John Barleycorn

Dont know about the timber, but large sections of Mulberry branches can be planted in the ground & they take root. Saves waiting years for seeds to grow to a decent size tree. But it sounds like you may have burnt the branches.

Read the ad closely, it only has a 45mm bar, thats under 2 inches!

Postcrete, but use a grafting spade & posthole digger so that the hole is not too wide. Chuck in as much hardcore as possible in with the postcrete.

I looked into this as well. You need at least a 3metre high pile of woodchip with pipes running through. In fact you need 2 heaps, because as the first starts to cool, you need the second to start heating up.

Get a felling licence first !

Yes, but only the front rows & then chuck the rest behind.

1. Problems, Disliked where the aphids drip sap onto cars, patios etc, invasive. 2. Biodiversity, Dormice feed an their aphids, I suspect something eats their seeds 3. Outcompeting, Yes they will because they are fast growing, producing large numbers of seed, not fussy about environment & existing woodland species have not been exposed to this competion before. Also probably fewer species feed on them as they are recent. A pioneer species of railway & former industrial land. A useful replacement for Ash. 4. Status. Need to look at the bigger picture both historicaly & geographicaly, Not just some snapshot in time from some naturalist a couple of hundred years ago. The only constant is change. In Britain we have a limited number of species due to the ice ages & isolation by post glaciation rising sea levels. On the continent the Sycamore Maple had previously been confined to southern Europe, but has now naturally moved north to a lattitude level with Britain. Who is to say that it should now not be considered native. 5. Population, Probably 10% 6. Opinion, I think that the bulk of the British population have no idea that it was not previously considered native. A good firewood. Need to dry it fast as the high sugar content sap can cause black mould on the bark.

My brother spent a fortune on some private surgery to his nasal passages. A COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY

I would suggest that if you want to talk about "progress", then you read the book "A Short History of Progress" by Ronald Wright After that I would suggest "Guns, Germs & Steel" by Jared Diamond

Woodkirk Stone Ltd 01132530464 Picked up one of their free mugs a couple of years back

Although I agree with most of what you say, the fact is that crab apples are NOT the ancestor of the domestic apple. They arose in the "fruit forests" of Central Asia in the region of the Altai Mountains, together with several other "domestic" fruits including grapes. The natural selection process seems to have been driven by the taste preferences of the bear (& possibly other animals) who ate the sweetest fruits, the seeds passed through them & were then spread more widely.

Several brands of resin woodfiller on the market. But on occasions I have successfuly used fillers designed for stone repair. You can get them totally transparent & then mix them up with wood powder from sanding. In the raw state they are very hard, but with your own coloured fillers added they are sandable. Several makes available, such as Akemi & Steinkit from Crawshaws in Croydon.

Whats the difference between shooting a pig in a slaughterhouse or in a military exercise? Have you given up meat & become a vegetarian? Become muslim?

Vegetable oils are suitable for many surfaces. Cheap cooking oils (when applied thinly) will harden (oxidise) in air to form a natural varnish. Olive oil has natural anti-oxidants & will therefoe give you a more matt finish. Boiled Linseed oil is a traditional finish applied with a pad of cloth & rubbed in. As the old cabinetmakers saying goes "apply once a day for a week & then once a week for a year". French polishing was introduced as a cheap quick alternative to oil polishing as the shellac is dissolved in meths & dries fast, still need many coats. One downside is dust specs show up compared to oil. A modern fast method of french polish is when the shellac is disolved in some kind of petroleum based solvent. I used it on a victorian mahogany handrail that I could not leave sticky for hours & did not want the hassle of traditional french polishing. Applied with a brush it gave a fantastic finish in seconds.

Learned how to service my ancient Aga many years ago, saving £100- every six months.Thorough cleaning of cast iron fire pot with wire brush & drill. Clean pipe with wire (coathanger) & pipe cleaners. Push overheat reset button in case it has triggered. Make sure screw on top of external controll is screwed down, or it will revert to manual temp controll. Some Aga's revert to manual controll if they lose electric power to controll unit. Push down controll lever to restart flow after service. As last resort replace thermocouple (£50-) from Aga diy company (look on Google)