Last summer I took my family on holiday to Wales and Cornwall and experienced the joys of the solar shower both at the Green Man Festival in the Brecon Beacons, and at Keveral Farm in the West Country. So I got thinking, why not switch to solar showers every time we go camping, or even for at home during the summer.

The shower that you can see on the left over here is the shower that we used at Keveral Farm. It’s a wooden structure with an old radiator painted black as a solar panel warming water for the shower. There’s a little bit of green shade cloth pinned to the wooden frame to protect one’s modesty, but other than that it’s very airy, and most exhilarating to use.

For something a little more temporary (and contemporary), check out this “plug and spray” Serpentine solar shower from Extremis.

Designed by Tom De Vrieze, the Serpentine can be used wherever you want. Plug your regular garden hose to the end of the stainless steel tube and your shower is ready for use. I’d say lying the hose out in the sun for a little while before hand would be sensible too. It’s a great way to water your lawn and shower at the same time, saving water and energy into the bargain.

If you’re more the McGyver type, then this DIY solar shower will be more up your street. It’s from Mother Earth News and full instructions can be found there.

A simpler and cheaper solution would be the £8.99 portable solar shower option that folds away to nothing and you can store in your backpack when on the move, or just away in the shed at home for the cold winter months. When the summer comes, just fill it up and hang it in a tree. Once it’s been in the sun for a few hours, you’ll have a gorgeous hot shower.

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Like it or not, xmas means shopping to lots of people. In an effort to minimise the damage caused by excess consumerism, we can choose to give gifts that have a lesser impact on the environment, aren’t made in sweatshops or even better, go for something handmade. Of course, the most eco-friendly thing you can do it not go shopping this holiday season, but if you’re not going to go that route, here are some suggestion for gifts that are a lesser evil.

Electronics & Gadgets

This is a good gadget. In Stephen Fry’s recent review of it he declared: “Eat Trevor’s dust, Apple!” The Trevor Baylis Eco Media Player plays music, video and fm radio, and also functions as a torch, sound recorder, photo viewer, mobile phone charger, ebook viewer and data storage device. You can even record your old LPs onto it. It has a dual power system, so if you’re away from your power source (in this case your PC/laptop USB port) for a while, who cares, just wind it up. You get 40 minutes audio play time for each 1 minute of winding. The Eco Media Player features a 1.8″ screen, and 2 gigabytes of internal memory, which holds around 500 songs, and can be expanded by adding an SD Memory Card. £169.99 £134.99. Free shipping with promo code FSCS25 until 21st December 2007. I’m getting one of these babies for my birthday in a couple of weeks time, can’t wait!

Here’s a little something for boys of all ages. The H-Racer is the world’s smallest hydrogen powered fuel-cell car, a futuristic toy car containing one of the most exciting and advanced technologies of the 21st century. With new advances in technology, hydrogen is on its way to becoming the world’s next fuel. The H-racer is the working miniature version of what is being developed in real-size cars of the future, which are also called “zero emissions vehicles”. I can just see boys and their dads falling head over heels for one of these. £74.99 including delivery.

The Eton FR200 Wind Up Radio with Flashlight is ideal for camping, gardening and even in emergencies. The radio has a heavy-duty, splash-proof ABS plastic case, a long-lasting rechargeable battery pack and gives you access to AM, FM, and 11 International Shortwave bands, so you can stay informed where ever you are, even in emergency conditions. Just one minute of winding will give you approximately an hour of radio operation. A gift that will appeal to geeks, hunks or grandpas.£23.99.

Fashion
Handbags and gladrags tend to make an appearance at this time of year. This gorgeous bag wouldn’t be out of place now or at any other time of the year for that matter. The Fairtrade felt Flower Bag is handmade in Nepal by local village women. It’s fully lined and zips up, keeping keys and purses safe. Buying Fairtrade gifts is a wonderful way to give back something at Christmas time to people who work hard for wages that are much lower than ours. £18.50 including delivery.

Food & Drink

Food is such a great gift not only because it brings pleasure to the recipient, but also because it’s something that can be all used up, there’s nothing leftover to go to landfill. And what’s more of a luxury than beautiful and delicious cake and deserts. Tom and Ant’s organic cakes are a feast for the eyes, the taste buds and the stomach. This Christmas Celebration package contains a 10″ cake of your choice and a large mixed desert box, including brownies, chocolates and fudge. £55 including delivery.

Gifts for the Home

This is such a cool gift that it won the Gift Association’s Eco-friendly Gift of the Year Award this year. The Sun Jar is a traditional Mason jar containing a highly efficient solar cell, rechargeable battery and three low energy LED lamps. During the day, put the jar in a sunny location where the solar cell creates an electrical current that charges the battery over a few hours. At night, this energy powers the warm coloured LEDs in the jar, the light of which is diffused by the frosted jar. The jar is watertight so the jar can be put outside to benefit from maximum sunlight. Makes an excellent garden light, mood lighting or night light for children. £19.95.

I hummed and hawed about putting this item on the gift list. It is a piece of furniture, and I’ve never bought anyone a piece of furniture for Christmas, but if you’re one of those couples who buys something together for your home instead of a gift each, or if you have a son or daughter (or friend) who’s just bought their first home, this may be just the thing you’ve been after. They’re called Rock’n'roll shelves, a unique shelving system made in Sweden from unbleached high density paperboard. They are paintable, washable, not inflammable and fully recyclable. I think you’ll agree that they’re also beautiful. £189.99 for a pack of 5 rolls. To make the pictured configuration you’d need two packs.

Kids Stuff

“He thought he could fly up in his spaceship and just grab the star. But his spaceship had run out of petrol last Tuesday when he flew to the moon.” A quote from How to Catch a Star, one of my daughter’s favourite story books. Rockets and spaceships play a big part in children’s fantasies, and this really cool Paperpod Rocket is eco-friendly too. It’s not just a toy rocket, small astronauts can actually fit inside it for planetary exploration missions. It’s made from recycled cardboard, is a blank canvas for budding artists to decorate and personalise, and can be folded away at the end of play. This really appeals to my motherly side, and to the side of me that likes a tidy living room once the kids have gone to bed. £29.99.

The Lorax is a classic in every way. Who doesn’t love Dr Seuss? And this is no ordinary Dr Seuss book, in this book Dr Seuss gets serious and spells out an ecological warning that is as relevant today as it ever was. A great book to get children into the ideas of environmentalism and earth stewardship (although sometimes I think it’s the kids that get it, and it’s the grown-ups who should be reading books like these). By buying a child a copy of this book, you’re passing along an important message in a most enjoyable way. £3.99.

This is the best value wooden kitchen that I’ve come across. I bought one for my daughter 18 months ago and it’s stood up extremely well to being played with on a daily basis. I heartily recommend this all-in-one kitchen for its durability, for being fantastic value for money and for being compact enough to be wheeled into a corner at the end of the day. The kitched includes cooker, hob, washing machine and sink. £79.95.

Book Recommendation

This great read has been the top-seller in our bookshop since I reviewed it back in June. In “How to live off-grid“, Nick Rosen goes into every detail of off-grid living. He provides not only the inspiration to get off the beaten track and find your own space, he also provides countless resources to help you do just what he suggests. To gather the information to write this book, Nick took to the road with his wife and baby daughter in a converted care bus fuelled by vegetable oil and sun. They toured the UK meeting with off-gridders of all sorts. Yurt-dwellers, communards, utopians and rural squatters were all on Nick’s path, all living happy and comfortable lives completely off-grid. Their stories are fascinating, inspiring and sometimes quite far-out. But they all have some lessons to pass on to those of us who until now have only dream about being self-sufficient. £9.09.

Stocking Fillers

Multi-Striped Organic Cotton Socks - treat their feet! £5.95 £4.75

Divine Fairtrade Milk Chocolate Coins - pennies from heaven. £1.99

Felt Finger Puppets (set of five) - These cute little guys will provide hours of fun for the little people in your life. £5.95 £2.35

Swedish Firesteel - For outdoors enthusiasts, these are really cool little gadgets. No need for lighters or matches. With one of these you can pretend you’re Ray Mears. £14.95 £11.95

Forest friendly Butterfly Castanets - For the littlest of people. Brightly coloured butterflies that make a delightful clackety-clack in small hands. £2.49 including delivery.

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First there were the handy types, devising ways to keep an eye on their electricity usage. But not all of us have the ability, or the inclination to get this involved with our electricity meters. For those who do, more less power to you.

Then came the Plug-In Mains Power & Energy Monitor. Fine if you just want to know how much electricity a couple of your appliances are using. But if you want to audit the electricity use in your entire home, it would involve having quite a few of these, and running about the place with your calculator, adding up your kilowatt-hours. Possible, but not probable.

(Sigh) The Electrisave. It came along in all its wireless glory and put an end to the hard work involved in checking your energy use. It only takes 5 minutes to install, and you can monitor your entire house with just one glance. And then spend your time rushing around switching things off. Pretty satisfying? You may think so. But some of us are blessed with a need for beauty in all functional objects (I’m thinking my architect husband here), and while it’s functional, clever and ever so convenient, the Electrisave is not beautiful.

And so, on to the Wattson. Aaah! Fantastically stylish and hailed by some as a classic design piece, the Wattson keeps an eye on your electricity use and provides some funky mood lighting while it’s at it. It’s available to pre-order now at LOVE ECO. There is no more beautiful way to work to reduce your consumption and lighten your carbon footprint. Not yet!

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