I've had my first visitor who reports that she is very happy with the garden, but apparently it needs a little tweaking.

I read through issue 9 of Sustained, where Laura Cook wrote about the types of plants bees like.

Fortunately, I found most of them in the garden anyway, so I took cuttings and planted lemon thyme, a couple of heathers, chives, lavender, lemon balm, sage, catmint and marjoram.  read more »

After an extremely tough 73 days treking across polar sea ice the Catlin Arctic Survey Ice Team – Pen Hadow, Martin Hartley and Ann Daniels – were picked up yesterday, 13 May 2009, and are on their way home.

Pen said, “It was a gruelling but successful expedition. In our time here we have captured around 16,000 observations and taken 1500 measurements of the thickness of the ice and snow as well as its density. That’s a valuable set of data we’ve collected for scientists. So we’re handing it over to them now.”

Find out more >>

Read the Sustained interview with Pen >>

Posted by David, the Editor

Following an email sent to me by friend and green blogger extaordinaire, Rachelle Strauss, she has kindly offered to blog here on the progress of the bee area of her garden. To begin at the beginning, here's the email she sent me. . .

So now to my story. I had an 'experience' the other day and I thought 'I must tell David' and then I thought 'I shouldn't tell David, it's a crap story and he won't want to be bothered with it', but, being the indecisive kinda chick I am, and now you've told me about the television programme you watched about the bees, I'm going to share it anyway...  read more »

Its Saturday lunch time and we decide to trundle down to The Real Food Festival at Earls Court to see what tasty treats could be discovered to tickle our taste buds. Upon arrival, it was good to see that unlike many shows we have been to this year, this festival hadn't suffered too much from the economic climate.  read more »

By the Editor

In issue 9 we have an article by the intrepid Mukti Mitchell about Thomas Schorr-kon's Trackways school of bushcraft. Being a subject close to my heart, in my excitement, I forgot to include the website for the school so here it is: www.trackways.co.uk

You can read Mukti's article here > > >

We get some interesting samples sent to us at Sustained HQ. Our favourite this week is the Alibi Drinks that landed on my desk. (pic above: founder of Alibi Oliver Bolton (left) with founder of POM354 James Brett in Afghanistan last year).  read more »

Submitted by Natalie Kelly

The Big Lemon’s latest campaign aims to get more of its buses on the roads. Fueled entirely by locally sourced cooking oil, the Service 42 bus runs between Brighton City Centre and the Unis of Brighton and Sussex. Brainchild of ecopreneur Tom Druitt, the idea was born out of pure frustration; Tom was sick to the back teeth with the lack of public transportation in rural areas, the non existent competition in towns and cities and the overall cost for the public.  read more »

This issue of Sustained focuses on carbon a theme close to our hearts at The Converging World, and an issue we are pleased to be associated with.

These days we seem surrounded by what appear to be some very big problems. There’s global terrorism, an international financial crisis, water scarcity, resource depletion, mass migration, wealth inequality, global pandemics and last but not least, global warming. No doubt it’s enough to make some people want to throw their hands up in despair and exclaim, ‘It’s all too much!’

Fortunately, Sustained doesn’t think so and nor do we at The Converging World which is why we’re delighted to be working with Sustained on this Carbon Special. We both recognize the interconnectedness of all these ‘problems’ and so direct our actions to achieving more than just one result.

For example, The Converging World, a UK charity, builds wind turbines in countries like India and then uses the incomes from the electricity and carbon credits to tackle social and environmental issues.

I am delighted to welcome you to this issue of Sustained and am confident that, as you read it, you will be inspired to realize that beyond despair, these problems offer opportunities for us to come together and make a better world for all.

 Ian Roderick, Chief Executive
The Converging World

Read the latest issue online by click here >>