I don't know about LED light bulbs, but I can't stand LED torches. They give out a blue light which has no power of penetration. I don't know whether they have changed the colour for domestic light bulbs, but I wouldn't like to be lit by a dim blue light! The dim yellow of halogen is bad enough! Bri...

Hi Barbo. What a beautiful poem! It has me in tears. I have two friends in cat protection, adopting and working, and from one I heard that they re-home kittens before they are neutered. I hit the roof. I really don't think most people are responsible enough to be left to see to it themselves. They d...

I loved your story about the old lady. Unfortunately the same thing is happening to me. I am getting past the age of gardening with a saw and long handled clippers, and my lawn mower has seen better days, as has the house. I am currently on the market, but I am wondering whether it will be sold befo...

It's Lovely Meanqueen!. And what a clever way to frame it. I could look at it for ages. Beautiful!

Pheasants are difficult to bring up, especially if they are on their own. He needs warmth of course, an incubator if you have one, or a well padded hot waterbottle changed every five hours and chick crumb is OK as food. Also finely chopped grass. But getting them to feed is very difficult. You have ...

I saw a program on the TV just a few days ago, where someone used a hormone to move a swarm from A to B This would be easy to waft into your pipe and bring them all out to be moved elsewhere.

I bought a pair of shears the other day, and after about half an hour the handle fell off. But don't get me on about useless tools! Almost any power tool except a lawn mower is unnecessary in a garden and most of them take longer than the appropriate hand tool. But for the most useless and antisocia...

Hi All, I thought I would come in on this topic. I have an ancient orchard which was grafted ages ago, with loads of old varieties. Most of the trees are now dead or dying, and I wondered if anyone would be interested in seeing if they can resurrect some of these old varieties, to graft onto their t...

Hi Mabel. What ducks? Well it depends what you want them for. If its eggs khaki Campbells are the best. Aylesbury are a lot larger and they are primarily a meat bird. If you are not that particular about an egg a day, I would suggest runners. They are beautiful birds and still lay well. Alternativel...

Hi all. I had better re-introduce myself. I live 'down the lane' about 9miles down it, and down my own smaller lane. My ambition was to have a smallholding, but being on my own I found the idea of keeping mammals a bit too daunting, so stuck to poultry. This page will mainly be of reminiscences of a...

Yes, so sorry. Yes, losing any pet is awful. We try to do everything we can for them but death will always find a way. I now have scores of photos of happy little banties, now deceased. Gillian

Can't add to the thread as much has been said. Very valid points made. Richard hear hear. The good cuts of meat are a very small percentage of the animal. If everyone eats just the good cuts, a lot of the animal will be thrown away, or alternatively we all keep twenty cats and ten dogs. I wonder wh...

One thing that doesn't seem to have been mentioned, apologies if I overlooked it, is the danger of salt to our verges. In the winter the council 'grits' the roads. This is a misleading term. It is not grit that is strewn everywhere, but rock salt. As gardeners we all know what salt does to plants, a...

Hi Dee. That is a lovely looking cat, and you must have done a lot of good work keeping him groomed. Very good keeping a long haired cat to that age! Isn't it sad that they don't live as long as we do?

Hi All. This year should have been a wonderful year for insects, being so warm. I expected in late August to find hundreds of grasshoppers hopping round my feet. I remember in late summer as a child, you couldn't walk through grass without putting up two or three grasshoppers at every stride. It was...