“Mafia just means family. And we look after our family.” Anon I’m pleased that African Honey Bees defend themselves as fiercely they do, because our lives depend on it. They pollinate our flowers and crops. Without them, we would have no food; these tiny bees have been our allies for a very long time. Cave…

Our miniature sausage dog Rory can be a moody little bug*er, but it was definitely more than sulking this time – so we took him to one of our local vets, Laetitia Gaudeux. B2 came with me, holding him on her lap for much needed calm and support – I love that little guy, he…

Who am I to tell YOU how to be more eco-friendly? I’m just an ordinary person who had a weird moment with cling film. The memory is hazy, but Donald Trump had just come into power and I was thinking that’s terrible for environmental issues, when self-judgement kicked in. ‘Everyone wants to change the world,…

I was frantically scouring the shelves at The Crazy Store in Mowana Park when I bumped into my daughter’s P.E. teacher, Midge, looking similarly harassed. She and a friend were looking for creative ways to label bottles of wine for a 50th birthday party. ‘Large lettering,’ I suggested, tapping my reading glasses. They laughed and…

My daughter got given a paper straw at The Splash Café. ‘Not plastic!’ I said, impressed. The owner (Neli) explained that she ‘hated plastic’ because Durban harbour was full of it, and all the seals had disappeared. She went on to say that she could not get eco-friendly containers for love nor money. My friend…

I love humans. My friends, my family, we are mostly humans (if you don’t count dogs, cats and my brother’s beautiful leopard gecko, Gonville.) So it’s upsetting to be told that ‘we’ are destroying the planet.   ‘We’ get hoodwinked into buying expensive green alternatives, then told afterwards they are even worse ‘because.’ Bombarded with alarmist…

I started writing blogs in conjunction with publishing ‘The Frog Theory’ on the advise of a PR company. They said to blog about three things, and to stick to those three subjects, in order to start building an online presence. Choosing the first subject was easy – I immediately knew I wanted to write about…

Shortly after relocating from London to Botswana – I noticed a weird green ball had appeared in our lemon tree. I was wondering what it was when a bright yellow bird flew in, holding some grass. It was chattering and soon weaving the strand through the intriguing contraption – Holy fork – it was a nest!…