sime42

Anyone know how big they get? Or seen one with decent diameter wood? The ones I've seen have only ever been shrubs or very small trees really. Hard to imagine being able to make anything from them.

I love em too. For the majority of the year they're completely inconspicuous, but round about now they really stand out; vivid splashes of colour when almost everything else is faded, brown or nothing but twigs. I also enjoy seeing them in the knowledge that they're indicators of ancient woodland or hedges, as has already been mentioned. I've got a small one that I cultivated from a hedgerow cutting. (So by no means ancient!). I think the flowers are small and white, but obviously not memorable. I think I read somewhere that they're called Spindle as they used to be used for making the bobbin spindles on spinning wheels, so a hard wood when sizable.

Can't be many trees either, I'd have thought.

Seems to me that there was more than a little needless provocative involved. I don't think it was as much about the subject as certain of the protagonists. There's never a need to disparage family members.

They're tasty enough but a bit of a faff and fiddle to peel enough for a mouthful. The leaves of beech are also edible. When young you can use them in a salad, rather bitter though. There's a drink called Beech Leaf Noyau as well, french I think. My dad used to make it. Gin or brandy with the leaves soaked in it then some sugar added. Tasty.

Bit of an irony given that the UK has just hosted COP26. Not a great surprise after our lame or at best lacklustre leadership of the event, Boris wasn't even there most of the time, kind of indicative of his view on the issue. I'd want to move here if I was Shell.

Increased bike use would kill at least two birds with one stone. It would go a long way to sorting the obesity epidemic for starters.

Some types of slugs are actually partial to each other, carnivorous slugs. Disgusting creatures! Though I'd happily have more of those particular ones around, to see off the veg munching buggers.

More bad news, not much of a surprise though; all that rubber wearing off has got to go somewhere. Another reason to reduce the number of cars on the road, rather than just switching them all to electric, IMO.

I do use Szechuan quite a bit. We cook a lot of stir fry type dishes so normally chuck some in those. You can buy it in a liquid form; an oil infusion. We've always used that as never had enough homegrown seeds until now. I know what you mean about the sensation, it is weird. It's all about the "Ma - La". I remember not liking it initially, but was encouraged to try again by my Mrs. I love it now. I think it's less harsh when cooked. That Agroforestry place looks to be doing some good work. We need more of that kind of thing.

I'd not heard of Heron Farm, though I'm from down that way. Just looked them up. So they're making Szechuan Gin; interesting.

I was given a very small plant, only about 6" high. My brother ordered it online somewhere. That was six or seven years ago, it's now grown into an 8 or 9 foot tree. Grows like stink! I think it first fruited 3 years ago, not many, but this year it was covered. They have large vicious thorns so picking is a bit perilous! Where did you get your seeds from?

I'm drying them out now, then I'll separate the husks from the shiny black seeds inside. It's only the husks that have the flavour apparently. I'll grind it all at once to make powder or otherwise just put them in a pepper grinder as you say. It's probably an acquired taste but very moreish once you've got it!

Good crop of Szechuan peppercorns here this year.

Good work sir! Lucky it was a schwalbe tyre.

I listened to an interesting program about this the other week, turning co² into rock. People are taking it one step further and actually using the process to make building materials, a vast improvement.on conventional concrete blocks that are very carbon intensive to manufacture. 39 Ways to Save the Planet - Better Blocks - BBC Sounds WWW.BBC.CO.UK Concrete blocks are the foundations of the modern world. But they could be greener.

Is it just for Blackbirds that meal worms need to be rehydrated? I have them in the bird feeders quite often, always dried, and they always disappear. As has been said already the blackbirds aren't at all interested in the feeders.

I think I noticed a bluetit prospecting for a nest yesterday. It was investigating an open steel pipe that forms the top of my lads garden swing.. Seemed early to me.

Good old Crow Scarers are far better anyway. Plus made in Britain, the last lot I bought.

Really? Pretty niche humour, if that was really what it was. Each to their own.

Exactly.

There seems to be a degree of ignorance, (wilful or not we'll never know), creeping into this discussion. Whilst wiping out the population of Africa and other third world countries may satisfy one person's more odious personal agendas it'll do very little to reduce global carbon emissions. Whilst third world population growth rates are obviously a big problem, they're more of a localised issue, and not the immediate global problem. That's the CO2 driven climate change; CO2 produced largely by industrial activities that feed consumption by us in the developed world. It hardly needs pointing out but there ain't much industry in Africa, aside from a few countries like Nigeria and S.A.

Yep, consumption is key I think. In the short term it's not so much about searching for the silver bullet of a completely free and clean energy source, as just consuming less energy/ fuel/raw materials in the first place. There's a long list of small things to be done, if everyone joined in it would add up to a significant saving. Lots of ideas mentioned on here already; walk to the local shop or school rather than driving, turn the CH down a bit, skip meat for a couple of meals, insulate the loft, don't but too much food and then waste some, keep your smart phone and car for at least a couple of years, etc etc. Non of these seem that much of a sacrifice. Since most "stuff" that we buy is made in China we are actually paying them to be the biggest environmental vandals. A lot of their rise to economic power is funded by us in the western world. Raw materials get pillaged and pollution gets pumped out, to make the stuff that then gets shipped around the world for us to "consume ". So if we could just stop buying all the crap, from Amazon, I think it would have a big positive impact in terms of CO2 emissions.

Ai, it's funny. Just a bit tragic that it's more or less true.

Some people have different priorities then I guess. The current global pandemic pales into insignificance in comparison to Climate Change. The numbers are sobering. Hence why it's more newsworthy. You should have a look at the COP26 discussion on here.