Make your home a sustainable beacon of light, welcoming your visitors and making your outdoor areas visually enticing.  Solar lights are a fantastic use of a natural and renewable resource.  Here are a few ideas for lighting up your outside areas.

Make sure your visitors are able to find you, day or night.   This solar powered house number is apparently easy to fit, costs nothing to run and needs no wiring or professional skills to install.  It comes complete with everything you need to fix it to a wall, rechargeable batteries and a comprehensive set of numbers and letters to suit any combination. The light is made of high quality stainless steel, and automatically turns itself on at dusk. During the day the solar panel on top of the light fitting converts daylight into electricity to recharges the integrated rechargeable battery.  At dusk, when the light turns on, it runs on the electricity stored during the day.

Stay safe and keep baddies (and global warming) at bay with a solar security light.  The duo-security light provides bright light with twin white LED lamps and a passive infra-red motion sensor.  Because of its hinged mounting bracket, it can be positioned on the corner of a fence or wall, and each individual lamp can be swivelled up or down and from side to side.  The duo-security light illuminates for 30 secs when movement is detected, and when fully charged will come on over 500 times without further sunlight.   It’s easy to install (my sister has one and put it up herself no problem), and as is the beauty of these solar gadgets, once its going there are no running costs.

Brighten up your late summer garden parties with this rich red solar powered Chinese style party lantern.  As with the other lights mentioned, this lantern is powered by sun energy, it needs no wiring and will automatically switch itself on at dusk and off at dawn.   During the day the solar panel on top of the lantern converts daylight into electricity and stores the charge it the integrated battery.  In the evening when the light comes on it uses the electricity stored during the day.

Drinking coffee and red wine, and the passing of years, have a habit of staining and discolouring our teeth.  But it’s no longer necessary to resort to expensive treatments at the dentist and chemical bleaches to get your pearly whites looking, well, pearly white again.  SUPER Dental White is a safe and natural solution that’s very popular in Germany, and having used it myself, I can attest to it’s being pretty effective.

The formulation contains only kaolin, silica, calcium carbonate and peppermint.  And it’s easy to use.  After brushing once a day, put a little of the powder on your toothbrush, give them a good going over, and rinse.  It’s as simple as that.

One bottle of SUPER Dental White lasts about 6 months, and costs £5.50.

Like it or not, summer is fading away, and with it goes the light.  As it starts getting darker earlier in the evenings, it’s time to start thinking about putting lights on your bicycle.  And along with staying safe, you can also stay green with one of these Trevor Baylis  wind-up bike lights.  One minute’s winding gives 90 minutes of light, claims the manufacturer.  So you’re not going to be wearing yourself out before even mounting your bike.

Go green in the kitchen with this green kitchen starter kit from Ethical Superstore (£50.00).

The kit includes:

An Eco Kettle: The UK’s best selling green gadget, even Prince Charles has one!  The Eco Kettle allows you to boil just the amount of water you need without repeated trips to the tap.  The central reservoir holds up to 8 cups of water, and you release into the boiling chamber just the amount of water you want to boil, a minimum of one cup.

An Ecozone Foot Operated Can Crusher:  Crush aluminium and steel cans without breaking a sweat with the Ecozone can crusher.  Saves lots of space in the recycling.

5 Litre Kitchen Caddy: Collect organic waste from the kitchen for composting.  Composting is a great way to reduce the amount of waste that you produce.

Compost-A-Bag Bin Liners (x25): To line your kitchen caddy, these bags will biodegrade once in your composter. No mess composting. No nasty compost buckets to wash.

It’s never too early to teach children the benefits of organic farming, which is what prompted the Soil Association to team up with children’s film producers, Tractorland to produce Tractor Ted Visits An Organic Farm.  The DVD shows youngsters what real life organic farming is all about by using Tractorland’s hugely popular Tractor Ted character combined with real life footage of farm machinery and farm animals.

Tractor Ted Visits An Organic Farm is aimed at one to six year olds, and will plant the seeds of understanding the health, welfare and environmental principles behind organic farming in the youngest members of society.

Is your puppy chewing on your favourite slippers?  Or making short work of your coffee table leg?  Get him (or her) an organic bed buddy (or two) and you’ll all be a little happier.

Dogs need to chew.  As puppies their chewing helps to relieve tension, loosen puppy teeth for adult teeth to grow and soothe gums.  Adult dogs exercise their jaws and relieve boredom and tension by chewing.

These cute little chew toys are not only appealing to look at, they’re also filled with organic bedding material, making them non-toxic and being vegetables, they’re perfect for vegetarian dog owners who feel squeamish about buying dead animal parts for their doggies to chew on.

This year’s London Freewheel event falls on the 21st September.  Places are limited this year, so be sure to sign up to enjoy a day of cycling (traffic free) in central London.  All you need is a bike to be part in this cycling carnival, taking in views of the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and more.

The route is a total of 12kms, and it’s not a race, so no need for any serious training.  It’s meant to be a fun day out for everyone, including children, with shorter routes for those who need them, and “led” rides from various London boroughs to the event.

It’s free to register, and there will be free refreshments (fruit, energy bars and drinks) available en-route.

Whether you’re at the beach, in the park, or marching up and down the high street, there’s now no need for your iPod, mobile, camera or other hand-held device to run out of juice.

The Juice Bags Solar Panel Beach Bag Tote is a biodegradable canvas bag fitted with a revolutionary thin and flexible solar charging system to ensure that you don’t miss a call, or a photo opportunity when you’re miles away from a power outlet.

It’s heavy duty and big enough to fit all your essentials into for an afternoon on the beach, or in the park, or at the allotments, or even out on the town.

But you can use it at home too to stop clocking up those carbon emissions when you recharge your mobile and other electronic wizardry.

Made in the USA. £180

One for the boys.  Here’s a man bag that you can be proud of.  Rugged yet handsome, burly but stylish.  The Colombian Recycled Tyre Bag is made from rubber sourced from old inner tubes and combined with mesh webbing in the form of an adjustable shoulder strap and quick-release security fastening on the front strap.  Inside are a mobile phone holder and two other pockets.

These eco-friendly bags are being produced in Colombia where this pioneering design label is using inner tubes as an alternative to leather.  True bricoleurs.
Innovative and forward-thinking style defines the collection, and promotes Colombian ethical and eco products to the world.

£49.95 

I don’t know about you, but when I see the Autumn fashions becoming available I start to grasp desperately at the fading summer (great time to spend some money at the summer sales). There are still weeks of sun ahead of us, but there’s also the promise of cooler days, rusty leaves and cosy fires just glimmering over the horizon. Fortunately there’s also the delicious aspect of shopping for winter woolies, and Natural Collection have some wonderful pieces in their Autumn collection. Here are my picks.

Fair Trade Paisley Jacket - A stylish bohemian cotton velvet paisley jacket with flared sleeves, a matching waist tie and two ceramic and glass buttons. Fair Trade. £45

Lana Organic & Fairtrade Certified Cotton Dress - Versatile and comfortable knee length dress with three-quarter sleeves. Perfect to wear over jeans for ‘boho chic’. 100% organic, Fairtrade certified cotton. £29.95

Ethos Long-sleeved Organic Cotton Dress - Long-sleeved and  semi-fitted dress, this dress from Ethos, is perfect for crisp autumn evenings. Wear it belted (high waist or low waist) or over jeans.  100% organic cotton jersey.  £39.95