Eco Friendly House And Garden

Why Not Make Even More Out Of Your Eco Friendly House And Garden This Year?

Rather than just living in your house as normal - why not consider a few of these ways to no only improve the eco friendly qualities of your home - but to make it work for you too.

I mean, why should a house just sit there doing nothing? Make it more useful than it already is by making some small changes or concessions….

Here are a few ideas for you to consider with regards to ’sharing’ your home with others for the benefit of others - as well as your bank balance in some cases!

Empty Rooms Are A Waste:
Even if you turn of all heating and seal up all windows - an empty room is a waste of resources!

It’s already in a home filled with energy and bodies - so why leave rooms empty when you could make them work for a living and keep the worlds ‘footprints’ smaller - after all, the more people living in the same house can save on so many levels!

If you aren’t into a full time tenant and live in a busy town or city, why not consider a Monday-to-Friday tenant instead. No huge commitment, less belongings and they are usually a reliable adult too!

Or the other end of the extreme - if your house is too big for you but you don’t want to downsize for whatever reason, then why not eco renovate and create a self contained unit in the basement or whatever and rent this out as as a permanent let or holiday home depending on your location.

Hotel Rooms Even More So:
Why not treat your home as a swap for a hotel room - either as a holiday for yourself or while you are away.

Firstly, you could take a holiday swap this year instead of booking a hotel. let a family move into your home while you go live in theirs! Not everyone is looking for an equal swap either - you might get a cute cottage for your family home, or a spacious farmhouse for your city flat!

Secondly, if you live near a local attraction or event (like Wimbledon or a show ground) then why not time your holidays to coincide with a huge demand for lettings! Signing up with an agency could bring you up to £2000 a week depending on your home and the event you are close to!

Parking Spot Or Tennis Court?
Same goes for the outside of your home - why not rent out unused space to others at virtually no cost to you or really any effort either!

If you have land that people could park on and you live in a busy location - why not let someone park there? You aren’t using it - and they probably waste time and petrol every morning looking for a spot!

And the same goes for your tennis court, trampoline, pool, piano, climbing frame or anything else you have sitting around that you aren’t using 24 hours a day. You might not want to charge your closest friends - but a few quid for a game of tennis for some young kids or keep-fit oldies won’t go amiss - basically paying for it’s own maintenance.

Your Skills Too:
It’s not just physical things that can help out others and bring in a few extra pounds - what about your own skills?

Music lessons, language lessons, discussion groups, Body Shop parties and product research groups. All could use your skills and your lounge, conservatory or kitchen - and of course - you!

Or if you are on a country walk or in a cute village, why not sell cakes and tea or garden veg and flowers in your front garden for passers-by!

House In The Country

Get Your Home On TV!
If you live in a city, your home has a great garden, great views or great architecture, or you have some great internal features - you could ‘model’ your home!

Let a photo or TV agency know about it and you could rent your house and garden out for magazines, TV or even movies!

You don’t even have to do anything, they set it all up and then take it all away again - pain free and you won’t be in any of the shots - unless you want to be!

Having a small indoor pet can really help you to save on waste and improve your recycling!

The statistics just in on the amount of food families waste is unbelievable and what with throwing away all those cardboard boxes and toilet rolls!

So why not get your very own micro-processing unit for these such things?  And have some great fun along the way…..

Rodents:
Getting yourself a little furry friend from a rescue centre could be one of the cutest things you acquire this year!  Maybe it’s a furry hamster, a cuddly guinea pig or a tiny mouse - whatever tickles your fancy could be worth its weight in gold in terms of that badly bruised apple or those wilting vegetables!

Whether it’s a tiny thing in a cage indoors, or a larger pet outside in a hutch - it can help you to break down your waste into more useful ingredients!

Those cardboard tubes can be chewed up by your gerbils making them easier to compost - or those veg could be converted into concentrated compost by a bunny rather than rotting in the air and attracting flies!

Any pet which has gnawing teeth and eats fruit and veg is a winner!

What’s Best For What?
Well, needless to say, they all have their specialities in the biodegrading world - and size is a factor too.

Guinea Pigs and rabbits are the best for munching large amounts of food waste - such as left-over allotment materials that aren’t great for the family - including stalks and stems of most plants. 

And not only does their used bedding go great in your compost heap - but they can be harnesses in the garden as lawn mowers as well!  Get the right shaped run and you can move it regularly around the lawn to keep it nice and trim!

Communal living smaller animals can be just as useful - for example 3 gerbils.  They love to chew anything and try all sorts of fruit and veg.  Perfect for shredding up those cereal boxes into easy-to-compost pieces - and creating a nice used bedding material or cardboard, vegetable waste and sawdust!

What’s Not So Good:
Syrian hamsters are probably the least useful - but still cute!  They only live alone and aren’t too big - so there is only so much waste they can eat for you!  They also don’t chew up cardboard as much as gerbils - but can be easier to handle for the younger kids!

Rats generally eat meat in their food so aren’t too good at creating compostable waste - however a couple of rats can certainly get through your leftovers if you give them a chance!

Degus and chinchillas are specialist eaters - so can’t be given fruit or too much variety in their diets - hence not many foods and treats available for them in the pet stores!  It makes them very ill - so not too good for an eco friendly pet!

However - whatever small pet you choose to help your out with your composting and waste food control - make sure you consider a rescue animal first.  There are hamsters, gerbils and rabbits waiting patiently in rescue centres all over the country for a good home.

Could you be one of them?

Make some time to go to a show to get some top tips for your eco friendly house and garden!

The whole show doesn’t have to be uber green - just on the right theme, and then you can go and pick out the bits you like and put pressure on the companies that are not offering what you want!

Many tips and tricks for home redecorating or garden landscaping don’t have to be new-fangled and complicated - there are many things that we can do that are eco friendly without even trying!

Also at shows, you get to see products that aren’t found in supermarkets due to their ‘rules’ on listings, like biodegradable toiletries, organic foods and fair trade supplies.  You just won’t find these on the high street - so they bring them to the shows so you can get hands-on experience with them rather than blindly ordering things off the Internet!

1) The National Home Improvement Show - Earls Court, London
With over 18 exhibitors being from energy efficiency companies and talks and seminars from environmentally active lecturers and TV presenters - you know you could be on to a good thing here!

Take your pick from all the departments including renovations, kitchens, bathrooms and gardens as see if you can get some great advice on using the right resources, getting eco friendly appliances and other homewares as well as sustainable produced garden furniture and buildings.

2) The National Wedding Show - NEC, Birmingham
If you are even remotely thinking of getting married - then you must consider a trip to a wedding fair.  Weddings can cost at least £20,000 for a simple affair - so if you are after an eco friendly wedding, then you had better plan in advance to make sure that you get the best products and services booked up in advance - rather than have to settle for second best when you run out of time!

And, there are bound to be things involved with a wedding that you hadn’t really even considered looking in to like car hire and tablecloths!  At a show like this - they have already done all the thinking; just turn up with a notepad and pen and comfy shoes!

3) Mind, Body & Soul 2010 - Olympia, London
Take a day out to unwind from the stresses of life - and try out some of the great relaxation remedies, complementary therapies and practical sessions.

Find yourself surrounded by experts on stress, therapy, yoga and many other well known and well used techniques that could help you realise your potential and make some serious changes in your life, your work or your free time.

Raised Garden

4) Grand Designs Live - NEC, Birmingham
Covering everything from food to flowers, lofts to landscaping and from sash windows to sustainable sheds!

Seriously, it’s not just about buying a plot of land or derilict church and building a massive monstrosity on it like the earlier Grand Design TV Shows - its all about making things better, more eco friendly and long lasting - and not just for 1 home - but for whole communities.  

5) The Baby Show - Earls Court, London
Come here and find out about everything you will need for your little one before they arrive - and for your growing ones who need some new inspiration and equipment - or for yourself to help cope with the new lifestyle that is shaping your every day life.

Not only will your get the chance to try out all the existing products that are new to you - there will also be innovative products and companies out there with something new to the whole world!  Whether it’s a new eco friendly material, new biodegradable toiletries or organic baby foods - you can bet that it is all here!

So, what are you waiting for - make some space in your diary….

There are still more tips coming to me for your horse, pony or stable yard!

It is so easy to see a new top tip when you walk through the yard - either by doing something yourself or seeing someone else doing it.  Sometimes, your friends might be doing something that saves then time or money or just because it’s easier - but it could be a great eco friendly tip!

1) Learn to sew!  Putting patches on elbows, new hems on your rugs and darning your woolly socks together can all make your existing clothes last longer!  You don’t need to look perfect at the yard - especially if it’s cold or raining!  Making your clothes last longer means you get to spend your money on more exciting things! 

2) Go solar-powered for those little things like the stable radio - or you can get wind-up versions too.  Maybe buy a solar powered ‘travel charger’, so while you are mucking out - your mobile phone could be charging itself up naturally!  And make sure your lighting is powered by a green energy supplier!

3) Make sure you always muck out your horsebox or pony trailer as soon as you arrive at your destination to prevent the damp bedding soaking into the wooden floorboards.  Obviously, the longer you let the moisture soak in, the more damage it can do - and the shorter the lifespan of your trailer!

4) Learn to make your own equipment if possible, like feeding a piece of reused foam through the headband of a head collar to act as a poll guard.  This way you get to use all your old bits and bobs from around the house - and the stores don’t need to keep making more of everything!

5) If your horse eats it’s fresh bedding (or you want to make your bedding last longer) - you should mix in some of the old bedding when mucking out.  Not only will this mean that you need less bedding each time - but your horse should stop eating the wrong materials - and prevent wasted vets fees and your time!

6) Also to save vets visits, wasted treatments and last minute panics - keep a record of your horses medical information.  For example knowing the temperature of your horse before and after exercise, in summer or in winter can mean that you know for definite when there is something wrong.  Saying that your pony is ‘really hot’ isn’t the best way of judging for treatments and medication!  So if you have a definite record beforehand - you will be sure when something is wrong or when something is just the ‘top end of normal’.

7) And again - store your feed and medicines in metal dustbins or other suitably waterproof and pest-resistant containers.  That way you will keep things vermin-free as well as avoiding leaks and breakages.  This all adds up to less wasted products, no contaminated feeds and no poorly ponies - there really is no need to waste time, energy or money ever again!

8.) Use a left-over piece of plastic drainpipe to put over the top of a stable door to prevent your horse crib-biting.  By cutting it into 2 pieces, you could rest it over the top of the door to stop it being destroyed!  Not only will this stop you having to repair or buy a new door eventually - but can’t hurt the horse either!

9) Depending on the size of your own land - why not fence off a small area and grow your own hay.  Either feed as hay or make it into haylage instead.

10) Or why not go organic - and grow your own horse veg!  A few lines of carrots, some turnips, garlic and even an apple tree don’t need a lot of room - and could mean fresh organic and local veg for your pony (and you!).

Well, what do you think of those then?  Any help to you - I hope so.

Can working in your local bakers be just as eco friendly as saving whales in the Pacific?

Yes, of course it can!  Just because you aren’t out there on the front line fighting deforestation and humanitarian crimes - doesn’t mean you aren’t making the best choices for your environment.

Don’t get ‘ethical’ issues confused with ‘environmental’ issues - the latter being active for the planet - and the people and communities benefiting from the ethical side of things.

How Can You Help?
Well, working closer to home is an easy one for starters.  Why travel miles to work if you can get a job within walking distance of your front door.  I mean, there will be people driving past you as they work in the offices or stores near your home, and you spend the day working close to their home!

It’s not always working for an eco friendly business that makes your individual job more eco friendly either.  I mean travelling 20 or more miles a day in your car to get to an eco friendly workplace by no means compares to someone who walks 5 minutes to work in a local bakers - even if the baker doesn’t use the most eco friendly equipment! Over a year the difference is more obvious.

And if you are eco minded - then you could help to implement changes to your workplace to make them more eco-friendly in themselves.  I mean if you could work locally to promote eco friendly practices in a locally run family business in your own community - what could be more eco friendly!

Look At Yourself Now:
Even if you aren’t planning on changing jobs - there are plenty of things you could look at in your current role and help to change.  And with the shortage of truly ‘green’ jobs about - you are probably better to become a mini activist in your current role!

However, it’s not all the same green!  Just because the charity you work for helps wildlife conservation - it doesn’t mean that everything else is a given.  For example, if you are working in a retail outlet on behalf or the many charities out there - is that really green at all?

Retail stores are a massive polluter and creator of waste - I mean you only need to look out the back of a store to see the tonnes of waste cardboard and other packaging being used.  All the pricing, stock holding and transportation add up to something huge - so can you really call this an ‘eco friendly’ job?

Ideas For The Future:
Start to think about everyday things in your job as well - rather than the large sweeping achievements of the great big companies.

I like to think that the people who are working for their community are making as much of a difference as those campaigners on the other side of the world.  It’s the people who just plod along day after day thinking of all the things they could do - but not doing them!

I know now isn’t the time to be giving up your job on a whim - but you could start to work through all those little things that have been nagging you.  Find out about local funding for certain projects that might apply to your business.  Promote communication methods that save energy and canteen options that can reduce food miles.

And, trying to find an eco friendly business improvement that can save your company money will always go down well with the boss - so try to find an cost effective eco friendly angle for everything!

Brilliant ideas to purify your lifestyle and feel good about it - she says….

Basically this book tries to cover all the organic and natural ways you can overcome the ‘evil’ or modern products and all the chemicals they contain.

And to prove it, she divides her advice up into 48 categories of ‘nasties’ including make-up and nappies. She explains in each case why we need to swap to more natural alternatives - by using scientific and medical arguments against each - and then offers organic, (man-made) chemical-free and more ‘natural’ products or ingredients that you could use instead.

The Book Itself:
I loved the layout of this book, and it was so easy to read that you find yourself reading chapter after chapter.  Each chapter is a 4-6 page debate as to the pro’s and con’s of each mini subject including for example, Make-Up, chocolate and toothpaste.

Hughes-Cooper helps to explain some of the main down-sides to the products we use today and offers alternatives.  There isn’t a full explanation of each due to the ’short’ nature of each chapter, and some of her answers or arguments are a bit vague or non-proven - but she certainly makes you think about all these issues while you are reading. 

She regularly uses phrases like ’this is totally natural’ - but remember that this is what they used to say about Arsenic, Lead and radio-active products that ‘glow in the dark’. It’s also important to remember that anything that can be found in plants, animals or in the earth is technically ‘natural’ in origin, but I doubt you will be in a hurry to use toadstools, uranium or snake venom in your kitchen or bathroom!

Due to the way in which you can read through this book relatively quickly, I found that I would stop for a moment after reading a particular fact and think ‘Oh my goodness, I should stop using that’ but then read on through to another section and do the same again. It seemed like page after page of doom and gloom, and worries about my health, but then I just carried on reading.  Almost like I wanted to find out how awful I was being to my own body, but then actually did nothing about it.

As with most of the ‘best things’ in this life, whether it’s growing your own veg, not flying, using only organic make-up, growing sprouted mung bens and seeking out the parabens free version of everything, the thought of it all just seems to overwhelm the normal working person.  I myself would love to consider doing most of the things Hughes-Cooper recommends in her book, but the time it would take and the possible financial costs just seem a bit prohibitive.  And it left me feeling like a bit of a failure!

Yes, there are some easy ones to achieve, like growing my own herbs in the window box and buying organic milk (as I do them already), but others I hadn’t really thought of doing, like buying hemp products instead of 100% cotton and un-bleached feminine products - which should both be quite easy to start doing. 

However, something else caught my attention as I read this book: Organic doesn’t automatically mean eco friendly - you might need a trade-off.  For example making your own smoothies, fruit juices, pies and vegetable noodles, all involve buying a new piece of electrical equipment - and creates a lot more washing up!  Neither of these are eco friendly.

Should you buy organic wines from Australia or non-organic British wines?  Think of the weight of the glass bottles coming from the other side of the world!  And there are constant references to using ‘natural’ cleaning products like white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda - but can you imagine what would happen if we all used these instead of all the shop-brought cleaners?  Vinegar is from grapes - so excessive amounts of water-hungry fruits will need to be grown to keep up with demand; and the soda is mined from the ground - so imaging habitats being destroyed to ‘naturally’ clean all the kitchens in the UK and US! 

I totally agree, however, that our actions can make us humans healthier and at the same time have less of a ‘chemical’ impact on the environment.  And sometimes the choice you have is so very simple.  However, there is still so much that you need to work quite hard to achieve, and I just don’t think that everything in this book can be achieved by a working family.

I mean I thought I was putting a reasonable effort in to the whole eco friendly/organic movement, but have only seemed to have achieved about a third of the things mentioned in the book. with maybe alf a dozen or so more in the pipeline now after reading it.  So, I hope that everyone who reads it (just like me) manages to get a few new ideas from it, because all those small things will soon add up!

Result: 3/5
If you were just reading this book the one time, then it might not really be of any use to you, other than making you think about how many toxins you and your children have absorbed over your lifetime, but if you were to use this as a reference book then things could be very different - and my Result would rise to 4/5 for it.

It certainly has it’s uses as a starting point for the layman, and has highlighted a few new things for me, but the thought of searching endlessly on the Internet for the right products, or reading label after label when I only have 10 minutes free time before having to collect the kids from school - or worse still, I have the kids in tow, then these things become unreasonable to achieve.

This book is part of the  ‘52 Briliant Ideas’ series, so I will be looking out for other relevant books to give me some more inspiration!

ISBN: 978-1-905940-57-8

Well, there are never just a few ways to be eco friendly around the yard - there is always something else!

So, to help you get even greener in the stable -  I have put together another 10 top tips for you and your horse or pony to help save resources and making things last longer!

1) By picking out your horses feet while still in the stable means that the bedding stays where it is needed - rather than being swept away when you clean the yard!

2)Always keep a list of all your eco suppliers to hand - not only for yourself, but also to recommend to others if they need something specific.  That way, you won’t have to resort to the easiest suppliers when you are in need!

3) Always wear an old baggy t-shirt over your jumpers when grooming or doing ‘hay’ related jobs as they won’t stick to it - whereas your jumper will just get covered in hay or hair - and need washing more often! 

4) Grow your own organic veg for your horse or pony as well.  Make sure you grow your own selection of horse-friendly veg as well as all the things you need; so turnips and carrots should be on the list!

5) When feeding hay to your horses in the field - make sure you select the least windy area to do so - otherwise you will be wasting hay as it blows across your field rather than getting eaten! 

6) Same goes for other feeds - you need to make sure that your horse is getting everything he needs and none is wasted.  So weigh out feeds and hay if necessary, as well as not over-feeding or allowing your horse to kick over the food bowl or tread on the hay.

7) And use bags or sacks when transporting hay and straw across the yard so it doesn’t all blow away for the same reason.  And noone wants to sweep the yard more than they have to!

8.) Get your horse to wear a summer sheet underneath their winter rugs, as they are much easier to wash - so making your winter rugs last longer and keep your horse warmer!

9) And for you - if your long boots have split up the leg - then cut them off at the ankle and use them as a spare pair of short boots for odd jobs around the yard!

10) And finally: If you manage to puncture your plastic boots in the yard - fix them yourself with a bicycle repair kit - making them waterproof again. That way you won’t need to splash out on a new pair! Boots can live forever - or as long as you want them to!

Yippee - that should save you some money - and save the environment from more wasted resources!

Good job!

We bulk buy products to be eco friendly - so does a bigger house give the same benefits?

We’ll not if you are just a single person or a couple - but what if you involved the whole family or some friends?  And I don’t mean join some commune or hippy campsite - although they are both options for some people.

What I am talking about is a great idea for saving energy, combining skills and resources as well as improving everything else ‘in bulk’.  So how about it?

The Theory:
I would love to live in a large home surrounded by land - but I know this would be a bit selfish in the overall scheme of things - so how about a compromise?

How about planning to live in a house with other people, whether they be my mum or sibling - or even friends - And it doesn’t need to be as bad as it sounds: you would plan to buy a property that still allowed you your privacy, for example a 3 story town house, divided into 2 sections or a detached property with a ‘granny annexe’ as part of it.

This way, you can pool resources too, like a joint investment in a garden allotment, solar panels, wildlife garden etc, as not only will you have more combined finances with this arrangement - you will also have a larger amount of space to work with.

2 couples living in townhouses may only have a small courtyard garden and a thin sliver of the terraced roof - but combine those 2 mortgages or using a larger deposit could mean you are able to buy detached, with more garden, off road parking, fruit trees, a larger roof and less overheads: only 1 TV license, one Council Tax, lower energy costs (the first so-many units are higher priced), lower food costs (buying in bulk), the list goes on……

It has all the same advantages as buying a 2 litre bottle of shampoo rather than 4×500ml bottles - but on a much larger scale!

Other Benefits:
For starters, all the maintenance costs will be shared between you all, insurance bills and repairs will all be halved - so more money to spend on green investments.

The security of your home will be increased as when you are away, the other people will probably still be around - and the animals and plants can carry on growing while you are busy.

Magazine subscriptions can be shared, and days out can be treated as ‘family’ tickets as there will always be enough people to make up the numbers! Less cars even, depending on your situation - and more shared journeys - or less journeys even; well if you are going to the store - then your flatmates don’t need to!

Food should never go out of date if there are twice as many people around to eat it - and if you ook together then imagine the energy savings!  And there will always be enough dirty dishes to fill the machine - and clothes for a full wash!

And can you imagine how great it would be for the kids to grow up in a friendly environment where they can learn skills from all the people around them, and live in an house with a bit of character and a large garden with chickens in it!

Sounds perfect - I just need to find some similar-minded friends…………

National Family Week (UK) runs from May 31st to June 6th - but make yours and eco friendly one!

The event is all about celebrating Family and your time together - either indoors surrounded by books and films or outside knee-deep in grass and surrounded by bird song!

But there is no reason why your events can’t be green, local and without creating enough waste to fill your entire bin!

There are many events being held around the country that are on the official website, but why not use their guide to make a week of eco friendly fun for yourself your family and your friends.

The weeks events are running along a sort of ’schedule’ to help give people a rough plan if the week, and you can do as little or as much as you like - or create your own eco fun, but the week is as follows:

Monday - Eco Friendly Picnic:
Why can’t you arrange an event where you make an old fashioned outdoor feast, with local or organic produce brought in bulk - rather than everything in it’s own tiny bottle or individual wrapping.  Why not get one person to bake an enormous cake, one to bake a loaf of fresh bread, one to chop homegrown salad and bring home-laid hard-boiled eggs for the filling. 

Buy huge bumper packs of crisp and nibbles to share out and bring all fully reusable plastic plates and bowls to take home after.  And don’t forget some tubs to collect wild blackcurrants or fallen apples in!

Tuesday - Family Film Day:
Why not extend the picnic theme indoors with a great matinee of one or two of the families favourite films - make sure one is a classic musical to get everyone singing and dancing.  Before the first film, maybe all spend time in the kitchen mixing pastry and cakes so that when the film is over there is plenty of home-made food for everyone to tuck into before the next film!

Wednesday - Great Story Telling Day:
Rather than read other peoples stories - why not spend this day surrounded by scissors, glue and old magazines with a selection of pens and string - and have everyone create their own great adventure story from all your old magazines and bits of the outdoors like pressed flowers and leaves!  Something they can take away and keep.

Thursday - Green Road Trip:
Car or minibus, it doesn’t matter - but if there is an adventure to be had getting there is half the fun.  Rather than take the straight route - why not find the country lanes that go through tiny villages, steepled churches and fields of cows and horses.  Maybe even take in a ruined castle or 2 on the way as well - and don’t forget the camera and a tasty home-made packed lunch!

Friday - Eco Friendly House Party:
Anything goes here - whether it’s literally a party that goes on all night (without annoying the neighbours of course) or whether it’s a day-time party where people bring their family and some tasty goodies to share.  Or maybe help out with some spring cleaning or reducing and recycling.

Take one room of your home that really needs a sort out and get everyone involved. Whether it’s taking stuff to the recycling centre, community furniture project or around a friends - many hands make light work! Maybe get together to help an elderly relative or neighbour - or just your own home and ring some green changes!

Saturday - Eco Garden Fun:
Maybe this one could be an eco garden house party, where you all take it in turns to attack someones garden for the better, laying hedges, creating a wildlife pond, a bug corner, putting up bird feeders or just planting some veg! Things you never really get round to yourself - especially with the kids under your feet! Imagine to things you could achieve with 10 people instead of just you and your mum!

Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have fun - and maybe send in some photos!
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Could you spare a bit of time to drink tea and hear about the weather?

There are around 5 million older people in the UK that depend on just their television for company. But you could be there for them.

Imagine if you are stuck in your home all day, only getting out to the local store if the weather is fine and you feel ok. Imagine if you had no family or friends to come and visit you on a regular basis or even at all?

Help the Aged - a UK charity - say that there are around 1 million elderly people that say that they feel ‘trapped in their own home’, which is a really bad fact to know.

There could be someone in your very street that is living this life - and you are just a few houses away watching tv or reading a book.

A visit from you could make all the difference.

What Can You Do?
Well, there are plenty of things you can do from the very simple to the very generous - anything from delivering a tasty cake, to a quick bit of shopping all the way through to inviting them to yours for dinner or setting up your own local day center and activities for everyone in your community!

It would be fantastic if a neighbour brought around a fruit cake - and I’m not even living on my own, so imagine how much this could mean to someone who hasn’t seen another person in a week?

So imagine how great if would be if you were eating that cake with your neighbour whilst playing Scrabble and chatting about things in the news!

If you are feeling a bit more enthusiastic - you can help more than 1 person. Why not convince your local community centre, church hall or school to let out one of their rooms every other Tuesday or whatever, and get a ‘coffee morning’ set up.

With the help of some volunteers, you could have loads of people all turning up in the same place, eating cakes, drinking tea, playing Scrabble and chatting about the news!

You might even involve the younger generation, and teach them a thing or 2 about community spirit - and learning about the history of your village from the people who have been living here for 60 years or more!

Think about it.