Category: Uncategorized

How to open a .zip file – a simple guide for Windows, Mac and Gnu/Linux.

Here are some instructions for downloading and opening a .zip file on Windows, Gnu/Linux and Mac OS respectively.

Windows

  1. Download the file by clicking (or double clicking) on the link.
  2. Find the file, for example, it may be in your “downloads” folder.
  3. Right Click on the .zip file and select “Extract All”
  4. If this fails download 7-zip from https://www.7-zip.org/download.html (the 32 bit exe file should work on all windows installations) and run the installer file.
  5. Once the install has completed, right click on the file, move down to the 7-zip sub-menu and select ‘extract here’.

Gnu/Linux

  1. Download the file by clicking (or double clicking) on the link.
  2. Find the file, for example, it may be in your “downloads” folder.
  3. Right click on the zip file and select ‘Open with Archive Manager.’
  4.  Click on the Extract button.                    
  5.  Select the location to which you wish to extract the file and select ‘Extract.’

Mac OS

  1. Download the file by clicking (or double clicking) on the link.
  2. Find the file, for example, it may be in your “downloads” folder.
  3. Double-click the .zip file. This should automatically activate a built-in extraction program.
  4. If the above fails, head to https://www.zipeg.com/ and download the the Mac OS installer.
  5. After installation, right click on the or left click whist holding down the Apple key and select open with and then select Zipeg.

With Love from London, Berlin and Poznan

Hello Everybody, Joey and I just got back from a work-travel-holiday thing in London, Berlin and Poznan (Poland) and so we thought we would share some of our pictures. You can see a ton of them below, but here are the highlights and a rundown by Anna.

First of all, I was in London taking part in a manual writing sprint about editing video using Free Software. I stayed on the Stubnitz, a former shipping vessel made in 1960’s East Germany. The Ship was pretty amazing on its own, but the contrast with the area where it was docked, Canary Wharf, was stunning! Here are my two favourite pictures of the outside of the ship.

The Ship and The City
The Ship and The City
Algorave

The trip was lots of hard work, and we wrote what promises to be a really great manual (my chapters are on Kdenlive) and we had a lot of fun too. My favorite fun part was the Algorave on Friday night, which was on down in the ships cargo hold / night club. All in all, The Stubnitz is amazing, but its only in the UK for a few more weeks now. There will be an Algorave on the last night, so well worth a trip down there if you can make it!

Anyway, I got back from London at about 1.30 am on the Sunday morning and by 2pm the same day Joe and I were off to the airport to go to Berlin. Anna had some meetings to attend in the FSFE offices, so we decided to make a holiday out of it.

The dog who gets paid for being adored!

Berlin is an amazing city, there so much light and space (and lots of Vegan food) and we had a really good time. We went on a bus tour and also did some sightseeing “by feet” (as my German friends would say). We met a dog who got paid for being fussed (left) and saw some stunning buildings. We also found out that while most of the buildings look quite old, actually, many of them were rebuilt after the war right through to the 1980’s and 90’s.

Bullet Holes in a statue

Even today, buildings are being rebuilt to their original designs. We also saw, once prompted, that there are still many signs of WW2 in Berlin today, particularly bullet holes in buildings and statues. The Statue (right) is next to The Brandenburg Gate, and he lost something kinda essential that way… lost his privates… poor chap!

We also visited the Holocaust Memorial near The Brandenburg Gate. It was a very strange place, an odd mix of stillness and noise, big silent stones, light and shadow mixed with locals picnicking in the sun and American tourists in socks and sandals. The contrast between the abstract calm and the mundane busy is amplified by the sudden changes from one to the other: because of all the corners, you can be suddenly alone and then suddenly surrounded by people again. It wasn’t at all the deeply contemplative place I have imagined. Below is my favorite photo of the Memorial, it’s totally deserted except for the foot of someone just about to walk into shot.  I like it so much because it made me realise that the battle between irritation and contemplation which the memorial creates is very much part of the artwork, and has lots of lessons to teach us.

Anna's favorite photo of The Holocaust Memorial

Anyway, Joey and I love Berlin and can’t wait to visit again. However, we decided to squeeze a few days in Poland into our trip before we headed home!

We chose to visit Poznan because it was the closest big city to Berlin. While it is mostly industrial, we found it was really beautiful and interesting. Like Berlin, large parts of the city that look to be old are actually rebuilt. This area of the old town was totally leveled in the war, but it has been re-made beautifully, with modern designs but old materials.

Restored buildings in Poznan

We really liked the attitude of the Polish, for example, the tourist shops sold quite a lot of handmade things, paintings, pottery and sculptures, for example, rather than just standard souvenir stuff. And also, many of the people in the countryside build their own houses – and they build them just the way they like them. So, in any given hamlet there can be houses with totally different styles from different countries and eras all in a row – it was really fascinating to see. We found some really amazing things in Poznan too – for example, we went to look at the cathedral, and it turned out to be the birthplace of Christianity in Poland. We saw a kind of font there, a large stone basin, dated around the year 900 AD! It was really beautiful and probably one of the oldest spiritual artifacts I have ever seen.

Font - from 900 ad

We also saw a clock on the town hall which has two wooden goats that come out at midday and have a fight, that was pretty cool, and we had yummy pizza and beer in a pub that had saddles instead of bar-stools!

We really did have a wonderful trip, but it was totally exhausting! We are just going to go camping for the next few holidays, keep things nice and simple 😉 Anyway – for now, farewell from London, Berlin and Poznan!

Joey and Anna on the way home

Enjoy the rest of the photos!

Love from

Anna & Joey

Ethical Pets

Bike North Birmingham and Bike Everyone – what they do.

Joey and I are keen to start cycling, and we think this Project in Birmingham is really great! They have so much to offer so its well worth a look if you live locally (Anna’s Grandma lives in Erdington by the way, another reason we love this project so much). In putting together our cycle themed newsletter we have learned loads about how green cycling is, how useful bikes are and the cool stuff can be done with your bike when its old. All in all, we are pretty impressed with bikes! This is What Bike North Birmingham had to say:

NB: THIS PROJECT HAS NOW ENDED

Bike Everyone is part of the Bike North Birmingham project and we are making it easy for residents of Erdington and Sutton Coldfield Constituencies to get on their bikes! With cycle routes in and around the area and with more to come – our aim is to make cycling more accessible for the ‘may be’ cyclist’, whether it’s cycling to work, to the shops or purely for pleasure and fitness.

Bike North Birmingham was launched in April 2012 and in its first year up to December 2012, and despite the poor weather, we managed to attract over 350 adults and families on to our leisure rides.  Over 112 adults took part in the Learn to Ride Programme over 100 bikes have been loaned out for up to 6 months giving people the opportunity to really think about buying a bike for good. The short term hire bikes have been loaned out over 250 times and many people have reported that thanks to the project their travel habits are changing and they feel they are becoming fitter as a result.

To help people discover the joys of cycling, we offer:

FREE bike hire:

For individuals, friends and families, borrow a bike for the day and get out and explore some of the parks and cycle routes in the North of Birmingham. Bikes are available from our two new cycling hubs at Erdington and Wyndley Leisure Centres.

FREE long term loan of bikes:

Need a bike to get to work or help cut the cost of getting around? Thinking about buying a bike but not sure? Borrow one of ours for a few months to help you decide!

FREE cycle training:

If you’ve never ridden a bike before or haven’t cycled for a while, or maybe you just need a confidence boost, book some sessions with us!

FREE Commuter training:

Do you want to be more confident on the road and perhaps cycle to and from work, we can help with 1 -1 training!

FREE Leisure Rides:

and other cycle activities

Fun group rides with qualified Ride Leaders for cyclists of

all abilities

FREE Cycle maintenance classes:

Learn some basic maintenance to keep your bike in a good condition

Some up and coming activities for you to join in with in the next couple of months are:

Easy Riders Cycling Group – a Wheelie Friendly way to cycle!

Weekly on Wednesdays at 10am

Normal Starting Point: Brookvale Park

Level: Gentle – Moderate

Cycling around and about from the tranquil Brookvale Park and other locations. Why not come along to enjoy a sociable and satisfying morning bike ride?

Health and Fitness Rides

Weekly on Thursdays at 10am

Starting Point: Brookvale Park

Level: Gentle – Leisurely

Do you want to Lose Weight? Stop Smoking? Get Fit? Cycling can help! So why not get on a bike and ride towards a healthier lifestyle? Feel great about yourself!

Aston Hall for Tea

Sunday 16th June 2013 at 11:30am – 1:30pm

Starting Point: Brookvale Park by the Sailing Club, B23 7SL

Level: Leisurely/ Moderate

Cycle back in time to 17th Century surroundings; feel refreshed from time in the tea rooms and a wander around the idyllic gardens and grounds. 10% discount in tea rooms!

Find The Fort by Bike

Starting Point: Erdington Leisure Centre [Pool], B24 9EJ

Fri 14th June at 12pm – 1pm and Sunday 7th July at 10am – 11am

Level: Leisurely/Moderate

Find out how quick and easy it is to get to The Fort Shopping Park from Erdington by bike!

Lots more rides on www.bikenorthbirmingham.org.uk (website has now changed hands) – don’t forget to book by calling us on 464 1020

FREE Basic Cycle Maintenance courses and workshops

Our five session courses will introduce you to basic cycle maintenance in a relaxed and supportive environment.  You don’t need any experience, just the desire to get hands on and skilled up!

Courses cover: Puncture repairs, replacing inner tubes, headsets, handlebars and stems, set up and adjustment of brakes and gears and how to index them too.

Tuesdays 7pm – 8.30pm

4th ,11th,18th,25th June, 2nd July at Kingsbury School and Sports College, B24 8RE

Wednesdays 7pm – 8.30pm

5th , 12th. 19th, 26thJune, 3rd July

Clifton Road Youth and Community Centre, B73 6EB

To book any of our activities call 0121 464 1020

Activities open to Leisure Card holders residing in Erdington and Sutton Coldfield Constituencies.

Continue reading “Bike North Birmingham and Bike Everyone – what they do.”

Joey’s Animal Facts Vol. 5 – Tweet Tweet

Joey’s Animal Facts!

Over the past few months we have have focused on the extremes of the whole animal kingdom. This month however we are going to look at one particular group: the birds!

In previous months you’ve seen the fastest birds and the smallest, but did you know that the largest and strongest living bird is the North African ostrich? Males can be up to 274cm tall and weigh 156kg, and when fully grown they have one of the most advanced immune systems of any animal. Ostriches also hold the record for biggest eyes of any land animal, the biggest egg, as well as having the longest stride and fastest sprint on land.

Here’s a whole flock of avian facts: The bird with the longest migration is the Arctic Tern which travel a distance of 22,400km. The highest flying bird in the world is the Bar-Headed Goose which has been seen flying as high as 10,175m. The bird with the longest wingspan (of 3.63m) is the Wandering Albatross, which is also the largest “tubenose” species. The bird with the fastest wing beat is the Horned Sungem, a hummingbird from South America who’s wings flap 90 times a second. The slowest flappers are the New World Vultures averaging one per second. The fastest swimming bird is the Gentoo Penguin found on the Antarctic Islands which can swim at 40km per hour and the bird with the longest lifespan is the Macaw, with a recorded age of 109 years old!

One final flying fact… did you know that, before mankind arrived, the only mammals in New Zealand were three species of bats. Over it’s 65 million year isolation from any other land mass, New Zealand became a land of birds. The ecological niches normally occupied by mammals as different as wolves, kangaroos and rodents, were filled instead by reptiles, insects, and of course birds.
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Ethical Buisness: Ethical Life. Vol 5.

EBEL logoMeet Claire. She’s a real force of nature and yes… we have found in her yet another Ethical Business Superstar! Claire’s thing is Bikes: she likes riding them, fixing them… she even Married a bicycle repair man! Oh, and the other thing she does with bikes is up-cycle them into gorgeous jewelery and accessories. Yes. She is very very cool! Read more about Claire in our interview with her below, and checkout her web-shop too!

 

Way back, where did all of this eco stuff this begin for you?

From an early age, I always had a pencil in my hand. Apart from when I was running around or swinging off something. I started a fine art degree which seemed the natural thing to do, but found it wasn’t what I expected. I moved away from art and design for a few years and spent my time in community work with children and young people, which I love. But my creative streak and love of design always stayed with me. Since I was a child I was very aware of our impact on the world. I spent time raising money for environmental charities like GreenPeace. I was horrified that we were responsible for a hole in the ozone layer, or chopping down rainforests.

Buying a mountain bike in my late 20’s changed my life. It led me to my local bike shop, where I was to meet mechanic Rob (now the shop owner – and my husband!) Spending years riding together developed my love of all things ‘bicycle’.

So, when did you start Bits of Bike, why and how did it go?

I don’t like waste. I do like the unusual. Surrounded by junk at the bike shop, I felt inspired to recycle the scrap into something unique. My first endeavor was making coat hooks out of some old racing bike handle bars. The result was a striking, distinctive and functional object, saved from the junk heap! I began to get compliments on my designs. Then came the jewelery, and other ideas began to flow. From this, ’Bits of Bike’ began to evolve.

What kit did you need to begin with?

Up-cycled Belts made from bike tyres and cogs

I started with nothing but a collection of waste bicycle items. I needed to buy some basic workshop tools and ‘jewelery findings’ (clasps, necklace end caps etc). At present, I make all the packaging myself from recycled card, and mountain bike magazines.

How did you start selling things?

At first I thought I would venture out to local craft fairs. Sales wise, this was hit and miss, but I got positive feedback. I decided to develop my website. I used the open-source web design tool, ‘Wordpress’. It really suited my needs, and I am grateful of such an amazing, free resource. I barely advertised and it was a couple of months before I got my first on-line sale. I bounced around the house for about half an hour. I still get butterflies every time I make an online sale!!

A bracelet made from bike chain links

So far, it has been hard to juggle a full time job with developing Bits of Bike on the side. On the other hand, I have had the financial stability to develop the initial stages of Bits of Bike. However, I was recently redundant from the public sector and so I am giving BitsofBike a go full time. I am expecting to need to have another income too at some point. It is exciting and scary. But it feels so good to be in control and doing something positive and productive.

Where do you think Bits of Bike is going?

My goal is to develop an ethical urban cycle clothing and accessories company. At this early stage, whatever I make mostly goes straight back into growing BitsofBike. In five years, I would like to make my company and my life carbon neutral. But for now, I am just aiming towards making enough to paying my bills!

Describe an average day in the life of you.

My workshop is at the bottom of my garden. I am up and at it by 8:30am after an essential cup of tea. I prefer to have the doors wide open to listen to the birds which makes me happy and keeps me motivated. I will spend a lot of my day making things for orders that have come in, or to add to my website. An integral trip to the post office to send out any orders takes place mid afternoon. Variety is the spice of life, so there is always time for experimentation and design. Music and dancing keeps the spirit up (and the toes warm mid winter). I don’t stop work till my head is whizzing and my stomach rumbles around 7pm.

What else do you do?

I committed to volunteering for Sustrans sustainable transport, and Breeze Cycle Network, to encourage more women to get out on their bikes.

Do you have any pets?

We have a rescue boa constrictor. She has a large enclosure in our bedroom. Mum wont come to stay because of her.

Do you have a conventional or unusual life style

I see myself as pretty conventional. I try to be conscious of my impact on the world. This influences my lifestyle. I love growing my own food on our allotment. There is nothing better that making a meal that I have nurtured myself from seed. My clothes all come from charity shops! A product of our throw-away society is that I get to have nice but cheap clothes, and support charities. I need time for myself playing out in the woods with my husband on my mountain bike. I like to feel close to nature. I like to be outside. Whatever the weather. Also, everyday I ride my bike. To commute or to have fun. I rarely drive.

What are your ethical principles and how do they guide and motivate you?

There are so many causes that inspire me. In general, personal and social responsibility is really important to me. It’s human nature to want to advance and move forward. But having the world and each other at the core of what we do is key. There are so many sustainable resources around us. Its just doesn’t make sense to me to do it any other way.

Any words of wisdom?

It may be cheesy, but I fell in love with ‘Desiderata’ as a teenager. My favorite quote is from this poem:

” You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”

Meet Claire. She's a real force of nature and yes... we have found in her yet another Ethical Business Superstar! Claire's thing is Bikes: she likes riding them, fixing them... she even Married a bicycle repair man! Oh, and the other thing she does with bikes is up-cycle them into gorgeous jewellery and accessories. Yes. She is very very cool! Read more about Claire in our interview with her, and checkout her web-shop too!

Sustainability Spring Fair – Q and A

logoHere is an interview with Barbara Street and Lorraine Cookson, organisers of the Sustainability Spring Fair in Birmingham.

What is the Spring Sustainability Fair about?

The Sustainability Spring Fair is an entertaining, creative, educational and sustainable fun day out to celebrate Climate Week 2013. The Fair is being held at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens on Saturday 9 March from 10.00am – 4.00pm. This year, we’re having two stage shows featuring local bands and dancers, magic and fun to keep everyone entertained, a fair-trade and ethical market, Love Food Hate Waste cooking demonstrations and people will have the chance to sign up for the Birmingham Green Deal at the energy road-show. There are plenty of activities for the kids like making things from “scrap,” learning to juggle at the Circus workshop or having a go at sumo wrestling and playing giant games out on the lawn.  And of course there are the beautiful grounds, glass houses and aviaries of the Botanical Gardens for everyone to stroll around and enjoy for free!

A smooth(ie) ride!

Entrance to the Fair and Botanical Gardens is FREE with a printed copy of the flyer available here.

Who funds this event?

This event is sponsored by the Botanical Gardens, Carillion, and Co-op Membership with a lot of support from Fair-trade Association Birmingham volunteers and many other green practitioners who want to get their message out. Birmingham Botanical Gardens are a hub for Green events and initiatives in Birmingham and will be a Green Deal Beacon for Birmingham in the near future. This event is kick starting a new phase of this re-development.

What is your role in the event – what do you do from day to day?

I am a joint organiser of the Fair with my colleague Lorraine Cookson. Lorraine Cookson is the Sustainable Living Initiatives Officer and we both deal with Behaviour Change Engagement and events to promote Environmental Sustainability.  We are also being helped by Malcolm Currie from Globally Local who’s setting up the Fair-trade and Ethical Market and Tom Hyland from The  Stage Bus who is directing the entertainment.

band playing
Music to your ears...

My day to day role is as Partnership Support Officer to the Climate Change and Environment team and it varies from setting up meetings, events, conferences, workshops and visits by European delegations to minuting meetings right through to doing publicity for events like the Fair.

Have you got any advice for people running similar events?

Leave plenty of time to set up your event and try and think of every eventuality!  Although of course you can’t and something will always catch you out! Put as much inside as you can with a contingency plan to put things outside at the last minute. Promotion is key send as much promotional material as you can to as many people as you can.

anna talking to a customer
Our stall last year...

Ethical Pets will have a stall at the Sustainability Spring Fair where you can come and buy lots of sustainable products for your pets (inducing spring essentials such as a herbal wormer and a fox poo remover!)


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Joeys Animal Facts Vol.3 – Tall and Loud!

Joeys Animal Facts

Last month we looked at the largest animals in the world, a list dominated by the whales and sharks. Keeping with the theme, this month we will learn about some of the tallest and longest animals – but this time staying on dry land (I think we have all had enough of water for now, what with all that snow and rain!). Here at Ethical Pets we have quite a menagerie of cats and dogs – but none of them are very tall. The tallest dog in the world was a Great Dane, measuring 7 feet and 2 inches (218.44 cm) from head to tail. On the feline side, the Savannah cat rises above all else – with the tallest so far measuring 17.1 inches (43 cm) from shoulder to toe. The tallest land animal is of course the Giraffe, which can grow up to 20 feet tall (just think of a two story terraced house) but the longest of all animals is the Bootlace Worm, which has been recorded as measuring 55 meters long (wow!). Now lets checkout the loudest animals. The loudest insect is the Cicada which is similar to a grasshopper: they sing during the mating season, and the bigger the cicada the louder its song. The loudest measured cicada song was 106.7 decibels, that’s louder than a subway train! And it seams that size really does matter when it comes to noise, as the loudest of all animals is also the biggest – the Blue Whale. Along with Fin Whale, Blue Whales can make a foghorn blast of up to 188 decibels – that’s louder than  a rocket launch.

Have you got a question about animals? Email Joey and ask away!

Get your next installment of “Joey’s Animal Facts” by signing up to our monthly newsletter “The Ethical Pets Gazette”

Ethical Buisness: Ethical Life. Vol 3.

Welcome tEBEL logoo Ethical Business: Ethical Life – we aim to showcase the people behind the amazing Ethical Businesses we meet through running Ethical Pets.This third edition is about Tanya Vaughan, an interior designer from Lincolnshire. We met Tanya only a few weeks ago, when she bought one of our Eco Donut beds for her dog Wrighty – we got to chatting and well… as you can see, she is pretty inspiring!

When did you start your ethical business, what are your ethical principles and how do they guide and motivate you?

I hadn’t set out specifically to start an ethical business, or indeed a business at all! I had been decorating and designing houses for years without stopping to think about it, from digging my own drainage trenches (never again…) to shipping a huge pair of doors back from Morocco, to mount on a wall. It took a long time to twig that I should transform this passion into a business.

picture of design plans
Tracing paper plans – recyclable!

The idea was easy enough, having run my own market research business for a number of years, and the only challenge was my confidence – essentially putting myself on the line. What if no-one likes my ideas? The answer to that, in my business, is very easy – they just won’t hire you. The ones who do like it, will. A nerve-wracking realization.

For me, running my business ethically has just been a natural integration of what I do at home, and taking that into the workplace. From printing as little as possible, to choosing FSC certified paper for my letterhead or paying a little bit extra for green energy, the way I do everyday tasks translate very well from home to business. My studio is a couple of minutes walk from home, and I live in Stamford, which is a bustling and cosmopolitan market town with a wealth of independent shops, and small businesses to serve me, all within walking distance.

In re-designing a house, a room,  considering knocking an existing building down and starting again, you begin to take notice of how much can get discarded, whether it’s an old chair, a cheap sofa that was bought as a stop-gap, or the bricks & mortar of a 1950s bungalow making way for a sleek and contemporary family home. You certainly notice new things. Some of them are utterly gorgeous. Clients want them.  So in an arena where the acquisition of things seemingly plays such key role, I ask myself all the time, how can I make this sustainable?

So, how do you make designs sustainable?

Fundamentally, I support good design. Good design means a lot of things. What it doesn’t mean to me is spending money for it’s own sake, to brag, show-off, or provide fleeting excitement and interest only to be discarded when the next thing comes along. There are products designed specifically to attract these people. I am not interested, and I won’t recommend them to clients. I am also unlikely to be dealing with that kind of client! I am constantly on the lookout for vintage and antique pieces, re-using what already exists in the world, sometimes with an update, sometimes used in a different way to which it was intended. When looking at anything new, I am interested in products that are designed with a lot of thought, that are made by people who are paid a fair wage for what they do.  I look for products that are designed with longevity in mind, so that they will be kept for a very long time – even if that means being sold or given to someone else. Because if they are not, they only end up in one place – landfill.

The most important thing about the fabric of any building is how it stores and uses energy. So regardless of whether it’s made of timber, concrete, steel, or glass, how that structure retains heat, or keeps out heat, is key. This is one of the most sustainable aspects of building, and taken in it’s wider sense, can mean things like putting in large glass panels with specifications that far exceed the regulations, which not only keep the heat in, but positioned correctly, can let more sunlight in in the winter to help heat the room inside. Making it nice and toasty inside is one thing, given the right design and materials, a sustainable building is one that is going to serve it’s purpose for a very long time to come, contributing positively to the lives of the people who use it.

Describe an average day in the life of you.

I generally get up any time from 6, as I have so much to do. It’s a luxury to sit with a cup of tea in PJs answering emails or checking information on-line and watching the sun come up, particularly if I am staying in Norfolk to oversee the project that is taking up most of my time at the moment, where a blue jay and a woodpecker shout loudly on the trees outside the kitchen window.

photo of Wrighty the dog
Wrighty. Now 14, he is a bit deaf and grey round the chops…

I can be working on plans, whether its working out wall thicknesses for bespoke door frames, or drawing elevations, or I can be chasing sub-contractors, checking quotes, placing orders, or sourcing lighting or furniture. Site visits involve warm clothes, a tape measure and a sense of humor – there is always something to throw a spanner in the works! If something really hasn’t gone to plan, then a blast on the beach with the mutt usually de-stresses me and I can come back with a clear head to think through a creative solution. Having a project in such lovely countryside is a fundamental part of how I want the business to continue – being able to stay here for several days a week to project manage is such a treat. When the sun hits the sand dunes and the salt marsh, with the grasses rustling and the colors all greys and greens, I have no desire to jet away to remote shores.

wedding photo
On Tanya’s Wedding… “We used local suppliers for almost everything, even the deck chairs that people sat on during the ceremony.”

I regularly get out and about searching for stuff – fabric, furniture, light fittings, and often find myself at antiques fairs, or dealers’ showrooms to view something in particular that might work for a specific room. I always love getting something old into a scheme, and love being part of the decorative industry that finds value in these beautifully crafted objects with all of their history and patina of age. Sometimes this means working with a designer-maker directly, for example here in Norfolk I have found wonderful craftspeople making wall hangings, a pottery that makes ceramic pendant lights, even the builders, who might not have built a wall with that finish before, but working together we make it happen and we haven’t had to either compromise on the design, or ship in some expensive and unnecessary expertise or product from elsewhere – my first stop is always local craftsmen and tradespeople.

Any words of wisdom?

Put your flag in the ground, stand tall and be passionate about your business. In the words of Aung San Suu Kyi “If you have chosen a certain path ..walk it with satisfaction and with determination and try not to make it appear as a tremendous sacrifice…Whatever you do out of your own free will, that should be a gift that you give to life or to those whom you love”

All links below were broken so have been removed

Tanya’s website is having a little makeover at the moment, but check out her Facebook and Twitter to see more of her amazing designs and wonderful, ethical, life. Here is what Tanya had to say about Ethical Pets:

“I just wanted to say how impressed I am by your ethical policy statement. Most ethical policies I have read seem a bit vague.. yours is so comprehensive regarding all aspects of your business and personal lives. I will be forwarding your website address to many friends I know who will be really interested!”

Joey’s Animal Facts V1 – Life in the Fast Lane

Life in the fast-lane…

Which animal is the fastest? The fastest animal on land is the Cheetah (61mph/98km/h), with the Pronghorn Antelope (60mph/97km/h) coming in a very close second, and the Lion third place (50mph/80km/h).

In the water the speeds get even greater, with the Sailfish reaching speeds of 101mph (68km/h). Marlin come in at a relatively distant second clocking 80mph (50km/h) and the Wahoo (78mph/48km/h) winning the bronze medal.

At the top of the animal time sheets, however, are the birds: in level flight the Spine-Tailed Swift is the Usain Bolt of the animal world recording speeds of 171mph (106km/h). Coming in second and third are the Frigate bird 153mph (95km/h) and the Spur-Winged Goose 142mph (88km/h).

The 171mph Spine-Tailed Swift is not the fastest an animal can naturally travel, however. The Tom Daley of the bird world, aka The Peregrine Falcon, reaches astonishing velocities breaking the 200mph mark when Diving – but that’s gravity aided.