howies®

September has only just began and…

the car parks are empty

the beaches are quiet

there are no queues in the supermarket or coffee shop

the mornings are clear & crisp

the berries are bursting out of the hedgerows

the evenings are drawing in

there’s a nip in the air before the sun goes down

jumpers are coming out of storage for snuggling into

there’s some surf on its way

hurray hurray hurray I love september

Just had this cool little link pop up in my twitter feed (thanks to @CliveAndrews)

This video is made up of screen shots from Oliver O’Brien’s London cycle hire station status map (oobrien.com/vis/bikes/).
Each second of video is 1 hour in real life and the video starts midnight Tuesday 10th August and ends midnight Wednesday the 11th.

It really shows all the bikes flooding into central London in the morning and then leaving in the evening!

Blue circles represent bike stations that are less than half full, red circles are over half full.

Where I’m from (Peebles, Scottish Borders) and where I am (Cardigan, West Wales) are two places defined by the rivers running through them, the Tweed is famous for the fabric, the Teifi for being the home of the Coracle.  They are both beautiful rivers flowing from high in the hills down to the sea, great for paddling and home to some amazing wildlife including salmon and otters.

Unfortunately that’s not all they share, with salmon come poachers and with poachers come nets and with nets comes a horrible word – bycatch.  All the things that get tangled up but aren’t wanted, birds, young fish and otters.

Teifi Nets
Tweed Nets

Nets don’t care what they catch, they don’t care how long they are left, they don’t care if they’re forgotten or abandoned.  They just keep catching.

There are a lot of companies that make clothes out there.

Now I live in Cardigan Bay it can be quite overwhelming visiting shopping and town centers, there is so much choice, so how do you choose?

Why we do what we do, is at the heart of howies, we don’t just make clothes.

Here’s some why we do’s:

We are passionate about our doing our sports

We want clothes to suit our lifestyle of being outdoors, getting hot, cold, wet and exhausted

We  beleive in not spreading our cotton with chemical spray to keep the bugs off when there are friendlier methods available

We believe in not using petrochemicals for base layers when there is a sustainable alternative which works better and doesn’t smell

We beleive in making better quality products so they are not thrown away in a few weeks, they are treasured for years to come instead

We make local wherever possible

We use natral trims and fastenings wherever possible

We love nature and watching the seasons change

We like to wear our denim in and make our own history

We like stuff which works

We love tea made in the pot, with cake

We like telling stories about our clothes

We like going for a run, ride, swim at lunch time

We like telling stories about our adventures

I have a stack of these DVDs on my desk from the good people at Surfers Against Sewage.

“View from the green room” is the Uk’s first environmental surf documentary – now, i’m not a very good salesman so i’ll just copy what they’ve written about it:

” ‘View from the greenroom’ examines the pollution issues of today through the eyes of Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) campaigners. Joined by Team Quicksilver, our international crew score barrel after barrel at some amazing new locations in Scotland, before breaking off to reflect on the dangers our coastline faces from poor shipping practises, the unregulated discharge of toxic chemicals, conveyor belts of litter travelling up on the Gulf stream and the threats to surfing from climate change. With a touch of humour we highlight these problems in true SAS style.”

So there it is.

First 6 people to email me with their addresses will get one, but only if you answer the following question correctly mind!:

“Do you want a free dvd?”

a) Yes

b) no

send your answers to hollie(at)howies(dot)co(dot)uk.

(Ps – the answer is A)

A friend showed me these amazing videos from The Symphony of Science. All your favourite scientists autotuned to beats.. amazing!

Sinead x

This week’s T-Shirt of the Week is ‘Matchbox’ by Davy Evans

‘Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees’ My mother always told me.

‘It’s made of paper, and paper does!’ I retorted, thinking I was very clever.

Now that I’m older, I think I get it.

Like money, wood isn’t in infinite supply (no matter what the banks and sawmills may tell us).

We need to look after our supply, and make sure our useage is sustainable.

Just as the accountants say – ‘if you look after the pennies, the pounds will follow’

If you look after the matchsticks, the forests will flourish.

Wood Doesn’t Grow On Trees

Available on White for Men here and for Women here

Thank you to all those who came to the Wee Do last night, it was a lovely, relaxed  evening.

For those who could not attend, here is some of the fascinating stuff that you missed…..

Dan Wedgwood from The Adventurists told comedy tales of how Tommy set up the mad cap adventuring team and explained that they are moving away from vehicle based trips to horse journeys, a dug out canoe race down the Amazon and the Pedal Walla rickshaws around Bristol. The Pedal Wallas created the biggest buzz, such a genius idea, and if they manage to get permission they may very well be taking people up Park St too with a bit of electrical assistance! The first major outing of the Pedal Wallas will be at the Harbourside Festival so look out for them there. They are looking for keen cyclists and co-operatives of cyclists who know Bristol well to be the Pedal Wallas of Brizzle, go here if that is you. Money raised from the Rickshaw Run across India that The Adventurists organise, goes directly to Frank clean drinking water projects throughout India, currently funding around 28 projects.

“Access to safe water is a fundamental human need and therefore, a basic human right. Contaminated water jeopardizes both the physical and social health of all people. It is an affront to human dignity.”

United Nations Development Programme.

Did you know that bottled water from the likes of Evian travels on average 666 miles to get to you and therefore has a rather large carbon footprint, not to mention the plastic packaging and the fact it is owned by a huge multi-national?  Frank water on the other hand sources spring water from the UK and wants to put itself out of business because it wants to support refill bottles instead, so that they have a smaller carbon footprint. But whilst bottled water is still needed for specific events where refill is unavailable, all of Franks profits go to clean water projects in India that use suitable technology and train local people to do any basic maintenance needed. All projects also including education programmes so pass on potentially life saving information about hygiene and keeping water safe from contamination.

Frank is currently championing the ‘Turn Me On’ campaign which includes a petition to Bristol council to re-establish drinking fountains throughout the city so that people can refill their water bottles on the go (remember we have a refill point in our shop if you ever need a refill, Carnaby St shop has one as well.) It’s part of a country-wide campaign you can find out about here.

The next Bristol Wee Do is by Vashti Richards from Bristol-based micro-loan organisation Deki on 29th July and all details will be online very soon.

bath ales are providing the Freedom organic lager for tonight

You can pick up tickets from our shop or reserve them via telephone or email.

While doing some research on the environmental credentials of our website, I was happy to find out that our hosting company, Memset, were the UK’s first ISP to become carbon neutral back in 2006.  Read more about them here.