World Ocean Day at Nausicaa Boulogne

The three mast Belem, once owned by the Duke of Westminster, celebrates World Ocean Day at Nausicaa, Boulogne from 6 to 8 June 2010

A REAL CELEBRATION OF THE SEA will take place leading up to World Ocean Day (08 June 2010) that aims to stimulate public interest in the marine environment. The organiser, the World Ocean Network, of which NAUSICAA is a founding member, has organised a full program of activities, entertainment and workshops from 5 to 8 June. This year World Ocean Days’ theme is « Biodiversity » and in particular how to handle the benefits that the Ocean provides to Man.

The BELEM in Boulogne

Launched in 1896 the three mast BELEM is the last of the big French commercial sailing ships still in commission. Today she is used as a sail training school. At NAUSICAA’s invitation and on the occasion of World Ocean Day, she will be in the port of BOULOGNE-SUR-MER from 13.00 Sunday 6 June. Public tours are available on Sunday 6 June from 14.30 to 17.30 and on 7 and 8 June from 16.00 to 17.30. Tickets are 4 € per adult over 14 years old (all children under 14yrs are free). For further information and to purchase tickets contact the Boulogne Tourist Office: +33 321 10 88 10 info@tourisme-boulognesurmer.com, www.tourisme-boulognesurmer.com.

Sail on the BELEM

On Wednesday 9 June, the BELEM sails from Boulogne for Cherbourg with 48 students onboard. During this 3 day course students will learn, discuss and participate in life on board a three mast barque. A discussion is planned with maritime specialist, François SARANO, who amongst other things worked with Cousteau on the Calypso and who more recently participated in the filming of the “Oceans” film. For further information and to sign up for the 3 day course contact the BELEM Foundation on www.fondationbelem.com.

the BELEM was originally a cargo ship, transporting sugar from the West Indies, cocoa, and coffee from Brazil and French Guiana to Nantes, France . By chance she escaped the eruption of the Mount Pelée in Saint-Pierre de la Martinique on 8 May 1902. All Saint Pierre roads were full of vessels, no place to anchor the ship. Captain Julien Chauvelon angrily decided to anchor some miles further on in a beach - sheltered from the exploding volcano.

She was sold in 1914 to Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, who converted her to his private luxurious pleasure yacht, complete with two auxiliary Bolinder Diesel engines 300 HP each.

In 1922 she became the property of the beer baron Sir Arthur Ernest Guinness, who renamed her the Fantôme II (French spelling) and revised the rig from a square rigger.

Hon. A.E. Guinness was Rear Commodore of the Royal St. George Yacht Club, in Kingstown , Ireland from 1921-1939. He was Vice Commodore from 1940- 1948.

Hon. A.E. Guinness took the Fântome II on a great cruise in 1923 with his daughters Aileen, Maureen, and Oonagh. They sailed the seven seas in making a travel round the world via the Panama and Suez Canals including a visit to Spitsbergen. During her approach to Yokohama harbour while sailing the Pacific Ocean the barque managed to escape another catastrophe - an earthquake which destroyed the habour and parts of Yokohama city. Hon. Arthur E. Guinness died in 1949. The 'Fantome' was moored in the roads of Cowes, Isle of Wight.

Finally, in January 1979, after a long sojourn, she came back to her home port as the “Belem” under tow by a French sea-going tug, flying the French flag after 65 years.

Once she was fully restored to her original condition, she began a new career as a sail training ship.

'Belem' is an abbreviation of the town Bethlehem.

UK waste can supply half renewables energy target by 2020

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

A study finds UK energy-from-waste can contribute up to 50 percent of the UK renewable energy target by 2020

An award-winning study concludes that energy-from-waste (EfW) technologies can contribute up to 50 percent of the UK renewable energy target by 2020. It states that this will depend on the pace of investment and availability of suitable feedstock. The study won the first Geotech Bursary / CIWM Award.

Biomethane Benefit

This research study by Cranfield graduate, Kofi Apea Adu-Gyamfi, considers the development of energy from waste (EfW) technologies and their potential contribution to the UK ’s renewable energy targets. The study identifies the use of biomethane as road transport fuel and small-scale EfW deployment at community level as applications with huge potential benefits for the UK . These two options are easily implementable and could provide substantial savings in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. His study concludes that, depending on the pace of investment and availability of suitable feedstock, EfW technologies can contribute up to 50 percent of UK renewables target by 2020. The full paper can be downloaded from http://www.geotech.co.uk

Landfill Limit

The study notes the UK ’s traditional use of landfill as the main method of waste disposal and management. However, landfilling is unsustainable due to its harmful effects on the environment and public health. Under the European Union (EU) Landfill Directive, member nations are now required to divert biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) from landfills.

The UK has also committed to the EU Renewable Energy Directive, which binds it to sourcing at least 15 percent of its energy mix from renewables by 2020. To meet these targets, the UK has to support alternative waste management options whilst achieving considerable deployment of renewables.

Winning Ways

The paper was completed by Kofi Apea Adu-Gyamfi while at Cranfield having had his proposal for a paper selected as the first winner of the Geotech Bursary / CIWM Award. Sponsored by Geotech and run as part of the CIWM’s Professional Awards programme, the paper was presented at a recent CIWM awards ceremony. The next CIWM Professional Awards ceremony is on 20th October 2010 at Lord’s Cricket Ground. There, the second winning paper on 'The Future Roles of Landfill Gas and Biogas' to win the Geotech Bursary will be presented. The Geotech Bursary / CIWM Award is open to all, internationally.

Geotech is the market-leading manufacturer and supplier of portable landfill gas and biogas analysers. For all its landfill, biogas and waste-to-energy gas analysers Geotech's calibration lab received UKAS ISO17025 Accreditation in April 2010.

Widely used is the GA2000 portable landfill gas analyser. Worldwide Geotech gas analysers are rapidly becoming even more important with growing focus on energy-from-waste (EfW).

For continuous and fixed gas analysis, Geotech’s Automated Extraction Monitoring System (AEMS) equipment can be installed by Geotech field engineers worldwide. Fully automated, AEMS controls and protects CHP engines, verifies CDM, aids environmental compliance (e.g., PPC), helps optimise methane (CH4) output and quality in EfW.

For anaerobic digestion biogas the Geotech Biogas Check is popular for its accuracy, reliability and robustness within a package which suits user budgets. Central to Geotech analysers is 'Geotech-design' which gives continuous development of gas monitoring products. These include the portable landfill gas and biogas analysers and the G100 analyser for CO2 incubators and food production, the G150 CO2 analyser for indoor air quality (IAQ), the G200 for background N2O exposure and the G210 for checking piped medical gas.

The Geotech Diveair for marine breathing air and the Geotech Hyperbaric CO2 analyser are used in life-critical applications. Supporting our excellent reputation in landfill gas analysis, Geotech also offers ATEX certified leachate and condensate pumps. This highly dependable range of top quality pneumatic submersible pumps has been in use throughout UK landfills and around the world for nearly twenty years.

Additional liquid-level monitoring and groundwater sampling instruments illustrate the extent of the Geotech product range. Geotech products are supported with its fast calibration and service turnaround and all necessary consumables, spares, technical help and training as required. More: http://www.geotech.co.uk

The stupid thing is that Britain, and other countries, have for decades been flaring off the gas from the landfills and sewage works which could have been powering much of the country by now.

Where the hell have we been that long?

Sorry, folks, that was a rhetorical question. The answer is simple as well as simply annoying, amazing and stupid.

We have been – and still are – in the clutches of the fossil fuel industry. It is as simple as that and until such a time that we get them out of our hair we are getting nowhere.

This is equally true as to electric cars as it is to the use – the proper use – of renewable fuels, including and especially methane gas, that is to say landfill and sewage gas.

This is even more amazing considering that the first ever power stations were not designed to be fuelled by coal or oil but but sewage gas and the same is true for the first motorcars by Henry Ford.

The power and lobby of the fossil fuel industry, however, screwed us and the Planet and is is now nearly too late to change that but change it we must and we must keep those out that cause us the problems in the first place.

There is and can be no place for the oil and coal industry at this table, and bio-diesel is not up for discussion. We cannot hope for the problems to be solved by those that caused them.

© 2010

U.S. Wind energy potential is three times higher than previously estimated

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently released new estimates of the United States’ wind energy potential, which tripled previous estimates of the size of the nation's wind resources. The new study, which was carried out by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and AWS Truewind, finds that the contiguous 48 states have the potential to generate up to 37 million gigawatt hours annually. To put that in perspective, total U.S. electricity generation from all sources was roughly 4 million gigawatt hours in 2009. The estimates show the total energy yield that could be generated using current wind turbine technology on the nation's windy lands. (The estimates show what is possible, not what will actually be developed.)

Along with the state-by-state estimates of wind energy potential, NREL and AWS Truewind have developed wind resource maps for the United States and for the contiguous 48 states that show the predicted average wind speeds at an 80-meter height. The wind resource maps and estimates provide local, state, and national policymakers with accurate information about the nature of the wind resource in their areas and across the nation, helping them to make informed decisions about wind energy in their communities.

Why Has Wind Energy Potential Gone Up?

The new estimates reflect substantial advances in wind turbine technology that have occurred since the Department of Energy's last national wind resource assessments were conducted in 1993. For example, previous wind resource maps showed predicted average wind speeds at a height of 50 meters, which was the height of most wind turbine towers at the time. The new maps show predicted average wind speeds at an 80-meter height, the height of today's turbines. Because wind speed generally increases with height, turbines built on taller towers can capture more energy and generate more electricity. The new estimates also incorporate updated capacity factors, reflecting improvements in wind turbine design and performance.

While it is good that the potential has gone up here and there everyone in the industry is looking at running wind energy the wrong way round. We have with renewable energy and us having to go that route the potential to complete rescale our electricity network and scale down voltage and change to direct current from the present alternate current. As AC cannot be stored in batteries, something that is required with renewables as neither sun nor wind will be active all the time, DC is a prerequisite for renewable energy to work properly.

Small turbines can do this for the householder quite nicely and can put a home either off-grid or make it, via inverter, a feed-in producer.

But this all requires complete rethinking of our electricity net in the home and elsewhere but it would also make electricity so much safer to use, as electrocution with 12V DC is not very easy, especially not in the way of serious injuries and fatalities.

Maybe the big guys get the idea one day ...

© 2010

Places of Change wins silver for 500 homeless and disadvantaged gardeners at Chelsea

500+ homeless & vulnerable people celebrated today as the Places of change garden was awarded a silver medal at the Chelsea Flower Show 2010

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Homelessness agencies, their service users and prisoners around the country had cause to celebrate on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 when the “Places of Change Show Garden” won a silver medal at the Chelsea Flower Show. The Garden is the largest ever in the history of the event.

The “Places of Change garden” part of an ambitious collaboration between national regeneration agency the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), Communities and Local Government (CLG), the Eden Project, the national membership charity Homeless Link, and the London Employer Accord. It builds on the success of the silver medal award-winning Key Garden at the 2009 Chelsea Flower Show, which required the manpower of over 200 homeless service users.

At almost 600 square meters and almost three times the size of the Key, and containing around 12,000 plants, a journey through the Places of Change garden reveals exclusion, choices, opportunity, hope, achievement, enterprise and change - and its powerful and challenging themes have proved a winner with the Royal Horticultural Society judges.

The Garden has been created by around 500 volunteers from over 40 homeless agencies from all corners of the country, including Deptford Reach in London, the Salvation Army in Plymouth, St George’s Crypt in Leeds and Stonham Women’s Services in Hull. People from eight prisons also joined in with the growing and planting. Overseen by the Eden Project’s award-winning designer Paul Stone, participants have been involved at every stage; from design, planting, gardening, construction, and carpentry during the site development, to on-site hospitality and multi-media facilities during the week of the Show. In doing so, they have gained new skills, new confidence, and discovered new talents.

Rob, a volunteer and service user at Watford New Hope Trust, who helped grow the vegetables in the food zone of the garden said today: "It’s been a privilege to be here and part of such a major event. It’s been a pleasure to focus on growing, which has been a great release from the pressures of daily life, and, most of all, hugely therapeutic."

Richard Cunningham, Manager of the HCA's £80m Places of Change capital program, which funded the project, said: "We are delighted with the success of the Places of Change Garden, which has helped provide new opportunity, skills, and hope for some society’s most disadvantaged people. But more importantly, this garden is just one part of a major step change we’re helping bring about in the way homeless services are delivered, through the Places of Change programme and the Government’s wider rough sleeping strategy, in demonstrating that homeless service delivery is about more than just providing a bed and a roof, it’s about helping people develop the necessary self-confidence and skills to make real change and move on with their lives. The Garden is a powerful metaphor for this.”

It is also hoped that by experiencing this garden, and seeing Places of Change in action, some of the stereotypes often associated with society’s most disadvantaged people can be broken down.

Howard Jones, the Eden Project’s Director of Human Networks, said: “Throughout the whole process of running this project and working with the extraordinary collection of people who have made this possible, it has been clear to me that any prize belongs to everyone - and to each one it would mean different things. Triumph, recognition, humility are all in there, but most of all, I suspect the feeling is of gratitude that we have been listened to, understood and supported. This is a big message and it is a big achievement - we are very grateful to have had the chance."

Jenny Edwards, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, said: “The Garden is a bold statement: just see the potential and creativity of homeless people when they are given a chance. The ideas, hard work and team spirit of the people taking part is breath-taking. It’s been a feat to bring everyone together. The love people show for their gardening and the natural world has made this a triumph.”

The overall theme of the garden is craft and enterprise, and the importance of teamwork, which is reflected in a number of specially designated zones such as crops and food; forestry and leisure; medicine and health – which features a “green man” made of hundreds of healing plants grown in the precise bodily regions to which they bring benefit, to symbolist nurture and well-being; industry and manufacture; and conservation and the environment. All of these act as a metaphor for new skills and the journey embarked on by the individual to get there.

A trade stand adjacent to the garden is providing an opportunity to showcase some of the other skills being developed around the country as well as products from social enterprises employing homeless and formerly homeless people. This is a real demonstration of how services are really working to help people develop the skills necessary to bring about lasting changes in their lives.

The London Employer Accord are organizing a series of employer events throughout Show Week whereby businesses from a range of sectors will be able to gain an understanding of the range of marketable skills that the homeless volunteers possess, with the ultimate aim over the coming months to provide them with opportunities such as apprenticeships, training, work placements and eventually sustained employment.

Neville Cavendish, Director of the London Employer Accord, said:“We are going to use the London Employer Accord network to showcase everyone’s skills and, working with the London Development Agency, Jobcentre Plus, Business Action on Homelessness and a range of training providers, aim to move as many of the volunteers as possible into paid employment over the coming months. I have already met some of the volunteers who are working on the garden and they are very keen to talk to the employers and discuss their aims and goals for developing their skills and getting a job.”

As I have said before in my coverage of the 2010 Chelsea Flower Show, the “Places of Change garden” with its themes that so much reflect the way we have to come to reconnect with Nature and some of the skills and knowledge that we must come to use again, was the garden that really spoke to me.

As far as I am concerned a gold medal would have been in order simply for ingenuity and simplicity, as well as the layout in general. However, it would appear that the judges seem to always favor the learned landscape architects and designers rather than the little guys and girls.

www.placesofchangegarden.org.uk

© 2010

Stop needlessly sending waste to landfill

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Hilary Benn, the former Environment Secretary, has, on March 18, 2010, set out plans to sort more waste, save resources and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Too many everyday waste materials such as metal cans, wood, paper, and food end up in landfill when there is a market for them and an environmental argument for re-using and recycling them.

The Environment Secretary visited Bywaters Materials Recovery facility in Bow where a mixture of co-mingled and separate material is processed. At Bywaters he set out the economic benefits of reducing waste to landfill.

During this launch of plans the minister said: “This consultation shows that we are serious about tackling the huge mountain of waste that needlessly ends up in landfill. So much of what we throw away has an economic value or can be re-used, but instead we are burying it.”

“We must take action to reduce the constant demand for new materials when we can recover materials from used products – this costs less money and saves the earth’s precious resources at the same time.

“Waste comes from both businesses and households. I want to make it easier for us all to do the right thing and I am making it very clear today that any obligation to sort waste would fall primarily on the waste collection authority and on businesses, and not the individual householder.”

The joint Defra and Welsh Assembly Government publication ‘Consultation on the Introduction of Restrictions on the Landfilling of Certain Wastes’ considers the case for restricting sending the following types of waste to landfill: paper and card; food; textiles; metals; wood; garden waste; glass; plastics; and electrical and electronic equipment.

We want to make the most of the materials and waste flowing through our economy at every step of the way. By thinking much more carefully about what we do with our waste instead of sending it directly to landfill we can expect to see:

• New markets for recycled products and recovered materials – a tonne of aluminium cans is currently worth £819-850 and 100,000 tonnes of aluminium packaging are currently landfilled each year;

• New jobs as the waste sector gets bigger over time - ‘Less is More’, released earlier this week reminds businesses that there are opportunities for new markets in recovered materials, ranging from mixed plastics to food waste and coloured glass.

• Householders, businesses and councils saving money, by providing an incentive to prevent waste from arising in the first place.

• Making an aluminium can from scratch uses nearly 20 times more energy than making it from a recycled can;

• A reduction in food waste; and

• More energy generated from waste – the Government intends to produce a new Energy from Waste policy towards the end of 2010.

We must consider how best to get good quality materials out of the waste stream into a form that industry can use to make new products – that’s why we are consulting on the need to go further with local authorities and businesses in sorting local waste and on the principle of restricting materials from landfill.

Britain’s reliance on landfill is already reducing with people reusing and recycling more, and Local Authorities providing more services to allow this to happen. Having the right incentives and regulations will help businesses and LAs to make the most of waste in a way that makes economic sense.

The consultation seeks views on different options to restrict these wastes sent to landfill including: doing nothing and relying on current measures such as landfill tax to continue to reduce the amount we landfill; introducing bans on landfilling on their own or accompanied by a requirement for waste to be sorted; introducing a sorting or tougher pre-treatment requirement without a landfill ban; and introducing producer responsibility requirements for certain wastes.

Also launched were:

• A consultation on how the UK meets the EU Landfill Directive targets to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill. In future the targets will extend beyond waste managed by local authorities to include more commercial waste managed by the private sector, but this will not mean local authority landfill allowances or their obligations to collect waste will change.

• A Strategy for Hazardous Waste Management in England, which will help drive hazardous waste away from landfill, and promote prevention, recycling and recovery. It should also help the provision of infrastructure for the management of this waste by providing clarity on the principles that should apply.

Apparently landfill bans of biodegradable or recyclable wastes have successfully worked in many other European countries including Germany and Austria. In most cases a ban has been implemented alongside other measures such as landfill tax and other requirements such as mandatory sorting or treatment of waste.

Landfill bans in other countries were implemented over a 2-12 year period.

Research into how a landfill ban might work in practice in the UK is also published today. The research was carried out by Eunomia and looked at the practicalities of implementing landfill bans in the UK. The research can be viewed at www.wrap.org.uk/landfillbans

It is amazing, as per usual, how this government, and particularly in the environmental realm, as well as that of education, chooses to make use of, for instance, German examples when it suits them, as in this instance.

On other occasions when equally well working schemes from Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc., are pointed out to them, such as the reverse vending machines for bottles and drinks cans, or other aspects, the answer is that it would not work in the UK.

If this can work other schemes can be made to work as well. Let's have some political will to, for instance, reward people for recycling and sorting recyclables and bringing them in, for instance, as it is done in the USA and other countries.

We also do not have to have a lengthy study to see whether it works, giving some academic think tank or such lots of money and a reason to exist. All we need is have a look at the way things are done in the places where they work and then adapt those schemes for our own use. It is not rocket science and there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Maybe the new government will understand that.

© 2010

Report confirms North Sea as ‘Saudi Arabia of wind’

• RenewableUK welcomes groundbreaking valuation of UK’s offshore renewable resource

• Study shows long term potential of offshore resource matches North Sea oil and gas production

• ‘Just as 30 years ago, North Sea could be our ticket for economic growth’

RenewableUK, the country’s leading renewable energy trade association, has welcomed today’s publication of The Offshore Valuation, a groundbreaking report comparing North Sea offshore energy potential with the region’s oil and gas production.

Published by The Offshore Valuation Group, a coalition of government and industry organisations, the report suggests that using less than a third of the total available offshore resource could:

• generate the electricity equivalent of 1 billion barrels of oil annually, matching North Sea oil and gas production

• create 145,000 new jobs in this country and provide the Treasury with £28 billion in tax receipts

• enable Britain to become a net exporter of electricity by 2050

• reduce carbon emissions relative to 1990 levels by 30%

Commenting on the announcement, Peter Madigan, Head of Offshore Renewables at RenewableUK, said: “This is a hugely exciting piece of research which sets out compelling factual evidence of the huge potential of the UK’s offshore renewable energy resource. As an association we have long been saying that the North Sea will become the Saudi Arabia of wind energy, and today’s tonne of oil and employment comparisons amply bear this out. Just as 30 years ago, the North Sea could be our ticket for economic growth. We are looking forward to the new Government putting in place the policy framework to make this happen”.

Source: RenewableUK

“Places Of Change garden” at Chelsea Flower Show 2010

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

As I have already said in my visit report of the Chelsea Flower Show 2010 the “Places Of Change garden” was, in all honesty, the only show garden that really and truly spoke to me but then this is hardly surprising as recycling and reuse, and the woodland worker theme also, are all part of me and my background.

The great news is that the “Places Of Change garden” has been awarded a Silver Medal though I must say that, in my opinion, it should have had a gold one.

The garden had a number of themes, one of which was growing your own food, which incorporated raised beds, a greenhouse made from plastic drinks bottles in a wooden frame – a great idea and easy to recreate in any setting.

Another theme was that of a bodger's camp, complete with an open-sided log shelter with a turf roof, with two shaving horses, tent pegs, and other wares and tools.

The garden attached was full of what would be called weeds today but which all were ones used as flowers in cottage gardens and for food, such as Common Sorrel or Garden Sorrel (Rumex acetosa), often simply called sorrel and also known as Spinach Dock or Narrow-leaved Dock.

We have come so far from our roots – pardon the pun – that it is frightening at times and we must, and I am serious, return to those and reclaim the knowledge of wild edibles as much as of healing and cooking herbs that grow in the wild.

Without that knowledge we may be in deep you-know-what as and when the oil finally runs out and we need to look for food and healing once again much closer to home in the realms of Nature.

The same is also true to the crafts represented in the bodger's camp garden for which “Scruffy” was responsible, and I must say that a handmade clothespin work much better and last so much longer than one of those machine made ones with the spring, regardless as to whether they are made of wood or plastic.

The “Places Of Change garden” was a real tonic and I sure hope that many people will be taking inspiration home from that garden in particular.

My congratulations to all of those that made that garden com to fruition and “well done”, and that not only because of the silver medal. The “Places Of Change garden” simply is a great idea of many things, and all of them ideas that can be replicated in one's own garden and on one's own allotment.

© 2010

Do people really have to be told?

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Do people really have to be told that they can reuse a biscuit tin and how? It would appear so.

In the photo below you will see that this definitely has to be thus nowadays and the makers now add the information to the container.

This one is not a tin tin in that it is not made of metal but of plastic but the rule applies in the same way. Help!

Where have all those people been? Our parents and grandparents made great use of such containers already decades and more ago. Now, it would appear, people have to relearn how to do things like that. What ever happened to “common sense?”

When I was a kid everyone's grandfather reused glass jars and all manner of tins to keep this and that in them, while the grandmothers too reused glass jars and other containers for sewing bits and pieces.

Today, it would appear, people have no idea whatsoever that this can be done and is the first recycling step before consigning the jar, the tin, or what-have-you, to the recycling bin.

So now, in order for people to understand this, manufacturers seem to think is necessary to print on confectionery tins, whether plastic or tin, that the container can be reused and even how.

Am I mad or is it the rest of the world?

Quality Street tins now have, printed on the bottom of the tins, instructions of how to recycle the tin, including reuse as a storage container.

How far away from common sense have we actually come? Somewhere along the way the world really seems to have lost the plot and all that goes with it.

In years gone by it was common for anything like this to be reused, including ordinary tin cans, for a legion of things. No one in their right mind would have thought of disposing of a biscuit tin or such like in the same way as no one would have thought – bar the real rich – of going to buy a pencil bin when a tin can will do the same job for nothing.

The consumer society, however, seems to have “educated” this out of the great majority of people today and it is very sad to see that they have to have basic instructions nowadays of how to reuse something.

We must really have taken a wrong turning somewhere along the road and I guess it is the Sat Nav's fault.

I personally find it incomprehensible that the world has gone into such a strange direction that all we can think of is to go and spend money and that even the governments keep telling us that, in order to keep the economy healthy, we have to go and spend some more.

Thrift was once upon a time common and, rather than frowned upon, something that was being encouraged by everyone, including the governments but now the thrifty person is labeled in the same category as terrorist as they do not “support” the economy.

In the other hand we now have instructions as to and of how to reuse confectionery tins and such like, given by the manufacturers even.

While it is a good thing for people to be encouraged to reuse in this way it is just so sad that people have to be told rather than have the sense to know as to what to do with something like that.

© 2010

Chelsea Flower Show 2010 – Visit Report

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

This was my first ever visit to the Chelsea Flower Show, held annually in the ground of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the home of the Chelsea Pensioners.

My visit coincided, purposely, with the Press Day for the event as there is no way that I would want to traipse through that show with the general public there as the attendance is normally high and this year all tickets were sold out already before the Press Day.

When looking at the even through my eyes, that of someone more interested in the green and GYO level the only show garden that really spoke to me was the “Places Of Change garden”.

The most interesting features in the “Places Of Change garden” are and were the allotment setting, the woodworker shelter and the herbal section.

The First is rather obvious as the interest is in “Grow Your Own” (GYO) with the greenhouse made with plastic water/soda bottles. Real effective and a great recycling project. I can envisage one of them – at least one of them – in my garden.

The interest in the second is for the very fact that, sooner or later, we will have to return to such crafts and skills that are represented there for many of our things. In addition to that the cottage garden with wild flowers and wild edibles, so often regarded as “weeds” (but what is a weed but a plant in the wrong place), that benefit us and wildlife, that went with the woodland shelter.

The edible and medicinal herb section also is a valid pointer to things we need to reconsider.

Also cute and interesting was the use of the old white goods and such as a planting wall, and for garden sculptures.

Bio-diversity was the great theme and this was good to see, and represented in many of the expensive show gardens which, let's face it, no one really could ever recreate at home, for reasons of lack of finance for starters.

On the other hand, the “Places Of Change garden” can be used as inspiration for may a garden and allotment and I hope it will. Recreating something like that at least will not require a number of mortgages.

While many of the high-bracket show gardens had great bio-diversity features included and can serve – also – as inspiration for planting with Nature in mind, the “Places Of Change garden” had it “all under one roof”, so to speak, though it may not do much for those that want a great organized garden with manicured this and that.

The 2010 Chelsea Flower Show was also used as a launching pad for a number of new products, amongst which is the wool compost by Dalefoot from the Lake District and some by Fiskars, such as the PowerLite range of hand tools and the PowerGear cutting tools.

Obviously, Dalefoot and Fiskars were not the only ones presenting new products and ranges and they shall thus stand only as an example here.

New plants also were shown amongst which were some of the most beautiful Clematises that I have seen.

Chelsea is well worth a visit. However, if you have not got a ticket for this year's show then, alas, there is no way that you stand a chance of visiting, as all tickets are sold out. Next year then. Or hurry and get tickets for Hampton Court Flower Show.

© 2010

McDonald's promotes British food at 2010 Olympics

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

McDonald's has launched a campaign to promote its use of British produce and British farmers in the lead up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

From within the hive of construction activity at what will be the Olympic Village in East London, McDonald's chief executive Steven Easterbrook, said the company was eager to demonstrate its commitment to British farmers.

"We will showcase the British farms and farmers to raise awareness among our customers, our staff and the public about what British farming has to offer," Mr Easterbrook said.

"The standards at these farms are so exemplary. We will showcase the quality and welfare standards, promoting the best to ensure that legacy of a healthy farming sector."

At the moment five farms are scheduled to open to the public in 2010 as part of the Open Farms program. However, McDonald's chief executive Steven Easterbrook said that the numbers of people visiting farms will be limited.

"We're really only looking at tens of people purely for the health and safety reasons and to get closer access to the farmer," he said.

"This isn't about scale it's about opening the access to school children and members of the public... there'll be a range of people on those visits."

The Open Farms scheme is part of a wider program that will include a TV campaign promoting McDonald's use of British produce as well as the company sponsoring agricultural awards.

London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games chief and former Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe said the campaign would leave a lasting impression for farmers. "Open Farms will be a legacy for the farming sector through 2012 and beyond," Lord Coe said, and he certainly would know, NOT.

McD are the greatest sponsor for the games and that is why everything is done to keep them sweet. That stuff is not even food that is being served there.

"While the games are principally based in London, we want to spread the benefits of the games from east to west, urban to rural," he added.

One in five of the estimated 14 million meals that will be consumed during the Olympic Games in London in 2012 will be sold by McDonald's.

Is this not a little like putting the fox in charge of the hen house? McDonald's stuff is responsible, to a great deal, for British children, and not just British children getting more and more obese with the health hazards associated with this.

Instead of even allowing McD to sponsor the games that company should be kept away from everywhere, including our High Streets.

© 2010