Happy Christmas from Green Issues Blog

Wishing you a lovely Christmas and New Year from Green Issues.

Below are a few videos I recorded with a Christmas theme...

Snow at Christmas December 2009 at Camberwell Green

Christmas Lights in Oxford Street, London 2009

London Christmas Lights Oxford Street December 2009


Leave a comment.

Go Green Natural Kitchen Cleaner review

I know it's been a while since I posted anything on this blog, but I really have been busy getting on with my life offline...Anyway, I was shopping in one of those 99p bargain stores a few days ago and came across a new green product I wanted to share, because I really like it.

I have seen a number of this particular brand of Go green products and wanted to buy a selection of them, but seeing as I have never tried this particular brand, I decided to pick one in the store, try it out and then buy more later if it was any good.

The Go green natural kitchen cleaner is a brand of environmentally friendly products designed to help you to keep your household clean and fresh while helping to keep the environment pollution-free at the same time. It is made by MPM Consumer Products based in Manchester.

This natural kitchen cleaner has the added benefit of helping to keep your surfaces, like tiles, glass and mirrors streak-free with a gentle shine. I will be buying more of this product as the price is affordable, it is gentle on the hands and contains natural ingredients in the form of essential oils such as lemongrass oil, grapefruit oil, limonene, and other ingredients which are lactic acid, sodium citrate and non-ionic surfactant. It also contains alcohol.

In terms of the ingredients, some essential oils such as Lemongrass are known for their anti-bacterial properties and others are known for their anti-viral properties, therefore it makes sense to include these in a household cleaning product.

According to the packaging, the Go green natural kitchen cleaner contains 'cleaning ingredients derived only from plants & vegetables' and 'helps remove grease and grime leaving surfaces fresh and clean.'

The Go green natural kitchen cleaner is a clear colourless liquid and has a consistency very much like water with a slightly soapy formula. It is free from petrochemicals, artificial colours and fragrances, preservatives, animal derived ingredients, sodium laureth sulfate (SLS), parabens and phosphates.


The Go green natural kitchen cleaner is made in the UK.

Update 2010:

A few weeks ago, I went back to buy some of this natural kitchen cleaner, which I think is excellent, unfortunately, they don't have any more.

Update 8th February 2011:

Spoke to the company that sells this product and they say it is available to buy in Lidl stores and 99p stores. So, I guess I'll try Lidl since my local 99p store doesn't have it anymore.


Related Green Issues Blog Topics

Green tip of the day - Quick tip for descaling your kettle

Top green tips for becoming more green and environmentally friendly

Go green - Become more environmentally friendly

Heavenaura - A Sad Pathway - Calming Music

I came across this video and music online and enjoyed listening to it, so I thought I would post it here.

The artist is Heavenaura who put the song together on Musicshake and the song is entitled A Sad Pathway.

Heavenaura - A Sad Pathway
(Audio from original Artist)




Heavenaura - A Sad Pathway
(Video with Dolphins swimming)

I would love to swim with dolphins, they are so friendly.

Top Green Tips for becoming more Green and Environmentally Friendly

Here are my top green tips - These have come off the top of my head, but I will add more when I think of them and then I will update this post.

Did you know that car parts and old electrical items can be recycled and used to make things like pens and pencils? I was given a few recycled pencils and a pen and when I read the information on the side, they were made from recycled car parts.

Selling off unwanted and used electricals - You can easily sell your unwanted and used electricals to people who need and want them, or you can give them away. Some people use the parts of these machines for spares or to build things. This will save landfill, which is where most of these items go once they are no longer in use. If not in this country, then they go to developing countries where they pollute the land for innocent people.

Buy re-usable or rechargeable batteries - If you buy re-usable batteries, you can use these for a number of years without throwing them away. This will not only save you money, but it helps to preserve the environment as single use batteries contain mercury which is not only poisonous but also toxic. There are many places that now provide battery recycling such as your local library and various retail outlets.

Recycle your old and unwanted clothing, shoes and accessories - You can give these to a reputable charity. Old clothes and accessories can easily be used to make new material such as quilts and blankets and can be re-used by others. If your shoes are in good condition, you can give these away as well. Also, someone, somewhere could make good use and appreciate this clothing. Instead of throwing these items away, give them to people who need them.

Use natural products - Natural occurring products are good for the environment as they require minimum manufacturing, energy, chemicals etc. These also have the added bonus of being biodegradable, decomposing and wearing away once left out in the open environment for a considerable length of time.

Use biodegradable products - These will waste away and disintegrate easily and naturally and will not litter the environment and pollute the sea.

Use a water butt - You can use one of these to collect water. The water can be used to water your flowers, as well as house and garden plants, these have an added bonus as plants like rain water. If you look at your house plants which are watered with tap water, you can see a white film and build-up around these plants. This is caused by the calcium and other minerals in tap water. The plants hate this. I used to have this on my plant, so I started using filtered water on the house plant and I sometimes leave the plants outside when it rains, this will help to wash away the calcium.


Related Blog Links

Organic Foods - The Benefits of Going Organic


Related External Links

Electric hire car scheme spreads

Some pictures of my plants and pictures of flowers taken on my travels

Since this is an Environmental blog, I am going to add a few pictures of my plants and other flowers I come across on my travels. I used to have about four plants, which I put outside, but people keep coming to steal  them in the middle of the night. My favourite was a nice rubber plant that I promised to look after for someone who was going back to America, many years ago. My neighbour appears to have this problem too, thieves in the night. It is either my plants get stolen or they die. My African violet died. *big sigh*. I have had about 4 African violet plants and they have all died on me, I am just not good with that plant.

Flowers on display at Westfield Shopping Centre

These are some purple flowers I saw when I was at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherd's Bush. Nice aren't they?

At the moment I have one Crassula ovata otherwise known as a jade plant, good luck tree, or money plant. It appears to have a number of names, which I have maintained for well over a year now. For some time the leaves were looking a little yellow and the plant did not look so well. I went to buy some fertiliser and met a lady who gave me some of her liquid fertiliser while I was out hunting for some. We had tea and a long chat too and she told me how to maintain the Crassula ovata, which she said I had over watered. She advised me to leave it outside and take the plant out of the pot completely in order for it to dry out a little bit. Unsurprisingly, this worked as these plants do not like too much watering. They are known as succulents.

I plan on buying an aloe vera plant soon. Aloe vera plants are great because you can break off a branch, squeeze the juice out and rub it all over the skin to keep mosquitoes away, this was a good mix with citronella spray to avoid getting bitten.

Crassula ovata

Below is a rosemary plant I spotted on my travels.

Rosemary Herbs

I have tried my hand at growing my own fruit and vegetables both here and abroad. I have also grown scotch bonnet peppers successfully there and my brother grew some brown beans on a few occasions.

I have grown potatoes, spinach, onion, water cress and mustard. Potatoes and water cress are fairly easy to grow. Potatoes like lots of water and with a lot of sunshine you can easily get some really big potatoes. The spinach gave me a few headaches and had some kind of parasite growing inside it and eating the leaf from the inside out. I used to pluck off the leaves that had this problem and eventually the spinach grew big and strong and were able to withstand the pests. On many occasions, we enjoyed the spinach and it feels so good to be able to grow your own fruits and vegetables from time to time.

As part of my science course at college many years ago, we had to grow flowers from their seeds, but that did not go too well. As you can tell, I am not so good with maintaining flowers but I am better with plants.

Update 6th May 2011

Beautiful flowers on the concourse at Victoria station

Here is one of my Jade plants. When I bought it it was really small. I've changed the pot once because it has grown so big. I have others.....Nice isn't it?

Crassula ovata or Jade plant

Crassula ovata, Jade plant or Good luck tree

(Seems to have lots of names)

Some African violets in a flower bed at Bankside

Related Blog Links

Healthy Eating - Living Salads

Related External Links

How to care for African violets

Care and Growing African Violet Plants – Easy to Grow Colour

Teenage Entrepreneurs Sow Seeds of Hope in their Community

This is so inspiring... These entrepreneural teenagers along with their mentors are helping their community, making some money and learning essential business, horticultural and environmental skills all in one.

Watch the video....

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Australian town bans bottled water

Related External Links

BBC spends £406,000 a year on bottled water

Commons bottle water use revealed

Lambeth Country Show 18th July - 19 July 2009

If you are looking for something to do this week-end, head down to Brockwell Park in Herne Hill, South London for the Lambeth Country Show which will be taking place on Saturday 18th July and Sunday 19th July 2009 from 11am - 7pm. This two-day event is free for all to enjoy.

The show will be held in the Park and usually features a range of attractions catering for all. This is a yearly event that you must not miss.

According to this year's show guide, "The Lambeth Country Show always brings together a unique blend of traditional countryside activities with live music and entertainment."

You can look forward to hearing music from Red Earth and Soothsayers Collective as well as Black Voices, an acapella group and Latin salsa band Coco Xpress playing salsa and merengue music on Saturday. Little Roy, Michael Prophet , Sylvia Tella, Top cats featuring Brixton's Natty Bo will be playing on Sunday as well as The Buru Drummers, a Brixton based band. Prince Malachi and Jamaican Reggae Legend Johnny Clarke will also be featuring in the music line-up. According to the show guide, there will be many more bands on hand such as the South London Jazz Orchestra and Tea Dance.

Programme for Saturday 18th July 2009
Click on picture to enlarge

Programme for Sunday 19th July 2009
Click on picture to enlarge

Map of Lambeth Country Show 2009

Click on map to enlarge

There will be a number of Business, skills and work activities taking place at the show with talks and top tips on starting a business, employment opportunities and job advice including organisations such as the Waterloo Job Shop, Business Link and GAIN. If you need help with a CV, then you can take your current CV along for advice.

I was in attendance at the show where I was working last year, but I did have a chance, during my break and after the show, to go round and have a look and grab some freebies, which included free insulated travel mugs, cloth bags for life, energy saving light bulbs, panic alarm, wrist bands and a host of goodies.

At the show, I also bought a number of things including fudge in a number of flavours and some water bubbles for flowers. There were also product tastings for a range of juices, smoothies, lots of fresh fruit cocktails, ice cream, country cider and of course lots of food catering for everyone from vegetarian dishes to burgers with relish. I must say I had a taste of nearly everything going and I bought the fudge in coconut and rum and raisin, which was very enjoyable to eat.

Kids and families having a fun day out
at the Lambeth Country show

I went on a number of rides and screamed so loudly with excitement, I must say that I had a fun time. It was also very funny watching the faces of other people on these rides as they had the funniest expressions you can imagine *LOL*

Fresh fudge in lots of flavours

Pink Bouncy Castle

Sustainable Travel and Road Safety Tent

Midnight express funfair ride

Funfair and blue sky scene

Future Lambeth stand

Taking pride in Lambeth

There was a massive fun fair and lots of rides, bouncy castles, music and it generally had a festival atmosphere with a number of indoor stalls in huge tents featuring lots of fun things that the kids usually love. Google were there giving away free ice lollies, I turned my back for a minute to talk to someone and the ice lollies were gone in a flash and I remember thinking at the time when I saw the Google maps icon in the distance I thought to myself, is there anywhere that they don't get to, these guys are everywhere.

Google mobile demonstration


Another Google Demonstration

Huge Bouncy Castle and Google Maps Icon
 

Lambeth Markets

There was a huge focus on recycling and there were a number of recycling points to dump used containers as well as a recycling doctor surgery, and lots of competitions with goodies you could win straight away as well as art and a host of interesting things like demonstrations for good handwashing techniques, jobs showcase, free blood pressure and health checks, volunteering, drawing/painting and personalised sun hats for the kids.

Blood pressure check at the Clapham Park tent

Recycling Doctor Surgery - Open for Business

Lambeth First stand and friendly staff

Ladies deep in conversation at the Clapham Park Project stand

The Lambeth Country show is also a nice event to attend as you can meet a number of new people and bump into old friends you haven't seen for ages, particularly if you are from South London. It really is a nice fun day out for the whole family and even your dog. Last year the event was peaceful with a fun atmosphere and there seemed to be something for everyone from the kids to your grandma.

I have a number of pictures which I took on my camera from last year's Lambeth Country show 2008, so take a look as it will give you an idea of what you can expect at this year's show if you decide to go....

Visitors to the show playing with the water bubbles - Everybody loved these

Water bubbles for flowers and plants
 

Another kid fascinated with the water bubbles

Lambeth Street care advice session

Huge snakes and ladders board game on the grass

Merlin's bouncy castle

Don't forget to recycle

Recycling is Easy in Lambeth

Safer Lambeth


Safer Lambeth Tent

Dogs enjoying the show


Cute fluffy dogs



This is one very cute doggie

Tackling Knife Crime
Protecting your property and other safer Lambeth leaflets

What is the Safer Lambeth Partnership?

Bouncy castle and kiddie cars on a merry-go-round

Kids collage of ideas

People enjoying the scenery

Copella pressed fruit juice tasting tent

Everest bouncy castle


Some culinary delights


Anyone for fruit cocktail?


Jah Link vegetarian corner

South London Press and kids having
a great time in one of the bouncy castles

Art and animal figurines from Africa


African and Caribbean Jewellery

Clothes at the Lambeth Country Show
 

Posters at the Lambeth Country Show
 

Silver Jewellery at the show

Private Sector Housing tent

Ice cream van, big bouncy castle and blue grey skyline

Related BeautyHealthZoneBlog Links

Surviving the heat wave this summer 2009

Effective Hand Washing Techniques for Good Hygiene

Homemade ice lollies to help you cool down this summer