Coffee – Paul Noël

Where’s Basil? – Meeting up with his more famous cousin Paddington Bear

Basil met up for a friendly chat with his more famous cousin, Paddington Bear, at Harrison’s Coffee in Spring Street, Paddington, London. 12th January 2022.

Brown Bear’s Big Day Out is a story about a bear in a zoo that puts on a disguise so that he can escape and visit a funfair called Dizzyland. It’s about looking at people in depth and not being afraid because they look different from you. So Basil looks like a man when disguised but is still the same friendly and hero bear in this case once his disguise slips.

The story contains illustrations throughout the text. These are then repeated at the back of the printed book so that younger children can colour them in. One of them can be seen below.

The book is available globally from Amazon in both printed and ebook formats. This is the .co.uk link, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brown-Bears-Big-Day-Adventures/dp/1980868859/, and this is for .com, https://www.amazon.com/Brown-Bears-Big-Day-Out-ebook/dp/B086DSF5N7/.

Our Etsy shop has blank greeting, birthday, invitation cards of the book’s cover artwork, https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia. Larger quantities of books available.

Four Brown Bear’s Big Day Out blank greeting cards

We have printed this illustration and one of the photographs onto organic cotton T-shirts for children that are available from our Teemill website, https://scientistandphilosopher.com/collection/kids/.

Basil in the rain plain kid’s organic cotton T-shirt

Basil visits Versailles plain organic cotton T-shirt

Our links

See more of Gerry Newton’s wonderful art, https://www.geraldnewtonart.com/.

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://scientistandphilosopher.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Where’s Basil? – Visiting the Coffee Cavern stall in Stony Stratford market – Brown Bear’s Big Day Out

The story contains illustrations throughout the text. These are then repeated at the back of the printed book so that younger children can colour them in. One of them can be seen below.

Basil was visiting Eric’s wonderful coffee stall which may not by now still be there. 14th September 2013.

Basil sneaks out of the zoo in his disguise

Our Etsy shop has blank greeting, birthday, invitation cards of the book’s cover artwork, https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia. Larger quantities of cards available.

We have printed this illustration and one of the photographs onto organic cotton T-shirts for children that are available from our Teemill website, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/product/basil-the-bear-v2b-c/, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/product/basil-visits-versailles-plain/ and https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/product/basil-in-the-rain-plain/.

Our links

See more of Gerry Newton’s wonderful art, https://www.geraldnewtonart.com/.

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Coffee – just one example of the consumption and human population issues we need to fix

I wrote in February 2021 but has the plight of coffee growers become any better? In most cases probably not. There are droughts in many places making the growing of coffee even harder while the human population continues to climb.

23rd February 2021

What’s happening to the planet in 2021 can be expressed in some large numbers but many individuals seem to have a problem with comparing numbers. The Earth is big right and in the little bubble that we live in everything passes day to day with little gripes but really we are OK especially if we have got our coffee. Yes there are people living in poverty, they were living in poverty yesterday and unfortunately they will be living in poverty tomorrow, next month, next year and maybe for the rest of their lives but it’s all a long way away from our little life bubble. So here’s the large number, 80,000,000. That’s the number of ADDITIONAL human primate babies born in just the 366 days of 2020. Many will be born into poverty, will live their lives in poverty and will die in poverty.

So where does that come in from the point of view of the person in a comfortable life bubble drinking coffee? Well many of those coffee drinkers will say that the reason that many of those 80,000,000 are in poverty is down to this or that reason without ever considering the environmental loading caused by their own little life bubble. They see no problem with so many additional births.

So for those able to afford coffee, for those able to regularly buy coffee from your corporate coffee shop (why?), drinking from PFAS tainted takeaway cups (why?) here’s the reason for those who think that human population numbers are not a problem. I have no idea where my coffee comes from apart from the country of origin. I don’t know how old the coffee plantation is. I don’t know how many animals and other creatures died when the native vegetation was cleared to plant the coffee bushes. I don’t know if any local species went extinct because of the planting of the coffee bushes. I don’t know what is happening to the soil in the plantation, what chemicals are being used to bring me my coffee and what environmental impact those chemicals are having locally and on plantation workers’ health. I don’t know what the environmental impact is of shipping that coffee a fair distance across the surface of the planet is. Let’s not mention noise pollution in the oceans because that’s a whole story in itself. Therefore the likelihood is that there will never be enough land to grow coffee for all those ADDITIONAL human primates when they become adults assuming that some might just like to share the experience that you are having in your little life bubble. So as I keep repeating, we are too many, we take too much.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

The cost of convenience – a tree is felled

Somewhere, far from where you are a tree crashes to the ground. It starts it’s long journey and processing to become the everyday objects that we so carelessly distribute and use. Without thinking of where these items come from, what chemicals are used and what the true environmental cost is they pass through our hands.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Where’s Basil? – Meeting up with his more famous cousin Paddington Bear

Basil met up for a friendly chat with his more famous cousin, Paddington Bear, at Harrison’s Coffee in Spring Street, Paddington, London. 12th January 2022.

The story contains illustrations throughout the text. These are then repeated at the back of the printed book so that younger children can colour them in. One of them can be seen below.

Our Etsy shop has blank greeting, birthday, invitation cards of the book’s cover artwork, https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia. Larger quantities of books available.

Our links

See more of Gerry Newton’s wonderful art, https://www.geraldnewtonart.com/.

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Convenience or sustainability part 2

This is a post I did originally in early 2020, so time for a re-post. Even if you believe all the greenwash about aluminium being recyclable, its extraction and processing causes huge amounts of environmental damage just to give some individuals a more convenient lifestyle.

On the second of my blogs about convenience or sustainability it is time to mention something that has only been around for 20 years and that I risk hearing howls of disapproval about. Yes, it’s the coffee pod/capsule. As this advertising poster from Bodum states, “Make taste not waste”.

Maybe the plastic and aluminium is recyclable but how likely is it that it does get recycled? We have had the same Bodum cafetiere for decades. Now that’s not a good modern business model but it happens to be hugely more environmentally than these pod/capsule machines. We have found an independent coffee supplier who grinds the coffee for us and there we have it, for us, a perfect cup of coffee every time.

Interestingly enough, John Sylvan, who invented the K-cup in 1995 in the US has stopped using them because although he made his fortune from them, he realises the damage they cause to the environment. You don’t have to live without coffee you just need to be a bit more sustainable when you make it.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton T-shirts and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Cafetière

First posted in December 2020. A fancy coffee machine is unnecessary and creates extra waste. All you need is a cafetière and a kettle.

Everything we do is a loading on the environment. Every coffee bush is sitting in a monoculture where once there was a diverse ecosystem. Further to that there’s a huge amount of human exploitation in the growing of the coffee while certain large corporations employee some very clever people to make sure they don’t pay much tax, if any, on their huge sales. There’s a big disconnect between what well known brands make in profits and the wages earned by the coffee pickers. If you really do need to use a machine then make sure that your capsules are being recycled rather than ending in land fill as capsules add an extra dimension to the environmental loading of coffee. If you don’t need a machine then just use a kettle and a simple cafetière like this one from Bodum.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

On Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/paulpaddington2017/

Where’s Basil? – Visiting the Coffee Cavern stall in Stony Stratford market – Brown Bear’s Big Day Out

The story contains illustrations throughout the text. These are then repeated at the back of the printed book so that younger children can colour them in. One of them can be seen below.

Basil was visiting Eric’s wonderful coffee stall which may not by now still be there. 14th September 2013.

Our Etsy shop has blank greeting, birthday, invitation cards of the book’s cover artwork, https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia. Larger quantities of cards available.

Our links

See more of Gerry Newton’s wonderful art, https://www.geraldnewtonart.com/.

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Where’s Basil? – Meeting up with his more famous cousin Paddington Bear

Basil met up for a friendly chat with his more famous cousin, Paddington Bear, at Harrison’s Coffee in Spring Street, Paddington, London. 12th January 2022.

The story contains illustrations throughout the text. These are then repeated at the back of the printed book so that younger children can colour them in. One of them can be seen below.

Our Etsy shop has blank greeting, birthday, invitation cards of the book’s cover artwork, https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia. Larger quantities of books available.

Our links

See more of Gerry Newton’s wonderful art, https://www.geraldnewtonart.com/.

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Where’s Basil? – Visiting the Coffee Cavern stall in Stony Stratford market – Brown Bear’s Big Day Out

The story contains illustrations throughout the text. These are then repeated at the back of the printed book so that younger children can colour them in. One of them can be seen below.

Basil was visiting Eric’s wonderful coffee stall which may not by now still be there. 14th September 2013.

Our Etsy shop has blank greeting, birthday, invitation cards of the book’s cover artwork, https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia. Larger quantities of cards available.