Parenting Shift
Spot of Earth
by Helen McG
5M ago
My poor blog has been seriously neglected lately. My last post was for Zero Waste Week 2022 and any spare time I’ve had for writing since then has been used for freelance writing projects (I’ve written some articles for Teach Early Years magazine that you can see online here and here) and plodding on with my ever diminishing dream of becoming a children’s fiction writer. However, yesterday morning I was thinking about this post I wrote five years ago when our eldest daughter started secondary school and how much has changed since then. In the summer, our eldest daughter left secondary school a ..read more
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Is Zero Waste a Privilege?
Spot of Earth
by Helen McG
1y ago
With the cost of living crisis worsening in the UK, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to make ethical decisions when shopping lately. Our energy bills are sky high, our fuel bills are through the roof, food shopping is noticeably more expensive and it’s hard to see where it’s going to stop. Working in education in quite a deprived area, I know that a lot of our families have been struggling for some time. If we, as a two parent family with a decent income between us, are starting to feel the pinch, how on earth are those already struggling going to cope? Whilst I still believe it’s possible ..read more
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Sign Up for Zero Waste Week 2021
Spot of Earth
by Helen McG
2y ago
I can’t believe it’s time for Zero Waste Week again! This year the week devoted to raising awareness of environmental issues runs from 6th-10th September. This is the sixth Zero Waste Week I’ve taken part in and the 14th overall. 14 years of inspiring people to cut down on their waste and reduce their impact on the environment. I wonder how many items have been reused, recycled, composted or simply not used at all in those 14 years? That’s such a huge achievement for the organisers, Rachelle Strauss and Anna Pitt, and all those involved. This year’s Zero Waste Week focuses on the support we c ..read more
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Zero Waste Shop Review – The Weigh to Shop
Spot of Earth
by Helen McG
2y ago
As so often happens in life, it was a coincidence that brought me to the door of The Weigh to Shop in Framwellgate Moor, Durham. My daughter’s dance teacher sadly decided not to continue lessons once restrictions eased again and her new tap and modern class meant I had a spare 45 minutes in the Framwellgate Moor area of Durham on a Saturday morning. A colleague at work had mentioned that she’d seen a refill shop in Fram (as the locals call it!), but I was never over that way to check it out. Well, here was my chance. Husband and wife team, James and Sarah, were friendly and welcoming: happy to ..read more
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Global Thinking Is What We Need
Spot of Earth
by Helen McG
3y ago
Global thinking is something that has been on my mind for a couple of years now. I’m sure it’s really the only way to tackle climate change and I think the coronavirus pandemic has cemented this opinion for me. Now more than ever we’re discovering that we are one human species living on one planet. Our lives are all interlinked and we need to do some joined-up thinking to prevent climate change getting any worse than it already is. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, I’ve also done a lot of reading and thinking over the last year about race and racism and how this links to environment ..read more
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Using Your Freezer to Fight Food Waste
Spot of Earth
by Helen McG
3y ago
When it comes to fighting food waste, perhaps the most useful tool in your kitchen (apart from your stomach!) is your freezer, if you have one. Whether you have a small freezer compartment above your fridge or a more capacious chest freezer, learning to use your freezer well can really benefit your diet, your waste and your pocket. Without further ado, here are a couple of photos of our freezers: Some of the things you’ll find in our freezers include: Meat and fish – We eat meat a couple of times a week and fish about once a fortnight, so I tend to buy it and put it straight in the freeze ..read more
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Zero Waste Week 2020
Spot of Earth
by Helen McG
3y ago
Zero Waste Week 2020 is just around the corner and this year it runs from 7th-11th September. This is the thirteenth Zero Waste Week, my fifth year as a Zero Waste Week Ambassador and my sixth year of taking part. Every year there is a different theme for the week. So far, previous themes have been: 2015 – Reuse 2016 – Food Waste 2017 – Varied – a different theme for each day 2018 – Plastic Waste 2019 – Climate Change And the theme for 2020 is… you’ll just have to wait and see! We’ll be revealing the theme at the end of August. Sign up for Zero Waste Week at http://www.zerowasteweek.co.uk ..read more
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Alternatives to Deodorant
Spot of Earth
by Helen McG
4y ago
Are you running low on deodorant or anti-perspirant in the current Covid-19 situation? Or perhaps you’ve always fancied experimenting with an alternative to your usual deodorant? About five years ago, one of the first things I tried on our zero waste journey was making my own deodorant. I felt like a bit of a nutter at the time, but now it’s totally normal to me. I use the Zero-Waste Chef recipe, which uses bicarb of soda, cornflour, coconut oil and a few drops of essential oils for fragrance. I have a big jar in the bathroom and a tiny pot for my handbag. This is not an anti-perspirant and ne ..read more
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Zero Waste Shop Review – By the Weigh
Spot of Earth
by Helen McG
4y ago
I’m beyond excited to finally have a zero waste shop in my favourite shopping destination, Barnard Castle. If you read my previous blog post about my shopping routine, you’ll know how much I love using all the independent, local retailers in this lovely Teesdale market town. A zero waste shop is the icing on the cake! Since I started working full time I haven’t been able to shop in Barnard Castle as much as I’d like, but I do take advantage of school holidays to have a good mooch round all my favourite shops. During half term last week, I was looking forward to visiting the relatively new B ..read more
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Once Upon A Time – Some Thoughts on Writing in Schools
Spot of Earth
by Helen McG
4y ago
One day, when I was about five or six years old, we were writing stories in my class at school. I had lots of ideas and I couldn’t wait to get started on my story, but I was having trouble writing the very first word. I wanted to start my story with the very traditional ‘Once upon a time…’, but I didn’t know how to spell ‘once’. I knew it started with a ‘w’ sound, but I also had a sneaking suspicion that it didn’t begin with a ‘w’. I asked the teacher, she wrote the word down for me and off I went. I’m sure I had trouble with other words in that first story of mine and I can’t recall the rest ..read more
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