As of today, I’m on my usual summer mixture of holiday, work and childcare – blogs will be less frequent, less regular and more informal.

The good news is that for the next three weeks, I’ll be based in Portland, Oregan, renowned as a sustainable city, and I’ve got a meeting booked with the City Council to hear what they’ve done and how they’ve done it. Salves my conscience a little for the most carbon-hungry trip I’ve taken in a decade…