There are no two ways about it, upgrading your home is expensive. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, (SEAI) offers financial support via a number of grant schemes but it only really covers 30-50 per cent of the cost, leaving a sizeable balance which homeowners need to fund form their […]
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One of the highlights of any trip to China is the Great Wall. To enjoy it, you must see those sections far away from Beijing, where there will be fewer tourists and less commercialism. Unfortunately, when I first lived in China, nearly twenty years ago, my visit to the Great […]
Late April, the ‘Waste Not Want Not’ project held a farm-to-fork community gathering where people from each of our focus groups (food businesses, householders and community groups) got together to plan and prioritise initiatives that we will work on over the next twelve months. Once again, the enthusiasm and ideas were […]
I have a good friend who lives in Kenya – we used to teach in the same school in Mombasa. Some years ago, I stayed for a couple of weeks with her and her family in an old stone and thatch cottage right beside the Indian Ocean. Around the nearby headland […]
The arrival of spring migrants from their over-wintering grounds in Africa is well underway. The morning birdsong chorus of our resident birds, such as Blackbird, Song Thrush, Great Tit has been joined by summer visitors like Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat. As we move into May, the volume […]
In recent weeks, two stories broke, almost simultaneously, that caused shockwaves amongst environmentalists and climate campaigners. The first was a warning from Simon Stiell, the most senior climate figures at the United Nations. His message was stark: Governments, business leaders and development banks have just two years to avert the […]