Rome 1 must have been built in a dayhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif...

I was pleased to get the opportunity to lobby the MEP's in Brussels last week on the subject of Rome 1.

Rome I is the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations in civil and commercial matters.

The Regulation would update the Rome Convention 1980 and aims to promote compatibility between conflict-of-laws rules for achieving the objective of mutual recognition of judicial decisions acknowledged in the Vienna Action Plan.

Essentially, as far as I can see if this new regulation goes through without an amendment it would drastically reduce consumer choice. It would certainly mean the end of trading online in Europe for many small businesses. If this regulation goes ahead every company who supplies consumers within Europe will need to spend upwards of £6000 on getting all the rules and translations correct for each and every country that they trade in, even though the consumer is fully protected already! For more details see the Federation of Small Business report.

If you are a small business trading business to consumer, I suggest a word with your local MEP might well be very useful. Meanwhile Andrew Cave from the FSB is busy in Brussels lobbying on our behalf. Many thanks and good luck Andrew.

By the way the sculpture is to show how the countries mesh together...

Countryfile wiggle our way...

Way back in 1995 John Craven brought his team to film a fledgling Wiggly Wigglers
Well this week they came back headed up by Adam Henson. He has made some of my favourite reports on Countryfile, and he is a real time farmer as well as presenter.
Here's the trailor to this week's show on BBC One at 11am on Sunday

Rural women

The stereotypical homely image of a farmer's wife in the kitchen making jam and pies is more and more out of date. A recently published report from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor says that the number of female entrepreneurs outstrips the number of male ones in the rural wards they studied. It also shows that female entrepreneurial activity is nearly twice as high for rural women as it is for urban women. Three inspirational women have set up three very different businesses, and are following their rural dream.

• Women in Rural Enterprise
• Ecocabin
• Wiggly Wigglers natural gardening company
• Rachel's Organics
• Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report

Many thanks to Rebecca Harding who wrote the report and Izzy Warren Smith from Wire for thinking of us.
Enjoy.

Can-O-Worms is HOT!!

Well this Can-O-Worms isn't so hot. This is Jo from Wiggly Wigglers Can-O-Worms in her garden in the snow last month.

But Can-O-Worms has certainly been hot in terms of news this week:

First of all a dream headline in this weeks Daily Mail for all at Wiggly Wigglers.
Sarah Sands says "I love my can of (pet) worms!"
Then our worms make it to "Its not easy being Green" and then to top it all we had to send three Can-O-Worms to London for The Richard and Judy Show. Rach nearly had kittens though, because the courier broke down (!) and the kits had to be there by 4pm. Anyway with a bit of van swopping and driver grief they made it just in time!

Green baths used to mean Avocado coloured!

Richard, San and I spent a day at CAT - Centre of Alternative Technology on Friday.
CAT are a good customer of Wiggly Wigglers and are featuring our book and Can-O-Worms in their Spring flyer, as well as in their shop and catalogue so its good to keep in touch. But the main emphasis of our visit was to get green building inspiration, as we plan our latest venture - a space where you can visit and buy directly from us - a sort of Wiggly Wild Garden Shop... with an opportunity to indulge in Earl Grey and cake of course. We've yet to get planning permission but nevertheless there's excitment in the air and much talk of composting facilities, green roofs, and reed beds.
One of the displays up at CAT was a bath which told you how much more water a bath used than a shower. (It was lots). As part of my personal effort to become better at caring for the environment I was a bit shocked by this display. One of my great pleasures in life is a long, hot bath, and apart from the fact that we dont have a shower, giving up my bath would be a sad day indeed in the Gorringe household. Then theres the knock on effects never mentioned: the decline in sales of lavender bath oil, which would effect the lavender fields which would reduce the number of bees! No bees - no honey, well in fact as 2 out of every 3 mouthfuls of food that we eat are indirectly provided by bees perhaps at least it would do the diet some good!
Thankfully there is an alternative; my son and myself will re-use each others bath water and we'll re-use it again on the garden with a drought buster which I like so much we will be stocking from April 1st - no joke.
We already have a green bath - it's 70's avocado coloured. From now on we'll have to bath green!

No more Flowers

Now I am sorry but now we truely have been inundated with orders for English Bouquets. And so I have to thank you all very much for your orders, but please now stop! Just for this week! We shall resume normal bouquet service on Monday 19th - no problem, but until then we just cant manage anymore flowers - we are flowered out!
If you still need the perfect gift for your mum for Mother's Day what about a Mark Eccleston print or some Wildflower Plants?

Mothers Day English Flower Bouquets

Please note if you do want to order English Flowers for Mothers Day we can not send anymore on Thursday to arrive Friday...Anne has already doubled her quota but cant manage anymore. We can still send flowers on Wednesday to arrive Thursday ( or Mon for Tues, or even Tues for Wed).
Hope this helps, and Happy Mothers Day.

Organic or Not?

Interesting...

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/sexy_farmers_an.php


What do you think? In my experience in many cases there is not much difference between organic or conventionally farmed, as long as the farmer is farming on LEAF principals or similar.

What is becoming more and more important to me is to eat with the seasons, whether or not the food is actually classed as Organic. This way the food actually tastes better and you really start to appreciate whatever is in season. I love this new book from Rose Prince - The New English Kitchen, or try our landlords' book Duchy Originals Cookbook which traces food from farm to plate.

Flower Question

I had an email recently from someone who wanted to know why The Wiggly Bouquets are not organic.
Well there's several reasons;
1. We dont use any pesticides on our cutting patch as a rule, but have never felt the need to actually be certified organic. The principal is in place, and thats it.
2. We use lots of foliage that is harvested from wild overgrown shrubs and hedges that we prune - this would be impossible to certify organic, but to my mind a great, natural way of re-using the best greenery possible.
3. We often buy in extra flowers and to me its much more important to support the local farmer than it is to specify organic - particularly on an item which you are simply not going to eat.
4. Flower Miles; The average bouquet gets flown thousands of miles whether organic or not, better to buy a seasonal bunch produced in the UK, - I reckon.

5. (I know, - I am biased but she did ask...)

Now, there are only so many rafia bows that one woman can tie in a day (!) and so if you would like to order a bouquet for Mothering Sunday (March 18th in the UK) please make sure you click sooner rather than later...

Latest iTune review for The Wiggly Podcast

Five Stars
What a way to inspire by shotokai

"I came across this podcast after clicking the science and tecg section in iTunes. It was featured and the name struck a chord with me. It sounded quirky and like one of those podcasts which are full of useful information.

The format of the show gives the mind a warm Aga to sit by with a cup of tea and good company.

I would definitely recommend this. As someone who grew up in the country (though forestry and sheep farming were bigger than cereals), and has been away for three years (in Japan), I thank the team for giving me a clice of home comfort.
Plus it's helping me remember all that landscape management I studied at uni!"

Thank you Shotokai, have a listen in to Podcast 72 when it comes out. We have included a sheepish section just for you!