Living and working in the same spot since 1902, they trace their antecedents back to John Harris, a Tyneside basket weaver who settled in the area in the 1850s, working initially as a forester and timber merchant. By the 1860s he had started the fairground business with his sons, buying one of their early steam roundabouts from a Tewksbury manufacturer in 1890.

Now run by five brothers and two sisters, the business involves transporting equipment and running their fairground in villages and towns all over this area of rolling downs, meadows and woodland. They also hire out individual items for weddings and special events. Volunteers, who love the laughter and excitement of the fairground scene join in regularly to help with the swing boats, roundabouts, gallopers and side shows.

Hard to classify, fun to be with and dining mostly together, the family extending across generations is like some utopian example of the Arts and Crafts movement – a time capsule that has refused to die. Living close to nature, they are above all immensely practical, turning their hands to any job.

They’re experts too at recycling, throwing little away and collecting useful items over the years. “Just put it under the hedge – you never know when it will come in handy”, says Rob, one of the brothers when I asked what they did with old gear. (See photo of field opposite they have recently acquired.) It reminded me of the MOMA Waste not installation we saw in New York last year.

The Scammel trucks for towing the equipment are ex WW2 stock, so you can’t just pick up the phone for a new spare part. A replacement for an axle on one was found from a hedged machine. Another truck was re-fitted with an old Rolls Royce engine (See photo at the top).

With a little imagination there’s not much they can’t find a useful home for. An old shop display model now keeps watch in a large greenhouse where the tent canvases are dried after a downpour. An old galloper (below) has been put out to grass – for the time being – on an empty landing. Objets trouvés like the old cow advert (below) reflect a simpler rural economy.

Can this real life example of Cameron’s Big Society idea – with up to 70 people actively involved in a small community based business – survive in an increasingly competitive and slick leisure field? The work is hard and seasonal and depends on hours of unpaid labour. Time only with tell. But if you have a chance, try out the Gallopers or the Paratroopers at their next Fun Fair. You won’t be disappointed with the experience or the friendliness of the Harris fairground.

We take for granted our sophisticated municipal services, but in the Berber villages, connected only by mule tracks and in cities like Fez, Meknes and Marrakech with their overcrowding, narrow alleys and limited resources, it’s hard to produce more than primitive refuse collection and recycling systems (See photo opposite in Marrakech).

Infrastructure and road schemes are helping to grow the economy fast and to address sub-regional disparities but they can be double edged. They have enabled fish caught in Essaouira to be distributed quickly to the north and abroad (Photo); and encourage industrial activity. But in coastal Safi intensive phosphate processing is hungry for water and has brought heavy atmospheric pollution.

Addressing global warming, pollution and resources depletion is complicated so generating public awareness is crucial. This is happening here with the UK’s 10:10 campaign to reduce carbon emissions by 10% by the end of 2010 (see Guardian Halfway report, “So far, so good” 10 July 2010).

But in developing countries this is a far harder task. In sun-soaked Morocco the Government’s commitment to provide electricity supply for all by 2010 (not actually fulfilled) seems if anything to have dampened enthusiasm for harnessing solar energy.

While trekking I only saw three small photovoltaic (PV) cell panels in use; whilst in Marrakech a rooftop snapshot from my riad showed one PV cell panel outnumbered by 18 satellite TV dishes. (See photo below of PV panel on Lepiney Refuge at 3000 m near Toubkal summit – © Athol Lester; and of Marrakech rooftops.)

Water too is a critical issue. Blessed with rainfall brought by Atlantic winds hitting the Atlas mountains, Morocco has a long history of capturing water for irrigation (see Photo right), but the growth of industry and tourism is increasing demand inexorably. Yet water seems to be treated as an endless supply and no attempt is made in hotels or elsewhere to encourage careful use and conservation.

It’s a good recycling story too. A schoolboy’s sturdy tuck box in the 1920s, it was converted into a traditional haybox in the seventies and then re-purposed again into a cluttered toolbox in the nineties. Neither of these uses had worked that well (hay is not a perfect insulator!) and a recent purchase of two smaller wooden toolboxes got me thinking of a greener future for the old family friend.

I found the ideal insulation material at B&Q for maintaining the existing heat in a casserole dish – a sheet of Polyfoam XPS 222551 Space Board (Dimensions: 1200mm x 500mm x 52.mm). Designed for lofts, it has the same energy saving capacity as 270 mm thick mineral wool insulation; and subsidised under the Government’s Carbon Emissions Reduction targets, it costs under £4 a sheet.

With a ruler, tape and sharp knife I soon had a central chamber created with two small cotton bags full of polystyrene packing chips to cover the lid of the 2-litre Le Creuset dish. A precisely cut piece of Space Board (with handles provided) is eased down to form the final sealing panel for the cooking chamber. It’s a simple way to cut energy use and save you money! (See photos below of the haybox in use).

Making it work is easy too. Prepare the stew or curry in the morning, fill the Le Creuset dish to within ½ inch of the top and bring the contents to a bubbling heat in the conventional oven. Then transfer it (Photo No 2) to the chamber of the Hi-tec haybox in the bootroom at The Larches and leave for 7-8 hours. There’s plenty for six people.

The verdict from Petra and Diana, our visitors this week from Schwerin in Mecklenberg-Western Pomerania? “Why’s it so hot after 8 hours and the meat so tasty and tender? …we need our husbands on the job next week to bring out a German version”!

Note also the pile of stones in the second photo. Rescued from an old building undergoing renovation, they’ll come in handy with a fellside rockery we’re designing for 2010. This will be on the left of the flight of steps leading from the Breakfast terrace up to the Belvedere. We plan to clear the ground of any bracken first. Let us know if you have ideas of particular alpine plants you’d like to see there.

This summer’s been warm – and wet at times – so plants and trees have grown rapidly. That’s not so good with the bracken which always needs pulling and cutting back, but the grass of the new south lawn (see photo opposite) has had a great start.

With the new containing walls, acer tree and seat it’s already looking like it’s been there for years!

Locking in the top of the path to the start of the stairway was always going to be tricky as we’d built the path a year before the Belvedere was even started and before we had decided how exactly the decking round the Belvedere would be linked to the path.

The result? The stairway down to the path was almost twice the width of the path and in limited light someone might step off the stairway – not onto the path – but onto a steep slope and lose their balance. The path needed widening. What could we use? Enter the old sandstone hearth (see top picture above).

This was making way for a new oak floor in a Victorian house of a similar vintage to The Larches but had been broken into separate pieces to enable its removal.

Measuring up showed we had a near perfect match (see 2nd picture) for the start of the path which could be then feathered into the existing path by adjusting the margin and using slate chippings. A great result! Good too that our first guests after installation were encouraged last week to have pre-dinner drinks in the Belvedere on six out of their seven nights here!

It reminded me of Coleridge’s wonderment as he wrote to a friend in 1800 about his view from Greta Hall, where he was living in Keswick:

“Here I am, with Skiddaw behind my back; on my left, and stretching far away into the fantastic mountains of Borrowdale, the Lake of Derwent-water; straight before me a whole camp of giants’ tents,— or is it an ocean rushing in, in billows that .. reach halfway to heaven?”

Both their comments over a century apart struck a chord with me that ripples wider. Changing colours and shapes – Coleridge’s tents were Barrow, Catbells and Causey Pike – feast the eye and imagination. This certainly is the tonic for me as I walk the hills, but these same characteristics apply elsewhere and in other contexts too. Just recently I shot a series of photos (below) of street art in Valencia, both old and new; and got the same buzz from its energy, colour, zany humour and vibrant engagement.

What’s more the artists recycle existing resources – walls, doorways, corrugated iron – for their canvasses, so there’s an environmental advantage too! Photo No 1 is of Neptune surrounded by maidens and pigeon. No 4 shows the lively face of a young woman on an 18th century dish at the National Ceramics Museum.

This unique Centre is fast becoming a museum and showcase for the original scripts and artwork of many of the best children’s books of the last 70 years. It makes a magical day for children and adults alike as they move from floor to floor through different areas and changing exhibits (See photo left of the storyteller’s throne).

It’s not only encouraging youngsters into reading, but in the process is introducing them to questions about relationships, friendship, travel, climate change (Photo opp), the environment and much else. It was exciting to see children’s response to the little fancy-full ship moored outside (Photo above), made entirely of recycled material. There’s a superb bookshop too, where we bought for The Larches a children’s book, Love your world, which can be used with our Children’s Wildlife Quiz.

Make a date to go the Centre – you won’t be disappointed.

They flashed up images for me of our cellar with timber I’ve kept (and part used) for 40 years; and of the Ethiopian woman last year – when we trekked through the Simien Mountains – who squatted for an hour, so she could take away my emptied plastic water bottle.

Recycling and reuse makes sense to save resources, but here’s the conundrum. As economies develop, the incentive to conserve is lowered and more and more gets thrown away. Waste Not has a message for all of us, not least for the people of New York and Beijing, whose countries produce over 50% of all CO² emissions. There’s an intriguing video of the installation being assembled.