Latest news with #KnittingNannas
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Teesside stories you may have missed this week
VE Day parties and parades and the heart-warming story of Saltburn grandmothers knitting jumpers to help save penguins caught up in oil spills. Here are some stories you may have missed on Teesside this week. "It was like nothing I'd ever seen," 102-year-old RAF veteran Kenneth Johnson said of the VE Day celebrations in 1945. He is one of thousands across the north-east of England and Cumbria who commemorated the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe. Services and parties took place, including parades in Redcar, ahead of the lighting of beacons as part of a national hilltop ceremony. "Everyone was waltzing and snake dancing [conga lines] - it seems quite silly now," Mr Johnson, from Darlington recalled. Read about Mr Johnson's memories here llegal vapes and tobacco worth more than £12,000 were stored under "rotting waste" in wheelie bins, Trading Standards officers found. The officials seized 685 packs of cigarettes, 24 packs of hand-rolling tobacco and 83 illegal vapes from bins outside a shop in Darlington. Cleveland Police informed Darlington Borough Council after spotting a shop worker removing tobacco from the bins where it was being used as off-site storage. Read the full story here Little jumpers knitted by grandmothers are being used to prevent penguins caught in oil spills from getting ill while trying to clean their feathers. Dubbing themselves the Knitting Nannas, the group based at Hazelgrove Court Care Home in Saltburn, Teesside, have been sending their mini creations to a charity in Australia. The woolly tops are used as a barrier to stop the birds ingesting toxic chemicals when they try to preen themselves after swimming through oil. Read all about the Knitting Nannas story here A football fan paid £1,000 to help others travel to Wembley for an FA Trophy final. Lifelong Spennymoor Town FC fan Gary Finley said he had to "follow his heart" and pay transport costs for more than 65 fans going to watch their team play Aldershot Town on Sunday. It comes after Spennymoor Town Council refused to help the club pay for fans to travel to the final as part of their Back the Fans and Pack the Stands campaign. Read all about this act of generosity here Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Teesside stories you may have missed this week
VE Day parties and parades and the heart-warming story of Saltburn grandmothers knitting jumpers to help save penguins caught up in oil spills. Here are some stories you may have missed on Teesside this week. "It was like nothing I'd ever seen," 102-year-old RAF veteran Kenneth Johnson said of the VE Day celebrations in 1945. He is one of thousands across the north-east of England and Cumbria who commemorated the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe. Services and parties took place, including parades in Redcar, ahead of the lighting of beacons as part of a national hilltop ceremony. "Everyone was waltzing and snake dancing [conga lines] - it seems quite silly now," Mr Johnson, from Darlington recalled. Read about Mr Johnson's memories here llegal vapes and tobacco worth more than £12,000 were stored under "rotting waste" in wheelie bins, Trading Standards officers found. The officials seized 685 packs of cigarettes, 24 packs of hand-rolling tobacco and 83 illegal vapes from bins outside a shop in Darlington. Cleveland Police informed Darlington Borough Council after spotting a shop worker removing tobacco from the bins where it was being used as off-site storage. Read the full story here Little jumpers knitted by grandmothers are being used to prevent penguins caught in oil spills from getting ill while trying to clean their feathers. Dubbing themselves the Knitting Nannas, the group based at Hazelgrove Court Care Home in Saltburn, Teesside, have been sending their mini creations to a charity in Australia. The woolly tops are used as a barrier to stop the birds ingesting toxic chemicals when they try to preen themselves after swimming through oil. Read all about the Knitting Nannas story here A football fan paid £1,000 to help others travel to Wembley for an FA Trophy final. Lifelong Spennymoor Town FC fan Gary Finley said he had to "follow his heart" and pay transport costs for more than 65 fans going to watch their team play Aldershot Town on Sunday. It comes after Spennymoor Town Council refused to help the club pay for fans to travel to the final as part of their Back the Fans and Pack the Stands campaign. Read all about this act of generosity here Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
09-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Penguins get knitted jumpers to keep them warm
Little knitted jumpers are being used to prevent penguins caught in oil spills from getting ill while trying to clean their feathers.A group of knitters based in care home in Teesside - calling themselves the Knitting Nannas - have been sending their creations to a penguin charity in woolly tops are used as a barrier to stop the birds swallowing toxic chemicals when they try to clean themselves after swimming through of the Knitting Nannas, Joyce who is 94, explained that she has knitted jumpers for both her children but she had "never knit for a penguin" before. Phillip Island, south of Melbourne in Australia, is home to 40,000 penguins and preparation is ongoing to help look after them in the event of an oil can be temporarily placed on an affected penguin until its feathers can be cleaned by rescue the Knitting Nannas, Rebecca Passlow from the Penguin Foundation- which is based there - said "generous knitters and groups from all around the world" have been making jumpers to help. Speaking to BBC News reporter Tom Burgess, care home activities coordinator Sharon Lewis said that she loves finding worthwhile projects for the knitting group."The residents love getting involved and using their lifelong skills to support others."It's always incredible to receive pictures of cute animals wearing their knitted items."In the past, the nannas have also knitted blankets for baby rhinos, which were sent to a wild rhino sanctuary in South Africa.
BBC News
08-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Saltburn nannas knit jumpers for penguins hit by oil spills
Nannas knit jumpers for oil-spill penguins Little jumpers knitted by grandmothers are being used to prevent penguins caught in oil spills from getting ill while trying to clean their feathers. Dubbing themselves the Knitting Nannas, the group based at Hazelgrove Court Care Home in Saltburn, Teesside, have been sending their mini creations to a charity in Australia. The woolly tops are used as a barrier to stop the birds ingesting toxic chemicals when they try to preen themselves after swimming through oil. Joyce Baxtrem, 94, explained that she has knitted jumpers for both her children but she had "never knit for a penguin" before.
The Guardian
31-01-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Avoid AI and catch a bus: Guardian readers share their top climate goals for 2025
Small but meaningful changes can have a big effect on reducing your carbon footprint. Here are the goals Guardian readers are setting themselves this year, prompted by Change by Degrees' monthly guide for making meaningful environmental change in 2025. Ride my bike more, even when it is pouring with rain and very windy. Plant more trees and eat more homegrown food. Compost. Regift unwanted items and op-shop for clothes. -Hannah, Wellington, New Zealand Buy less. Enjoy people instead of stuff. -Mary, Portland Maine, USA As I've done for the last 50 years, eat vegetarian, use a bicycle, reduce electricity usage and learn from First Nations elders. -David, Canberra Use the bus more often for short trips instead of the car, try the 'no spend' month in February and minimise plastics. I already compost and use solar power. -Jan, Tullimbar, NSW I love the idea of trying to buy nothing for an entire month. What a challenge. If I can pull that off, maybe I'll do it for more than just one month. It'll be great to see how creative I can get and what I learn about alternatives. -Laurie, San Francisco, USA With an Australian federal election coming this year. I will be writing to my local MPs starting in February. If taking climate action is new for you, I would suggest connecting with people who are involved in climate action in your local area. Groups like Parents for Climate, the Knitting Nannas, Australian Youth Climate Coalition and Australian Conservation Foundation are great starting points. Being involved in groups like this help you connect with people with similar concerns and values and encourage you to take action and be involved. -Felicity, Seven Hills Provide time, expertise and effort to the environmental section of a small political party I joined (last year's resolution) in order to identify opportunities for effective environmental legislation proposals. Increase contributions in environmental groups and media. Examine the possibility of joining an citizen energy co-op. Join a voluntary wildfire watch in nearby forests. -Yiorgos, Athens, Greece Encourage more people to join a group of activists. Use Climate Freak approach to educate more people about climate change and risks. Talk about climate change and environmental breakdown using corporate social media. Be engaged in 'clicktivism' online -Jakub, Lake Macquarie, NSW Create awareness about the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty regularly. Be more organised in my climate action. Help people to understand the link between plastic, petrochemicals and the climate crisis. More self care. -Leanne, St George, QLD Keep pushing for a worldwide shift away from animal agriculture, one of the largest contributors to environmental destruction. Protest against fossil fuels. Reduce consumption as much as possible. We need collective action; small individual changes are good, but collective change is really needed. -Robin, Melbourne Convince more people that while tiny incremental lifestyle changes are fine, and make us feel good, real change will only come when we hold decision makers who keep making things worse accountable, and when destroying the environment is no longer profitable. This will only happen with persistent disruptive action. We need to be on the streets, in boardrooms and in parliament all the time. -Catherine, Melbourne Focus more on local solutions. Things I can do myself like composting and public transport, participating in local climate related initiatives. -Peter, Melbourne Buy organic when I can, explore new plant based recipes to increase plant-based family meals to five a week (from four), save up for external insulation and trade my hybrid car for a secondhand electric car. -L Ramsay, Dublin I am not eating any of the products of animal husbandry, which is so polluting. So no meat or dairy products. I can eat fish, preferably small fish such as sardines, which have accumulated fewer toxins. So I am not a vegetarian or a vegan, my gripe is with animal husbandry, which is cruel and polluting. -Tony, Vicchio, Italy To avoid AI of any kind as much as possible. Learn how to delete it from apps, block, avoid as much as possible without being an ass about it. We have a very low (maybe even negative) carbon footprint in very ordinary suburbia, but the energy consumption of AI datacentres makes all these negligible by comparison. -Linda, Coffs Harbour I can make the biggest difference by supporting our local Electric Homes Ballarat project - trying to ensure as many people as possible are supported to make important changes to their homes by transitioning off gas to all electric. Buying an EV, sealing doors and windows, increasing insulation, having efficient all-electric heating, cooling, hot water and cooking along with adding solar panels, saves a fortune in power bills in the long run and are the most significant changes households can make to reduce their effect on the climate. Making these changes can be the difference between a home that emits seven tonnes of C02 a year and one that is net zero, or actually feeding back into the grid. -Sally, Buninyong, Victoria
