Inspiration

It’s a bit of a shame that my friend Mo is in Ethiopia for Easter (Happy Easter by the way), because I think she would have loved this little set up. Her friend Rachel, who is pretty bonkers and who runs the brilliant Prick your Finger, herself has two completely bonkers friends called Emma Gibbs and Amy Plant who have set up The Energy Café. Travelling a converted horse-box, the café brings its own particular blend of… post-fossil fuel chic… to various strange places along the way.

We went yesterday, with our friends Chris & Roy who had put us on to the lark, to a little quiet corner of Powerstock Common. Partly a scene from Thomas Hardy, partly a vision of the world after oil, the two girls create an extraordinary lunch with foraged food cooked entirely on alternative stoves, wood-chip burners powered by an old hairdryer, a solar cooker (I’m not sure it quite worked) and, well, a barbeque.

On reflection, if this is a vision of life in the future, it might make you believe a bit more in nuclear power—but I’m not sure I’ve had a more charming and memorable lunch in ages. It was pretty perfect in its own crazy way. I suspect we will be hearing more about Ella and Amy and their Energy Café.