Just three small changes to our busy life can result in great steps to help stop global warming.

The first is not to use plastic carrier bags, and if you do, make sure you use each one as many times as possible.  Some of the large supermarkets offer bags for life at 10 pence and will exchange for new every time you wear the bag out.  These worn out bags go off to become new bags.  Buy jute, cotton or even recycled rice bag bags. www.sativabags.com for hemp bags.  We use over a billion plastic bags a year of which 90% find their way into landfill and are predicted to be around for many hundreds of years.  Some farmer’s markets and farm shops are offering paper bags for produce so use these where possible…just ask!

The second is to shower rather than have a soak.  A shower taken for 10 minutes reduces water consumption by 40% and is refreshing.  If you do have a soak then buy the drought buster siphon which can be put into your bath at one end and the other into a water butt or used directly onto the garden rather than emptying the water down the drain when you have finished soaking in natural bubbles of course! www.greengardener.co.uk £19.99

The third is for everyone to go over to long life energy saving bulbs, which are advancing every day.  Just before Christmas, it was announced that the filament light is soon to be discontinued with the development of a new diode light source that is as bright as present bulbs.  Until then just changing one bulb over to the eco ones you will be making a difference.

What ever you do, have a great 2008

                                                                                           Wind up radio

Ever thought how much electricity your appliances are using each day and how you could cut down on consumption?  There is a new device on the market that clips over the wire to your appliances to find out how much electricity they use and the volume of CO2 gases contribute to the atmosphere.  Once this is logged for each appliance, you can take action to make savings and help the environment.  Check out www.ethicalsuperstore.comfor the Electrisave Electricity Monitor at around £70 per unit.

Nigel’s Eco Store has many gadgets including the award winning Savaplug which plugs in to the mains with the fridge or freezer plug plugging into it.  Once done it adjusts the amount of electricity to the appliance reducing consumption by 20%.  A must for people with older models but caution needs to be used when considering applying it to new models as some have the device built in.  www.nigelecostore.com 

For children, and adults, who are afraid of the dark so require a light on at night then the Moonlight nightlight at £10 is perfect.  Cool to the touch it uses electro-luminescent, bulb free panel, which plugs straight into a three-pin socket.  It is said that it runs continually for just 50p per year.  Available from high street shops and Nigel’s Eco Store.

Tooth brushes are always a problem to find green ones but a firm in America, Recline, have produced a toothbrush made from recycled yogurt pots that in turn, once the brush has served its purpose, can be returned to the manufacturer for further recycling.  The packaging is all sustainable materials and designed to be used as a carry case.  One of the few closed-loop manufacturing I have come across so far on my research.

Many horror stories start with, ‘Don’t go into the attic’ and late at night Overbeck’s, in Devon, is no exception.  The first strange things to happen were to scouts and school groups who would experience strange noises.  Beds being lifted off the floor and cold hands clasping the shoulders of those who scoffed at the idea.  An intelligent ghost? A local builder did not think so when he was doing work to wind down that area and remove the beds.  Knelt on the floor he heard footsteps approaching him, looked behind but saw no one.  After a few minutes had passed he once again heard the footsteps, once again no one appeared.  This time he searched the area but to no avail so he carried on working.  What happened next was to stay with him for the rest of his life. The footsteps grew closer, but he carried on working until a cold hand gripped his shoulder. Looking round to see who was holding him sheer terror took over as he continued to feel the grip but saw no one. In panic he picked up his tools and fled to his van through the garden. Leaving the Y.H.A. staff bemused for it was only 11.30am. There is a more sinister entity, which lives in the attic, and it guards the house from the water tank room.  What is so sinister about this entity is that it appears to be able to take the form of loved ones who have passed away and appears to ‘challenge’ visitors to the attic.

Another incident is of a man working at the property who had seen his fiancée cruelly cut down in her prime by a drunk driver.  The busy season had just ended.  Thoughts were on Christmas and the getting ready for the next season during the five months closed. Overbeck’s was quiet on the winters eve when he was about to go home but noticed blue lights in the attic.  Fearing intruders, he made his way to the attic with his dog, just in case.  Opening the door before moving into the long corridor, he noticed a figure at the far end.  Before he could utter a word, the figure was upon him.  It was his dead fiancée whispering the words ’remember our promise’. He was so upset that he rushed down to tell the staff of the Y.H.A but they reported that “Remember the Promise” had appeared on a blackboards all evening whilst they were cleaning up parts of the Y.H.A.

We found out later that the promise was that should one of them pass away before the other, then it would be for the other to take their own life … and join their dead partner. So was it really his fiancée or the hidden dangers of Overbeck’s … maybe one day we shall discover the real powers behind such events.  The incident did prompt him to visit the grave with the flowers on the anniversary of their ‘marriage’.

Some weeks later, an old woman approached him and said, “Do not believe all you see here…some are just shadows from a door left open in the old place” but before he could ask anything of the old woman she had vanished.