The time has come, dear reader, to speak of many things - of rainwater showers and windmills, of cabbages and kings.

Although we found no fairytale walrus on our sojourn to an ecological heaven deep in the backwaters of Lincolnshire, we did come across a very real carpenter with magical powers.

Andy Reynolds has used them to clear away eight acres of cabbages from a once delapidated smallholding and become the king of a self-sustaining eco wonderland.

With the help of partner Geri Clarke - the power behind the throne, sons Simon and Solomon and like-minded eco friends, he has created a green haven where nothing is wasted - and where a huge lesson on how we all should live for the sake of our planet can be gained.

If nothing else, staying in the Eco Lodge near Old Leake is certainly an education in the ways of one man's resourcefulness and ingenuity.

Once a carpenter who made bespoke staircases and now a professional forester, Andy built the two bedroom wooden retreat, complete with a splendid Deep-South style verandah, entirely with locally sourced timber.

It nestles in the corner of an area of unkempt, wind-blown beauty, evocative of a long forgotten global-warming-free England, and a natural adventureland for our children.

Where once there was an ocean of the explosive green vegetable loathed by generations of schoolboys, there are now meadows, hedgerows and pastures to wander, flanked by a large 25-year old wood that Andy and Geri began growing themselves when they bought the farm.

Not far from the Lodge is a 40-ft high scrap metal edifice Andy has also grown from scratch - a home-made windmill. He found its tangled wreckage some years ago lying in undergrowth at a college where it had once been a students' project. Two painstaking years later it was sending us the 50-volt power for lights by which our children indulged in age-old pursuits of cards and board games in the welcome absence of a television. Where the wind brought us illumination, the rain kept us clean as we showered and washed up using filtered water collected from the roof and heated by a wood-burning range.

To make us aware of how much water we were using Andy installed a push-button on the side of the house which pumped rainwater from huge containers up into a loft tank. On the gable end of the lodge was a makeshift gauge which told you when the tank was empty. Five minutes of standing with your thumb on a button watching an iron pointer above you creep slowly from a roughly painted E to F is certainly a way to make you use less. Lesson learned.

Warmth came from the range in the kitchen cum lounge. Every day my wife Lynne cooked on it using vegetables grown on Andy and Geri's smallholding while I grilled mouthwatering cuts of meat from a local butcher on a barbecue made from an old gas bottle and fired by home made charcoal. Green power nestling inside a relic of the dirty variety.

That barbecue - and the way Andy stores power from his windmill - is at the heart of his green philosophy which might not be every eco warrior's cup of organic peppermint tea - but it's eminently sensible.. Recycling the unrecyclable. "I believe in using existing resources and if that means non-biodegradable stuff then so be it," he said. "Don't create it, but if it's there already, use it - better it be put to good use than shoved into landfill somewhere."

So when a mate offered him a shedload of old forklift truck batteries that were going to be thrown out, Andy took them off his hands and they now sit proudly in his workshop, storing green power from the windmill for becalmed days. When he took a call from a friend who wondered if he could use 12 trailer loads of polystyrene sheets from a demolished factory unit, Andy knew just where the insulation for the Eco Lodge roof was coming from.

The pumps that send the rainwater to the roof tank were once filling glasses in a local bar. I'll drink to any recycling as imaginative as that - and then I'll go and recycle what I've drunk in The Eco Lodge's superb outdoor privy.

It took me back to the ash pits of my youth in a coal mining town, expect it was much, much cleaner. The waste is composted with the help of handfuls of sawdust. My 12-year-old lad Leo, the right age for fascination with all things lavatorial, even used it during the night and early morning despite there being a normal loo in the Lodge in case of inclement weather. Chloe, who is eight, took more persuading to bypass those age-old sentinels of outside loos, the inevitable spiders. But she did. We all did - after all, using the indoor loo meant wasting gallons of precious rainwater and having to thumb the pump button for yet another eternity.

And so we move on to other untapped natural resources - the far fens of south east Lincolnshire. For walking, a visit to Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve is a must. Its mixture of saltmarsh and freshwater habitats attracts a wide variety of bird life and it's well worth spending a restful hour in one of the many hides just watching the winged world go by.

If you want excellent unspoilt beaches for the kids, Anderby Creek is far from the crowded sands of Skegness - and for a visit to a bustling town (well, it is bustling by comparison with its surroundings ) Boston offers high excitement. Highlights for us were a visit to the Maude Foster windmill, the tallest working windmill in England and a climb up the tallest parish church tower in England, the 272-foot-tall Boston Stump - otherwise known as Lincolnshire's oldest church, St Botolph's.

Lincoln City itself, with its wonderful cathedral, is under an hour's drive away through some beautiful countryside and pretty villages like Woodhall Spa - but the temptation is to stay put in the serene environment of the Eco Lodge, pottering around, chatting to the very amiable Andy and Geri when they pop round to see how you're doing and going for long cycle rides around the local villages.

After all, you'll find this eco living gets into your bones after a while - and starting the car seems like such a bad idea - especially when it's time to head for home and leave Andy and Geri's world, a little piece of unpolluted paradise. We'll be back.

NEED TO KNOW

Roof insulation -12 trailer loads of polysterene sheets from a demolished factory unit.

Power-windmill supplies 50 volt power for lighting, generated by windmill and stored in recycled fortlift truck batteries.

Water use - rainwater collection, pumps (from demolished pub) to tank in the roof. One composting loo, one in the lodge (guests have to use pump to refill tank). Septic tank.

Heating - wood burning stove, wood from the copse planted by Andy.

There is no habitat or eco-system as it has been wiped out by monocultural farming. Once common birds like the hedge sparrow are becoming rare and many species of birds and animals have disappeared entirely.

Food: Organic Produce can be pre-ordered from www.edenfarms.co.uk - the butcher the Burke family used was R.W. Woodcock at Benington, a village just down the road from the lodge.

Getting there: If you don't drive, travel by rail or coach to Boston. Transport from Boston to the Eco-lodge can be arranged. Maps are sent with bookings.

What it costs: A week's break at the Eco Lodge, Old Leake (Friday to Friday) is £340 plus a one-off £5 supplement per person. A shorter or weekend break (Monday to Friday, or Friday to Monday) is £170 plus a a one-off £5 supplement per person. Alternative bookings on request. The Lodge has two bedrooms, twin beds, and sleeps four maximum. Lighting, linen and fuel included. Visit www.internationalbusinessschool.net/eco-lodge.htm or call 01205 871396

More ideas: Log onto www.discovereastmidlands.com for more travel information and other ideas for family entertainment in the area

NOMINATED BY: I would like to nominate the Eco Lodge in Lincolnshire simply because there isn't a greener place to stay in Britain. From the composting toilet to the windmill used to provide lighting. From the rainwater shower to the wood-burning stove. The whole lodge is built from Lincolnshire wood.

And what makes it more eco friendly than most is that its creator Andy Reynolds has recycled the UNgreen to make it even greener - hence the use of old fork-lift truck batteries that would have been dumped to store the windmill's power, and old polystyrene tiles from a factory to insulate the roof. This is honest, PRACTICAL green - not lip service and cosmetic green touches just to cash in on the desire to save the planet. The Eco Lodge is an outstanding example of the way we should live - Mickey Burke, Lincoln