365 days to be greener

Husband and wife team, Mr and Mrs Wayne Hemingway have created a new festival at Goodwood. Called Vintage it will be celebrating all the best in design, art, fashion, food and music from every decade since the 40’s. The website alone is a feast for the eyes…

There are workshops, music acts, fancy dress parties and exhibitions and the weekend looks absolutely jam packed with interesting stuff celebrating the best of our past and what it could mean for our future.

Tickets are £55.00 (but you can camp, glamp or even enjoy a gypsy caravan!) and Goodwood is a beautiful backdrop for what promises to be an amazing weekend. I especially like the look of “White Wedding” – a fancy dress party against a back drop of the tackiest and worst weddings you have ever been to – dress code is full-on wedding clobber…the perfect fun day out!

Its a recurring theme and I am not tired of the vivid mental picture that each new title brings….

I was reading the other day that if you are a regular user of all things perfumed and tinted then its possible to absorb up to 1.8kg of chemicals in to the skin each year. Bleurgh. Even worse, a lot of  make-ups and skin creams are treated with propylene glycol ( a large component of anti-freeze) which changes the skins absorbency in order to allow cosmetics to soak in better and therefore stay put for longer. Double Bleurgh.

I only wear make up once a month for the odd night out and apart from the sun cream (see previous post), don’t put too much of anything on my skin any more. I should probably do more at my age but time, cost and effort are all deterrents at the moment. That said, I will view the much trusted contents of my make-up bag with new suspicion as again, I really hadn’t paid much attention to the ingredients. Packaging , yes, chemical content, not so much.

I have found a few that look tasty and pride themselves on their ethical stance – both in terms of ingredients and in some cases, manufacture.

1) First Light Cosmetics – No chemicals, all mineral and help disadvantaged women set up their own business through the way their packaging is made. Lipsticks are about £7.99 so not too shabby on price either.

2) Green People Cosmetics – Organic ingredients, no parabens or phlalates, lipsticks start at about £10.99

3) Cargo Plant Love – With the mantra “Red Lips, Green Conscience”, these ones are easy on the eye (and lips, and skin) in more ways than one!). Lipsticks start at around £12.00

Theres an image….

I have been liberally slapping sun cream on to my two small fry for a few months now, and I only bothered to read the packet yesterday. Without being too much of a luddite scaremonger, I have been trying not put anything on my skin that I wouldn’t put in my mouth given that it all gets absorbed in a similar fashion. (I appreciate there is a bit more science to it than that, but its just how I feel about it, ok?)

Anyway – the list of ingredients I would NOT put in my mouth was a lot longer than the list I would. I read up a bit more about it and have only just realised that most sun creams work by performing a chemical reaction that absorbs or reflects the harmful rays. Some of the most allergic people are know are at their most allergic when exposed to sun cream, and it kind of makes sense when you see what the cream is designed to do.

Here are some alternatives that provide a physical barrier to the sun’s rays rather than a chemical one…

Currently being promoted by Jerry Hall and her daughter this is made from Zinc oxide and has all the protection with none of the chemicals. Invisible Zinc from Selfridges

This one from Green People has a few more chemicals in it but as many as possible are certified organic and look edible.

This one looks better for targeted application and they also have some funky zinc oxide balms in little tins – handy for streaking across the cheeks before shouting a Braveheart type scream and running at strangers.

Not the composer but the creator of flower remedies….responsible for helping us out in many a tricky situation from flying terror (my husband) to hangover fatigue (me).

Les Fleurs de Bach have brought out a range of fragrances and tonics that incorporate the Bach Flower essences.

It was my birthday today and for my special birthday outing we went to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert up in big London town.

You would have to have a heart of stone not to love every second of  it. Full of wonderful young men dancing in their pants! Hurrah for that!

Go and see it! Go! Seriously. GO!

The children and I have been enjoying some new films recently and my favourite by a mile is Dragon Hunters. The animation is absolutely beautiful.

I was completely captivated from the opening credits. The story follows the trials of two ordinary dragon hunters who find themselves on an extraordinary quest. The action is edge-of-the-seat-exciting but neither of the children found it frightening. (I was a little scared).

Worth a look for the artwork alone.

Often over-looked, sadly under-rated, we have an abundance of tiny yellow courgettes courtesy of the miracle that is the grow bags. So far they have been the only harvest-able crop from my little experiment in temporary veg patch but we already have more than I can persuade the children to eat. Aside from lasagne, risotto, pasta dishes and fritatta there are also some lovely salad recipes out there.

I really like this one from Olive Magazine..

The Salad

4 courgettes , cut into long ribbons with a potato peeler

4 tbsp pine nuts , toasted

a handful basil leaves, shredded

a handful Parmesan (or vegetarian alternative) shavings to serve

The Dressing

2 shallots , finely chopped

1 red chilli , finely chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Whisk the dressing ingredients together. Toss the courgette with the dressing and leave for 10 minutes.
2. Toss with, pine nuts and basil then scatter with Parmesan.

Just finished reading a brilliant Neil Gaiman book called “Anansi Boys”

Its a brilliant fable where the hero tries to lead a monotonous and un-remarkable life and then when his father dies discovers there is a lot more to his blood line than he ever appreciated. It combines myth, folk tales, fantasy, hilarity and good-old-fashioned sturdy characters. I enjoyed every minute of it and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys Aesop’s Fables or anything by Douglas Adams

The Chilean artist Don Lucho has built an entire scale model of an apartment out of cardboard he found on the street. He painted it white, taped it together to make furniture and household items and then added details in black marker pen….I feel inadequate that me and the children have only managed a bad robot and a rocket so far…

Since the BP oil leak started it is estimated that over 40,000 barrels have been pumped in to the sea around the Gulf of Mexico.

These photos in the Guardian, admirably illustrate that in the end, for all of our technology and the oil businesses being one of the richest in the world, the clean up job basically consists of people in overalls with shovels and dirty hoovers….