Snowed in!

What a week!

After the excellent Clogs ont' Cobbles day in Rawtenstall last Sunday (read more about this here), the week has had its ups and downs. Enquiries for us to make a new range of products for pets from a new company in Holland; a request from a mum and baby group and a beauty salon for organic, natural products that don't make you bankrupt but that are effective; frantic efforts (from all our team) to find a web provider system that's more accessible to me as a screenreader user but that includes all the marketing features we need; to trying to keep up with production and stock demands as the orders come in for Christmas.

And then there was the snow.

We live in the most picturesque surroundings here in Irwell Vale, but there are disadvantages - one of which, as you might expect, is that the road in and out of the village has not been visited by the friendly Rossendale gritter.

So, with apologies to customers who haven't received their orders to our usual deadline, and also apologies to Webster, my guide dog, for my not giving him the opportunity to help me take parcels up to the Post Office. (No, Webster, you really couldn't do that on your own eiher, despite the fact that you're half German Shephers and Golden Retriever)... We're now just about getting back on track.

So let's hope next week is a little warmer and that there's at least enough of a thaw to allow us to get out of the house to give Webster a bit of exercise.
(No, Webster, you can't go out to play in the snow because I'm still working. You'll have to wait... Yes, I know you like it when it's cold).

What would Shakespeare have thought?

It was again the Soil Association that led me to articles in the news today concerning animal cloning in agriculture. The simple facts are that there are still many medical problems attendant on animal cloning, not to mention the stress caused to the individual and other animal welfare questions, the ethics of the practice itself and, of course, the ultimate question of 'where will it all lead?'. And this has to be addressed by all of us, including the scientists, producers and consumers - we can't just bury our heads in the sand.

The claim in many of the articles quoted, that you can't taste the difference between meat or milk from cloned animals, is to me ludicrous in its absurdity. Of course not, they're clones, so if the job's been done right, then the cloned animal would be a replica of the real animal who gave it its genetic and physical makeup.

But it's this wish to produce perfection in animals, disregarding any inherent genetic or other defects, for the good of mankind in order to provide perfect, cheap food from intensive farming, that concerns me. The much deeper ethical and philosophical questions of what we, mankind, are all about can't be ignored. I, and many others, object to genetically-modified plants more from an emotional, subjective stance rather than a purely scientific one. Statistics, in science as anywhere else, can be manipulated to prove a point, and of course Governemnts and the big producers who employ the scientists will want to produce more and more at a cheaper and cheaper rate, with less and less wastage, purely to increase their own profits or sense of well-being.

But GM crops are only a small step along the road to - what exactly? Man's domination of the environment and planet we have so grossly abused over the centuries?

And animal cloning is a much bigger step, followed by? Perfect human beings with no defects, or with built-in genetic pluses to meet our aspirations or dreams of what we would have like to have been?

Yes, it might be nice to have a clone of your long dead pet dog or cat, but would he or she react in the same way as your original given the changed environment in which the clone would find itself? I for one would hate to grapple with the ethical, emotional and family implications of cloning a loved one and bringing up that child in the image of that loved one, and being disappointed when that cloned husband, wife or child did not quite want to live with me in my nineties knowing where he or she came from) and why they were produced.

Coincidentally I listened last week to the futuristic, dystopian novel 'A Brave New World', published in 1932 by Aldous Huxley, on BBC Radio 7. Like many such books, much of what was written has echoes of things that happened not so long after the publication, and these echoes reverberate today in the fact that cloning of animals is accepted by many scientists as the way forward, despite, as said, the moral and ethical objections.

I feel sad that we live in a polarised society of extremes, and that such extremes can sometimes lead to opposition as expressed by violence or misguided liberation of animals from scientific laboratories, and wish that we humans could take a middle way, or act well before Science has produced what we wish it hadn't. But it's much easier for us to do nothing and think 'it'll never happen', and so we close our minds to what really goes on, in this instance to what is done to put our food on the table so cheaply.

We need to stay informed, express our opposition, and help those in whatever small way we can to keep Science from running away with itself in the cause of the greater good. Read Aldous Huxley and you may be shown an inkling of what the not-so-distant future might hold.

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world!
That has such people in it!

(Quoted by John Savage in Huxley's novel, originally spoken by Miranda in Shakespeare's The Tempest).

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World of course takes things to the ultimate of control with every cloned creation having a predefined intelligence and purpose, all dictated in the belief that an happiness imposed from above is for the greater good of mankind. But happiness has to come from within (or from the spiritual if you believe that we're more than physical and emotional beings). And I for one don't think we have the right to create anything in the image of another human being, or animal for that matter. I leave the rest to your own beliefs.

RIP Marlene!

God, the Universe, Karma, Fate
or however else you name it,
works in a mysterious way.

After a pleasant chat and
interview with journalist
Amanda Griffiths from
Lancashire life yesterday
afternoon, my sister rang to
tell me that my cousin, Marleen,
had died that very same
afternoon.

A reminder indeed that we are
only hear for a relatively short
time, and, to me at least,
that there's more to life than
making money.

Yes, I know we all have to live,
but we need to stop and reflect
every so often on what we
actually have in life rather than
just getting caught up in the
day-to-day scramble for
business growth in financial
terms. It's our families, our local
community, the well-being of
our country and the world that
we mustn't let get drowned
out by the noise of our
everyday activities.

The main purpose, I believe, in
the business I run is to give
back something to the world, to
our local community, and to
those with health or other
needs. The benefits of essential

oils and nature's other
wonderful materials is well-
known, and I feel in a
very privileged position being
able to create useful and
beautiful products that will give

something back and be of
benefit to others.

Rest In Peace, Cousin Marlene, and may I wish all those who miss you a long life.

I will always remember you
with love as witty and vivacious
and a pleasure to be with when
I was growing up.

See us at upcoming craft fairs/markets

I was hoping to get the page up on the site, but in the meantime here's a list of upcoming events where you can see us and get superb bargains from Essentially Natural.

Fri 12 Nov 7.30 pm: 'Ladies' Night', Holy Trinity School, Littleborough, Rochdale

Sat 27 Nov 10.00 am-3.00 pm: 'Lancashire Day', Rawtenstall Public Library

Sun 28 Nov 11.30 am-4 pm: 'Clogs ont' Cobbles': A great fun day in Rawtenstall town centre. We'll be on Bank Street.


Sun 19 Dec 10 am-4 pm: Ramsbottom Christmas Market, Bridge Street, Ramsbottom (town centre).

So if you're looking for Christmas gifts that you no will be beneficial to your health or lifestyle, and, of course, to the wider environment, then we're sure you'll not be disappointed.

The end of an era - Jeeves (of AskJeeves) has retired

Thanks to Nigel Botterill for the following. Nigel is an entrepreneur from Yorkshire (now living in Sollyhull) well-known, amontst other things, for The Best Of network of businesses around the country that aims to promote quality local businesses, and also for his membership site for small/medium businesses.

I received this announcement from him as an email.

The closure of AskJeeves.com is sad indeed. I remember using the service (with the kids too) when we wanted to find something particular to England or the UK, or just to avoid the plethora of American search results on the other main search engine sites.

But, as Nigel says, ther's a salutary lesson for us all here - just because good old institutions have stood the test of time through customer loyalty and good service, we're living in a very changeable and fast-moving world these days.

Goodbye, Jeeves, and I'll raise a glass to you after I close the office door tonight. Please all join me if you can for that final toast to a service now no longer in existence.

BlogWriter on IPhone again

After having so much trouble with my P
c earlier today, I'm back on the IPhone using my ThinkOutside Bluetooth keyboard. I now have the full version of the app which has, at least in theory, much more to offer.We shall see if it's accessible using Apple's built-in screenreader, VoiceOver...
It looks as if it's doable, but not sure yethow easy it will be for me to copy and paste in links or other information from emails etc.
One other little thing - if anyone knows of an app - there's no way to rename the photos in your photo album on the IPhone to anything other than image-001, image-002 etc. OK, I know it's possible for this to be done at the computer, but it would be very useful for my sighted assistant to be able to take a picture, rename it, and then for me later to know what the photo is and do whatever I want with it from the IPhone.
So what's all this got to do with Ethical Living, or my business for that matterWell, in their way Apple are opening up the world of computing and mobile phones to those with little or no sight at an affordable price. And that's well worth shouting about. And, of course, the IPhone is the greatest thing I have when away from home (or when in bed as now) for my business, although I did originally buy it for personal use.
OK, readers.Have I strayed far enough away from this blog's title? Perhaps now the time has come to rename it to Essentially Natural to reflect the name of the Company, or perhaps something like 'Musings of a blind business owner'?
I really would love to know what you think.
There may even be a prize for the reader with the best suggestion or comment. :)
?

'Man cannot live by Sky alone' - or can he?

Well, I've always found it intriguing how the Soil Association and PR agencies glean quotes from the millions of spoken and written words that bombard us every day. And none more so than this one:
“Britons now spend more on Sky than on bread [more than £4bn Sky to £3.4bn bread].”
Lord Maurice Saatchi on the http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9116000/9116903.stm Today Programme.
He was, of course, referring to the influence of Rupert Murdoch on how you can changing the world against all probability, speaking at last night's Lady Thatcher Lecture launch.
I don't think there was any other green message there, but it still leaves food for thought, if you'll pardon the pun.
But there's lots more in todays Newsletter from the www.soilassociation.org Soil Association:
'No more beef and cheese: Go vegetarian' cries the http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1322704/Go-vegetarian-order-Government-food-police.html#ixzz134qNWnNi daily mail;
An article on the real meaning of 'Green valleys: sustainable food in Wales' and the provision of food for the local community (from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/21/green-valleys-sustainable-food-wales The Guardian;
or, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8077258/Michelle-Obama-digs-for-victory-as-the-President-hits-the-campaign-trail.html The Daily Telegraph:
The First Lady’s White House harvest
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama harvests a pumpkin from her garden veg patch with local 5th graders as they participated in the White House Kitchen. The harvest of Hallowe'en pumpkins was part of the first lady's Lets Move! campaign to reduce childhood obesity.
The Daily Telegraph (22 October, p.21).
An interesting read!

Better look, more value!

We are pleased to announce our improved look, better value range of Reed Diffusers just in time for Christmas.

We are delighted to be able to offer our range of natural Reed Diffusers in a new, square bottle with 50% extra at the same price. Not only is the bottle more stylish, but it is more stable and so is less easily knocked over, lessening the risk of spills.

See here for details.

Testing TwitterFeed again :)

Thanks to Christine of the Rossendale branch of About My Area for the info on TwitterFeed. It is indeed very esy to set up to share your blog posts with Twitter and FaceBook and other services. It's a pity it doesn't link to LinkedIn./ but you can't have it all. :)
Another thank you to Christine for manning the Made in Rossendale stand at
the Valley at Work business exhibition yesterday. Very poorly atended unfortunately (unless things picked up after lunch); I wonder if that's the recession or just people not willing to travel from one end of the Valley to the other. Come on, Rossendaleans, it really does take less than twennty minutes to get from Haslingden to Bacup by car!

Keep up with the latest news from the Soil Association

I've flagged this up before, but for new and old readers alike, the newsltters from the soil association is full of interesting information. Today's newsletter is no exception, pointing to eight or nine articles, some of which if not all you will find relevant I know.

Another thumbs up for Apple - a personal note

The only problem with the IPhone for a blind user, as I've said before, is text entry using the virtual keyboard. Yes, it can be done but is very slow because the keyboard area is so small that you can't do what a lot of blind people do - touch type. (The problem's much less so on the IPad of course because of it's larger size(.
But what a thrill with the latest update to IOS 4.1! I can connect my ThinkOutside BlueTooth portable keyboard and not only type away at full speed, but I have extra commands that let me flip around the screen,click an item, and more. In short, I can use the IPhone just like a full[sized Apple Mac.
I'm writing this using a little app called BlogWriter - I'm trying the free version and it works fine. With the full version you can upload images and much more, so it's off to the App Store after a cup of my wife, Pia's homemade blackberry and lemon...
Well done to the people at Apple who are making accessibility a reality. There's one little business over here in the UK that appreciates your efforts!

Great discounts at our Musbury Fabrics outlet.

I recently told you about our new outlet at the Musbury Fabrics Mill shop in Helmshore. Why not pay them a visit over the bank holiday weekend? To entice you, here's a few photos of our products on display there - they look great thanks to Lisa!

Even more for the Bank Holiday weekend!

Last week I told you about our £1 off Special Offers Page with 19 products. We're now completely taken over by summer madness as we've put up a %20 off everything sale over the holiday weekend too!
And because we know that not all of you have access to the web from home, we've extended the offer until midnight on Tuesday 31st Aug.
So while our staff are earning a well-earned rest you can still order from us online and beat the cues. :)

Bank Holiday Bonanza on our Special Offers page!

Yes, I know it's not Bank Holiday for another week, but we're so pleased to have got our Special Offers page up on the website that we just couldn't wait to try it out.

You'll find 19 products up there, all with £1 off up to the end of August.

You can buy up to 10 of each of the products on offer, so you'll make great savings.

Buy now while stocks last!

New outlet for E-Nat products at Musbury Fabrics, Helmshore

We're pleased to announce a new outlet where you can buy a range of our products in lovely surroundings and at great savings too!

The Musbury Fabrics Mill Shop in Helmshore, Rossendale, Lancashire, has long been known as the place to go to get your home furnishings, curtains or fabrics. Or, for that matter, the place to spend a relaxing hour over a home-made cake and a cup of excellent tea or coffee in the well-run cafe.

But recently, Alex Mitchell, the Rossendale businessman who still retains his interest in horses to reflect his farming past, and Lisa Parsons, Warehouse and Shops Manager, have commandeered a space to show off something a little different, and perhaps a bit more upmarket, for the home. Many of the products on sale are locally made or made on traditional craft lines, and our range, I have to admit, fits in well.

We are pleased that we can offer appreciable discounts, and this will, I hope, enable customers who would not normally buy organic or natural products because of their price to try them out and see the difference they make.

Helmshore boasts a busy Farmer's Market on the first Sunday of each month, and there are other attractions, including, of course, the Heritage Museum where you can bathe in nostalgia or try to teach your children a little about the past in Rossendale and Lancashire.

So why not head over and take a look at our products? If you've never tried a soy candle you won't be disappointed. And if you have eczema or know someone who has, then one of our soaps or hand balms will just do the trick nicely.

Special Offers back!

It's been a while since we've had regular Special Offers on our site, and I'm pleased they're back!

We will be featuring new products every week or two, and they'll all be well worth your trying if you haven't bought from us before, or a good way to save a bit of money if you're a regular customer.

This week we've got three Specials, all with £1 off, and all with a free Gardener's Delight Hand Bar too!

But watch this space as offers will change. Order early to avoid disappointment as our stocks are lower at this time of the year due to staff holidays.

For all you EBayers

We all have to work that bit harder these days to get what we want. And all of us in business have to look for new markets and perhaps cut our margins a bit on the way.

Well, that's good news for all of you EBay addicts. We've put some of our products up for this week, and they're all selling at half price!

But I'm not going to tell you what they are - you'll have to find 'em.

But that should be no problem for you EBay addicts. OK, I'll give you a clue.

You can now search by brand (at least in the Soaps category), and if you don't know by now who Essentially Natural is, then you probably won't be interested in EBay either. :)

Special Offer to beat the budget gloom!

With news of the forthcoming budget this week, we decided to start our Weekly Offers again; and we weren't wrong, were we? How we're all going to manage with a VAT increase from January I don't know. I'm sure the  giant supermarkets will find a way, though, to beat the increase, at least for a while.

So we have three featured products this week, and if you buy any of them you'll get one of our Avocado & Fennel Hand Bars absolutely free!

This soap is excellent for people with skin allergies (including eczema and psoriasis), or for those with sensitive skin.

Based on organic extra virgin olive and palm oils, (the palm from sustainable sources), the soap has added organic marjoram and fennel essential oils with their antiseptic properties. An infusion of fennel seeds (organically grown in our own garden) gives this soap a heavenly anisseedy perfume loved by .

One not to be missed!

Bagsey me first!

OK, I have to admit, my wife Pia is awesome! Last year it was tomatoes and carrots, the year before was chillies and peppers. And that's apart from the wonderful rosemary and lavender and fennel we grow.
And then there's the potatoes...

But this year it's cucumbers. And she wants them to eat!

So, as said, I got in first. Well I had to for our Cucumber & Elderflower and Cucumber & Almond soaps.  but as always I lost.

So I did the only thing I could - let her buy some gherkin seeds. :)

Need a last-minute gift for Dad?

Just a quick note - there's still time to buy your last-minute gift for Dad (Father's Day on Sunday, 20th June here in the UK).

We're featuring three of our products for Dad on our home page, and you can get a free wooden soap dish to keep your soap fresh if you order one of our Organic Lime & Lavender Shaving Soap (Bath Bar size).

If you order by Thursday mid-day BST you should receive Dad's goodies on Saturday. To be sure, though, order today!

Treat yourself or a loved one like Cleopatra!

If ass's milk was good enough for Cleopatra to bathe in, then our Goat's Milk & Rose Petal Soap, made from all natural, ingredients with organic essential oils and milk from organically-reared goats raised in Lancashire is not a bad second best.

We have a '3 for 2' offer on our bath bars at the moment, and if three's too many for you then why not give one to a friend?

The offer ends at midnight BST on 14th June.

New website up and running - and welcome back to my blog!

Hello, and a happy return to Ethical Living, the blog from Essentially Natural.

At last, our new website is live, and we're excited to bring some new features that will help us give you a better service.

• Our Customer Log In is back (like in the old days), so if you're a returning customer you'll be able to get special offers, have your own password, and view all your order history.
• You can now write reviews of any of our products. Each customer writing a review that gets published will be entered into a monthly prize draw to receive a special free gift from us.
• We are now able to offer you some great discounts, such as '3 for 2' and 'free delivery', 'get money off your total order if you buy a product on offer' and much more. We will also be re-introducing our weekend and Bank Holiday offers, so watch this space!
• There will soon be a special 'members area' for Soap & Candle Club members, again with special offer exclusive to those of you taking advantage of our new, improved Soap & Candle Club.
• And to start things rolling, we're offering a 'get the cheapest free' offer if you buy three of our products - any three, or three of the same, whatever you choose.

Please give us your feedback and let us know what you think.