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

Afternoon everyone

Wazungu, I hope you're staying home for the next few days if you work in Shrewsbury. It's just been on the news - worst flood in 50 years, deep water in the town centre, 3 more days of heavy rain on the way. They said the town had been offered flood defences some years ago but the offer was turned down because they were also told there was virtually no chance of Shrewsbury getting flooded as badly as it is at the moment. They also thought the flood defence walls would make a pretty town that was somewhat dependant on tourism, ugly. Can't win, can you?

A man from Budleigh has just been interviewed. He's been flooded a few times before and has his downstairs rooms lined with swimming pool tiles. Currently, the water is almost at the top of his tiles and a couple more inches will take it above the tiles. He's a bit fed up. Don't blame him.

The wind was so strong the morning before last that I feared one or more my trees was going to be blown into the house. It was even stronger in this area, I think, than it was in 1987 when we had that hurricane. Might get them topped ready for the next time.

Walter and Bran, it's nice to know you're basking in beautiful Spring weather! Hope you're having clement weather too, Case.

I read Case's Okapi article. It's a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it yet.

No I wouldn't trust our local councillors with GM decision really - not unless everyone they were supposed to represent knew everything that contributed to their decision. Our local councillors have taken some extraordinary decisions in the past - like selling a valuable parcel of publicly owned land to one of their own members for next to nothing. Despite the fact they are in the position to make important decisions, none of them seem to have to take responsibility for anything. They go on as though they believe they have diplomatic immunity. Like politicians higher up the system, they seem to work unashamedly in their own best interest. So it wouldn't surprise me if some company like Monsanto offered them a plain brown parcel, no questions asked, and they agreed to have GM. Some of them must be ok (I hope) and they may have improved now that they know we villagers are watching them more closely than they might previously have supposed.

Thank for the congrats. I was cockahoop when the entry was accepted. I just noticed Santragenius V has left a message on the bacteriophage thread about a DNA article in the making. That looks interesting.

Ash's spud competition provides great entertainment. I also enjoy your updates. You can't beat a good drama, can you?

Better take the dogs out and do the shopping while the weather holds. Speak to you all later.
Sal

Whoops, that should be Bewdley I think, not Budleigh. The one in Worcestershire is spelt differently to the one in Devon. Tut, sorry.

Sal

Hi, all. Thanks for the compliments. Sal, over here the rainy season has just broken out. That has been disrupting the phone lines, which is why I've been a bit scarce over here lately. The days are dark and wet and cold, but after eight months of utter drought and dust and heat, that's a relief!

Wazungu, just what is that "ethical investment movement" you were talking about? I never heard of any such thing here, the idea here seems to be that investment is just about making money, with ethics not really being a part of the equation.

I'll be brief today. I just want to report this: it seems we're going to have legislation in this country against alien plants. There are three categories: the first have to be destroyed immediately (these include the Bug Tree, Solanum mauritianum, and the Lantana, Lantana camara), the second may only be cultivated in approved areas (these include eucalypts, wattles, pines and guava trees), while the third may be retained if already present but no longer planted in the future (these include the privet, the Syringa and the Jacaranda). Syringas and Jacarandas are fairly aggressive invaders: they propagate themselves along the banks of rivers, replacing the very important indigenous riverine vegetation.

In addition to crowding out indigenous plants, aliens also reduce the water run-off in catchment areas, and increase the risk of runaway fires in the "fynbos"-region of the Cape.

So I'll have to step-up my work, it seems indigenous trees are going to be in demand. I hope that I will be able to put up some pictures sometime soon; in addition to photographs of trees, I will put up pictures of leaves that I've scanned in directly. We have some absolutely fantastic plants over here, and I have a lot of nice pictures of many of them.

I just wish I had more time available, and that my internet connection was faster!

Oh, just one last thing: BSE now seems to be a problem here, too. It turns out the British sold some infected bone-meal to us because they couldn't do anything with it in the UK.

Take care, all!
Case

Hello Everyone

I hope that you are safe and well in Olde England Waz and Sal. We have seen many scary reports on the news about flooding especially near the Welsh border. Looks appalling, and more to come they say. We are a bit bummed about the tanker going down with all that toxic sludge in the Channel. Not good. We have some friends who have been in London for a month and are due back in Tas this week. I wonder if the flights are running to schedule? Based on the terrible crach in Taiwan yesterday, I wouldn't want similar to occur due to bad weather in the UK.

Waz, I suspect that the British counties are more like our city/shire councils. Britain hasn't really had the equivalent to our states, except now probably will with Scotland and Wales. Scotland has been similar to a state with separate laws - here, the legal systems vary between states (though not always greatly). Some councils here have also declared themselves nuclear free. Oh on the news last night our state premier declared that he was going to go head to head with any decision to treat Australia as one big entity re GM - he said that Australia is too big and too diverse for there to be one sweeping law. There is a premiers' meeting about to start this week so we'll see what happens.

Where is Walter????

Case, I'm not sure about all the vegetation we have here (I'm not good at plant names), but have a look under the following, and there will undoubtedly be a link that will tell you:

http://www.tas.gov.au

Well, it is raining here today, but only a light coverage.

Best wishes Everyone.

Cheerio
Bran.

Good evening everyone,

Where IS Walter? Has Ben eaten the computer?

I take your point Bran about the difference between state and shire councils. Not having state, ( There is no English equivalent to Scotland and Wales. And where is the logic in that?), county is the closest we have. Some of the metropolitan councils can be quite powerful, though Mrs T took some of their claws away. Good luck with the head to head. Can Tasmania declare UDI if necessary?

I hope your friends get back ok. The flooding we're having here now is the consequence of the past storm. It takes time for the water to come down from those Welsh hills. As far as Shrewsbury is concerned flooding is something you have to live with if you build down to the river banks in a town surrounded on three sides by a large, tidal, river.
Sal, I work on the edge of the town and its just the traffic that causes problems there. So no excuse not to go to work! I think maybe you should sort the trees out. I think I'd rather be flooded than have a tree down on the house. In Shrewsbury's last floods a very large willow tree came down on top of the Thai boat restaurant - the one business that should have been safe from damage!

Last summer the council were canvassing opinion for changing the town's name to Shrewsbury on Severn. Shrewsbury in Severn would be more attention getting don't you think?

Case, that aliens legislation sounds encouraging. But the BSE is bad news. Though not altogether surprising. A lot of international businesses sell products and use sales techniques in some countries that they are banned from in others. Which seems entirely unethical to me. Talking about which, I'll post a separate reply about ethical investment.

*Small potato update*
This weekend should be the deadline for weighing. More competitors than previously suspected have, however, eaten their produce. Clarification has been received on whether potatoes should be weighed with their slug lodgers. They should. A suggestion for a Sprout competition has been made for next year.

I hope it's drier for everyone tomorrow, except Case who may want as much rain as possible,
Wz.

Case, I hope you don't regret asking - here's as short an answer as I could come up with.

Ethical Investment or Socially Responsible Investment, put simply is choosing to invest in line with "ethical" criteria. It can be a negative approach, i.e. deciding to avoid companies involved in disapproved activities. For example some church groups exclude businesses involved in gambling and some health charities avoid tobacco companies. Or it can be a positive approach, for instance choosing to invest in companies involved in business thought to be good for the environment. For example those selling energy from renewable sources. A third approach used by some investment companies is to choose the best/greenest company in the field they want to invest in. The one with the best record on dealing with pollution perhaps.

In 1991 a survey found 40% of the public would want the investments they were involved in to be ethical. I think the majority of these people meant they didn't want to make money out of destroying rain forests, cruelty to animals, selling land mines or pushing tobacco sales.

Over here quite a number of financial institutions now offer ethical investments of various sorts. There are banks, building societies and pension funds choosing to use ethical criteria in their investments so that they can offer themselves to the public as an ethical choice for their savings.

Its a way to make your opinions felt, to have some influence. When significant numbers of people become involved it can make a difference. And some of the big investment companies with sizeable ethical funds, (and there are some), can end up with a significant voice at company's shareholder meetings. If common man gangs up together they don't have to be completely helpless against big companies!

It goes further than investing. Customers can influence through the choices they make. Avoiding products of companies with bad records, making positive choices to support certain types of business, the organic movement maybe. I have a vague memory of one of the big oil companies having to change its policy (in Nigeria, I think), because the German public boycotted its garages over some issue.

I know it sounds a very indirect way to try and promote social or environmental policies but it seems sometimes to be more effective than going through political channels. Every little helps.
Wz.

Afternoon y'all

Yes, where is Walter? Walter, are you there?

Lovely day here. Calm and sunny. Weather forecast for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday is for more wind and heavy rain though. Very glad you and I don't live in flood areas, Wazungu. A couple of years ago I had to take a very long circuitous route to work because of flooding in the next village along from here, but even that area isn't flooded - yet. Think you might be right about my trees. I was thinking while I watched them whipping back and forth that I should have got them sorted out before.

Those ethical investments are more complicated than I'd imagined. I wanted to start an ethical pension about 3 years ago so my financial adviser went away to gather information. He warned me it wouldn't be straight forward. It all depends on the ethics of each individual. I don't mind people smoking, drinking or gambling (the informed choices of consenting adults in general) but I'm opposed to companies that exploit the poor, cause environmental damage or abuse animals. So when he came back with the list of pensions that were described as ethical, only about 20% of them suited my ideas about what's ethical. The one I finally chose (NPI) has actually done considerably better than a lot of other pensions that have no ethical policy.

Case, your Okapi entry's been snapped up for editing. Congratulations. It was about time!

It's good news about the legislation to limit alien plant invaders in South Africa. I hope it works.

You'd think there'd be a law against selling a product in another country that was banned in this country, wouldn't you? The BSE fiasco's continuing here too. Herbivorous animals are still being turned into cannibals. Nobody ever seems to be called upon to take responsibility for anything. On the brighter side, there are often programmes aimed at embarrassing the companies that go in for exploitative practices. I remember one some time ago focusing on the disgusting behaviour of BP in countries where their activities were blighting the lives of poor and disadvantaged people (I wonder if it was connected to the Nigerian incident you mentioned Wazungu). Recently there've been programmes about Nike, a company that sells footballs and a fashion company who were using child labour and even slave labour in 3rd world countries to manufacture their goods. The trouble is, it's not just those despicable companies who are to blame, it's often the rich elite and corrupt officials in the poor countries who collude with them in order to line their own pockets.

There've been mixed reports about that tanker's cargo Bran. Some news programmes reported it as an environmental disaster and others said that the cargo was so volatile (styrene used to make polystyrene) that it would evaporate as soon as it reached the surface of the water. Unless you're a chemist and actually know the facts, it's a job to know what to believe. I expect you've all spotted the fact that I'm a bit of a pessimist (I try hard not to be) so of course, I suspect the worst.

The latest report on that horrible accident in Taiwan is that the plane was going down the wrong runway and hit some equipment that was there to carry out repairs. The weather wouldn't have helped but is seems it wasn't entirely caused by bad weather.

Ash's potato competition appears to be going down hill. The competitors who've eaten their entries are presumably no longer competing. Also, presumably, you could now enter with nothing but a bag of slugs. Is there any rule to ensure there should be a spud or two amongst the slugs? You have to laugh, don't you?

Bye for now.
Sal

PS It's no longer afternoon. I've been trying to get through to h2g2 for ages to post this. Yesterday I couldn't get through either until it was bed time and I was too tired to talk to anyone. Are any of you having similar problems, or is it just me?

Evenin' all.
Yes Sal, I had the same problems on h2g2 yesterday and gave up waiting. I'm considering your potato suggestion. I have plenty slugs, who could prove my potatoes weren't in them?

As you say the ethical funds need researching. I was disappointed with the criteria used by some of the better known providers. Some of the funds do very well and some advisors recommend them as less volatile.

Do you think investigation is needed into Walter's disappearance? I think it was Jasmine, on the porch, with a G & T glass. Or the librarian in the library with the monitor, (having finally caught him in the act of sneaking books back on to her shelves).

Bran, I found your Cornish Monuments story. It is true, utterly senseless and happened a year ago, Friday November 12, 1999.
This is the site for the full story; http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk
The link to the actual story wouldn't work but a search under the names of the monuments found the archived article. The first two paragraphs are
"Arsonists have attacked the ancient Men an Tol and Lanyon Quoit stones in Cornwall, and threatened to "reduce them to rubble" in protest over unspecified mistreatment of them in the past.

The stones, massive lumps of granite which have stood in isolated moorland for the past 5,000 years, are badly scorched and coated with a thick sticky mess, which the arsonists claimed was "stolen napalm"."

I'm going now for my one decent meal of the week. If I'm lucky there will be competitive potatoes in it. So 'til tomorrow,
Wz

Gooday Wazungu, StM and Bran,

Sorry gang, for my neglect. I have a million and four excuses, but no good reasons why I should not have posted a quick note to say hello, so a big HELLO to you all. I did in fact try on Thursday and yesterday afternoon, but the h2g2 site seemed to be having a wobbly, which incidentally seems to be happening with increasing regularity. The essay is finished this weekend, my workload is at last backing off a bit, so with luck there will be heaps of time to catch up on the postings and my chat. Have to tell you about the swallows!! And greenfinches!! And bluebells (yes my beloved has successfully reared bluebells - is she not an absolute little bottler?). Take care,y'all.

PS Did you know that there is a 'Monument' at Earls Colne? Besides me, that is.

Walter.

Hi all. How are things looking over there in GB with the floods? Is it still raining? I hope things don't get too bad.

Wazungu, NO, more rain is not always better, not even in dry regions! Over here it sometimes happens that impossible amounts of water fall from the sky. Such a disaster has to be seen to be believed. Thankfully since I've been in Pietersburg that has not happened here yet, but last year it happened in the Louis Trichardt and Tzaneen areas, both about sixty miles from here, north and east respectively. Roads were washed away, houses were washed away, bridges were washed away, crops and topsoil were washed away. Mozambique became a lake for a few months. Well, everybody left alive seems to have recovered, but there's talk that these regions might have floods again this year.

Luckily for me, Pietersburg is situated on a high, dry plateau and the nearest thing that can be called a river is about ten miles away, so large-scale flooding is unlikely. But still, last year the rain almost broke through the roof of our house, so disasters can still happen here. Rain and wind have caused a lot of damage in Pietersburg in past years.

Ethical investment sounds interesting - I still don't know if we have any of it over here. For me investment is a bit irrelevant as I don't have a lot of money. My average annual income is probably equivalent to less than $1000. If I ever HAVE money, I'll try to buy me a plot of land, because I would like to start a botanical garden/wildlife sanctuary combo. I don't know if that would ever happen, though. But for me that would be a nice investment, it would be ethical and it also would bring very nice returns not in terms of money but in terms of becoming a natural, beautiful place teeming with living creatures.

All the best,
Case

Good afternoon,

That was a timely reappearance, Walter! Yesterday I got a note from the PM's "Direct Communication Unit" to say they'd redirected my query to the Min. of Ag, Fish & Food. Which, indirectly, answers the question. Waiting to see what happens next..........

Greenfinches are favourites of mine. I had a couple of goldfinches here last week. Soon be time to put food out for them.

Talking of monuments, (couldn't find a picture of yours on the web site, Walter), I once drove past a sign saying "Obelisk in Churchyard". Seeing visions of Asterix, I went to have a look. And found a 15ft high solitary obelisk dwarfing the gravestones, a few yards from the church. No other information.They take obelisks for granted in Yorkshire.

Case, sorry, I wasn't thinking of the Mozambique floods - I was just remembering when we lived over there was never enough rain to satisfy everyone. Mind you we never had a hose pipe ban there. We have those in wet Britain every summer now. It hasn't rained here this weekend but more is forecast and since the ground is waterlogged and the reservoirs full there are still flood warnings in place.

I blame the Welsh, Sal. All that water in Shrewsbury? It was all Welsh.
Til tomorrow,
Wz

PS "Direct Communications Unit"?? Automotons in No.10 or modern English for secretary?? Must ask the receptionists at work if they'd like to be updated to being Redirect Communications Units.
PPS It is now raining.

Afternoon everyone

This is a bit like deja vu. Just got back from walking the dogs. It's pouring with rain and blowing a gale. I was drenched to the skin and chilled to the marrow. Here we go again. You're right Wazungu. I hold the Welsh responsible too. I must remember to mention that to Nogginette next time I speak to her. She's a Welsh person living in Leicester and currently attempting to take over the universe - starting with English mud. It's true. If you don't believe me, visit her home page.

Glad you're back Walter. The problem getting through to h2g2 seems to have eased. I don't like it when I can't get through. It's a bit worrying that it should bother me at all but it certainly does.

What a relief to get your essay finished. You can relax and have a nice G&T on the veranda while you watch the swallows and greenfinches. At the moment it feels as though paradise is a long long way from here. I have to send off my end of month report to the Garden Bird Survey tomorrow and the form looks awfully empty. I've even started putting out food early and it hasn't made very much difference. Since I got a security light outside my back door, I've become aware that there are far more cats than I previously thought, going through the garden. They keep turning the light on, which makes the dogs bark.

Is there anywhere on the planet that they (I mean humans, not hedgehogs) eat slugs, does anyone know? I know some people eat snails, winkles and whelks but I've never heard of anyone eating slugs. If you could have slugs and chips, there might actually be complaints of slug shortages. Unimaginable! I'm not about to try if for obvious reasons.

Wonder if you'll get the standard BSE complaint reply letter? That's annoying. I often (but not always) get that sort of reply, where they don't deal with the specific points you raised but fob you off with (what at least seems like) their computer generated bumph. All that sort of reply really tells you is that nobody took the trouble to read your letter.

It's dark now. My brother will be here shortly to be cheered up with a couple of glasses of cider. I've been trying to persuade him to get one of those UV light boxes they sell to SAD sufferers like him. It could save me 2 - 3 litres of cider a month.

Speak to you all later.
Sal

Good evening everyone.

Deja vu indeed Sal. Did you see the TV footage of Lake Vyrnwy? All that Welsh water on its way. And our local garage is out of petrol. We should all go to southern Spain for the winter - your brother wouldn't need a light box there. And sangria is cheaper than cider.
BTW I hope your trees survived last night's gales.

There shouldn't be any difference between eating slugs and eating shellfish. I think trying it may be the ONLY way to find out. In the interests of adding to human knowledge, (and the guide), I think you should volunteer. If it wasn't for the fact that I don't eat shellfish I would, of course, volunteer myself.
My kitchen slug, which returned within 24 hours after being flung out the backdoor, returned last night about 2 weeks after being launched from the front window. If it's back tonight it's going in the bin for a ride to Sleap tip. Shouldn't get back from there before 2030.

Case, thank you for your comments on Forvie. I have seen the waders, like greenshanks, in Africa, plovers too, and it felt unnatural. Here they're so associated, in my mind anyway, with moors and estuaries that seeing them on an African plain was weird. I didn't see curlews. That would have been even stranger.
I think your suggestion of doing a guide entry on Kruger is a good one. Have you been there yourself?

I'm off early tonight in order to have an early start tomorrow, a) to do some panic petrol buying, b) to allow time to navigate Battlefield Island, my access to the Shrewsbury bypass. I used to think this was a daft name for a roundabout.
BTW for the historians; the battlefield concerned is where Harry Hotspur met his end. He was briefly laid to rest in Whitchurch, the local town, before being distributed for PR purposes around the rest of England. A better place than most to be stuck in a traffic jam..
Til tomorrow,
Wz

Hi Everyone

I've been a touch obsessed with The Tome again, so thought I'd just put my head up and say hi! Thanks for the Cornwall link Waz, which I have found and read with some distress, and for the further info about the ship in the Channel Sal. I hope that it is indeed OK, but I too remain sceptical. There have been a ship stuck on te Great Barrier Reef off Queensland for a few days as well - has some unspecified "dangerous cargo" in some containers, and of course all the fuel it is carrying. They are trying to float it off. We'll see.

At the risk of sounding like I am gloating - today is a glorious day, with a clear blue sky and sun streaming in. Projected max of 18 celcius and 24 for tomorrow. There are birds everywhere. There are some blackbirds which have taken to swooping past my study window and settling on the fence that I see. They are great company for most of the day as I slave away in here.

The weather sounds like it has been atrocious over there. Can't the Welsh have smaller mountains, and have rivers that lead to the sea on their side of them and not into England?! Talk about bad planning. Obviously what they needed to do was flood some more Welsh villages to make dams! (Only kidding!). Some friends have arrived back from London this week, and described the weather as "pretty ordinary".

Well, must off for the porridge thing and The Tome. Take care over there.

Cheerio
Bran.

Evening Wazungu, Walter, Bran

Sorry I'm almost absent at the moment. Can't sit long enough to do a proper message, but thought I'd just pop this little gem in for your perusal. I found this article http://www.h2g2.com/A422470 by Neugen Amoeba about the pretty slugs we prefer to our familiar garden pests and attached to the bottom of it was a message from Pheroneous on a subject we were just discussing:

"Have I eaten these things? I have eaten things called sea-slugs, a 'great delicacy' I was told. In Seoul, Korea. But then (struggling to be polite about the eating habits of an entire Nation) I have gamely struggled to eat many strange things in Seoul. They looked like very large slugs (as in garden slugs) and tasted of nothing much, but the texture was much as I would imagine garden slugs to taste...I wish I could say it slipped down a treat...but it didn't. It was vile an required a great deal of steely determination to get it down, and keep it down. Damn politeness!"

That lets us off the hook Wazungu. It's been tried and found unpleasant.

Speak to you all later - when I've accumulated a supply of vertical.
Sal

Evening again,

Bran, maybe this weather is BECOMING ordinary. And as for the Welsh! I've been reading up on the local town's history, (had to go to the dentist and the Heritage Centre is right next door). Apparently the marauding Welsh obliterated the town, left not a single building standing! Reverse the Severn River I say.

Don't worry about gloating. It's comforting to know the sun still exists.

Sal, I checked out that article and all I have to say is .
Hope vertical deliverance arrives soon.
Wz

Evening everyone

I'm a bit more vertical now. I see you've discovered the new emoticons (is that the right word?) I have to try one too. I like the look of this one called Magic . Owzat?

I haven't mentioned our complaints about the Welsh to poor Nogginette yet because she's unwell. I might nip over and try to cheer her up with one of the new smileys - the nurse maybe.

Do you like the changes they've made? I'm quite impressed. I can sling all the conversations off my page that I haven't been involved in since I first joined. Now we can be alerted if someone starts a new thread on one of our Guide Entries. Before, we wouldn't know unless we checked. It seems to have slowed down a bit though.

Better not push my luck. Bye for now.
Sal

Hi, all. Bran, thanks a lot for giving me that link to Tasmania. There is a heck of a lot of info. I put it on my favourites list and I'll be returning again. I checked out the plants first and, sure enough, there's one we have in common with Taz! Not just a genus, but a species: Dodonaea viscosa, which we over here call the sand olive. In fact we have one in our garden! It is native here - I wonder if those in Taz might have been introduced? But it sounded as if the site was purely for native plants, and it is by all means not impossible that the same species exists in both places. This would make it a very old species, eh? I imagine the last time that there was a link between Tasmania and Africa was before the dinosaurs became extinct. But plants are old, and I know that we share genera with New Zealand, which split off even earlier!

Wazungu and Sal, I hope you survive the rain!

See you all again soon!

Evening,
Sal, I think the changes are , particularly the unsubscribe/subscribe to forums, but I'm not so sure about the slimmed down front page. And there are some essential smileys missing. No get well bunch of grapes! I am finding the forums a bit slower but it might be BT. They've been connecting me on 42667bps (whatever bps are, but there used to be 45000 of them).

Shrewsbury is complaining now about their flood publicity - all those pictures of "Shrewsbury Town Centre" underwater. When in fact the real town centre is up a steep hill and if it was underwater we'd all be needing an ark. They have a point. To encourage shoppers back they've announced free parking on Frankwell and St.Julians car parks.
Those are the two parks that flood.

Case, I'm surviving so far, though driving through Shrewsbury without traffic lights (a side effect of the floods) is interesting. I will see if I can find a site for indigenous UK trees at the weekend. But I'm not hopeful. So many species have naturalised here I don't know where you'd draw the line.

That's all for now, I'm out to practise swimming - just in case.
Wz

Hi All

Well ... a new H2G2. Walter will be so pleased (that is if we ever see him again) as this means his campaign to get Sergei Prokofiev off the Most Neglected list has finally come to fruition - he is no longer there. Haven't checked out the new emoticons yet but they look like fun.

We are almost tropical here - temps in the 20s celcius and convectional rain and that muggy feeling. All bodes for summer coming which is a good thing. Went for a walk on the beach last night and saw our mate "Sea-Goose" there again. This time he was swimming - never seen a goose in the sea before. He seems to like it though. We have seen some Dusky Shearwaters (a type of Mutton Bird)in the last weeks on the beach which is rare - a friend of My Beloved tells us that they seem to have hit a storm on their return migration from the northern Pacific, and many have not made the breeding grounds, but are just sitting or floating exhausted as far as they could get. Poor things. These birds fly as far as the Russian Pacific coast and back every year - amazing. I suppose such a trip will be perilous.

Glad that you found the site useful Case - didn't know about the similar species of plant ... I suspect not introduced here, but who knows. May be a hang over from Gondwana Land.

Waz, would you happen to remember when the Welsh bashed up Shrewesbury? If it was before 800, it would be very handy for my PhD. If not, it would still be very interesting. Are you far from Offa's Dyke there?

Stay dry everyone.
Cheers
Bran.