All posts by Rebecca

A Trip to Wonderland

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Last Saturday, my sister, mum and me went to Deinze (a Belgian city, you pronounce it as [ˈd̪ɛɪ̯n̪z̪ə] haha). There aren’t many shops but some outlet stores and boutiques, so we decided to go and eat pancakes on a Saturday afternoon. We walked past this cute tea house called “Lawrence House” and I thought it looked surreal. It looks very British and Alice in Wonderland themed. It immediately caught our attention! ☺

As I’ve written before, everything is Alice in Wonderland themed but it’s not that obvious when you enter at first. It’s in the little details – talking about details, this wonderful place has the cutest tableware. We ordered a hot chocolate, coffee, tea and pancakes for us all!

I could just keep going on how much I love the place. It’s so unique because I’ve never seen anything like it in Belgium. The lady who owns this place is super friendly as well – and not the fake friendly, it just feels genuine. On Saturday we spotted a lot of eldery woman drinking coffee, but that doesn’t matter because my mental age is way past fifty anyway ☺

It’s all in the details: little jars of jam, cookies and candy served with hot drinks, an authentic little tea pot and a lot more. I fell in love with the tea timer! I need one like this in my life haha!

We had a lovely afternoon and we’ll be back soon I think! The three of us were full of happiness when we left the place. This weekend I’m going to Centerparcs for two days. It’s in the Netherlands and I’ve only been there once I think, but I don’t remember much of it. I’m excited ☺ Hope you’re all having a great day!

Eco Airport Travel Tips

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Enviro Girl just had the great pleasure of taking a long weekend jaunt to southern California.  (Her husband believed her when she said the best gifts come in envelopes–airline tickets!)  While flying there and back, she avoided the ridiculous baggage fees by carrying on a small duffel and managed to generate very little waste during her travels.

Here are 5 tips to make your next airline travel experience greener and cleaner for the environment:

1.  BYOB.  That’s right:  Bring Your Own Bottle.  You may not bring a full water bottle through security checkpoints, but you can bring an empty one and fill it at the nearest water fountain or restaurant.  Enviro Girl’s seatmate was shocked when she pulled out her metal water bottle for a swig on the plane.  “How did you get that through?” she asked in surprise.  “I brought it through empty, then filled it after the checkpoint.”  Saved both money and plastic packaging.

2.  Recycle your paper.  Every airport has recycling containers for your old magazines and newspapers.  Use them.

3.  Print your boarding pass at home.  Enviro Girl was pleased to save herself a wait in line by printing her boarding pass the night before she flew.  She waltzed straight to the security line and breezed to her gate in less than half an hour.  Bonus:  she printed the boarding pass on the back side of something else, recycling paper! Read Full Post…

Something Unexpected

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The wheel turns, seasons come and go. What once was a bright spot on the horizon speeds quickly towards you and is upon you before you know it – carrying out dormouse box maintenance, marking the start of the dormouse survey season once again!

I met my fellow dormouse monitor at Scotney Castle this morning, ready for a morning of checking the condition of each of the 70 boxes in woodland around the estate. Any boxes that were rotten or had been gnawed by squirrels were replaced with new boxes; new wire to tie the lids down used to replace old broken wire; emptying out old nests (dormouse or mouse) ready for another year of nest making by various beasties.

It was during emptying one box of a mouse nest that we came across something rather unexpected. We opened the lid of the box to find it full of a loose pile of dried leaves; typical of wood mouse or yellow-neck mouse nests. After gently inserting a stick to check for movement (mice can give very painful bites) a single mouse leapt onto the edge of the box, but didn’t dash off straight away as is normal. Instead she hesitated, and didn’t move until the box was tipped down a bit. We then checked for another individual and began to slowly empty the leaves out of the box, as dormice do not like the strong smells of mice. It was only when I saw something wriggle that I had a closer look. A slug I thought – it is not uncommon for slugs to find their way in – but to my utter surprise, it was a baby! What?! Read Full Post…