Attracting wild bees to your garden – Result!
Insect Hotel
I put the Neudorff Insect Hotel on 26 March and today, 29 March I saw a tiny bee crawling into one of the holes!
Bee crawling into hole
We have a welcome guest. How good is that! Little did I expect such a fast response.
You can read our article about attracting Mason and other bees here.
We have an Insect Hotel to give away – details on the same webpage.
Val Reynolds, Editor
Online Shopping is Greenest … unless you walk! + Voucher Giveaway
Shopping online with a home delivery service is twenty four times ‘greener’ than a car journey to the shops¹
Delivery from Goodness Direct
Makes sense. One vehicle for lots of addresses, rather than every household burning its own petrol.
Of course, taking the bus is preferential (you have to get out of the house some time) but it can still be more eco-friendly to have your shopping delivered to your home – leaving you more time to do the things you like.
If you shop with Goodness Direct you’ll find even more ways to go green. They have thousands of ethical goods on their shelves, whether it’s organic foods, eco-cleaning products or earth friendly cosmetics.
It’s an Aladdin’s cave of natural products and ethical goodies. There’s fairtrade foods, cruelty free toiletries, natural baby products, organic fruit and veg and special diet foods. It makes shopping a breeze.
So paint each and every day a little more green with GoodnessDirect. Plus, online orders over £35 ordered online are delivered free to anywhere in the UK.
WIN A VOUCHER WORTH £35 to spend at the Goodness Direct website
We have a prize voucher £35 worth of GoodnessDirect shopping vouchers to give to one lucky In Balance reader! Using the form below enter the prize draw and be in with a chance of winning your first GoodnessDirect home delivery FREE!
Entries, limited to one per household, should reach us no later than 15 July 2011.
17 7 2011: Update: The winner was Pauline Gibson of London
Val Reynolds Brown, Editor
¹Green Logistics paper: Carbon Auditing the Last Mile: Modelling the Environment Impacts of Conventional and Online Non-food Shopping; J. Edwards, A. McKinnon and S. Cullinane, 2009
The Sun is Shining in the Sky …
Drumstick primula, sown May 2010
The sun is shining in the sky and it’s seed time! The most exciting time in my gardening year. The anticipation, the joy, the expectation. But then there is the labelling … I have so often sown the seed and not bothered to write a label thinking I won’t forget that particular tray.
Wrong! I have often forgotten and some seeds haven’t received the attention they need, especially those that take more than a month to germinate.
That’s all in the past. This year I have a labelling machine. A Brother P-touch GL200 and a wondrous machine it is too!
A dream machine it is a computerised, battery run labeller. Lightweight and so portable I can do the labelling in the garden if I want. In fact though, I generally print out the labels before I go into the garden, much easier to prepare the labels before I get my fingers muddy.
I can’t say enough good things about it, and so far, touch wood, I can’t think of anything negative. The labels are rainproof, humidity proof, fade proof, heat and frost resistant, can be on coloured tape. I can choose the typeface which can be small, medium or large, on a long or short strip. It has a built in date and time clock. You get to see the text before you print on a small screen, and it can be neatly cut. All I do is make sure I have enough plant sticks to add the label to! Easy. If you’re interested in the specification go to www.brother.co.uk/gl200
Actually I can think of a negative, the price of the replacement tape is a bit steep. But honestly the machine is so useful I can tolerate that, just.
Seed collected 2011
One of the uses I have put it to is to add an appropriate label inside the numerous plastic bags of seed I have collected last year. That way I know what those funny looking seeds really are this year and the label is ready to go. What joy!
My husband uses it for labelling his filing folders and I have used it for all kinds of jobs around the house and elsewhere – even the little plaque on a fence post giving the website address for our front garden!
Label weathering well
It is one of those gadgets I really wouldn’t be without.
RRP £27.55, available on Amazon Brother P-Touch Label Printer
Kate Campbell, Gardening editor
We have a Brother P-touch GL200 to GIVEAWAY to an In Balance reader. To enter the draw send an email to editorinbalance@me.com with Brother P-touch GL200 in the subject box and your full contact details in the text box. Entries to reach by latest 25 April 2011. One entry per household.
I Did It! So Can you! Give Up Smoking!
I was a 20-30 a day cigarette smoker from the age of 16. I shudder to think the condition of my lungs at 46 years old, 30 years later.
Smoking was enjoyable, mostly. A crutch to bridge the periods of boredom, the uncomfortable pauses in social events, to cover nervousness and to take away appetite, the relaxing effect after a meal. I used it and abused my body. Not that I ever thought much about that aspect.
Two things happened that brought it home to me just how unsociable smoking was to those who didn’t. One couple who socialised in their kitchen/diner would always put the extractor fan on when I lit up. I didn’t really notice because we were in the kitchen weren’t we, until someone else pointed it out and that made me so selfconscious I didn’t smoke in their house from then on.
On another occasion, on the way home from babysitting I realised I had left my handbag behind. I ran back to fetch it, and found my friends had opened all the windows and doors and were spraying odour killer around. I was horrified and somewhat ashamed that they felt so strongly about the smell of smoke.
So I could go for short periods without smoking when necessary which to me was almost as good as giving up.
However gradually my friends stopped smoking, and I was virtually the only in our group who puffed away. I began to feel selfconscious and the disapproval was palpable so I started to go outside to smoke.
All this happened years before the current smoking regulations came into force but I was determined to stop. And as Mark Twain said, it was easy, I did it lots of times!
I tried herbal cigarettes, herbal tablets, hypnosis but in the end it was sheer willpower, self disgust and exasperation that finally tipped me into the smoke free habit, together with using chewing gum loaded with nicotine. I gradually managed to reduce and have now been totally smoke free for more than 15 years.
In truth I would have much preferred to use a more natural product and when I heard of the new Rescue Chewing Gum I really wanted to tell everyone about, but especially anyone who is really desperate/keen to junk those cancer sticks.
Chewing gum really did help me, I felt calmer. Recent research has shown that chewing gum helps to relieve nervousness, improve alertness and reduce stress. Research also shows that chewing gum for an hour in the morning seems to reduce the appetite to some extent. But the reason why I am so interested in the Rescue Chewing Gum is the natural ingredients used, each piece of chewing gum has a liquid Rescue centre – the famous combination of five flower essences discovered by Dr Bach almost 80 years ago.
Suitable for vegetarians a month’s supply comes in a handy portable box ideal for taking Rescue on-the-go. Rescue Gum costs £3.95 and is available from Boots, Holland & Barrett, Lloyds Chemist, independent pharmacies and health food stores as well as grocery stores nationwide. For more information visit www.rescueremedy.co.uk
Why not buy some on your way home tonight and take the decision to stop smoking – It’s No Smoking Day tomorrow, let Rescue get you going!
Tips to help:
Keep an eye on your progress – keep a chart, by day
Keep your hands busy – get going on those word puzzles, sodoku, whatever that are in every paper these days
Give yourself targets of really positive treats – a weekend break, an active goal – climb that mountain! Yes, you’ll feel more energetic as all those toxins slowly leave your body
Acknowledging a dependence on nicotine and tobacco is a crucial first step and can be the all-important catalyst that smokers need to seek professional medical help and succeed in become smokefree.
There are Stop Smoking Services provided for free by the NHS. This support has been shown to increase a smoker’s chances of stopping by up to four times, compared with going it alone.
Why not join the million smokers who will use tomorrow to try to quit. It could just work.
Or perhaps you know someone who is desperate to give up smoking and might benefit from some help? You could make it your Good Samaritan deed for today! and tomorrow …. why not for the next twelve days! If you help just one person to quit smoking wouldn’t that be worth the effort?
Good luck!
Kate Campbell, Contributing journalist
GIVEAWAYS
Our contribution is to GIVEAWAY a month’s supply of Nelsons Rescue Gum to TEN In Balance readers.
To enter the draw send an email to editorinbalance@me.com with NELSONS RESCUE GUM in the subject box and your contact details in the text area. Make sure your entry reaches us by 18 March 2011. One entry per household. The draw is restricted to readers resident in the UK.
Afraid of Cancer?
anti cancer – a new way of life
At the time of this updated edition of his book Dr David Servan-Schreiber has lived cancer free for ten years. In this book he tells what he has learned, both scientifically and personally.
Dr Servan-Schreiber was diagnosed with cancer of the brain when he was working as a medical resident in Pittsburgh.
Anticancer turns fear on its head – it is simply all the best, most thorough and quite amazing research on how you can build your body’s natural defences, whether you have cancer or not.
It is a myth that cancer is primarily linked to our genetic make-up – our lifestyle is the major determining factor and there is so much we can do to help boost our body’s natural capacity for protection.
We can:
Guard ourselves from the imbalances of our environment – adjust our diet, cutting back on cancer promotoers and including the greatest number of foods that help prevent, and actively fight, tumours
Create a relationship with our bodies that stimulates the immune system – understand and heal the psychological wounds that feed cancer
This truly groundbreaking, positive book has swept the world by storm, taking its place at the top of the bestseller charts.
Dr Servan-Schreiber makes the most compelling and inspiring case for playing a part in your own health.
I found this a most compelling read. It has the ring of authenticity and written in non-medical terms
When we heard a dear friend had been diagnosed with multiple melanoma we were devastated and felt helpless. Finding this book has made a huge difference to our understanding of cancer from the point of view of the sufferer and gave us more confidence to keep in touch with him. I have given my copy to him and I’m confident it is the most positive gift I can give. I’m sending a copy to another friend who is in remission and again I’m sure she will find it of huge interest and a source of hope and inspiration.
I would urge anyone touched by cancer to buy this book and pass it on, or better still send a copy as a gift to those about whose health they are concerned.
Anticancer is published by Penguin in both hard and soft back, www.penguin.com ISBN978-0-718-15684-8
It is also available on Amazon Anticancer: A New Way of Life
GIVEAWAYS
Penguin has provided In Balance with FIVE copies of Dr Servan-Schreiber’s book, anti cancer to giveaway to In Balance readers. To enter the draw send an email to editorinbalance@me.com with Anti Cancer in the subject box and your full contact details in the text box to reach us by 30 March 2011. One entry per household.
Val Reynolds Brown Editor
In Balance 