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We'd like to introduce you to the Greens. Mr Green, Fern Green, his wife, Sage and Moss Green, their children, and Kiwi, their dog. They are our annual Whitby Green family.

The Family

The Greens are our annual virtual holidaymakers. An everyday family, they want to live healthily and enjoy their life to the full. They love Whitby and have hints and tips for going Green to help Whitby's sustainable tourism. This is their story.

The Journey to Whitby

Mr Green likes travelling to Whitby by car. It's easier to transport Kiwi, he's the four legged member of their family, and the Green's want Kiwi with them so he won't fret, and of course, they love him.

Hybrid Cars

The Green's new travel wagon is a hybrid car because it's better for the environment. Mr Green had never heard of a hybrid until little Moss asked him one day what it was. Biology never being a strong point at school, ( Mr Green thinking on those lines), told Moss to ask his mother, Fern, the "fountain of all knowledge",  role bestowed on Fern, whenever her husband clearly hasn't got a clue. When Moss declared it was the name of a car he'd seen on tv and the NYPD use them, a visit to www.hybridcars.co.uk was the order of the day, and this year's journey to Whitby was in the in hybrid car they bought to save carbon emissions.

Use Less

Fern Green has two favourite words at the moment - Use Less. Sometimes they're linked together giving them a whole new meaning, but Fern likes to save money and the planet where she can, so she has a few tips to offer

Use Less water - home and on holiday

• 1. Avoid keeping the tap running when you clean your teeth
• 2. Save rain water for your garden
• 3. Just fill the kettle with the amount of water you need
• 4. Put washing machine on half load if you can
• 5. Take a shower rather than a bath where possible.

Smooth car ride

Mr Green likes a smooth car ride. He always drives to Whitby at a safe speed and avoids jerky driving. The children don't like it and his favourite car mentor, Quentin Wilson, has said jerky driving is bad for the carbon footprint, and whatever Quentin says, goes. Period.

Recycle & Deposits

Sing songs are part of the Green's ritual on their journey, along with regular natural breaks stops for everyone including Kiwi. A stock of crumpled carrier bags are always part of Fern Green's holiday essentials. They are a must for Kiwi's deposits and Fern likes to think that Kiwi, even though it's via herself, is playing his part in going Green.

Heads Of Litter

The Green children, Sage and Moss, always enjoy the job their mother gives them on holiday. Heads of Don't Drop Litter, Sage and Moss are on a reward system. Competative with each other 24/7, binning their litter isn't a chore to them at all, especially when their holiday reward is a double scoop of vanilla ice cream and a flake bar. The children take their role very seriously. 

Heads of Litter may not be the grand title most aspire to, but just the word "Head" gives them the importance in their own minds. Besides, the headmaster at school dishes out punishments whenever he likes. "We may not be head of masters, Sage would comment to Moss, but who cares, being heads of a litter campaign, means we're in charge and that spells fun."

Giving lines and detention is now the punishment dished out to anyone who dares to revolt against the Don't Drop Litter club the children have set up from home.  Mr Green, has on occassions, been summoned to the children's office, (their bedroom), to have his toy for boys confiscated. (the tv remote) Pleading innocent though, falls on deaf ears with Sage and Moss.  Mainly because they know he is. It's just that Mr Green's channel hopping drives the family insane. So the night Mr Green flicked onto Blackadder, a cunning plan was devised to prize it away from him. The three day confiscation penalties are taking their toll with Mr. Green, but who said life was fair?

Walk Don't Drive

The Green's hardly ever use a car in Whitby. They all love to walk, especially Kiwi, who displays some rather peculiar antics on the family ghost walks www.whitbywalks.co.uk

Kiwi's usual Jack the pad city strut vanishes whenever he meets any black dog in Whitby miniature or otherwise. Kiwi hasn't read about Dracula dog of course, but there was something about the fangs, well he thought they were fangs, bared by a black labrador lurking behind a gravestone on Kiwi's last visit to Whitby, that causes him to wimper and shudder at the sight of a black K9. Of course, no one else in the family understands why.  The labrador is just a labrador - but is he?

Cycling

Cycling is a favourite for the Greens too. The family hired cycles from www.trailways.fsnet.co.uk on their last visit to Whitby. Mr Green cycled the sea to moors cycle route( www.moortoseacycle.net) is where he found the information). The rest of the family adventure trail in the Dalby Forest, the cycle route's starting point. Fern, Sage, Moss and Kiwi love rustling through the leaves of the forest floor. They have great fun.

Moors Bus

Sage & Moss love the North York Moors moor bus. It operates from April to October on Sundays and bank holidays and their mom Fern's annual job is to check running times. Fern either calls 01845 597000 or goes to www.visitthemoors.co.uk.  Kiwi can go on the bus too and the family always have a great day out.

Healthy Eating

Enjoying fresh local produce, to keep the family healthy, is a role that Fern Green waves the flag for. Fruit plays a big part in the family diet and the whole family like to visit farms or outlets that produce fresh local produce like the ones listed on Whitby Dog Friendly Holidays

Fern, likes to pack a picnic on hot days out. Wholemeal bread packed with delicious shavings of mature cheddar and locally grown vine tomatoes go down particularly well with all the family, along with a punnet of allotment grown English strawberries. Bottled water, not bought from a shop, but syphoned into a metal flask, quenches the family�s thirst, and Fern�s pledge not to use plastic bottles to help save the environment, can come into play as well.

Fresh Fish

Fresh fish fans, there's nothing the Green's adore more than a piece of succulent, white fish caught in Whitby. Battered, is a firm favourite with the children, and also it appears, Whitby seagulls that park themselves next to chilled out Kiwi on the pier. Mr Green and his wife prefer fish with no batter, because Fern believes even the scratchings of batter will given her a muffin waist and will push her calorie intake over the line. Moss and Sage go into hysterics with  Fern's little private joke "does my bun look big in this", but Mr Green, although he never admits it, is still figuring out what muffins have to to with waistlines.

Fair Trade

The Greens like to see Fair Trade products when they go shopping.  They like to know everyone from the original producer, right through to the purchaser via the seller has operated in a fair way, offering fair conditions, fair wages and generally being fair on all levels of transacting. Fern & Sage Green love going to the charity and other shops in Whitby  where they know there is an array of Fair Trade products that they can buy for themselves or as special gifts.  Nan and gramp Green loved their new spectacle cases the children got them last year.  Especially as their new hearing aids make it clear their cherished grandchildren aren't supporters of the fur trade.

Eco Home

In their holiday home, the Green's are keen to save energy just as they would in their own home. Sage offers some tips:-

• Only using lights needed
• Turning the standby off on the tv
• Making sure all electrics are switched off when not needed
• Bagging and depositing their rubbish in the right bins
• Turning fires off when windows are open

Beach/Moors

Rosy glows and windswept is how the Green's look after a day at Whitby coast.  Kiwi loves chasing the frothy foam that laps to the sand on the area of the beach he is allowed. Fern knows the blueflag rules ( the eco label given to beaches ) www.blueflag.org is where she found her information. A walk across the moors is also a popular family pursuit. Kiwi seems to instinctively know this is where his game of "pretend I can't hear them calling me" starts. His tail lashes at machine gun speed on these cross country adventures and poor little Moss has often been hurled to the ground, just for venturing too near the firing line.

Worried Sheep

The whole family watch Kiwi and makes sure he doesn't bother sheep -  They all know the drill, not because Mr Green is a dentist, but because Fern found an entertaining video about the countryside codes with the www.countryaccess.co.uk  Now the whole family are hooked. All being suckers  for the Creature Comfort videos found on the site. There's another one Moss found, Creature Comforts - The Beach. Animals talk about their holidays and mention Whitby. Who says delivering public information is boring?

Home

The Greens, hoping they have done their best to keep Green, have booked a holiday here in Whitby next year and hope this beautiful area remains unspoilt so they can enjoy the town and area as much as  those of us who are fortunate enough to live here do.