Merseyside families are being urged to dig out the children’s wellies and get down and dirty on an outdoor programme of activities encouraging kids and adults to spruce up the gardens together at a Family Centre in St Helens.  Riverside Housing have funded the ‘Muddy Wellies’ programme which is currently running for children through the summer.  The programme includes a Young Gardener of the Year competition for children aged 5 to 16 with categories to include tallest sunflower, best scarecrow, best hanging basket, and biggest pumpkin, with an overall prize for best gardener.

Tanya Marsh, neighbourhood community initiatives officer for Riverside Housing said: “We are always keen to encourage people to connect with their local land. And we want to people to take pride in their community base, as well as their own gardens. Young and old can learn some useful practical gardening skills, from organic food growing, to garden planning on a budget. Groundwork is working with community groups and local agencies to get lots of people involved.”
Story courtesy of 24dash.com.

Join the Hunter Wellington Boot Company at the pre V Festival Party on Wednesday 13th August from 9.30pm at the Mahiki Cocktail Bar and Island Grill on Dover Street in London, and if you turn up in your Hunter wellies entry is completely free!

Bonus ’style’ points go to those sporting boots from the exclusive new Hunter Festival Wellies Range.

Mahiki is a Hawaian themed club/bar, and has recently become a hang out hot spot for young Royals and the super trendy. For opening hours, directions, etc. or to book visit the Mahiki website.

Liz Hurley is currently filming a new reality TV show based on her Cirencester farm where she and her husband keep chickens and sheep. The programme promises quite a change from the way we are used to seeing the Hollywood Actress and presenter of Project Catwalk.

She recently told reporters, “People always imagine me with perfect hair. But that’s not who I am… Even my husband got a surprise the first time that he saw me in the country. He found me in some wellingtons covered in mud, with holes in my jersey, and he thought that I was playing a joke on him. But we English are not as elegant as we seem.”

With celebrities such as Kate Moss and Peaches Geldof sporting their funky wellies in front of the press at public events and music festivals in recent years - Liz’s new venture into reality TV is sure to raise the profile of ladies wellies even further.

Story courtesy of The Sun.

Marco Pierre White was spotted in his Le Chameau wellingtons on ITV last week during his ‘Great British Feast’. He is in good company it seems, with celebrity chefs including Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey also having been seen regularly in their own Le Chameau boots over the last 12 months.

Every pair hand-made the old fashioned way at a workshop style facility in rural France, Le Chameau wellies are the benchmark for quality wellingtons.

Celebrity gardeners such as Alan Titchmarsh have been sporting their Le Chameau wellies for years, but a new trend seems to have emerged here - Le Chameau is evidently now the firm favourite of TV’s culinary elite.

The Telegraph reported yesterday that Hunter Boot is among the many multinational companies facing restrictions on their manufacturing operations in the run-up to next month’s Olympic Games.

Chinese officials have ordered a reduction in the transportation of manufactured goods from factories near Beijing in an effort to cut down on the pollution in the vicinity of the capital.

Malcolm Cannon, Hunter’s managing director, said the company had brought forward its production schedule on wellies, but admitted that this has proved a “headache” for the company.

Read the full story on the Telegraph website.

It was Shirley Clarkson, Jeremy Clarkson’s mum, that first gave Paddington Bear his famous wellington boots, no less than 14 years after the character was originally created. Each Christmas she would hand make a toy to sit on top of her children’s stockings, and in 1971 she made their favourite, Paddington Bear. Shortly after this her small company went into production and she gave the Paddingtons small children’s Dunlop wellies to solve the problem of how to make him stand up. The toy was a sellout and the back bedroom company that had once produced tea cosies for sale in Doncaster escalated rapidly and was hailed a British success story. But as the seventies went on they hit hard times and eventual decline.

Shirley has now released a book telling her rollercoaster story of how a simple bear became a worldwide icon. Jeremy says of his own mother’s book: “A heart-warming, inspirational tale of a woman trying to run a business while having me as a son.”

‘Bearly Believable‘ is now on sale at all major book retailers.

Andy Sully of BBC News Magazine reported this week how he came home from last year’s Glastonbury Festival with Trench Foot after his old wellies split in the mud.

Festival Medical Services, a charity which provides medical services at Glastonbury, has 13 festival podiatrists seeing up to 90 cases a day.  Most cases involve someone who came in trainers or walking boots, who got their feet wet and continued to wear their soggy footwear.

Since they started their work in 1998 the number of cases are on the decline, as more and more people are aware there is going to be mud and come better prepared with socks and wellies.   This serious condition, caused by constant contact with water and cold mud, typically takes 3 to 6 months to heal, so the message is quite clear- if you are going to Glastonbury this weekend, don’t forget your wellies!  Even if the forecast is for sunny weather.

For more information about the cause and prevention of Trench Foot read the full story at the BBC News Magazine website.

Tonight is the Glastonbury Festival Party at Mahiki Cocktail Bar and Island Grill on Dover Street in London, and if you turn up in your Hunter wellies entry is completely free!

Mahiki is a Hawaian themed club/bar, and has recently become a hang out hot spot for young Royals and the super trendy. Tonight a special guest DJ will play tracks by all this year’s Glastonbury Festival artists at a special party in association with Hunter Boots.

For opening hours, directions, etc. visit the Mahiki website.

A piglet scared of wallowing in mud has overcome its fears with the help of some Wellington boots.

Six-week-old Cinderella the saddleback pig caused a stir in the news this week after it was revealed that she appears to suffer from mysophobia, a fear of dirt, having refused to join her siblings as they splashed around in the mud.

Owner Andrew Keeble and his wife Debbie run a sausage company and keep about 200 pigs on their 1,000-acre farm in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. They said of the piglet, “We’ve never come across this before - she’s scared of mud, but her brothers and sisters are quite happy in it.”

It was their 12 year old daughter Ellie that suggested kitting her out in tiny wellies which had been on a key ring. “Lo and behold they fitted her like a glove,” Mr Keeble said.

Cinderella took to her wellingtons so keenly that she has been recruited to act as a mascot in the campaign to raise money for the Farm Crisis Network, which supports struggling farmers.

“She’s more of a pet really now and she’s going to live a very long and happy life,” Mr Kimble said.

See Cinders wandering around in her wellington boots at the BBC News website.

More news from the world of wellies, a new book was released yesterday entitled ‘How Green are My Wellies?‘ in which author Anna Shepard explores how to be green with glamour! Month by month she approaches topics ranging from avocado cleansers to guerrilla gardening to worm-racing in order to perfect the art of being green.

Charged with infectious enthusiasm, this yearbook is full of new ideas, reveals brilliant ‘eco-cheats’ for lazier moments, and demonstrates unequivocally that you can be green with style.  Anna’s efforts prove that being planet-friendly is surprisingly liberating, enriching, and it may even make you laugh!

Now available from most good book retailers.