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Friday 23 March 2007

Nat online

Natty baby has his very on fotothing gallery
http://www.fotothing.com/repete/

Garden life

Been watching the birdies in the garden. Have seen:
- a wren/dunnock/unidentified small brown bird (possibly two), which I've been seeing a lot lately,
- a robin (first spotted this morning has since been back three times and eaten some of the meal worms),
- Mr Blackbird. Quite often see Mrs Blackbird too,
- about a thousand sparrows

Like to see the birdies.

Birdie pic

I'm quite pleased with this shot of a great crested grebe:

:)

Friday off

Youpee :)
Rainy weather :(
Still, got a (mini) rise :)

Saw a robin in the garden but he was just flying through. Still, he might come back. Do robins eat slugs? I need birds that eat slugs. What would be really good would be a hedgehog, but I've never seen any round here.

Wednesday 21 March 2007

Send some useful email

While I'm on my conservationist/ecological tirade, why don't you stop by the FoE site and send some useful email:
http://foe.org.uk/press_for_change/index.html
Take your pick from climate change to fair trade to waste management. Many worthy issues. Go on, click the link.

Kill, plunder, destroy

These seem to be the things the human race excels at the most. Saw in the news today that the Chinese government is thinking of lifting its ban on tiger products in medicines. Of course, it's only a pretend ban anyway because it hasn't stopped the poachers.

With a population of only 5000 (all species) it really does look like these most handsome big cats could be heading the same way as the dodo, and within the next 20 years. The South China tiger is the most at risk, not only does it live in China (poor soul), but only 30 to 40 of them remain.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6450871.stm

Friday 16 March 2007

Climate change is hot news

Have you noticed that not a day goes by without a news item on climate change, energy savings, renewables, recylcing or some other environment-related issue on TV news or in the papers?

I suppose the optimist in me sees this as a signal that people really have realised that human activity is speeding up the changes in Earth's climate. OK, for the doubters out there, the climate does go through periods of natural change, yes, but our pollution (carbon emissions and destruction of the ozone layer - remember that?) has certainly accelerated any natural changes.

The not-so-optimist in me thinks more cynically that it's merely "trendy" to be seen to be aware of all these issues and to fly the eco-flag.

I'll be convinced when I see real change happening. I'll be convinced when all new-build housing incorporates solar panels, rain-water collection, triple glazing, and so on. I'll be convinced when blasted incandescent light bulbs disappear from the world! Why isn't that happening right now? I'll be convinced when urban street lighting becomes efficient, with minor and low-cost measures like putting "hats" on street lights mean the electricity used lights the ground and not the sky (and maybe mean energy savings too?). I'll be convinced when I no longer see people sitting in parked cars, clearly not going anywhere, with the engine running. What is that all about? Those people clearly have money to burn, quite literally, and must also be lacking a brain.

I despair!

Exciting cricket...

... if you're Irish! Listened to the last over of the game last night and it was pretty thrilling. And that isn't something you can say about cricket all that often! I tried to explain to Hubby how exciting it was, but he just didn't get it... So well done to the Irish team, what a start!

Of course, for followers of England's 'first' XI, it's business as usual, isn't it?!?!

Monday 12 March 2007

Edinburgh time lapse film

Saw this on the news:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNXaQFP5amE

So I looked it up on youtube and it's pretty cool.