How to go greener for life

Just for a laugh I thought I'd take part in walk the Wight this year. It's an annual 26 mile trek across the spine Isle of Wight from Bembridge to Tennyson down (with many ups and downs on the way!!)in aid of the Earl Mountbatten Hospice here on the Island. BUT as I've got two toddlers it's a little difficult for me to get anywhere so instead I'm going to take part in the walk the flat Wight, an 8 mile walk along the site of the old railway line from Sandown to Newport. A breeze you may say, but unfortunately I will be taking along two toddlers and probably end up pushing them both in the pushchair making the 26 mile walk seem a doddle!!

The Earl Mountbatten Hospice is the only hospice on the Island and if you are lucky enough not to have had to come into contact with the work hospices do then you are blessed. But for the people that make use of their services they are vital. I have my own reasons for supporting them, and if you fancy helping me out with a small sponsorship donation I would be eternally grateful. Please visit my site at www.justgiving.com/donnanewnham for more details. And think of me on 17th May, trekking all that way with two grumpy toddlers and a probably even grumpier husband! But it is worth it.

........but they don't fall down!

Do you remember the Weebles? Fantastic egg shaped toys that had a whole range of things to do - camper vans, schools, playgrounds, farmyards..... the list was endless. But do you think I can find the blessed things?

ToysRus have one type available which is fine, unless you are looking for something other than a fairytale castle. Ebay had a few bits but not much that you could give as a main present. So what has happened to them? They were so popular when I was little and the kids (of both sexes) fight over the ones we have at the toddler group. Obviously they are still well thought of, by kids and parents alike, so why can't we find them? And I can't even look on Woolies site anymore (sob). Oh well, I suppose I'll have to go back to the drawing board on this one.

Oh Help!

It's my own fault, I know, but it really gets my goat when you buy a game from a charity shop or jumble sale and when you get it home you find that it hasn't got the rules sheet included!

I've always found that car boot sales, jumble sales, school fetes and charity shops are the best place to buy games for the family, especially at this time of the year. Most are old favourites that I used to play as a kid like Cluedo, Scrabble or Monopoly, but you occasionally come across some strange gems such as the Treasure Hunt Game (remember Anneka Rice?!) or the add on boxes for that die hard favourite Trival Pursuit. But why oh why can't people, when kindly donating, remember to either find the rules or hand write some out. Even the ones that they have being playing by is better than none at all.

So now, I am the proud owner of Dingbats, but without knowing how we're supposed to play it (it's for my husband and I, a bit of fun when the boys are at last in bed). Perhaps I'll look through my old ganes and start making a note of the rules. You never know when someone might need them.

The time has come to think of our feathered friends again (they don't understand the credit crunch!) For some more info on how you can help (on a budget) please check my hub at http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-help-the-wild-birds-in-your-garden Everyone can do something to help.

We all do it; buy too much of things we don't want or really need, and then at the end of the week we throw it all away. But with food prices soaring and the threat of global food shortage looming can we really afford to do this anymore?

Here's some tips to help you save money and waste!

Make a shopping list, and stick to it!

Don't be drawn in by the old 'buy on get one free' ploy. Very often it's things you don't need, won't use and is purely the supermarket's way of getting you to spend more money.

Plan your recipes ahead. That way when you shop you know what you need for the week.

Look for foods that at coming to their sell by date, especially if they can be frozen. But don't just buy for the sake of it; make sure you will actually use it first.

Make the most of what you've got. Don't throw food away if it can be made into another meal. Our problem is that we've all got too lazy. In my family a chicken would have been Sunday lunch for the six of us, sandwiches and even a meal the following day. Old fashioned recipes like bubble and squeak, bread and butter pudding (or bread pudding), stews soups and casseroles are all old favourites for using up leftover food.

So next time you have a meal have a think before you bin the rest. Could you make it into a tasty meal? Could you feed it to the birds (such as bread and pastries). You may be pleasantly surprised at how much you can save by making the most of what you have.

I've been putting some recipes together on my hub pages that make the most of leftovers. If you've got any more you can think of I'd love to hear them.

Something is happening to our bees. Please visit my hub to find out more on this really quite worrying subject.

I would like to say a big thank you. Firstly for those lovely men at Grangemouth that are going to strike this weekend. If you haven't heard it is a refinery in Scotland and it means that we will have a fuel shortage for possibly the next four weeks.

I would like to say thank you too to BP who are going to shut off a main line in that will affect gas and oil coming into the country, which will begin to cause panic down south too.

And my final big thank you is to the idiots who have started panic buying fuel (filling up gerry cans, topping up their cars every five minutes) so that now we DO have a fuel shortage in Scotland, even though we were told by just about every expert that if people were sensible there would be adequate fuel for everyone.

So why the Thank Yous? Two reasons. Firstly I have a little boy who has a health problem. If he needs hospital treatment there will now be difficulty for us to get to the hospital (it's over 30 miles away) or for the Ambulances to get to us as there is a fuel shortage. And secondly we are moving in three weeks time: for my son's benefit we are relocating back to the South coast, but how are we supposed to do that when there is little enough fuel for us to travel, let alone a funiture lorry.

So thank you to all those selfish people who are thinking purely of their own benefit and not of the rest of the country. Thank you for the inconveience, the extra worry and stress that this strike will bring.

I'm so sorry to have a moan like this but I'm having an awful year. Since my absolutely dreadful Christmas things have gone downhill. Most weeks one of us, if not all of us, have been ill - with colds, coughs, stomach bugs, ear infections and myself having an abscess in my breast, twice! My dad has to go in for a heart bypass and I'm over 600 miles away without a chance of getting to see him. He's 76. And to top it all I've now lost two of my cats; one died during the night. She was in the kitchen when I came in in the morning. My other cat passed away on Sunday. I am absolutely gutted as this has happened within three weeks and they meant the world to me. At the moment we are completely snowed in, my darling little Tim has had to be put in a freezer in the shed as the nearest pet crematorium is over an hour away (and the roads are impassable) and we rent so he can't be buried in the garden, and both my boys and myself are suffering from awful head colds that have lasted for around four weeks now. At least my husband hasn't got man flu yet; I'm just waiting for this to happen!

I would say it can't get worse, but know from experience it can!

Sorry to moan like this but am really feeling down and fed up at the mo.

So, it's pancake Day today - or to give it it's proper name Shrove Tuesday. Making pancakes actually came about by emptying your cupboard of all 'fancy' items (milk, eggs, flour, butter) so that your meals for the next 40 days (the Lent period) were simple and plain. Nowerdays people 'give up' more extravegant things such as chocolate, alcohol and cigarettes. Some of the top religious figures are asking that instead of giving up these items you give up something that will reduce your carbon emmisions - don't use your dishwasher, your tumble dryer or car. Make sure your chargers are switched off when not in use, that sort of thing.

But that isn't all you can do. You can also change something as well: choose fair trade goods such as chocolate, bananas, sugar, jam etc; buy recycled goods; buy something eco-friendly to clean your house with; avoid those 'luxury' goods that do more harm than good (pate fois gras for example).

Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, athiest, agnostic, Bhuddist, Jain, Sikh or Pagan (I hope I haven't missed anyone out), we can all do our bit, for forty days, forty weeks, forty months. Do one thing and see how good it is for your soul as well as everyone's wellbeing.

PS, I'm giving up chocolate which will be a real struggle with the stress of looking after two young children!

Ok, so now I'm a mum I'm taking a bit more notice of children orientated things and to my horror I find we've been 'Americanised'! Father Christmas no longer exsists to kids; now it's Santa on absolutely everything. How I hate that! And then I looked a little closer; when did schools start having proms? Why has halloween been hijacked into a trick or treat fest? Why are our children emulating their cross Atlantic cousins and just shoving our culture under the carpet?

Britain is very multicultural and we absorb so much of other peoples ideas, and whilst this isn't a bad thing it is sad that at the same time we seem to lose a little of our background snd heritage. In my household Father Christmas is still quite alive and I am teaching him to the boys - if we can hold off Santa for another couple of years I will be happy!!