Where do you go to admire trees?

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post looks at some very special trees you can vote for in the European Tree of the Year. But the best trees are the ones we see from our homes, schools and offices or pass when we are out and about (hence the choice of pix). Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

NB#1: Poplar in a London Park - when it's in leaf they rustle
together as if making conversation.

This week - from 21-28 February 2015 you can vote for European Tree of the Year - using this link http://www.treeoftheyear.org/Uvod.aspx. Looking at the photos on that link you can enjoy the lonely tree in Powys, Wales; the 150-year-old oak tree in the middle of a football pitch in Estonia and the UK's Major Oak - believed to have been used by Robin Hood and a gorgeous Scots Pine in Scotland.

NB#2: My cycle route into central London always takes me past this wonderful fig tree
on Amwell Street, Islington.

With the exception of the Irish entrance - a baby Cedar of Lebanon that's just 15 years old - and the Italian's predictable, but particularly ancient olive, the entrants are all tree species that are easy to see in the UK.

Tree ID is a tricky skill, but perhaps it could become your party trick?

NB#3: My family's favourite oak on Hampstead Heath
ideal for picnics, climbing, games & quiet thought.

Do you know how to recognise an oak, a horse chestnut, sweet chestnut, sycamore, black poplar or a plane tree? If so you can travel the world of trees easily in the UK taking in:

• Estonia (oak)
• Belgium (horse chestnut)
• France (sweet chestnut)
• Hungary (sycamore)
• Spain (black poplar)
• Bulgaria (plane tree)

NB#4: Silver birch liven up a city winter sunset.

The big venerables may be reasonably easy, but I find street tree ID tricky because the sort of lollipop-sized tree that survives pollarding and city pavements aren't the species that you'll find if you go down to the woods today. With one exception - the silver birch (see photo above).

NB#5: Crows nesting in an ash tree at the back of suburban garden, London.
Ash is my favourite tree to ID - you just cannot get it wrong, look for a horseshoe shaped black tip. Photo by Hedera Vetch.

Hope this post inspires you to vote via the Woodland Trust site here - or just to take a few minutes to admire at least one of the trees you pass this week. Maybe you'll end up creating your own top five trees too?

How travellers get joy from fake-cations, staying home & plane-free travel

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post looks at some strange ways people pretend to be away on holiday  (when in fact they are just faking it). Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

On Buzzfeed Zilla Van Den Born talks about how she combined her two passions, manipulating photos and travel
so she could create a fake-cation in Thailand that was the envy of her friends and family, story here. Van den Born: "I wanted to prove how easily reality gets distorted".

The internet savvy woman from Amsterdam who faked her Far East holiday was a fun post on Buzzfeed.  It's the ultimate plane free travel! You can see for yourself how cleverly she faked it by reading this summary. Even her Granny and best friends thought she'd gone away for six weeks... All she did was don a head scarf and get busy photoshopping at home.

My kids do fake-cations all the time, just by taking selfies in front of the palm trees on the Mac Book photo booth.

In many ways this blog aroundbritainnoplane.blogspot.com is also about fake-cations. I love the way you can satisfy your longing to be somewhere else by paying attention to places locally that give you a sense of some place else... More importantly I like the way my family's low carbon adventures have kept us grounded since 2011. We've travelled a bit in the UK, and Europe, but never by plane and yet we've had tasters of 100s of different countries as you can see from the list on the right-hand menu.

If you're a travel fan but conscious of how the climate is changing, maybe trying out a different way of travelling will give you enough pleasure and adventure. Failing that when you go on holiday try and stay away for as long as possible. it's the min-break there and back plane flights that do so much damage.

For more about the power of staying home - and ultimately the pull of being home - have a look at this interview which I recently did with sustainability and slow travel expert Ed Gillespie from the change agency Futerra. If you read on you'll see he's written a book about travelling the world without using a plane and now has a project  on the go to create an app for London (or any city) that lets you travel and connect with world communities. The only snag is he needs £15,000 to fund it...

The direct link is here (a shorter version below)

ED GILLESPIE: FUTERRA CO-FOUNDER
Everyone has a story. Are cities a good place to live? Norfolk-raised Ed Gillespie is helping make urban centres and businesses meet the needs of the 21st century thanks to his work at Futerra in Clerkenwell, and his own passion for flight-free long haul travel. Interview by Nicola Baird  from http://islingtonfacesblog.com

Ed Gillespie’s love of travel inspired him to take a year’s sabbatical from the organisation he co-founded, Futerra, to travel the world over land and sea. His book Only Planet is just out and he’s established a unique concept to help people find ways to travel the world without even leaving London thanks to a very clever app which needs crowdfunding soon, see http://www.worldinlondon.co.uk/ .

“Cities are much more sustainable than rural areas in many ways. The sharing, togetherness, toleration, activities and creativity generated in a city make for a very successful experience. It’s vital that we get it right,” says Ed Gillespie. “We need to live a little leaner” – he hasn’t flown on a vacation for the past 10 years, gave up his car 17 years ago and has no kids – “it’s a lot more creative…”

You might not have heard of Futerra, or its co-founder Ed Gillespie, but the impact this media business has had on the way people do sustainability communications is immense. Over the past 14 years Futerra has helped refine the way businesses – such as Kingfisher, Sky TV, Nandos - and organisations – such as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Friends of the Earth and even the UN – talk to you and me.

Now installed in an office meeting room the confession booth was used by Futerra on the festival circuit as a place for people to confess their eco crimes (4WDs, long showers) and perhaps start afresh with other greener habits.

“We’re a positive change agency,” says the ever upbeat co-founder Ed Gillespie who employs 2Add New5 staff In London (and another 20+ in their international offices in New York and Stockholm). The books on the shelves alongside him may be a tad negative (eg, Green Gone Wrong), but Ed’s eco-charged energy is inspiring; perhaps because he’s sitting on one of a pair of Chesterfield sofas positioned under a carved wooden sign that suggests we’re in an ‘Earthly Sins Confessional Booth’?

“About 10 years ago we used to take the booth to festivals, including Glastonbury, “ says Ed grinning. “We found guilt was a barrier to action, so let people confess their sins so they could progress to more sustainable behaviours.” So far so serious, but then Ed admits, “It was an excuse to dress up as a vicar, which I found fun. People treat you really differently. There’s still an earthly sins Facebook page…”

Originally trained as a marine biologist, with experience working in the Orkneys, New Caledonia and Australia, Ed is the sort of person futurologists say we should be watching because he’s helping us create a more environmentally in tune way of living.

Now 42, and ready to prove Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author, Douglas Adams, right re the meaning of life, Ed’s agency has coped well despite the government cut backs. “When the coalition came in our Government work disappeared and we still work a fair amount with NGOs (charities) but about 75 per cent of our work is now from business. There is what his friend and fellow futurist Mark Stevenson calls “institutional bewilderment” about their organisation’s ability to change. “Business knows that if they don’t change there will be no choice – the big six energy companies are a good example…”

His argument is quite complex, but if business people continue thinking that unlimited growth at any cost is good, they are going to hit a problem thanks to our Earth’s finite resources. What they need to do now is move to services rather than products (think car sharing not owning) and secure sustainable supplies – hence the surge of interest in accredited forest management products marked with the FSC logo.

Ed clearly adores his work. He gives a great talk – always funny – and has a real skill at helping people “get it”. I’ve wanted to interview him for a long time and so made use of Futerra’s EC1 address to engineer a meeting. But like it’s previous home in Charterhouse Square Futerra has always just been on the Islington borders, not actually in this borough. And maybe it’s pushing the Islington link just too much when I discover that talented Islington typographer Derek Birdsall did Futerra’s first designs?

Excitingly Ed’s new project is working with another Ed to crowdfund £15,000 for a new app, world in London that helps you engage with global communities who’ve settled in London. On the promotional video, seewww.crowdfunder.co.uk/worldinlondon, you can keep your feet in Londonbut take your soul for seriously speedy travelling. Try:

9am in Europe (having a cup of coffee)

10.30am in Africa (shopping in Brixton market)

12 noon flatbreads in Turkey

2pm in India via Neasdon Temple

4pm over to Asia with another gorgeous temple

6.30pm football cheering for Colombia

8pm grabbing a drink in Mexico

10pm partying the night away in Brazil.

Like Ed I have chosen not to use planes (our family’s last big trip was in 2011 for a three month sojourn in the South Pacific, and before that in 2000). Instead I’ve tried travelling the world without leaving the UK with my family (see the bloghttp://aroundbritiannoplane.blogspot.com ) so I’m thrilled to find that the two Eds are working on an app to make London an even better place to live and travel via crowdfunding. (feb 2015 now closed)

• Use this 33% discount code on purchase price for UK or overseas (F33RERA) to buy a cheaper copy of Ed Gillespie’s new book, Only Planet: a flight free adventure around the world (rrp £14.99). To claim your discount follow the link here. Originally a well-loved Guardian column, this is a fabulous way to armchair travel or plan your own low carbon adventures.
• More about Futerra at http://www.futerra.co.uk/

Over to you
Where do you know in your city that reminds you of somewhere else in the world? Do pop an answer on the comments. Thanks.

18 Folgate Street - London with the Hugenots

This blog is about low-carbon family travel. Here's a way to visit the 18th and 19th centuries on a silent-tour of Dennis Severs' house at 18 Folgate Street, E1. I love mini-museums (London has many wonderful small houses to visit) but this is particularly challenging as it forces you to confront a different style of living. Perhaps comparable to a visit to a grand palace like Versailles in France where you truly imagine you are a guest; or the modern slum tourism of Kiberia in Kenya, Dharavi in India or Rio's favelas? Prepare to be a Hugenot, rich and poor. Post by Nicola Baird 

Dennis Severs' house at 18 Folgate STreet is on the left, below the 'gas' lamp. To the right is the block that British Land wants to obliterate (Norton Folgate) under a "hideous corproate plaza". See how to help stop this at Facebook/savenortonfolgate or "@spitalfieldsT (spitalfields trust)

Tucked behind the busy Spitalfields Market - which is packed on Sundays - you might find a narrow street providing a quiet route back to Liverpool Street station. This is Dennis Severs' house at 18 Folgate Street. It's a handsome Georgian building and Dennis - who is dead now - did it up to resemble the way a Hugenot family of silk weavers would have lived.

It's a place you visit to explore. It's small: there are only two rooms per floor so sensibly you're asked to visit in silence. Together with the candlelit rooms this quickly provides an enticing atmosphere. You are walked into history, becoming a guest of the family - the noises of whom can be heard just off in the next room.

There are half finished cups of tea, unmade beds, wigs and nit combs. For the nosey among us this is a wonderful histronaut experience, and very different from seeing a grand National Trust house with it's 60+ rooms. This house isn't so different to the one I live in, it's just set up differently.  What it made me realise was how much I love electric light?.At Dennis Severs' house it's just fires in the grate and candlelit - even as early as 3.15pm (the last entry on a February Sunday) it's dusk indoors (and the thick curtains, net curtains, dark walls and over-crowding ornaments don't help). With this afternoon half light and of course evening dark it seems quite amazing that people of the 18th and 19th centuries were so keen on embroidery - or even managed to read. I felt like a giant crashing around, night blind, and I'm sure if I'd been wearing a long skirt I'd have knocked over endless items.

Door to another world at 18 Folgate Street, E1

There's a surprise on the top floor and Nell, who was celebrating her 14th birthday, was visibly shaken by the sudden slum. But this part of London became a place for the super poor from mid Victorian times (forgive my unsophisticated analysis). Many families could only afford to rent just one room - many were so poor they didn't even had bedclothes, something that in the 1930s George Orwell writes about so revealingly in The Road to Wigan Pier. We have tremendous poverty now, but I don't think it's as life-threateningly awful as it has been (though it's obviously shocking that in a rich country like the UK children can go to bed hungry). Of course I'm lucky and live with my family in a house which has electric light, bedclothes and central heating.

For anyone who loves eccentric characters or evocative places then Dennis Severs' house is a must visit. 

It's a wonderful way to get the feel of what it was like to be a silk weaver (caged birds, jellied fruits for visitors, plenty of tea without milk, rose water to wash in) living in a house which horses trotted by and the city bells kept you awake.

Of course this remarkable restoration is right by the City - it is in the City - where land values are for the speculators. As a result many of these old houses are at immense risk of being flattened and made into a different sort of work space, usually towering (see that top photo).

Even now there's a campaign on facebook asking us to facebook/savenortonfolgate in a bid to convince British Land from demolishing a whole block of historic houses so they can create a "hideous corporate plaza".

Inspired by my visit I'm going to add my voice to the campaign. I hope you manage to make a visit one day to Dennis Severs' house, but maybe help the campaign too.

VISITOR INFO:
http://www.dennissevershouse.co.uk/
Dennis Severs' house, 18 Folgate Street, London, E1 6 BX.
Visitor info: house is bookable for Monday evening tours. Drop in on Sundays. £10 for an adult, £5 a child. Remember you have to be silent...

Over to you
Where have you visited to get a real sense of how the past was lived? Do you find it easier to imagine this in an empty building, or a perfect recreation - inside or out?