Wisteria Season

I love this time of year. Spring bulbs and flowers, all bursting out and making us forget the winter dreariness. (I should really share the photos of our visit to Knightshayes in the Easter holidays... the flowers!)

And the birds are nesting and feeding their young like crazy. I'm such a twitcher!

I'm so excited, because for the first time this year, I have birds nesting in one of the bird boxes the gardener, aka Dad, has put in the garden. I thought it was Sparrows, but they are Great Tits. (I know, I know, the jokes I get...)

It's also that time of year again, where the Wisteria is out in full bloom. Unfortunately I don't have this growing in my garden though.

I was driving from Knaphill to Egham at the weekend, and I just wished I could have stopped the car and taken some photos of some beautiful buildings covered in Wisteria.

The flower is one of my favourite colours, and the house I grew up in was called Wisteria. Even though we didn't have the plant growing up it, I imagine once upon a time in its era, it would have done.

But its name was the inspiration behind calling the cottage in my book, Wisteria.

Anyway, this time of year reminds me Meet Me At Wisteria Cottage was launched. Two years old now... but still a great summer read.

I have 98 reviews on Amazon... could just do with a couple more!

Meet Me At Wisteria Cottage:

"Picture perfect scenery, a self-possessed and feisty heroine and a brooding, handsome hero in the form of one Harry Tudor all combine to make this the perfect holiday read."

Amazon UK Ebook / Amazon UK paperback

#2MinuteBeachClean Part 2

Back in May I blogged about #2MinuteBeachClean and the damage micro plastics were doing to the environment, especially to our sea life. This summer, every day you spend on the beach, make sure you do your #2MinuteBeachClean. You'll probably find a carrier bag amongst the rubbish to help you carry off what you find! I know I did.

And then I stumbled upon this very powerful video (below) on Facebook which I've been meaning to share for a while now.

Please watch it. It has Julia Roberts voice as Mother Nature. And it's so true. Mother Nature rocks... we - human beings - do not.

I was reading some of the comments on YouTube. Don't. Most of them have not got the purpose of this video. It is not about Julia Roberts. What this video is saying is that it doesn't matter what us humans do... Mother Nature will survive, she's been here for billions of years. We are destroying the environment that only 'we' can survive in. Once we're gone, the Earth will still turn, the waves will still crash against the beaches, albeit polluted. The rain will still fall, albeit acid, and the sun will still shine, albeit there will be no ozone to protect 'us' from it.

Once we are all dead and gone, the Earth will still be here doing its thing. All we're doing is shortening our existence on this planet. This is the message.

And then in light of the recent Glastonbury Festival (24th - 28th June), I saw this Guardian article...

Glastonbury Rubbish Green Ethos Ruin Festival Worthy Farm

Read that too. This is what we're doing. Human ignorance. There is absolutely no excuse for dropping litter in my opinion. But it's not just at Glastonbury, it's everywhere. We held a school disco to raise money for the school, and the amount of litter afterwards on the hall floor was horrendous. Children are not being taught to put litter in a bin! It starts with educating our children... all of it does!

I worked at Thorpe Park for four years, from the age of 15 to 19, as a litter-picker. I was in the 'Cleaning' department. Best job of my life. Four years I would never want to change.

My parents had already educated me not to drop litter, but this job cemented the importance of taking your litter home or holding onto it until you found a bin. If everybody litter-picked at a theme park for a day, preferably on August Bank Holiday Monday - the busiest day of the year - they would never drop litter again.

So that's my bit of green advice for the day. I'm not saying we all need to turn into tree huggers... but we do need to look after the environment we live in. And we need to teach our kids this too.

Two Minute Beach Clean Up #Springwatch

I'm back from my holiday! Did you miss me?

This blog post has a bit more of a serious message with fun pictures of our holiday.

Every year (it was my 11th year) we spend May half-term in Polzeath, Cornwall, and every year we watch the first week of BBC SpringWatch  There are two more weeks of the series, but I always forget to put it on, as real life tends to get in the way, and I want the boys in bed earlier as it's a school night. (Will try harder this year to remember!)

Last week they had some guy (I'm sorry I can't remember his name) on talking about a two minute beach comb. Basically, I was astounded by the micro plastics and how they're in our waters because they are so small to get caught by the sewage system. They're in things like body and facial scrubs etc. In fact, I was looking at my dishwasher tablets and I think they're in them too. The scary thing is I think they're in just about everything!

Anyway, this guy says he does a two minute beach comb after he's finished surfing on the beach to eliminate some of the plastics and rubbish that gathers on our beaches. (Clearly you won't be able to remove the micro-plastics!)

Micro Plastics, Big Problem 

Plastic will never go away.  It can be broken up into smaller and smaller particles, but are called microplastics. Millions of tonnes of these tiny pieces are in our oceans. Investigative reporter Sonali Shah discovers that plastics found in beauty products are killing our marine wildlife, and asks what can be done about a problem that's affecting the whole of the food chain.
Taken from BBC SpringWatch website 

Well, the following day, I did two minutes, and could have spent two hours, if not more, going along the shore line and seeing the rubbish that was tangled among the seaweed.

This human race of ours is really on a self-destruct mission. It angers me the amount of rubbish that is left on our beaches. Some has come from boats out in the ocean, to visitors on the beach that day!

If we don't do something about these plastics in our waters, it will enter the food chain - if it hasn't already! It's killing wildlife, and the waters. And eventually it will kill us!

So the next time you're on a beach, as you walk off, spend two minutes taking rubbish and plastics, old bits of rope - all sorts you'll find - off the beach. Plus your own rubbish, of course. Stop it going back into the water and potentially harming a creature that has every right to be in that ocean.

I urge us, as consumers, to choose the products we use wisely. I'm certainly going to be looking out for micro-plastics in the products I buy from now on. It's better to spend a little bit more money on a product that doesn't cost the Earth. I buy my facial scrub from Lush, which is ground almonds as the 'scrub'. These products don't harm our Earth.

The scary thing is I think this is a much bigger problem but at least do your two minute beach clean! And watch SpringWatch.

Anyway, that's my rant over. As usual, the week went too fast. We ate plenty of ice creams, pasties and cream teas. We went for plenty of walks, made boats in the sand, surfing, and did our usual cycle along the Camel Trail from Wadebridge to Padstow.