Posts by — faycuthbertson

Cooler than Beth Ditto

Seed sales have risen by 60% since the beginning of the credit crunch as consumers tighten their belts and prepare for an era of food rationing

Growing vegetables has moved from being a pursuit for wrinkly old allotment holders to an essential element of survival for families everywhere. Yesterday I got a bunch of rainbow carrots, as well as a bunch of rainbow chard from an allotment owner. (more…)

You can take it anywhere

Remote mountaintop? Private island? Ancient woodland? Not a problem.

Today’s prefab structures allow you to commune with nature in high style with a minimal environmental footprint. Here are a few examples from an article in the National Post:

Pavilion House modular home from Toronto’s Mafco (www.mafcohouse.com)

Where and why: Developed for Ontario’s lakeshore properties (more…)

Nigel Hargreaves lives on the eastern seaboard of Australia. He sent us his hopes for an off-grid future:

Its warm in here!

My first residence in Australia was a wooden shed which some friends and I converted using re-cycled Australian hardwood timber.
I had two 75W PV panels to supply electricity to a bank of six 2V ex-telephone exchange, alkaline batteries. Most of the lights were single, hi intensity laser diodes. There was a 600W inverter for conventional stuff like a stereo and laptop computer.

Bottled gas was my cooking fuel and occasionally, when my roof-fed water tank was up, I would light a fire under a cast-iron bath outdoors for a hot bath, using off-cuts and litter from the surrounding woodland. I also had a pot-belly stove which heated the place in the winter, but my roof insulation was lacking and a great home for rats coming in from the cold! (more…)

Horsedrawn heaven

On the lookout for an affordable holiday home in the mountains? Try Austria for a modern fairytale unfolding in a charming eco-aware village. The Lungau ski region in Austria is a rustic wonderland, a Snow White country of rushing rivers, fir-tree clad hills and mountains, sleepy villages and undiscovered hamlets.

Years ago, Jodi Venner traveled to the pretty Alpine village of St Martin. There she fell in love with the local ski instructor and carpenter Herbi Bliem. They married, had two children and are now building what will be Austria’s first energy self-sufficient eco-holiday resort, (more…)

Trouble in Paradise

Its some time since we reported on Dr Dylan Evans, who resigned as a lecturer on evolutionary psychology from the University of the West of England in Bristol to become Director of the Utopia Project in Scotland. Dr Evans, 41, wanted to test the theory that by 2040, the warming of the Earth and ensuing climate disasters will mean any survivors will live as Stone Age hunter-gatherers. Could man survive a social breakdown, he wondered

To this end, in April he sold his house in the Cotswolds to set up a commune in the Highlands called Utopia. The first to join him was Adam, pictured here in an Airline blanket he acquired on his way to the UK. Members have to live in a post-global warming environment and find a “new way” of existing. That means sleeping in yurts, growing your own veg and developing a series of ruels and practices that others might follow. (more…)

Get em off

New powers to prevent motor vehicles from using English footpaths and bridleways came into force yesterday, reports the Press Association.
The regulations are particularly aimed at stopping motorbikes and 4×4 off-roaders using paths in national parks such as the Lake District and the Yorkshire Moors. (more…)