I took this picture the other day of Willow and Lucy in the tree, trying to look over the wall.

Tesco have been selling New Zealand lamb packaged as British Lamb. One customer brought a product labelled as British slow cooked lamb shanks only to find when she opened the packet that the small print described them as tender lamb shanks of marinated New Zealand lamb. New Zealand lamb is around half the price of British lamb, so it seems this is a cost cutting exercise by Tesco. Tesco said the meal was described as British to indicate the type of cuisine rather than the origins of the ingredients. This seems a rather poor excuse for misleading packaging.

I made these spicy buns the other day. It basically just a simple fairy cake mixture with added spice, but they really are tasty. If you want to make them you need 4 eggs, 225g/8oz of caster sugar, 225g/8oz of self raising flour, 225g/8oz of butter. All you need to do is whisk the eggs and sugar until fluffy and then blend in the flour and butter until it’s mixed. Then add a few good handfuls of raisins or sultanas and about three teaspoons of mixed spice. Divide the mixture between some muffin cases and cook on 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for about 15 minutes.

It is rumoured that Microsoft are looking at taking a stake in Facebook. According to some reports they are considering paying between $300 million and $500 million for a 5% stake in the website. The news, if true could potentially start a bidding war between Microsoft and Google. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive has already refused a takeover approach by Yahoo and has said he wants the group to stay independent. It will be interesting to watch where this goes.

The BBC Trust has given its backing to a BBC high definition channel. It is expected that the channel will include programmes from across the BBC’s current channels and not just from BBC1. They are considering launching a four hour HD service on Freeview initially before rolling out the new channel later. It will be interesting to see how popular the service proves to be.

One thing I can never seem to get enough sleep, no matter how much sleep I try to get, I always wake up tired. New research has found that a lack of sleep can double the risk of heart disease. The research showed that people who cut their sleeping patterns from seven to five hours a night showed a doubled risk of fatal cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, the same research also found that people who increased their sleep patterns to eight or more hours are also twice as likely to die but from cancer, depression and psychiatric problems, as opposed to heart disease. The question is, is it is better to get more or less sleep?

You might find the price of your Christmas dinner will be more like year after turkey farmers have announced they will need to increase their prices. The move comes because there has been a huge increase in costs recently, with the price of poultry feed going up from £181 a tonne to £240 a tonne. This increase is likely to put around 10 to 20% extra on the cost of your Christmas turkey.

A flock of sheep in Romania have been attracting attention after they turned green overnight. The sheep had been treated with a solution of limestone to help them get rid of a skin disease. Overnight the sheep had all huddled together to keep warm and by the morning they had all turned green.

A man in Carmarthenshire who got a £60 parking ticket, dropped it on the floor before driving off. He was later given an extra £75 fine for littering after the council tracked him down from his licence plate.

Wii Sports has been nominated for the 2007 British Academy Video Awards. It has been nominated for game of the year, innovation and multiplayer. Personally I love this game, I particularly like the way that it forces you to do some exercise instead of just sitting on your bottom, and the game always goes down great at parties. Wii Sports faces some stiff competition in the form of Gears of War amongst others, but it’s great to see Nintendo back in the game, so to speak.

I read this interesting article the other day about a shortage of school places in the Republic of Ireland. The problem has been caused by the fact that 90% of the schools are Catholic run and will therefore only accept children with Catholic baptismal certificates. The problem has now got so bad that a new school has been opened exclusively for children from non-Irish ethnic backgrounds in the town of Balbriggan, Co Dublin after children could not find a school place for the new term. The school consists of mainly black pupils many of whom are Nigerian and some who are Muslim. The problem of providing children with a place in a school has now been solved to some extent but many are calling the situation a mini apartheid. Personally I think faith schools do tend to lead to more segregation in the community and would prefer to see an school environment that recognises all faiths.

In the wake of the Northern Rock crisis Barclaycard has been reviewing the spending limits for many of their customers. They have also been rejecting more applications for new cards, in what could signal a crackdown on consumer credit. About half of all applications for new Barclaycards are now being rejected. Barclaycard have also seen a 17% fall in profits due to problems with bad debt. I have always thought it much too easy to get things on credit and can see how people can build up huge debts that they can't pay back. I think this seems like a wise move from Barclaycard.

The Liberal Democrats have unveiled a number of new environmental policies at their party conference. The proposals include a ban on petrol powered cars by 2040. Other proposals include so called green mortgages, boosting funding on flood defences and charging lorries to use the UK’s roads.

There are rumours that Sony is going to launch a cut price version of the Playstation 3 for the UK market. Whilst Sony has been playing down the claims as “speculation”, they have not actually denied them. If the claims are true we could see a £299 version of the console in the shops for Christmas. If it is released rumours are that it will be a cut down version of the console that is not backwards compatible. I might consider buying it at £299 but not for a cut down version.

I read this article, complete with "educational video", in which Chuck Missler a creationist successfully (or so he thinks) disproves evolution with a jar of peanut butter. His theory is based upon the idea that the jar of peanut butter contains matter and is exposed to light and heat, but we do not find new life inside the peanut butter unless it is first contaminated by something outside the jar. He says "If I open this jar of peanut butter, maybe not often but on some occasion, I should find new life inside but when we open the jar of peanut butter and look in there, there's no new life." On this assumption he believes he has proven that evolution does not happen. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions and leave your comments. I think that this guy is a few peanut butter sandwiches short of a picnic.

Its time for another cute picture. This is Ollie resting on top of the shed.

A wallaby has been spotted in a garden in St Breward in Cornwall. It is thought it might have escaped from a nearby farm. St Endellion Farm six miles away lost one last week after it escaped, they are now trying to track the fugitive down. Wallabies are good at escaping and it is thought there are currently two breeding colonies living wild in the UK.