Finally, the story starts to unfold....

I have been truly blessed. I have two vibrant, happy and healthy children who came into the earthly world as nature intended, completely naturally.

In the summer of 2007 when I found out I was pregnant I had mixed feelings of joy - as no matter how much I tried i couldn't ignore the overwhelming urge in me to create - and uncertainty - as my partner, Neil, had always expressed he didn't want children.

However as we slowly got used to the idea and I positively bloomed in pregnancy, we started to arrange our lives in a way that we believed would be more suitable for raising children in the very volatile 21st century. Our wish to live naturally and as sustainably as possible started to unfold.

Again, being very blessed, we were in the process of selling the house of Neil's grandmother, Gwendoline, who had passed away at the end of 2001 and the timing was perfect. We'd decided to take a trip to East Clare a particularly beautiful corner of the 'Emerald Isle', also known as the Republic of Ireland. Within a few days we'd found a tiny, stone cottage in need of some love and a lot of work! We were in a very unique position of being able to buy the building which stood on a 1 acre strip of land with a mature fruit orchard surrounded by nothing but green. Heaven to the eyes of a geordie girl, being raised in the small, coal mining town of South Shields.

Off grid nappies

I must say washing the nappies in the twin tub is a lot easier than washing them by hand!

It's really good when the gales whip up here in East County Clare as the twin tub is powered by our off grid system, consisting of a 1kw wind turbine and 7 p.v solar panels.

I toiled away for the first 6 months of my daughter, Gwendoline's life, with a poss stick over a bucket until a neighbour suggested I use her machine whenever i wanted!

Now, Gwendoline is 2 years and 8 months and Kaya, my son, is 8 months old and we've had our renewable energy system working a treat for about a year.

Better still all the nappies I started out with Gwendoline are still in use, every last one of them. My favourites being the good, old terry square which i use with a nappi nippa. I have about a dozen and shortly after Kaya was born ripped down a few old towels, which i wouldn't recommend as they were so frayed they clogged up the machine with threads. They've come in really handy for general cloths though.

I also use bamboo tots bots and organic cotton motherease which are great but maybe not conducive to the Irish weather. Yes, they take absolutely ages to dry. So, top of the list for me is, as is often the case, the simplest, the terry square and of course you can get organic terry towelling.

Over the top I like to use woolly overpants as it means their skin can totally breathe, you've just got to keep them washed with some lanolin every now and then.

During the past 2 years and 8 months I may have bought at the most half a dozen packets of disposable nappies. At first I got the well known Moltex but seemingly by chance came across a Swedish brand recently called Nature Baby Care and I can't sing their praises enough. They are totally compostable, very ethical and reasonably priced. Check them out at www.naty.com