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Tag: travel like a local

train for travelling like a local

7 Ways To Travel More Like a Local

Posted on January 30, 2018July 26, 2021 by Emma Reed

*Collaborative Post

Let’s be honest… Nobody wants to be a stereotypical tourist. You know the kind I mean. The kind that wanders around bumping into small children and animals blinkered by their sprawling maps. The kind that seems to find anything from a town hall to a public toilet worthy of a photo. The kind that you end up unintentionally photobombing as you elbow past them on your way to work. The kind whose bookshelves are littered with seldom-used rough guides and even more seldom used phrasebooks. Yeah. Those guys. Ugh! While nobody wants to be perceived as a clueless outsider fecklessly trying to replicate local life without bothering to absorb the cultural nuances that comprise it, it can also really compromise your holiday. Nobody wants to be a nuisance to the locals, nor do they want to miss out on topographical and architectural gems of the area because they have their faces buried in a map (or, more likely, smartphone). Continue reading “7 Ways To Travel More Like a Local” →

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Hi I’m Emma
Mum of two trying to navigate my way through my parenting journey on very little sleep, a lot of tea and plenty of chocolate!
I blog openly about being a busy Mum who is passionate about our environment sharing our lifestyle and the steps we take to be more eco-friendly. I love to help others and a lot of my blog posts, social media posts, Instastories reflect that on a daily basis. 
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Emma Reed | Eco & Parenting
I really sadly couldn’t make it to London today I really sadly couldn’t make it to London today to demand that DEFRA start to take further action to Restore Nature but that doesn’t mean to say that we can’t all do our little something’s. 

Here’s a few actions to consider:
- Email or write to your MP about this topic or any other nature concerns you have about the UK or within your own area 

- Take care of your local area by litter picking and reporting any issues or concerns to the local authority 

- Encourage wildlife to your garden by providing water, building a pond, feeding the birds, having bug homes, planting bee-loving flowers, making a hedgehog doorway etc.

- Join a local conservation group

- Volunteer at a local wildlife rescue

- Sign and share relevant petitions 

- Talk to friends and family about our natural world to raise awareness 

- Get involved at your children’s schools whether that’s emailing the head about eco actions, asking them to reduce waste, helping out with clubs such as gardening/allotment, going in for talks

- Help to raise awareness online by sharing important posts 

Right now things feel tough don’t they? Like there’s just one bad thing after another but we have to remember that there’s so many of us who truly do care and by standing together we can hopefully make a difference 💚
Ad - Whether you are vegan, trying to reduce your Ad - Whether you are vegan, trying to reduce your dairy intake, suffer with a dairy allergy/intolerance or just don’t like the taste of cow’s milk there is a brand new oat milk you may want to take a look at… And it’s one with a difference.

@overherd.uk is a sustainably made powdered oat milk that is made right here in the UK. Having realised that traditional oat milks are made up of 90% water Overherd thought to themselves why not just add the water at home? That way you could reduce carbon emissions during transportation, reduce food waste and increase shelf life. And that’s exactly what they’ve achieved. 

I’ve been trying their product out over the last few weeks and I have to say, we love it here! It’s easy to make up, you can adjust the creaminess by adding more powder, you can add it to a hot drink in powder form and I can already see that it’s most definitely going to last us quite a while. It’s been fab on cereal, in porridge and for coffees and I’ve even found the right quantity to get it just right in my cuppa (something I’m very fussy about). 

If you’d like to find out more I’ve written up a blog review over on my website and if you’re interested in buying I have a 15% code EMMA15 to use at the checkout.

What do you think to this? Is it something you’d consider moving over to? 

#oatmilk #vegan #veganoatmilk #powderedoatmilk #dairyfree #reducedairyintake #sustainableoatmilk #sustainability #sustainabledrinks #savetheplanet #reducefoodwaste #reducewaste #ecofriendlyproducts #glutenfreeproduct #ecoblogger #environmentallyfriendlyproducts
It’s World Car Free Day so we again ditched the It’s World Car Free Day so we again ditched the car and donned our helmets for the school run to do our little bit to help to reduce carbon emissions. Since getting bikes for all of us - and having William learn without stabilisers - we’ve been riding most days of the week and it’s been really good fun plus I’m getting fitter (a big bonus!) 

Unfortunately we won’t be able to be 100% car free today as both boys have swimming lessons later and that’s located in a funny area just off the M3 so no public transport goes there, but with all eco things it can’t be all or nothing, it’s just about doing what we can.

Are you going to attempt to go car free today?
I’m a bit lost for words right now, what can I s I’m a bit lost for words right now, what can I say except that our Government is playing games with our future. Our Prime Minister just wants to win votes and with talk of saving people money I’d say he’s probably achieved that. Our future right now certainly looks more bleak.

I just want to scream.

Scrapping things that will help us to get to net zero then using the cost of living crisis as an excuse and climate activists as your get out clause - “if you’re against what I’m proposing maybe you can explain to the public why you want them to spend thousands of pounds on things like heat pumps” (or something to that effect, he went on for a while I can’t quite remember it word for word) - is all just so upsetting, infuriating and disheartening.

We are seeing climate change right in front of our eyes, right now, around the world and yet he thinks we can just wait a bit? And don’t even get me started on the “we produce less than 1% of the worlds carbon” rubbish. Yes but we only do because we stopped producing most of what we buy in this country and shipped it all overseas. I wonder what our carbon emissions would look like if we re-opened all of our factories? 

Anyway, right now I don’t know what the answer is but I’m fairly sure there will be protests, talk in climate groups and petitions all cropping up very, very soon. If you feel helpless, welcome come join me, we can feel this together. 

If I see any protests or petitions come up I will share them with you and if you do can you share them with me as well so I can help to get the word out on social media? Right now we need to do all we can so speak up, sign petitions and explain to others why waiting to act is the wrong move. 

Stay as positive as you can I know it’s hard (she says writing this whilst sipping a beer!), but as William says “I 🐝 lieve in change” 💚
After searching for a new bed for Jake for ages an After searching for a new bed for Jake for ages and ages we finally found THE perfect one on fb marketplace last week. It is the ideal match for his room, it has a desk (something he’s been asking for recently), it’s a mid sleeper AND it even has handmade grey curtains which is ideal as he has grey in his rooms decor. We also saved a lot of money shopping secondhand as well as obviously helping to promote a circular economy. I’m so happy with it. Perfect post for #secondhandseptember and #SecondhandSunday
Ad (PR invite) Just before we went on holiday in A Ad (PR invite) Just before we went on holiday in August we were invited along to The Willis Museum by @hantsculture to have a preview of their brand new @gizmobots1 exhibition. 

Created by artist Mark Haig, Gizmobots are robots made entirely from items that would have otherwise gone to the tip. Mark looks at what many people would call junk and sees potential, something he’s loved doing for many years and having featured his unique robots on BBC’s Money for Nothing they have caught the interest of the public and his wonderful Gizmobots can be bought and now seen in this fab exhibition. 

Having two children who are really into cool creations, robots and the way things work I knew this would be a hit with them and for me it was the reusing, repurposing and recycling aspects that were a winner. Each robot is just so quirky and fun and cleverly built, we spent almost two hours looking at them, talking about how they’d move/talk/work and carefully inspecting what each was made from. 

The museum had colouring sheets and paper for designing your own robots which the boys loved getting involved in. They are also holding other activities such as making your own robots on specific dates so if you’d like to visit definitely look out for those. 

We enjoyed ourselves so much that I have written a review over on my blog too where you can find out much more and access links to the museum and events. 

The exhibition is on now until October 15th and entry is free so do pop along if you can it’s lots of fun for the whole family. 

*some images courtesy of @hantsculture @redmanhattan_photography
Is it just me or does anybody else treat these fir Is it just me or does anybody else treat these first few weeks of back to school as an opportunity to have a “spring clean”? It’s like right let’s clean up this mess we made for 6 weeks and boy, can mine make a mess! 🙈 And of course lots just slips because you can’t possibly juggle kids, work, housework, fun activities and your sanity perfectly over this time. 

I didn’t really stop last week with the tidying and washing and now I’m moving onto the well overdue jobs, the fairly grotty ones like moving furniture, wiping skirting boards, dusting away the cobwebs and cleaning the windows… ummm I’m not sure when I last cleaned the velux 😬 Those were bad. However, making up a batch of my homemade window cleaner makes it a lot easier to tackle:
- Fill a bottle 2/3 with cooled boiled water
- Fill 1/3 with white vinegar
- Add 10 drops tea tree oil 

And use a good reusable cloth - I love to use our old muslins for jobs like this. They just clean things up so well and when you have a baby you’ve usually got an abundance of muslins around. Good way of continuing to get use from them! 

Have you been deep cleaning recently?
Another wonderful place we visited on our holiday Another wonderful place we visited on our holiday was the beautiful Trengwainton Garden and because I want to get better at documenting our days out and give others an insight I’ve written all about it over on my blog. As we had small children with us we didn’t make it all the way around but we’ll definitely make sure to visit again. Some of my favourite parts was the kitchen garden, the stream garden, the beautiful hydrangeas, the fun activities they had on for the children to do, the secondhand bookshop (£1 a book!) and all of the walled gardens which always give that secret garden feel. 
Have you ever been here before? It’s National Trust so if you have an annual pass it could be a good one to tick off the list 💚
It’s September which means one thing - it’s a It’s September which means one thing - it’s a HUGE month for sustainability!! Which events are you looking forward to getting involved in?
Eco On The Go One of the trickiest parts of being Eco On The Go
One of the trickiest parts of being eco conscious is remembering to be eco! As in taking everything you need with you. It’s so easy to dash out of the door without your reusable cup or bottle and then curse yourself when you have no choice but to go with the disposables on offer - definitely guilty of this at times! My only advice here for this would be to get yourself into a new habit of taking them. As soon as you begin to always reach for those reusable essentials you’ll honestly stop forgetting so often (we’re all human so there of course will be moments you leave without). 

For us, our go tos are definitely water bottles, coffee/tea cups, sandwich bags, snack bags, stasher bags, reusable wipes and for an all day beach session the flask and tea strainers will also come. 

Changing habits that you’ve become so used to and also going against what looks like the norm or what everyone else is doing (I saw SO many disposable cups being used on holiday) can be hard but once we make reusables the new normal who knows how many others may start to join in! 💚 

Is this something you already do or something you want to work towards? Any questions just ask away…
Happy #SecondhandSeptember all!! What items are yo Happy #SecondhandSeptember all!! What items are you aiming to source secondhand this month? Here’s some of mine from this year 💚
Ad - If you struggle with using bars of soap but r Ad - If you struggle with using bars of soap but really hate the idea of using shower gels in plastic packaging this could be your eco-friendly answer! @ethosa_uk plastic free shower gels come as a powder in paper packaging along with a reusable bottle and pump. Simply pour the powder into your bottle, fill up with luke warm water, shake and you have a shower gel that is kind to the planet as well as your skin 💚You can get 20% off their starter pack with my code EMMA20 https://ethosa.com/products/copy-of-body-wash-refill-well-balanced-eucalyptus-citrus
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