striking an Accord...

Last week was another of those busy ones in the studio.

Lots of projects on and a couple of events to attend to boot. We were exhausted but it was great fun.

First up on the events front was the Brighton and

Hove 10:10 first birthday party at the Sallis Benney Theatre in Brighton. It was great to meet up properly with all of the other Brighton and Hove businesses who have signed up to the campaign - from people that I know well to people that I have never met before.

We had a glass of bubbly and chatted, then wandered into the theatre and listened to a series of inspirational speakers about their own actions over the past year in the campaign and what they are planning for 2011 - just because it is called 10:10 doesn't mean that you stop in 2011!

For those of you not sure what 10:10 is - check out the main website here, and the Brighton and Hove campaign website here (and Brighton and Hove were the first 10:10 city!!!).

Plus,

Brighton and Hove has been described as 'by far and away the most determined and dedicated... we are using the examples of Brighton as the model for other cities ' by Eugenie Harvey - the 10:10 national campaign's international director - so we were pretty chuffed!

Next up on the event front was the FIRST EVER UK meeting of Designers Accord - situated at the University of Brighton. Now many of you will be aware of the 10:10 campaign, but not many of you will be aware of the Designers Accord....

To sum it up nicely, the Designers Accord is:

'the Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators, and business leaders, working together to create positive environmental and social impact'

After finding about the Designers Accord and making sure we were going to be there, I did a bit of reading up and realised that the DA guidelines for design firms are what we do here - and stuff that we are passionate about. And so I am very proud to say that we have now become a proper design firm adopter of the code. But more of this in another post...

The night was great - fantastic mini lectures from MA students in Sustainable Design to visiting lecturers from London and further afield...

We had some snacks and then broke into five or so groups to fully discuss sustainability issues - what we felt was the most important to us, and how we can implement a change.

It truly was another inspirational night, and one that will not end here - hopefully we will be involved in more DA Brighton events, including an action group....

Delft green...

As you may remember dear readers, I was one of a very lucky few who were whisked off to Delft last November for the wonderful EcoMind conferences where like minded individuals congregated on the Engineering and Design department of TU Delft for two days and investigated the advancements of eco technology and business. It was wonderful.

And now TU Delft has got another beautifully green feather to their well designed cap - a stunning green roof to the library.

It is well documented that the benefits of green roof systems are multi faceted - from increasing the local biodiversity to the extremely effective heat regulation of the building below. Water can be harvested and indeed, slowed right down, which aids the reduction in sudden flash flooding - a very large problem in cities where surfaces are not permeable.

Plus, they look wonderful, but most can only be appreciated from the bird's eye view, and this is also what is lovely about the TU Delft library roof - it is inclined so as to become an artificial hill in a land of flatness, and a meeting and recreation space for locals - something which can be rare for green roof systems generally.

And as well as being a fantastic example of an architectural feature which is yet to be fully explored, it would make a cracking snowboard jump...(add a few rails and I would be in heaven...)

(story and images via inhabitat)

the truest ever Farm Shop...?

In January I spoke about my predicted trends for 2011, and I mentioned that urban farming was still looming on the horizon, but was probably not quite here just yet.

Well, I hope to be proven wrong this year by eco design trio Something and Sons when they fully launch their FARM:shop in Dalston, London.

The concept is simple - produce as much food as you can, by farming within the confines of the shop. But as you can imagine, this is far from simple and requires a great deal of advanced technological expertise to support the basic farming techniques.

But I love the concept - Aquaponic micro fish farming (where the waste water feeds into the tomatoes), a polytunnel and indoor allotment. A rooftop chicken coop ensures that foxes are kept at bay, and the happy (and hopefully partially sheltered) chickens will provide eggs for the shop below.

We have all seen a myriad of urban farming renderings, with the skylines of our cities paved over with crops, or huge multi-layered skyscrapers filled with levels of agriculture, but not many have got very close to (pardon the pun) actual fruition, so it will be very interesting to see how the FARM:shop concept actually works in real time, and how it could be replicated to our own high streets.

Would it just be too small, or would it just cater for a niche market (like fresh tilapia and pots of specialist herbs) or, as was pointed out quite aptly on the latest edition of The People's Supermarket, have we just become conditioned to thinking that rafter packed supermarkets and lines and lines of choice (and therefore waste) are what we want to consume?

I tend to agree with the latter - I would rather wander into a shop and see what is there, in season and looking good rather than going with a mind of preconceived recipes and a list to match.

Oh, and I love the slogan for Something and Son - Between us we know enough about everything to have a go at (almost) anything.

I quite agree, and we try and work the same way.

the people's supermarket...

Staying with the foodie theme from my last post, I thought I would talk a little about what could be the future of shopping.

Independant shops? Hopefully. Farmers Markets? I should hope so. Growing your own? Practical for some, but not others. Urban farms? They are coming, but not just yet.

So, what could be the immediate future from our food shopping experiences?

Supermarkets.

Yep. You heard me right. Supermarkets, but not as we know it.

We have become conditioned to shop for everything at one place - cramming our little cages on wheels with essentials every week before we drive home to consume (or throw away...but that is another post). The supermarket is just the way most of us do our shopping. Fact.

Even though many of us try to grow our own, support our local producers and frequent our farmers markets, many of us still use the supermarket model as our main shopping experience.

So if you can't beat the supermarkets, why not join them.

And this is what a few enterprising souls have begun.

Park Slope in New York is a 25yr old co-operative with around 6000 members, who give up 2hrs 45mins per month to work in the supermarket (cashier, cleaner, shelf replenishment etc) in return for wonderfully sourced, local, often organic produce at hugely reduced rates. With (little) wages to pay, the community are actively pocketing the mark-up savings in the lower prices available. If you do not do your shift, you have to make up with double the time next shift, and if you continue to flaunt the rules, sorry, you are out.

This can sound a little harsh, but this kind of model can ONLY work with full communication and trust between all members. Sounds great to me.

It also looked great to Arthur Potts Dawson (who also set up the London eco restaurant Acorn House), who has taken this seed idea and translated it into London's first version of the American model, in Holborn, called The People's Supermarket.

The basic premise is the same - pay your £25 membership, sign up to your 4 hour shift and you are a member - AND part owner - of the People's Supermarket. This entitles you to hugely reduced core produce (large lovely loaf £1.85 to 'regular' shoppers, £1 to members) and 10% reduction on your overall bill.

But being a part owner of the supermarket also means that you are entitled to a say in what is stocked, where from, and how the whole kit and caboodle is run. An ideal situation really - cheaper stuff, a nod to the 'big society' and a say in keeping that local raspberry yoghurt you have come to love as well as the larger decisions.

Not everyone will like the idea of working four hours to qualify for the benefits, but (having worked for a big supermarket to pay my way through university) it can be fun.

And in a time of gloom, surely a few more pennies in the bank, a few more local bits in your belly and a few new friends in your phone can only be a good thing?

welcome back....

It seems as though a lot of us seem to go awol around this time of year, with various visits to relatives, illnesses and general rushing about for the seasonal activities.We were no exception, as we have really only just got back to grips at the studio after the mini break.

But we are now back and raring to go, and we are now thinking about what 2011 may have in store, eco wise?

Well, there are many people out there willing to put forward their two penneth worth, so here are a few bits we have found on the web...

The rise of service design - where items are REPAIRED instead of discarded and thrown away - I think this is due to the economic downturn as well as the elements of perceived greenness. The throw away culture of excess that we have grown to take as the norm is now being questioned by many who may not have considered their position before.

The rise of the amateur - again - craft has been enjoying a newly found and well deserved resurgence in popularity as people appreciate the skills and human qualities of hand made design. Perhaps this is another revolt against the large scale industries which we are starting to distrust as we hanker for the nostalgic and simpler may of life? I am all for this prediction and I hope that craft will continue to become a major player in the small scale retail industry. Remember peeps - quality over quantity.

Urban farming is another trend that seems to be popping up all over the shop, and with money belts still tight and a continuing distrust of large manufacturers and the dreaded supermarkets, I reckon this is one which is here to stay for 2011. Will we get back to the war time front and back garden allotments? Perhaps not, but look out for more edibles popping up in your street, and fantastical proposals for mobile, skyscraper and city centre farming utopias. I thought that cutting gardens would also enjoy a resurgence in 2010 as people get used to growing their own and become more aware of where their weekly bunch of flowers come from (we designed two gardens in 2010 for cutting), but maybe I was a little too keen. Maybe this is another one for 2011.

Sharing seems to be another big hitter in the prediction fronts - from skills sharing to bike sharing, car sharing and food sharing. I suppose this sort of goes back to the sort of medieval barter systems which have been resurrected in a time where cash is short. This could be in a 'you can have some of my chicken eggs in exchange for some of your apples' sort of way, or larger scale, involving skills exchange between companies. Our studio has signed up to a skills share programme in Brighton where we offer our expertise and time to design needy charities and social enterprise projects, so again, this is one to stay for 2011.

I think local food and farmers markets will also continue to grow, along with small scale foraging (I spent all of Christmas engrossed in John Wright's fantastic River Cottage Mushroom, Hedgerow and Sea Edibles handbooks) and home preserving.

Green design in general will become more accessible (heard a lot of people asking for eco bits whilst out shopping for pressies) especially now people are questioning the throw away / landfill fodder purchases of old.

Lastly, I am quite optimistic about the design industry in general. The last two years have made it hard to sell something essentially 'invisible' but I think things are on the shift. People and businesses are realising that quality of life is more important that the amount of things you have, and so are looking to designers to maximise their opportunities available and create them spaces to enjoy being in at home and at work. Business are realising that consumers are examining them as well as their products before making a purchase, and are responding accordingly.

Check back next year to see if I am right.

back into the Wilderness...

Seasonal shorts number...1 - the tree...

Now we are officially on the countdown to Yule /Christmas, there will be a veritable flurry of blogs - one each day, looking at a whole raft of seasonal greening up. Today is the first - the tree...

I am a big one for tradition, and there is a very seasonal tradition in our lives that is undertaken, each year, usually split between the months of both November and December.

On the first of November (or the closest Sunday to it anyway) we choose it, and in the middle of December, we go and dig it up.

Yep - I have blogged about it before here, and here, and this is the tradition of choosing and subsequently collecting our annual fir tree, which is always, without fail, collected from the truly wonderful Wilderness Wood in Hadlow Down, Sussex.

We always have a Douglas Fir, which has beautifully fine, fluffy and fragrant needles, and we always have Sussex tea and gooseberry conserve and elderflower cordial cake (or ginger cake) when we both choose him and collect him.

If we are feeling extravagant, we also have an organic sausage from the outdoor barbeque.

I love it, and if you are in Sussex you MUST consider doing this next year.

You can read all about the wood (which you can of course visit all year round) here.

to 'critical reclaim'...

Well - we have finally done it.

It has taken an age to do so, and if anything, the snow finally gave us a chance to get to grips with and set up the studio shop.

That's right ladies and gents - we now have our Ebay shop online!

'critical reclaim' will feature all the studio designed bits and pieces, including our limited editions and one off pieces along with the very best in interesting and beautiful reclaimed and salvaged items we find on our travels, from vintage furniture to lighting, industrial stuff to random stuff.

Our teacup bird feeders are online now, (as posted previously) and we will be adding more items over the next few days, so keep your beady eyes open!

you daily eco read...

The wonderous thing about the internet is that you can find so many fantastic eco bits and bobs - news, products, general stuff.

But, the hardest thing is finding time to find it all.

So now you don't have to. We have done it for you.

You can now read the 'claire potter design guide to eco design daily' - our NEW and pretty damn good online paperless paper which rounds up the best eco stories of the day from one of the studio's Twitter lists.

Read it and subscribe for free here...

trains, no planes and many bicycles...

Last week I was very lucky to be invited to attend a series of workshops over two days in the beautiful Delft, with a whole bunch of other eco designers and businesses from the South Coast.

the day started early, which, for a self confessed owl like myself, was a bit of a troublesome affair. very early actually, as we picked up another two-day-tripper en-route to the train station at the grand old

time of 4.40am.

Joy.

On board the first train to St Pancreas, we departed Brighton at 5.09am, very bleary eyed and in need of coffee.

And so began the first of many connections which would take us via public and self powered transport to Holland.

Next train - the Eurostar to Brussels, which I adore to travel on. Once at Brussels (after a coffee and baguette break) onto the high speed Thalys train to Rotterdam. Then another train from Rotterdam to Delft, (which unfortunately was not one of the amazing double decker trains - brilliant use of space!) where we were met by a smart young gentleman with an ageing racing bike.

Now, I have been to Amsterdam before and know how bikes literally are THE way to get around, but I had completely forgotten how they dominate the road, path and cycleways. They are everywhere. And most are not locked up - just 'located' somewhere where they can be lent on one another like a tangle of wiry dominoes until the owner comes to untangle them and wind their merry way onwards. It was really inspiring, but I cannot help but think what would happen to bikes stacked in such a way in England. They would probably be deemed an ironic health and safety risk and removed for the wellbeing of all. hmmm.

Anyway - as we were not in possession of bikes, all 20 or so of us took our life in our hands and walked from the station to the truly extraordinary Delft University. I am a big fan of highly considered design, and there were many many little details which showed a wonderful attention to small things - like this stairway. In this building the bike store was in the basement, so beside the cast concrete steps was a thin ramp - just big enough to safely and smoothly guide you bike to the depths below without bumping it down the stairs. small yet beautifully considered.

We turned the corner and were confronted with the vast and stunning faculty of Industrial Design. Coming into the building, which was mostly an open space with a variety of mezzanine levels and layers, one of the

first items you see are the individual workstations of the students - each with a desk, small pillar drill and various other tools. It made me think of the pathetic facilities we had at University. No wonder the Dutch design education is so highly regarded - it is because they regard it highly themselves - and it really showed.

A small networking lunch with the other attendees from Holland and France then moved into workshops on Sustainable product design development and Sustainable social marketing practices - both of which were fantastic.

Dinner followed at the faculty - a wonderfully healthy mix of salads, fish and cheeses, washed down with a couple of glasses of red wine (which went straight to my very tired head)

The walk to the hotel was refreshing (if you can call a force 5 gale refreshing) an

d my room was lovely. I had the attic, which had a grand view over the square in Delft, complete with a chiming clock tower.

The next day was pretty much the reverse of the first day, with more workshops at the University before a final lunch and then the long old trip home.

It was a fantastic two days, and I had the privilege to meet some truly grand people (from Holland and France as well as the South) and we are now forging great new relationships, both close and from afar. We hope to be helping two separate businesses from Holland for example - one dealing with city dwellers edibles and another with cargo bikes. Let's hope we can help...

It was tiring, but all good things are, and we hope we can travel back again to learn some more and meet some other eco minded peeps.

inhabitat...!

just a quickie - pretty chuffed as our piece on our installation mini murmuration has been picked up by Inhabitat...

http://inhabitat.com/2010/11/08/led-installation-sheds-light-on-the-plight-of-endangered-starlings/

wonderful!

Free Pumpkin Packs Fly...

we were blessed in Brighton to have a wonderfully summery day on Sunday, which made our free pumpkin pack giveaway for 10.10.10 - the global do something day - a much warmer and drier experience than it could have been.

so, donning our vintage style 'ice-cream sellers' tray (which we made from an old mesh bottomed bulb tray) I headed into the centre of Brighton to the very aptly named Gardner Street to begin the giveaway and encourage people to get into their gardens and reduce their food miles.

there were three varieties on offer - Hundredweight, Winter Festival and Marina di Chiogga and very soon the green fingered (and willing converts) were snapping up the free packs, which held two little seeds and a pot saved from our show gardens this year.

within an hour, all 100 packs had gone to new homes - from students to OAP's, families with gardens and 20 somethings with a tiny plot.

and all for free.

so - if you got one of our free packs you can now visit our website www.clairepotterdesign.com to download your free, paperless growing and recipe guide.

and if you didn't nab any free seeds do not despair - you can still download the pdf and make the tasty recipes with your local, seasonal produce available now - try Pumpkin soup, Pumpkin Risotto, Pumpkin and Cobnut Pie and Pumpkin and Maple Syrup Cupcakes (from our chums at the Simple Pleasures Cupcakery).

Enjoy!

10:10:10 - are you doing something this Sunday?

The very observant of you will notice our new little 10:10 Blog logo, which makes a temporary appearance on this post and a permanent appearance on our side bar.

So, what is 10:10? Well, in it's own words:

10:10 is a movement of people, schools, businesses and organisations cutting their carbon by 10% in a year

And we have signed up. We aim to be as eco friendly here at claire potter design as we can, and this is another way we can show our commitment to the global cause. visit the 10:10 website here to sign up and get more info.

PLUS, 10:10:10 (10th October 2010) is the global day of doing, and we will be doing something nice on the streets of Brighton to help people reduce their food miles, grow at home, bake something tasty and with a bit of recycling thrown in.

We will be in the city centre, handing out 100 'Pumpkin Packs' which include FREE mini packs of pumpkin or squash seeds, along with a little plant pot to grown them in next spring (which are left over from our 2010 show gardens).

AND there will be a little temporary page on our website where the lucky recipients can get growing instructions for their pumpkins, along with recipes for their use!

But don't worry - if you don't get a free Pumpkin Pack you can still download our Pumpkin PDF and get the recipes for yourself!

Hopefully see some of you on Sunday! (we will be in the North Laines and the Lanes of Brighton, from around 10am.

underfloor heating Tubes...

It is quite ironic that I found this little posting via Inhabitat when our own Underground system is currently completely un-operational due to strikes, but hey ho.

With the energy crisis growing each day, it is wastefullness that many think should be tackled as a priority. If it is a crime to carbon pollute then surely it is more of a crime to waste a by-product of that very carbon useage? Shouldn't we be demanding the very best value for our (carbon) pound?

And for those of you who have ever travelled on the Underground in London, there is a shocking amount of waste energy floating about the air around all us. Some is generated by the trains, some by our very own bods as we sardine squeeze ourself into the cans on rails.

Heat.

Yep - have you ever thought as you sweat and puff around the tube how that heat could be used? Well, me neither, but fortunately, some clever bods in Paris have.

It was been calculated that every person entering the Metro emits around 100 watts of energy in body heat, which, when added to the heat generated by the trains themselves adds up to a lot of warmth.

So, this heat is to be harnessed to heat 17 apartments in a block above ground which is currently undergoing an eco transformation - directly above the Metro.

Brilliant. A huge ground source heat pump. sort of. But still brilliant.

and they dined by the light of a comet?

As the nights begin to draw in, but the temperature remains comfortable, exterior lighting is a must for the outdoor eating experience.

There are of course a huge amount of light sources suitable, from solar powered to low energy, but these are possibly some of the most beautiful.

Inspired by, and named after the Halley comet, the LED lighting system by Jordi Vilardell and Meritxell Vidal for Vibia is portable, connectable and beautiful - coming in three different configurations to fit any possible illumination project.

wonderful stuff...

sexy stumps to seats...

we love a good bit of upcycling here in the claire potter design studio, and we were delighted when we 'stumpled' (ho ho) over these very delicious stools.

made by Ubico Studio, the 'oli' stool is part of the 'stump' series which are all constructed from the small sections of offcut timber discarded by local carpenters.

good eh? what makes the product even better is that Ubico have passed some of the production onto a factory project which employs disabled workers - thus creating the stool into a socially involved piece of furniture.

lovely.

and we particularly love the industrial strap which bands the piece. very tasty indeed.

an evening at the Greenpower Centre...

Those of you who follow the studio on twitter would have seen a few tweets about a very nice event we attended last week.

Well, as things have been a little hectic this week (more news on this week to follow) we have only just got round to retelling the evening.

Organised by the wonderful South Coast Design Forum, this evening was affectionately called the 'summer do' and was an excuse to meet up in a brand new 'eco' location, eat some snacks, drink some wine and have a good old chinwag.

It was a very lovely evening.

First off we had a little tour of the building, which was built by Fordingbridge on their site as a showcase building to show clients their work, and has been rented on very reasonable terms to local engineering charity, Greenpower.

With a myriad of green technologies, the building functions as both an excellent and beautiful example of sustainable architecture.

Rainwater harvesting, passive solar gain and solar control canopies and external blinds feature on the exterior of the locally sourced glulam timber building, along with the simplest of green roofs I have ever seen. Awash with wildflowers and a few, erm, weeds, we were informed that the waste soil from the project was, well, plonked back on top of the roof with a scattering of seeds. However low-tech, it seems to be working very well indeed, and I will be very interested to see how the strip of pumpkins develop into the autumn...

Inside, the large thermal mass of the concrete foundation and floor helps to regulate temperature very simply, whilst a ultra high tech lighting system (with no wall switches) turns lighting on and off relative to the outside light levels and where you are in the building. Clever stuff.

A ceiling mounted electrical rig allows for a flexible working environment, and a separate mezzanine level is accessed via this truly beautiful bamboo staircase.

A wonderful evening in an inspirational building.

white night Brighton 2010...

a very quick post - we are very excited in the studio as we have been selected to produce an installation for the forthcoming White Night Brighton on 30 Oct 2010...

more details to follow (once we have stopped jumping about).

expect wind powered LED's, patterns of nature and an old boat...

giving paint a newlife...

I love my job.

I get to meet some really interesting people and specify some fantastic stuff to create some brilliant spaces. Wednesday was no exception as I had a mid week jaunt to the base of a very interesting paint company.

Many of you would have seen me (or heard me) talking about organic, low VOC, natural etc paint, but I have never talked about, or indeed found, recycled paint.

Not quite an alien concept as it sounds, there are groups which collect the waste remnants of paint that have been taken to recycling points at refuse collection sites across the UK and pass them onto charities through various community repaint projects.

But even with these sterling efforts, approximately 50 million litres of paint end up in landfill every year.

Step in Newlife paints.

They take all the recycled paints in (via the aforementioned recycling points), stack the cans into colour batches, then remix them in large blue containers to create a whole new batch of paint. This is then filtered, processed and repackaged for use as brand new paint.

As well as their standard 20 colours, they are also able to colour match paint to the customers requirements - all using paint which would otherwise be festering in landfill.

We think they are doing a sterling job with a real problem waste product - this really is upcycling at its best!

go check them out here...

STOP PRESS....... Just heard from Amy that Newlife Paints were awarded the Best Recycled Product 2010 at yesterdays National Recycling Awards - Well done Newlife!

that was the week that was...

Last week was pretty hectic here in the studio. there were a series of deadlines, a juggling of projects, an award to be awarded and two out-of-the-office trips.

It started relatively calmly, creating the outline concept for a new urban front garden for a gentleman on the sunny south coast. minimalist, lots of hedges and a variety of textural grasses and clipped forms. At the end of my scribbling I realised that it looked just like a screenshot from that good old '90's wonder, Tetras. I liked it very much. Fortunately, so did our client, so we are now pressing on with constructional drawings.

Next, we had to make an award. Not to go on our shelf you understand, but to be awarded to a graduate on the University of Sussex Product Design degree show - to the person, who, in our humble opinion could wear the badge of 'Best Eco Design 2010'.

We looked around the studio and found some bits and bobs and assembled this:

Made from recycled plastic with bank notes in, a hugely water damaged book, some screws and threaded rod and an old set of printers blocks. We were quite pleased with the finished effort.

So we then had to decide who was going to receive our assembled award, so I trundled up to the Falmer site of the University of Sussex to view the Innovate 2010 show.

I was blown away. The quality and range of projects was truly excellent and after much umming and aarhing I whittled it down to four very notable eco designs. And after even more umming I finally selected the winner.......(to be continued...)

Thursday found me whizzing up to Birmingham where the ever eclectic Gardeners' World Live show was squeezed into the stale halls and concrete expanses of the NEC, which has to be one of the most depressing places in all of the UK.

Once I had parked my car (to the tune of £8) and reminded myself that I was not in some technicolour 80's theme park I started to enjoy the show.

I loved the Girl Guides garden - there was something about the repetitional structure of the quote sticks against the waft of the wildflowers which particularly drew me in. Other lovelies included the rose Re-Bound garden by Andy Tudbury where I was allowed to sit on the pristine white bench and take in the scent that was captured in the space. The dappled shade on the hedges was lovely and the lawn was so flat you could have ironed a perfect crease on your trousers using it as a base.

I also caught up with Tom and Malcolm at Hooksgreen Herbs, and I was over the moon to hear that they were given a Gold medal for their exhibit. I was chuffed to bits for them and got a very stern look from the BBC film crew when I squealed with delight at the news.

Inside the sheds I found the fantastic James Alexander-Sinclair, who was working harder than a donkey on Blackpool beach in summer in the darkest corner of the NEC you could possibly find. Not the most inspiring of places, but James was lighting up the bleakness with his bright and sharp wit so no head torches were required.

After battling my way out of the car park I rumbled diagonally down the country to the lovely little market town of Bromyard where I was staying for the night before my Friday at the Three Counties Show.

The little sections I did see of Bromyard were lovely, which included my lovely little room in the beautiful Bay Horse pub on the High Street. A stunning oak beamed 16th C coach house, The Bay Horse was so full of character you could make a fortune bottling it and selling it to tourists. Everything was wonky, crittall windows creaked in the sun and it oozed history. Coffee in hand, I sat down and watched Gareth at Glyndebourne (which took me back a few years to when I was at music college) and relaxed for the first time in an age.

Breakfast was excellent, with a no-fuss vegetarian option and nice toast in a beautiful section of the dining room downstairs. Thank you to all of the Bay Horse - I can highly recommend it for a stay if you are around those parts...

A mini rally drive down to Malvern and I was at my second home, the Three Counties Showground for the Three Counties Show in watery sunshine.

I headed straight for our 25th Anniversary Garden, which had been developing over the last 5 weeks since it's first outing at the Spring Show. Like a proud mother hen, I clucked around the space, smiling at how lovely the Stipa tenuissima looked, how the fennel had developed into smokey bronze clouds and how the spots of alliums drew the eyes from one section of the garden to another.

Today, Monday the 21st June, it will be dismantled forever.

But, that is what happens with showgardens, they are fleeting.

After taking far too many photos, I wandered around the show with a massive handwoven willow dragonfly I had bought as a Father's Day present for my Dad and eventually met up with the beautiful and fabulous Nina Acton and the very lovely Mark Diacono who I had met a bit before. We all continued around the show, tasting some lovely beer, talking about yellow courgettes and buying more huge dragonflies made from willow. It was grand.

The drizzle signalled my departure from Worcestershire and after shoehorning the dragonflies into the car I whizzed back down south, with a brief delay on the ever predictable and accident laden M25.

What a week.

guerillas in our midst...

as the last post mentions, we have recently updated our website - something which was widely overdue but one of those things you just don't get around to doing.

Personal marketing is something that we all do without even realising (wearing particular clothes to display our affections to a certain genre, wearing a particular 'smell' to attract a certain type of person etc etc) .

Business marketing is a slightly different (and usually much more costly) to undertake. And if you are a business trying to be as 'green' as possible, the avenues become even more thinned out. Blanket flyers to a thousand homes and businesses may be a no no, even if they are recycled.

So are there ways of spreading the word about your business or cause in a different way?

Of course there are - guerilla marketing is a movement that we have all experienced in some way or another (from graffiti to empty spaces being transformed into temporary gardens) and there are a few people who are really trying to green up the whole consumerist world of information transfer.

We are in the process of starting our own eco guerilla marketing campaign, and we found a lot of inspiration from these guys.

watch this space for our little installations which should be popping up around Brighton in the next two months or so...