We’ve begun work on an audio book version of Pollinating Change!
It’s been several years since we published Pollinating Change – The Buzz Tour, and an audio book has been in mind for all that time but it’s finally begun. We’ll initially be releasing the chapters one at a time for you to listen to for free online and then you’ll be able to buy the whole book. We’ve recorded about a quarter of the 34 chapters so far and aim to start releasing them this winter.
Over the next year I’ll be visiting my amazing stockists around the country, to interview them about their businesses, from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands.
The first stop is Anything But Plastic, an online shop based in Glasgow, which as well as our Fit Pit deodorant also sells soap, laundry soap, toothbrushes, tooth tabs, floss, shampoo, makeup, containers, bags and cleaning products. In the beautiful setting of Glasgow’s Botanical Gardens I interviewed Jenny about her first and very successful year of Anything But Plastic.
ABP is here to help you cut down your plastic consumption. Plastic is the most pervasive man-made material ever, it doesn’t just go away when you throw it in the bin, it’s here to stay. So if you want to help contribute to a world with less plastic, you are in the right place!
My sister Suzanne and I approached a local hotel a few years ago to use their waste jam jars for our business and Jenny told me that she also now reuses hotel jam jars for products. “You guys definitely inspired me and I’m looking for more hotels to get them from too.” When collecting from the hotel Suzanne used to encourage them to stop using single use jars all together. Week after week they would see the jars pile up in the buckets and we would take them away. Until one week they said that they were sorry but they would be stopping using the little disposable jars and were switching to refillable pots on the table. Far from being disappointed we were delighted at the reduction in waste, so it was really exciting for me to hear that Jenny too was influencing her local hotels.
Anything But Plastic has seen a great interest from customers as well as the media and is part of a growing trend of plastic-free businesses. It gives me hope that we can look forward to disposable plastic becoming history.
William Morris was a multi-talented and political theorist, fantasy writer and artist who lived in Oxfordshire in the late 1800’s. He believed in equality and socialism. Journeying into Oxfordshire we encountered our first William Morris reference… on a boat…with a forge in it. Brian Greaves kindly told us about his work.
Continuing towards Oxford we encountered a modest and welcoming 11th century church in Inglesham which had been supported by William Morris. William Morris founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, one of the worlds first preservation groups. Within are old wooden pens containing the pews and wall paintings from across the centuries.
In Kelscott we saw the manor that had been William Morris’ home and continued along the beautiful Thames Path to Newbridge and Shifford. It’s been a great privilege to walk the path all the way from it’s source near Coates and to see the river change. And it doesn’t hurt that we’ve had glorious sunshine the whole way!
Buzz tour 