Follow my blog with Bloglovin
A month. The act of leaving one home and starting to make another has taken over five weeks and left room for little else. Having cleared the items deemed surplus, life outside of work has become packing, moving, unpacking, arranging and rearranging that which survived the cull. It hasn’t been particularly stressful, just tiring and demanding of our time. It has also been enjoyable; a season when we have tangibly experienced the joy of community as our friends gathered to help pack boxes, move furniture and even clean our old oven (a sign of real friendship, if ever you needed one). Continue reading
Decluttering
This May is mostly about moving house. We came to this home as newlyweds, so there is a definite sadness in leaving it. It has its imperfections (shabby around the edges, an awkward staircase for negotiating a bike up, a distinct lack of cupboards), but it is the first place we made ours, and it will always be special for it. It’s time for a new adventure though, and it seemed a good moment to start decluttering our lives. Continue reading
The Opposite of Loneliness
So much has been written, more eloquently than I ever could, about Marina Keegan’s ‘The Opposite of Loneliness’. Keegan’s collection of essays and short stories was published posthumously, as this brilliant writer, actor, journalist died in an accident when she was just 22 years old. She had graduated from Yale just a few days earlier and was tipped for greatness. Much is rightly said of the tragedy of it all. Continue reading
Who made my clothes?
I often wonder about the hands that made the items that keep me clothed, fed and comfortable. Were they tired, calloused, bored? What were these people thinking about when they sewed my jeans’ pocket, picked my tea leaves, harvested wood for my paper? I can only wonder. I certainly don’t know their names. Continue reading
Travelling Thailand’s Andaman Coast
This Easter we left the chill behind, heading east to join my parents on their yacht for two weeks of sailing, exploring and relaxing on the Andaman Coast in Thailand. Leaving the world of work behind, my parents set off six years ago to sail the world so we took this unique opportunity to visit them in Thailand (read their adventures here). Continue reading
Abroad
It seems a cruel irony that the very things that often motivate people to want to live more sustainably (love of the earth, interest in different cultures, curiosity about everything and everyone…) also drives a desire to travel. I was privileged as a child to travel abroad most summer holidays, which undoubtedly influenced my decision to work in sustainability as I was exposed to different environments, people and cultures (read more about the impact of visits to a Greek aquarium here). In recent years though, we’ve opted for local adventures, usually seeking British mountains and coasts for our refreshment and inspiration away from daily life. Continue reading
A little book of craftivism
Craftivism: “a way of looking at life where voicing your opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper” – Betsy Greer.
I became aware of the Craftivist Collective over a year ago, but it wasn’t until last summer when I watched Sarah Corbett share her story that I began to understand the power of this kind of slow activism. Sarah talks about how as a worn out activist, she discovered the power of pairing her enjoyment of craft with her passion to see the world changed for the better. This change in her personal approach has grown into the Craftivist Collective, with people across the world taking part in craftivist projects, sometimes on their own, sometimes in groups, but always in solidarity with the movement. Continue reading
A foray into upcycling // fabric noticeboards
Last year our neighbours moved out and for reasons unknown left behind enough furniture, decorations and one particularly tragic looking teddy bear to fill the garden. As lots of perfectly good yet abandoned stuff was slowly ruined by the autumn weather, I salvaged a couple of cork noticeboards that were beginning to warp in the rain. I was tempted by a lovely set of brass fireplace tools despite currently lacking the necessary fireplace. I’m glad I resisted; I wouldn’t want them to become a symbol of thwarted ambitions if we ended up transporting them from home to home, never acquiring a fireplace. Besides, we are trying to avoid excessive consumption in the form of unused items (even if they’re second-hand). Continue reading
Spoken allowed
It was TED’s fault. A couple of years ago I was trawling online for some generic ‘inspiration’, when I stumbled across Sarah Kay’s TED talk, ‘If I should have a daughter’. It was a revelation to me. I had always loved reading and writing poetry, but I had never before experienced spoken word poetry. I was instantly taken with the idea of poetry that, as Sarah Kay puts it, “doesn’t just want to sit on paper; something about it demands it be heard out loud or witnessed in person”. Continue reading
For the love of…
…local coffee shops serving delicious lemon drizzle cake.
…being outside, especially by the sea.
…padding about barefoot in the summer.
This Valentine’s Day the Climate Coalition, which is made up of over 100 organisations including Oxfam and Tearfund, is leading a campaign to raise awareness of how climate change threatens many of the things we love. By wearing a green heart and sharing it with the hashtag #showthelove you can join a nationwide movement demonstrating your concern about climate change and your support for global action. Continue reading
Julia Kendal 