socks for lovely soft feet in the morning.

Burt’s Bees Extra Energising Citrus & Ginger Root Body Wash

What better than a dose of ginger to start the day! Feel thoroughly refreshed in the morning, with Burt’s Bees Extra Energising Citrus and Ginger Root Body Wash.  The tingling sensation of citrus oils and ginger root extract will leave the skin feeling clean, smooth, soft and rejuvenated.  £9.99 for 350ml.

www.lucyrose.biz has a wealth of genuinely organic and natural products to enrich your mood over the winter months.  Postage and packing is free of charge on all UK orders and you can sign up for regular newsletters, lots more tips and special offers, to keep you spruced up all winter long!

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Organic Toiletries

Natural Health Products

These gifts are colourful and well priced, making them ideal gifts for grandparents to buy and perfect for girls to buy for friends. They can also be lovely stocking fillers at Christmas.

Hosty tagua necklace £19.50

Available in multicoloured or ocean, this pretty and colourful necklace is ideal for girls. Handmade from vegetable ivory this necklace has an adjustable length and is just one item from our new range of Tagua jewellery for women and girls.

Mini jewellery chests, £9

These sweet little chests (pictured) are ideal for decorating a girl’s bedroom and for storing away those little knick-knacks. They are made from cotton and felt and feature beaded handles and hand-embroidered hearts on the lid. There is also a small mirror on the inside of the lid. These are a lovely school gift for friends available in red, purple or pink.

Felt heart-shaped photo frames, £9

These gorgeous little photograph frames are perfect for decorating a girl’s bedroom. They look lovely standing on a bookcase or chest of drawers (they don’t hang on the wall). They are made from felt and feature hand-embroidered hearts.

For more information visit Fairwindonline.com or phone 0845 196 0256

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Fair Trade Products

Green Gifts