Vote
in the 2008 Green Spaces awards
The time has come, dear reader, to speak of many things - of rainwater showers
and windmills, of cabbages and kings.
Although we found no fairytale walrus on our sojourn to an ecological heaven
deep in the backwaters of Lincolnshire, we did come across a very real
carpenter with magical powers.
Andy Reynolds has used them to clear away eight acres of cabbages from a once
delapidated smallholding and become the king of a self-sustaining eco
wonderland.
With the help of partner Geri Clarke - the power behind the throne, sons Simon
and Solomon and like-minded eco friends, he has created a green haven where
nothing is wasted - and where a huge lesson on how we all should live for
the sake of our planet can be gained.
If nothing else, staying in the Eco Lodge near Old Leake is certainly an
education in the ways of one man's resourcefulness and ingenuity.
Once a carpenter who made bespoke staircases and now a professional forester,
Andy built the two bedroom wooden retreat, complete with a splendid
Deep-South style verandah, entirely with locally sourced timber.
It nestles in the corner of an area of unkempt, wind-blown beauty, evocative
of a long forgotten global-warming-free England, and a natural adventureland
for our children.
Where once there was an ocean of the explosive green vegetable loathed by
generations of schoolboys, there are now meadows, hedgerows and pastures to
wander, flanked by a large 25-year old wood that Andy and Geri began growing
themselves when they bought the farm.
Not far from the Lodge is a 40-ft high scrap metal edifice Andy has also grown
from scratch - a home-made windmill. He found its tangled wreckage some
years ago lying in undergrowth at a college where it had once been a
students' project. Two painstaking years later it was sending us the 50-volt
power for lights by which our children indulged in age-old pursuits of cards
and board games in the welcome absence of a television. Where the wind
brought us illumination, the rain kept us clean as we showered and washed up
using filtered water collected from the roof and heated by a wood-burning
range.
To make us aware of how much water we were using Andy installed a push-button
on the side of the house which pumped rainwater from huge containers up into
a loft tank. On the gable end of the lodge was a makeshift gauge which told
you when the tank was empty. Five minutes of standing with your thumb on a
button watching an iron pointer above you creep slowly from a roughly
painted E to F is certainly a way to make you use less. Lesson learned.
Warmth came from the range in the kitchen cum lounge. Every day my wife Lynne
cooked on it using vegetables grown on Andy and Geri's smallholding while I
grilled mouthwatering cuts of meat from a local butcher on a barbecue made
from an old gas bottle and fired by home made charcoal. Green power nestling
inside a relic of the dirty variety.
That barbecue - and the way Andy stores power from his windmill - is at the
heart of his green philosophy which might not be every eco warrior's cup of
organic peppermint tea - but it's eminently sensible.. Recycling the
unrecyclable. "I believe in using existing resources and if that means
non-biodegradable stuff then so be it," he said. "Don't create it,
but if it's there already, use it - better it be put to good use than shoved
into landfill somewhere."
So when a mate offered him a shedload of old forklift truck batteries that
were going to be thrown out, Andy took them off his hands and they now sit
proudly in his workshop, storing green power from the windmill for becalmed
days. When he took a call from a friend who wondered if he could use 12
trailer loads of polystyrene sheets from a demolished factory unit, Andy
knew just where the insulation for the Eco Lodge roof was coming from.
The pumps that send the rainwater to the roof tank were once filling glasses
in a local bar. I'll drink to any recycling as imaginative as that - and
then I'll go and recycle what I've drunk in The Eco Lodge's superb outdoor
privy.
It took me back to the ash pits of my youth in a coal mining town, expect it
was much, much cleaner. The waste is composted with the help of handfuls of
sawdust. My 12-year-old lad Leo, the right age for fascination with all
things lavatorial, even used it during the night and early morning despite
there being a normal loo in the Lodge in case of inclement weather. Chloe,
who is eight, took more persuading to bypass those age-old sentinels of
outside loos, the inevitable spiders. But she did. We all did - after all,
using the indoor loo meant wasting gallons of precious rainwater and having
to thumb the pump button for yet another eternity.
And so we move on to other untapped natural resources - the far fens of south
east Lincolnshire. For walking, a visit to Gibraltar Point National Nature
Reserve is a must. Its mixture of saltmarsh and freshwater habitats attracts
a wide variety of bird life and it's well worth spending a restful hour in
one of the many hides just watching the winged world go by.
If you want excellent unspoilt beaches for the kids, Anderby Creek is far
from the crowded sands of Skegness - and for a visit to a bustling town
(well, it is bustling by comparison with its surroundings ) Boston offers
high excitement. Highlights for us were a visit to the Maude Foster
windmill, the tallest working windmill in England and a climb up the tallest
parish church tower in England, the 272-foot-tall Boston Stump - otherwise
known as Lincolnshire's oldest church, St Botolph's.
Lincoln City itself, with its wonderful cathedral, is under an hour's drive
away through some beautiful countryside and pretty villages like Woodhall
Spa - but the temptation is to stay put in the serene environment of the Eco
Lodge, pottering around, chatting to the very amiable Andy and Geri when
they pop round to see how you're doing and going for long cycle rides around
the local villages.
After all, you'll find this eco living gets into your bones after a while -
and starting the car seems like such a bad idea - especially when
it's time to head for home and leave Andy and Geri's world, a little piece
of unpolluted paradise. We'll be back.
NEED TO KNOW
What it costs: A week's break at the Eco Lodge, Old Leake
(Friday to Friday) is £340 plus a one-off £5 supplement per person. A
shorter or weekend break (Monday to Friday, or Friday to Monday) is £170
plus a a one-off £5 supplement per person. Alternative bookings on request.
The Lodge has two bedrooms, twin beds, and sleeps four maximum. Lighting,
linen and fuel included. Visit www.internationalbusinessschool.net/eco-lodge.htm
or call 01205 871396..
Food: Organic Produce can be pre-ordered from www.edenfarms.co.uk
- the butcher the Burke family used was R.W. Woodcock at Benington, a
village just down the road from the lodge.
Getting there: If you don't drive, travel by rail or coach to
Boston. Transport from Boston to the Eco-lodge can be arranged. Maps are
sent with bookings.
More ideas: Log onto www.discovereastmidlands.com
for more travel information and other ideas for family entertainment in the
area
Is Stephanie informed as to the source of materials used in the eco-lodge? If she were, she would establish that it was built from a renewable local source.
Renovating derelict structures would involve sourcing many different mateials, delivered hundreds of miles, from many destinations breaking every enviromentally friendly rule along the way.
Dave and Sally, Lincolnshire.
david ketley, brigg,
Hi Stephanie,
just to say supplement of £5 per person is for Laundry.
The Garbage Patch was in fact a cabbage patch. It is part of an extensive mon-cyltural system reliant on pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilsers, extensive throughout the Lincolnshire fens, ditto the American and Canadian plains.
There is no habitat or eco-system as it has been wiped out by monocultural farming.Once common birds like the hedge sparrow are becoming rare and many species of birds and animals have disappreared entirely.
Geri Clarke, Boston, England
What are the supplements per person for? Isn't it enough that you are paying to stay there? Also, it was much more eco-friendly before the place was built, the gabbage 'patch' would have had its own eco-system so why ruin it and build on it. Another money making machine to profit from the new green ideal. Why not recycle old buildings that is eco-friendly, instead of creating new ones?
Stephanie, Vancouver,