The August bank holiday should be a time of sun and BBQ’s but this weekend is looking a tad more dull…

So here are a few ideas of things to do this coming weekend if the sun doesn’t shine…

But in the mean time, I shall perform a sun dance in the hope these awful grey clouds blow away!

Happy weekend x

NORTH WEST

Liverpool will again be the UK capital of live music on the 28th & 29th August 2010 with the Matthew Street Music Festival – Europe’s biggest FREE music festival.

Festival highlights include a special guest performance by The Boomtown Rats; a Modfest stage featuring a headline performance by legendary bass guitarist Bruce Foxton, formerly of The Jam; and a New Bands stage.

Without a doubt, one of the world’s craziest competitions and arguably the wildrest, wackiest challenge ever to grace the hills of Pennine Lancashire – The 3rd World Gravy Wrestling Championship and Family Fun Day takes place on 30 August in Bacup, Lancashire.

As it’s the 20th Anniversary of the Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival in Colne, Lancashire, this year plans to be the biggest and best R&B festival in the UK, with artists like Peter Green, Georgie Fame, Chris Farlowe, Dr Feelgood and Sandi Thomes. From 27-30 August 2010.

If music festivals don’t float your boat, try a more sedate day out at the Southport Flower Show, one of the largest and most diverse shows in the country.

NORTH EAST

As usual, the BALTIC in Newcastle Gateshead presents a dynamic, diverse and international programme of contemporary visual art – absolutely free.

Celebrating Punjabi, Pakistani, Bengali and Hindi and other South Asian cultures, the Newcastle Mela 2010, taking place in Exhibition Park, is a weekend full of fun with music, games, stalls and exhibitions. It’s also completely free.

Come and see the best ever scarecrows at the Rennington Scarecrow Festival, Rennington, Northumberland. The village is ‘dressed’ with scarecrows with crafts, games, sausage sizzle and refreshments on village green – Aug 28th-30th.

YORKSHIRE

The Magna Science Adventure Centre, the UK’s 1st science adventure centre is set in the Templeborough steelworks in Rotherham.

Set in this cavernous space are 4 pavilions where you can explore the elements, earth, air, fire and water. Visit the centre themed weeks of family science activities, late night BBQ’s and outdoor playground opening on Thursdays throughout the summer holidays.

Festival organisers are delighted to announce that the Forest of Galtres Festival will be going ahead this year on the 28 & 29 August – the venue will be Crayke, near Easingwold. Something very special again this year – 100 bands on four stages over two full days – headlined by The Lightning Seeds (Saturday) and The Beat (Sunday). Dodgy feature in the line-up too, as do The Wonder Stuff’s Miles Hunt and Erica.

CENTRAL ENGLAND

The Ironbridge Coracle Regatta, held between 12noon and 4pm on 30 August, is now an established event in Shropshire’s events calendar.

Attracting coracle makers and paddlers from all over Britain to participate in an array of madcap races, it features team games, highly competitive coracle polo matches and other fiercely contended competitions.

Pershore, in Worcestershire, is planning to celebrate in style the plums which made the town so famous. The Pershore Plum Fair runs throughout the whole of the month of August, culminating in a grand finale on August Bank Holiday, 30th August.

EAST MIDLANDS

The National Forest Wood Fair in Beacon Hill Country Park, Leicestershire, are holding an unmissable day of live woodworking demonstrations, craft displays and chainsaw sculpting on Bank Holiday Monday – 30th August.

There’s plenty for children including stories from the Wild Man of the Woods, birds of prey, craft activities, archery and the brilliant climbing wall.

Set in 150 acres of Sherwood forest, Nottinghamshire, the Adrenalin Jungle is has something for everyone to enjoy, family activities include an assault course, archery, woodland quad trek, falconry, family paintballing and much more.

The Shambala Fetival in Northamptonshire is a unique concoction of quality music, cabaret, spoken word, workshops, performance arts, and the unexpected. It’s particularly proud of its green stance and family friendly attitude.

EAST OF ENGLAND

The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival has become a significant cultural event in the region and can expect to attract upwards of 25,000 visitors for the productions which run during the eight weeks of the Festival. Runs until 28 August 2010.

Over 200 cars and spectacular aerial displays are part of the Little Gransden Air and Vintage Vehicle Show (nr. St. Neots) on Sunday 30 August (1000-1800).

Hanningfield Reservoir (nr. Billericay) are holding their Family Fun Day on Sunday 29 August (1100-1600) – mini beast hunting and owl exhibition.

Enjoy a guided walk through the wildflower meadows in search of colourful butterflies at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen (nr. Norwich) on Sunday 29 August (1400-1630).

LONDON

With over a million people visiting over the course of the weekend, Notting Hill Carnival is one of the world’s largest and oldest street carnivals.

Steel bands, carnival floats, sound systems and a huge assortment of food stalls make for a fantastic assault on the senses. Sunday is Children’s day, which uses a shorter route tailored to children, families and young people.Scare yourself silly at the Empire Leicester Square during the London Film 4 FrightFest – 26-30 August. Take your pick from 35 horror and fantasy films – including 11 world premieres and 15 UK premieres.

As well as the films themselves, other events include cast meet-and-greets, a horror-writing competition, signings and giveaways.

SOUTH EAST

The Arundel Festival (where I spent my birthday this year!) treats you to music, theatre, art and comedy from 20-30 August each year.

The Enchanted Kingdom’ at The Hop Farm Family Park, Paddock Wood, Kent, brings popular children’s stories to life with real characters, animatronics and special effects, where children can come face to face with ‘real’ pirates and explore the secret cave.

The ‘Knights of Royal England’ entertain with thrilling full gallop jousts at Hever Castle in Kent on Saturday 28 August. Which knight will win the tournament – The Blue Order or the Red Banner?

SOUTH WEST

The Bude Jazz Festival, Cornwall, runs from 28th Aug – 3rd Sep 2010. The Twenty-third Bude Jazz Festival will pack 144 jazz events into seven days. A single stroller ticket will give you admission to all but two of these events.

Discover your inner ‘tree’ at the Festival of the Tree at Westonbirt The National Aboretum in Gloucestershire. Months of planning culminates in twelve carvers working with chainsaws to transform wood from the arboretum into stunning works of art.

It’s the only plant providing sources of food, building materials and woven fabrics. One of Edison’s early light bulbs had a carbonised bamboo filament. Its strength, resilience and cheapness make it a widely used scaffolding material throughout Asia. The fibres of bamboo poles have high strength both in tension and compression. Indeed, its compressive strength is roughly twice that of concrete and weight for weight bamboo has roughly the same tensile strength as steel.

Largest members of the grasses family, some bamboos are said to be the world’s fastest growing plants. Given the right growing conditions there are claims that bamboo can grow 24 inches (60 centimetres) in a single day.

Bamboo ticks lots of boxes for anyone buying eco gifts, or eco-friendly items for the home. For a start, it’s a highly sustainable raw material. Its fast growth means that local people can cut down as much as they need for carving, weaving, sawing or splitting and still have as big a forest at the end of the year as they had at the start. On the global warming question, since it comes from a plant source, any bamboo product contains a significant part of its weight in atmospheric carbon. Any plastic equivalent has already added to the atmosphere’s carbon level!

Another point; because it’s natural, bamboo has variations in quality and appearance that make it difficult to use in most mass production processes. You can be pretty sure that a craftsman has literally had a hand in any bamboo item you buy. If you go to an ethical store you’ll also know that the craftsman got a fair wage for his or her work, and that no one living in the third world was exploited by western buying power. Finally you’ll be sure that the product you buy hasn’t accumulated air miles in its journey from craftsman to your home.

With eco credentials as strong as these, it’s wonderful that bamboo products can also be very good-looking. But then again, it’s not surprising that a handmade product can be made to look great by a skilled craftsman! How about using the natural “tubular” nature of bamboo to produce useful, chic storage jars? Then have a look to see how the craftsman can take the natural shape and “stretch it” into a salad bowl that’s truly modern.

And finally, in the opening paragraph of this short piece in praise of bamboo, I mentioned woven fabrics. Sceptical? Then check out this bamboo bathrobe! It’s soft, absorbent, and amazing! Bamboo really is a unique resource for us all.

It’s a simple question. “What’s ethical (or “eco” or “green”)? But I feel like a politician who can’t give a simple answer to a simple question!

Take cotton. I found out that cotton, grown as an industrial-scale crop, is one of the world’s heaviest users of pesticides and fertilizers. So now I look for organic cotton because I don’t want dead rivers or poisoned wells on my conscience.

Or think about glass. Some of us have embarrassingly large numbers of wine bottles to recycle every week, but what happens to the glass after it leaves us? It certainly doesn’t generally get re-used in consumer products. But I discovered a Spanish company that uses nothing but post-consumer recycled glass, and makes really excellent and imaginative plates & vases with it.

Energy efficient products pretty much do what they say on the tin. They aim to use energy more efficiently than standard products. I like technology when it does that!

Sustainable products have minimal environmental impact or require little energy to process. They may be longer lasting and need less replacement, or be made from freely available raw materials.

I am sure you have all had a swig of “Fairtrade” coffee, and you know that it’s a scheme to protect farmers in the developing world. They’re sometimes forced to sell at prices so low that they can barely meet their basic costs. How can they then invest in their businesses, pay living wages, or even feed their families? Many of my suppliers face the same problems, but are too small to afford the formal “Fairtrade” certification, so I support “fair trade”, which takes a bit more work on my part!

I also like to buy from cooperatives. They are great at sustaining communities, promoting training and keeping crafts alive. They are the ultimate in socially responsible business.

I buy UK goods whenever I can. Mostly they are made by very small-scale craft workshops, and you won’t be surprised to know that I love this kind of enterprise. Plus they don’t earn air miles getting to me. And don’t get me started on the importance of sea-freight over air-freight!

Now, you really can’t expect even concerned consumers to take the time to worry about all these areas. So, I believe it’s our job as retailers to make the buying process as simple and transparent as possible, so consumers can make conscious and informed decisions, quickly and easily.

Try an experiment; go into your local toyshop and look at the labels to see where the various things come from. Take something quintessentially English, like a Winnie the Pooh stuffed toy.  I bet you’ll find it was made in China. I recently tried to find anything not made in China as a present for an Asian child, and it was nigh on impossible.

So China, with its cheap labour and under-valued currency, has become the workshop of the world. Unfortunately it has also become the fastest-growing polluter in the world, and the biggest exploiter of people.

Now I am not arguing that the Chinese people don’t deserve a chance to work their way out of poverty. Just as I don’t begrudge the French their government-assisted industry, or the Germans their hugely efficient car industry. I just wish that there were positive industrial news from nearer home. Something made here, that works well, looks good, and is competitively priced.

Well actually there is! You have to look hard, but there are businesses and people in these islands busily making things that are well worth a look. All these products are supporting British jobs, which makes them excellent eco gifts, or you can even buy them for yourself!

For example, are you looking for an occasional mattress, maybe for unexpected guests, or for a camping trip?  This one’s really comfortable, looks great, and is made in Birmingham by a mental health charity. Good product, good cause!

Or how about some wonderful stoneware mugs and pots, made by a craftsman in Scotland? Tough, authentic, and each one subtly different from its neighbour, because it’s hand made from abundant local raw materials!

And finally, if you’d like some light shed on another industry, try this aluminium café-style ceiling lamp. Made in Wales, in the shadow of the Brecon Beacons, by a family business, which used to specialise in miners’ safety lamps. It’s stylish, recyclable, and demonstrates that not every British business just gave up and went away when their core market went into decline.

So you can still buy British, and support craftsmen, family businesses, and charities. Now that’s good news, isn’t it?

 I am even more excited to announce we will be giving one lucky person the chance to win one of our beautiful quilts too, worth £140!

 For your chance to win a quilt (in either blue, pink or sunshine yellow) then all you have to do is post your answer to the question below:

“If you could change one thing about the world (it can be personal to you or for the good of all mankind), what would it be?”

We will then review all the comments/answers left and pick our favourite. The winner will then be emailed and a beautiful quilt, in their choice of colour, will be sent out to them!

Best of luck!

Travel Lingerie Bag – keep all your under garments together in this lovely little bag

Lightweight cotton kimono – perfect for covering up for breakfast on the balcony!

Single roll-up bed - If you are going camping, then this fantastic roll-up bed will be extra comfy for your kids!

I am very tempted by their lovely yoga trousers (may spur me into going to my classes more too!) as well as their twisted wrap. Their website says “EKO Sense is a new organic clothing company, creating truly ethical and luxurious clothing that reflects the laid-back beauty that Cornwall is famous for, by producing casual essentials in the kindest of fabrics.”

Sounds and looks good to me!

Choose from the cream Casablanca lantern or a set of two silver lanterns.

All our lanterns are made by hand and fairly traded from India.

Body brushing. If you can, every morning spend around 3-5 minutes brushing your body, in long, slow sweeping strokes. Always brush upwards towards the heart and make sure your skin is dry (best time to do it is before a bath or shower). Apparently body brushing can improve circulation, so that your problem areas look and feel smoother and more streamlined. Body brushing also helps our lymphatic drainage system to remove toxins from the body, helping to reduce cellulite in our thighs and buttocks, where fats, proteins and waste products tend to accumulate.

So why not take a look at some of Biome Lifestyle’s handmade body brushes. Alternatively there are great body brushes to be found at The Body Shop and Origins. Happy brushing!

“What’s the one product/gadget in your home, you just couldn’t live without?”

Tracy’s answer is below:

My garlic press is small & neat
Crushing garlic’s not a feat
It helps create fantastic nosh
But it is a bugger to wash!

Well done Tracy, a £50 voucher will be winging its way to you!

Thank you to everyone who entered and keep your eyes on the blog for further competition announcements.