Landlocked Mermaid

Ok, so this week I have been feeling a litttle off. I've had inexplicable blues which have left me feeling lethargic and unmotivated. This post was supposed to be about straws but the mental plan I had going was basically just me ranting. And that's not what this blog is about, although I seem to do it a lot. So that wasn't helping the ennui. (Yes, I am referencing Gilmore Girls .) But then something cropped up in my news feed the other day which cheered me right up. A couple years ago, I remember there being a story about a young lad who'd made it his life goal to clean up the ocean. He'd invented a contraption which would remove the big pieces from the sea all by itself. I remember being impressed but didn't think much more of it at the time. Then this video appeared: It's the same project I saw a few years ago and it is nearly ready to roll out. It's called The Ocean Cleanup . Talk about a cure for my ennui! I get so wrapped up i...

Photo: The Telegraph Happy Earth Day Everyone!   (Yes, I realise it was yesterday, but humour me.) If you follow my Instagram , I'm sure you'll have seen I had something of a productive day. Well, here is all the behind the scenes gossip, my what went wells, what I'm going to do next time (yes, next time) and some of the weirder things we picked up. The Beach: Colwyn Bay, Wales. MORNING We started early, aimed to get to Colwyn Bay for about 10am. Through some miracle, we kept to that plan. I'm normally half an hour after the time I guestimate we should be at places for. It's an easy drive though: up to Chester, across to Wales. Literally two roads. And with my sea-themed CD, it felt like no time at all. Parking was a little problematic, there were roadworks happening where the internet said the car park was. But with it being Sunday, we found somewhere better and free. Getting to the promenade and beach was simple, we were at the seafro...

April 22nd. It's fast approaching. In my research for what I can do I found a number of organisations which have scheduled beach cleans. Fantastic news! Between Surfers Against Sweage , The National Trust , The Marine Conservation Society and 2 Minute Beach Clean I could find an event near me on the 22nd. Nope. Most of them are happening today. Or a couple weeks ago. Or not until September. Just my luck. I mentioned I was a landlocked mermaid, right? But, there are alternatives. Surfers Against Sewage offer a step-by-step guide to hosting your own beach clean, including all the legal stuff and who to contact for permission. Now, I realised I have left this a little late. To make all the necesary arrangements and drum up enough people to come, it would take more than a week. But it is something I definitely want to do; it'd be a great learning experience and a great way to do something for the environment. So what can I do now? What can I do in a week? ...

Earth Day is a thing I've only really heard of on American television, but since discovering 4ocean my Instagram is now full of their Earth Day bracelet campaign, among others which I will get to later. So having very little idea what Earth Day was about, I decided to do some digging. The 4ocean bracelet made from one pound of recycled plastic pulled from the sea. It started in 1970 and was founded by Gaylord Nelson, a US Senator at the time. It's largely considered to be the birth of the modern environmental movement. At the time pollution was synonymous with success and prosperity, there was little conern for the long term effects on the environment. A book entitled Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, released a few years prior, was what opened Nelson's eyes to the issue. April 22nd, 1970, saw the first Earth Day. It was initially to educate and promote the idea of being sustainable and environmentally friendly. Over the years it gained traction and it beca...