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Outdoors at Home is a happy accident that began after I spent two years travelling England in a van (with my cat!) for my second book "Everywhere I NEVER Wanted To Go".
Each time I threw open the doors to enjoy "The Great Outdoors", the not-so-great-outdoors moved in.
Of course, when I googled 'natural insect repellents' I came across Citronella candles - the most commonly known natural pest control method.
And that's how I learned they are most effective on Asian mosquitoes. Disappointingly, I was being plagued in England and even worse, I thought they all smelt like toilet cleaner! So, it became my quest to discover what natural products have proven pest control properties: determined as I was to keep the van critter-free for me. Most importantly, they had to be suitable for pets.
Immediately I set to developing something that would be midge repellent, then I worked on wasp banishing candles for my picnics, before finally devising a fly repellent candle to keep the flies out of the kitchen.
Then came the day someone suggested I share my discoveries with the world.
And soon people starting asking if I did anything for Spiders...The rest, as they say, is herstory.
The moniker "Person Irresponsible" was bestowed on me as I walked solo across America in 2020. I used it when I wrote my first book - all about hiking the world's longest trial.
Read about how I yearned for better mosquito repellent products, tried every natural insect repellent on the market.
I left with a fear of bears and came back with a fear of bees.
I then stuck with it for my second book as well. It was having pesky insects move in (and not paying rent) that introduced me to Citronella Candles. Their ineffectiveness (and repugnent smell) had me researching natural insect repelling candles. Having banished midges on an evening from the van, and wasps from my picnics, I set to developing a pet-safe fly repellent to protect the cat's food.
And thus I started this new adventure.
You can learn more about me and my books at
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