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.
Who wants to hear a scary Halloween story? According to Hubbub 39.9 million pumpkins are bought in UK at Halloween, and 22.2 million of these, worth £32.6 million, end up thrown away uneaten. Apparently an astonishing 41% of the population don't even know that they're edible, although that's at least a slight improvement on 2014's … Continue reading Spare the squash: tips for a sustainable spooky season
Several years I met a rather wonderful hippie elder, who told me that she used to make yoghurt in bed in the seventies; if you heated the milk in the morning and put it under the duvet it would stay warm and fermenting all day and by evening you would not only have homemade yoghurt … Continue reading Economy gastronomy? Hay boxes, Wonderbags and insulation cookery
This past weekend saw the first Glastonbury festival post pandemic. Now that the stages are silent, the cows have returned, the revellers are home and the more organised among them may even have made their way through the horror that is post-festival laundry. And as always, after the party comes the cleanup. Glastonbury employs a … Continue reading Shrinking your festival footprint
My bushcraft, hiking and other outdoor activities have always been motivated by a love of the natural world and a desire to spend more time learning to understand and appreciate it. To me the other side of this equation is a responsibility to try to minimise the damage I cause to the living world I … Continue reading Lightweight plant-based eating outdoors
So. Monkeypox. First of all this is not this season's covid, there is no need to panic (thank you irresponsible Daily Mail headlines). At the time of writing there have been seven confirmed cases in the UK, as well as several cases in Lisbon and Madrid. It seems that the original case was brought to … Continue reading Monkeypox: no need for panic
I spent yesterday evening lying on my back in the middle of a B road, my legs steepled awkwardly to avoid the woman lying in the road behind me, squinting as I stared straight into the bright sky and wishing I'd thought to put my sunglasses on before I lay down. It was too late … Continue reading Lying down for a better world
I'm a huge fan of campfire jacket potatoes, but while the aluminium foil you wrap them in is recyclable if rolled into a large enough ball to be collected in recycling plants I've been keen to try the historical alternative of covering them in clay ever since I saw it done on the Historical Farm … Continue reading Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick em in…clay? Potatoes.
I've had a rather bewildering week, having tested positive for covid but still having no idea whether I've actually had it or not. I'm feeling absolutely fine physically, but the whole experience has taken rather a toll on my mental health and taken me on something of an emotional whistle-stop tour of despair, guilt and … Continue reading Schrödinger’s covid: my experiences with covid testing in the UK
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
Tangled Bank Foraging and Fibre Crafts 