h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is the third thought you have a positive or a negative one?

When it comes to bees, I might think:
bees are good pollinators
they like those dandelions
but they're declining.

I can manage something more positive and defiant:
bees are good pollinators
they like those dandelions
so I'm going to leave the dandelions on the lawn, whatever the neighbours think!

Good for you!

The first spring we were in the town where we live now, the borough website ran a big headline: 'Don't pull out the dandelions! Our bees (and farmers) need the bees!'

Our yard is a riot of dandelions and wildflowers every spring - and we have every kind of pollinator imaginable, including bees, bumblebees, wasps, yellow jackets, and hummingbirds.

This year, the *same* borough sent around a warning letter to homeowners - that the grass had to be cut by 23 May, or else. But by then, all the dandelions were a foot tall and had gone to seed.

There's been a row here about trees along railway lines.

Network Rail - the company that owns the track - had started a programme of cutting down trees, because they sometimes fall and block the track. At least one local authority slapped an order on the trees along the tracks in their area, to stop them being cut down!

I could see a problem there - you want to keep the trees, but make the passengers safe. Hmm....

Plant rubber trees, they bounce back