GreyShuck
From the article:
Bob Comlay, who runs the Havant Matters website, which details community concerns, and who is also vice-chair of the Solent Protection Society, said construction work to build the plant on the former landfill site risked contaminating groundwater which would flow into the Solent. There are also concerns about the environmental impact on the marine ecology of rejected contaminated water discharged into the sea.
He said a Thames Water desalination plant which used the same technology had been mostly inactive since it was opened. “This is a vanity project,” he said. “It will be a white elephant.”
Way back in the day it used to be Cinema City in Norwich: the only art-house one in the city and where I ‘learnt’ cinema. It was great.
These days, I live between three small town cinemas in Suffolk, and they are all good in their own ways.
The Riverside in Woodbridge often has a talk about the film or maybe even an interview with the director or one of the cast etc on stage afterwards. Aldeburgh Cinema is run by a charity, shows a good few NT live events and local films and also has a documentary fest each year, and Leiston Film Theatre is, as they say on their site, the oldest purpose built cinema in the county (110 years now), and had the advantage for a while of being about 150m from our back gate. It is the most commercial of three in terms of programme, but still has some interesting stuff.
He has been involved to the extent of commenting on the “shortage of dwarves”, but otherwise seemed fairly supportive IIRC.
I am torn. One the one hand I automatically expect it not to be a patch on the original, but on the other, there are several people involved who I enjoy, and I must say that the trailer does seem to have hit the right notes.
I am definitely going to give it a try.
It was one of the first conservation tasks that I ever did - also in Norfolk, as it happens.
There is a knack to it and there certainly are safety considerations - especially around sharpening them - but you really have to be doing something profoundly wrong to get anywhere near your own ankles.
It is very satisfying once you get the hang of it though.
The tories have been incumbent for 116 years in my neck of the woods (the previous one was a whig). The surveys say that is likely to end this time. I am sooo looking forward to that.
An interesting point, but I don’t think that is as clear cut as you suggest.
The article mentions swift boxes, for example. Swifts, of course, return to the same nests each year anyway. There is a specific parasitic louse that is present in most swift nests, as I understand - but they appear to tolerate the parasitic load regardless.
Bats, on the other hand, reduce parasite buildup by moving from one roost to another across the year - but they will reuse the same roosts and hibernaculae in subsequent years.
I’m not sure exactly what they mean by insect bricks either, but assuming that it something like bee hotels, well, I am not very familiar with these overall, but having watched the red mason bees on the south side of my home for the last couple of years, they certainly seem to be using the same holes more than once.
The critical thing, overall, will be whether they use designs that have been developed by organisations who have done their research - of which are many available, that they have trying to get the building industry to use for a good while now - rather than simply greenwashing gimmicks.
They are extraordinary aren’t they? Really lucky to have them in your garden.
I’d say they probably were adders if you caught them basking on the path. In general grass snakes are more common, but they typically get out of the way at the slightest disturbance, so all you usually see of them is their tails vanishing in to the undergrowth. Adders aren’t as quick off the mark, so are more often seen on paths. They prefer heathland and more open, sunny spots, where grass snakes go for longer grassy areas and often are near water.
That is assuming that it was actually a snake. Slow worms are often mistaken for snakes and will also spend time basking on tracks. They are usually much lighter in colour and have a smooth pale, metallic bronze look.
Adders are more obviously scaled and are a deeper grey or brown colour with a very distinctive dark zigzag pattern on their backs.
They almost certainly won’t have been smooth snakes or anything else though.
Hmm - that’s Yahoo for you. I try to avoid it as mush as possible. I couldn’t find the same piece elsewhere at the time, but a month on this looks like the same article..