Bees! 🐝

Last Wednesday, the 22nd of April, was Earth Day. What inspired me to write this blog was the Google Doogle which was all about bees that day.

People are told this all the time, but bees are really important to our lives. They support the growth of our trees; wild animals' vital food sources like nuts and berries depend on bees to grow; they help make wildlife homes for insects and animals. If bees disappeared, so would all the animals that depend on plants that bees pollinated.

There are lots of ways to help bees. For example; you can plant bunches of wildflowers (seed bombs) in your garden since your garden is a home to many insects. In addition, if you see a bee that you believe is not just resting, get out a bowl or sponge and make sugar water - literally just sugar and water - for the bee(s) to drink. This will give them energy to fly again.You can also leave plain water out for them so that they can stay hydrated!

Friends of the Earth have lots of facts about bees including: since 1900, the UK has lost 13 species of bee. Click on the link for more information. And also - to all the people who are scared of bees because they sting - they only sting if they are scared or feeling threatened so you just need to make sure you never disturb them.

Thanks you for reading! I hope you found this interesting and see you next Sunday.
Violet
         xxx

Grow your own! 🥒

Since it's spring, you'll see flowers blooming, trees becoming green and the world becomes beautiful again. And it's the time you'd normally look at growing your own things, whether it's flowers or food. Although it takes a bit more time and work than going to the shops and buying fruit and vegetables (that aren't wrapped in plastic), the feeling you get if you grow beautiful flowers or big vegetables for you to eat and cook is worth it. And by the way, you don't need a big garden or an allotment when growing things, plants just need sunshine, water and good soil, and with these elements you can grow anything. Plants don't always need to be grown in big spaces, they can be grown in pots and hanging baskets. Herbs and salad leaves are easier to grow when you don't have much outdoor space.

Some things, for example strawberries, are best planted over winter, however most are in spring. For example; beetroots- sow from March onwards and are ready to harvest from 7-12 weeks, and can be grown in a small part of garden or a 30cm deep pot; spinach- sow in early spring and will be ready by summer, they don't need a huge amount of space so a shallow container could do it; carrots- grow in spring and will be ready in 12-16 weeks, they grow well in the garden but a 30cm deep window box could do it.

As you can see, they take quite a while to grow but it'd be worth a try. I haven't said when you should water them but click here to see when you should. 

I hope you liked this tip and see you next week!

Violet

         xxx

Collages! ✂

Around two weeks ago, I wrote about doing eco friendly things when you're bored. One of the things I mentioned was art. However, I didn't write much about art and so I thought I'd focus on something today: collages.

These are some of the collages my mum and I have made

I really like making collages. Why? Because you can make anything with them- you have an infinite amount of ways. What I do, is cut out loads of colours and put them together to make a rainbow-y type of pattern. My most recent one was the rainbow I made for the NHS; it was shaped as a rainbow (obviously) and each colour was made up of different pictures that I'd cut up.

Doing collages like these are eco-friendly because you can use old newspapers and magazines, - for example; I have a whole collection of The Week Junior Magazine that are waiting to be cut up and put into a collage- cut out pictures and letters and stick them in any way you want on a piece of paper or card (it could even be a big bit from your scrap paper box that I mentioned last week😀) and you've created a piece of artwork that you can keep or give to people as presents! And the best thing is; it rarely ever looks bad, and none are ever the same.

I hope you like this artsy tip, even if you don't really like art😅. Hope you're all well, and also Happy Easter!
Violet
         xxx

Scrap Paper Boxes📥

We all know that paper comes from trees; that there is way to much deforestation going about in the world right now. Paper is used in everyday life, especially in countries like the UK. We have loads of it in schools and offices. And even though we do lots more stuff by computer now, there are still loads of paper all around.                                                                                                                        

In my primary school, every single classroom has a scrap paper tray where we would put unused - or even used - paper (like worksheets, letters etc) to be drawn on or take notes and stuff. Usually, it would be full to the brim with paper because of all the stuff we would add. I'm pretty sure lots of other schools did that too.

What I'm saying is that we should start doing it at home too. At home, we probably don't use as much paper as in school or work, but if your children or siblings (or you) are arty then you probably have a lot of card or paper around where you cut off little bits and pieces from - I certainly do😀. So, with all those pieces of paper (that you can actually do something on- not like a 2 by 2 cm square) you can put in a drawer or a box so you can re-use them. Yes, I do sometimes find it very annoying when I find the perfect colour card and there is a square taken off the corner but you know, I'll live.

In addition, I don't mean buying a new snazzy box to put all the scrap paper in, it could literally be an old cardboard box that you got your new school shoes in📦! I also just wanted to say, I bought a pack of 3 notebooks that were made out of recycled paper, so you could keep an eye out for those if you're looking for new notebooks.

Thank you for reading this post and I hope you'll all re-use bits of paper to make things, take notes on or write shopping lists on (as my mum does)! See you next week!
Violet
         xxx