This is an interesting idea from a village pub in Norfolk. They are utilising produce grown in the local area by introducing a bartering system. Locals can barter something they have grown or killed for a beer or food in the pub. Some examples include taking a rabbit you have shot, some vegetables you have grown or eggs that your hens have laid. The idea helps to make the best of the available produce in the local area and allows the pub to feature fresh ingredients on its specials board. It make a lot more sense than sourcing items from suppliers who are miles away, although it must make it harder to plan a menu, never knowing what's going to arrive next.

These clouded leopard cubs have recently been born at Howletts Wild Animal Park near Canterbury. The two male and two female kittens were born in April and have recently made their first public appearance at the wildlife park. Clouded leopards are difficult to breed but the breeding program at Howletts has been quite successful with 30 births since 2003. The leopard is currently threatened with extinction in the wild due to the demand for it coat.

Sainsbury's will launch a new range of chickens that are kept in better conditions meaning that a third of its stock will no longer come from battery farms. It will also start phasing out chickens from battery farms completely so that all of its stock will meet RSPCA standards. Sainsbury's have said that sales of poultry reared in better surroundings were up 60 per cent since January so I wonder whether this move is simply in response to consumer demand for better quality chicken.

I found this flood game the other day. Basically it allows you to make decisions about what flood defences to implement in the UK and how much money to spend over a three year period. You can do things like build a flagship project, plant trees and repair the drainage system. You also need to choose which regions of the country to protect and how much to spend on each project. After you have made your decisions it then shows you exactly how much of the country gets flooded based on your choices. I didn't do badly but I managed to keep flooding Scotland.

This is an interesting idea, a solar powered handbag. The bag uses solar panels to absorb the suns rays and turn them into electricity. The bag uses laminated solar panels made of photovoltaic film to convert sunlight into electricity. It then transmits the power to a circuit connected to two batteries in the lining of the bag and to a USB port. It can be used to charge most small devices such as mobile phones, cameras and ipods. It does, however, require two hours of full sunlight to charge a mobile phone battery. If you want one, they cost £150. 

With costs of conventional fertiliser rising, farmers are turning to a new way to fertilise their crops. Many have now started using human waste in the form of treated human sewage. Water companies are no longer allowed to dump this into the sea but appear to have a ready market in supplying farmers. In fact Severn Trent Water have said they are struggling to keep up with demand. Human fertiliser costs farmers around a fifth of the price of the more expensive alternative but does have the disadvantage of being more smelly. However, farmer Jonathan Barrett says the smell can be reduced once it is incorporated into the soil and turned regularly. He also said it is best to take into account the wind direction when using it. Human sewage is currently allowed to be used on grassland and crops but not on salads, fruit and root crops.

This article suggests that children now spend so little time outdoors that they are unable to identify most of Britain's common wildlife. Apparently one in three cannot identify a magpie whilst half couldn't tell the difference between a bee and a wasp. However in contrast nine out of ten could identify the Daleks from Doctor Who. You can take the survey here. I got them all right.

According to this article it is going to be a good year for mosquitoes and midges. Apparently the mild winter and the wet spring have provided the ideal breeding conditions for the little critters. I have nearly recovered from my insect bites that I got last week but it looks like there could be many more to come this summer. I hate midges.

According to this article gardeners are likely to see an invasion of slugs this year. Apparently the warm and damp spring has provided the ideal conditions for slugs to breed. It certainly seems to the case in my garden. The slimy little critters have been enjoying my nice ripe strawberries before I can get to them myself and I took this picture of a particularly large and slimy slug crawling down my patio door this morning.

I don't suffer from hay fever as much as I used to, probably because I no longer wear contact lenses since having laser eye surgery. I do, however, find that I get a constant sore throat and runny nose during the summer months. I was interested to find out that a hay fever vaccine is currently being tested. It is meant to the reduce the symptoms of hay fever by training the immune system to tolerate pollen. During a four week trial volunteers who received the vaccine reported a significant  improvement in their symptoms. The only problem I can see is that it involves having an injection every week. Being scared of needles I think I will just live with the hay fever symptoms until it comes in a pill format.

I'm still playing with new Nikon D40 and in just a few weeks have already taken hundreds of pictures. Rather than bore people with the details, in future I will just post a selection of the better ones every week or so with a short caption. Starting with the picture on the left which I was quite pleased with.

Yellow Rose in My Garden

This interesting looking treetop walkway has just opened at Kew Gardens. It is 200m long and has been designed by the architects behind the London Eye to allow visitors to enter the tree canopy and get a closer look at the birds and insects that live there. It certainty looks like it will be interesting to visit, although I will probably wait until it has been open a little while before going.

Naturalists have discovered that orangutans can not only swim but that they also know how to fish. The orangutans in Borneo were previously thought to be non swimmers but they have learnt how to swim across the river to get to the best fruits. They have also learnt how to use a tree branch as a spear in order to catch a fish after watching fishermen using rods. However, they have also worked out that it is less work to steal fish from unattended fishing lines rather than going to the effort of catching the fish themselves. At this rate they will quickly be overtaking some of the lesser intelligent human individuals among us.

A new system is being tried London which will put a value on trees. Trees will be assessed on a number of factors including size, how many people enjoy the tree and the life expectancy of the tree. Taking into account all of those factors a plane tree in central London has recently been valued at £750,000. The system is designed to make it harder for trees to be felled. For example if a developer illegally destroys a tree, then the fine imposed could now be a better reflection of the tree's value, meaning they should be less likely to consider felling a tree in the first place.

People living near a river in Oxfordshire were rather surprised to find that it was a rather bright shade of green today. The Environment agency were called to Grove Brook near Wantage to find it was fluorescent green. It is thought that the colour was caused by a dye that is used to trace the flow of water through drainage systems, but it is not known how the dye got into the river. The dye, however is not toxic and should disperse by the end of the day. I wonder if it turns the fish green as well.

According to this article we are likely to see fewer butterflies around this year because of last years wet summer. 2007 was the worst year for butterflies for more than a quarter of a century with numbers at a record low. This was mainly because butterflies do not fly in the rain and therefore they cannot reach plant nectar to feed or fly to breed. The charity Butterfly Conservation is hoping that we have a long hot summer this year so that numbers can recover. Unfortunately I think my cats are to blame for the lack of butterflies in my garden.

This is quite an interesting article showing images of how the world would look if human life ceased to exist. This picture shows how parts of London would rot and how flood waters would enter the city, as without power to the Thames Barrier central London would be mostly underwater. Other pictures show impressions of how Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge would decay. The pictures are based on both scientific expertise and an understanding of history to predict what would happen. Within a few weeks the planet would be plunged into darkness and within six months areas would start to be repopulated by animals including domestic pets. Within 40 to 50 years modern buildings would start to collapse and within 100 years cars would have rotted away. The more aggressive predators would become dominant with livestock being mainly wiped out. What a cheerful article.