John Barleycorn

Is this what you mean? The first moment of controversy on Tuesday night's show came when 66-year-old Oddie spotted the amorous antics of a couple of sparrows. He told viewers: "The female is asking for it - and getting it basically. "She was fluttering her wings and pretending to be a child - that's kind of weird when you think about it. Oh and again. "She is doing that wing-fluttering thing like that as if to say 'I am a baby, feed me', she is getting quite the opposite basically." Oddie added: "That's a wing-trembler she's just had there." Then later on in the show he fronted a light hearted 'Shakespearian' style item about the life of stag beetles. When it came to the sensitive issue of sexual congress, Oddie, who co-presents the show with Kate Humble, decided not to hold back. He said: "He crash lands on top of a likely looking lady, there's a bit of luck. One thing is sure this boy is horny." Then after a male stag beetle fought of a rival suitor for the right to mate with the female, things took an even more bizarre twist. Oddie took on the part of the female and in a high pitched voice said: "Come on big boy come and get it. " The presenter added, in the character of the female: "Oh be gentle with me", as images on the programme showed the beetles copulating. Read more: BBC viewers attack Bill Oddie's 'smutty' and 'almost perverse' Springwatch innuendoes | Mail Online Well its more interesting than the creep!

bring back Bill Oddy, I dont like that bunch of creeps that run it now.

Rob, I agree with you that his wood will more likely be ready next season. But I wish to point out that the lower temperatures "weather has cooled" have in fact produced lower humidity, since it takes thermal energy to maintain the water vapour in the atmosphere. As noted the lack of thermal energy to evaporate water from his wood may also lead to its moisture content not reducing sufficiently fast.

is that a reading from the surface ? or did you re-split & take it from the inside ?

GET REAL I cannot believe that water could be rushing up the stem fast enough to make a sound unless it is pissing out of the top of the tree.

Yeah, but there is a public bridleway runs right through the site. Get on your horse

Nice little book Workshop Construction (Workshop Practice) by Jim Forrest and Peter Jennings (31 Dec 1998) £6- on Amazon, or even £2- secondhand

Budhism is certainly a way of life, its also a weird form of atheism

OK so Dawkins is a bit strident with his views, but compared to the thousands of years of poo that the religionists have given us he is a moderate.

Lot of people I talk to think that for the Met to allow 3 nights of rioting must have been a deliberate policy to teach the Government a lesson. Impending cuts, allegations of curruption, allegations of newspaper salesman beaten to death, forthcoming Olympics. NO NO Mr Cameron, you need to understand that now the Dirty Digger has been "reduced" you must dance to a new master.

1. Send in army 2. Machine gun rioters 3. Buldoze corpses into burning buildings

Same here, the two in my garden "died" over the hard winter, frothy smelly sap erupted from the stems, but now the stumps have sprouted.

Read something last year asking people in the countryside not to disturb their compost heaps untill later in the year because of grass snakes breeding.

Years ago I read somewhere that you can reset them by taking out the radio & stuffing it in the deepfreeze for an hour or so. No idea if it works.

I suspect that the end of the day it will come down to wether your insurance company can be bothered to contest his claim. A few years back a vehicle caused about three grands worth of damage to an outbuilding of mine, or I should say that is what it cost to rebuild it. In fact it it was in a shite state prior to damage, my insurance company simply pusued his for the cash & they did not contest it. So in fact the bloke did me a huge favor by hitting it!

Any people nickin timber off my land are thieves, whatever excuse they give.

Er yes, but maybe it was those that didnt climb that survived.

Long time back I came across a forked log that had what I can only describe as having hermaphroditic genitals, but I didnt post it as people might have thought I was a sicko !

This must be a nightmare to prune, or even keep track of each variety, because of the difference in vigor between them.

Dont know what this is trying to be, but it may not be a face !

It continues to darken to a brown colour, oozing yellow "sap". No sign of spores or fruiting body, the surface is dry and crusty. Is it dead ?

Found this growing on my compost heap this morning, patch about six inches in diameter, came up over night. Bright sulphur yellow, spongy texture composed of very small branching lobes. Texture very, very soft, smears when touched, like jelly. By 1.0 pm it was darkening & tuning brown under the miday sun. Never seen anything like it before, except perhaps those specks of yellow mould that sometimes grow on rotting Leylandi hedge cuttings.

Was looking to buy a heavy padlock a while back & asked the salesman if it would resist boltcutters & picking. He replied that a determined thief would simply just turn a propane gas torch on it and melt out the brass innards !

The trouble with most of these "dual fuel" stoves is that in fact they are set up to burn coal & coke. Wood burns best on a bed of embers, but coal & coke need to be a raised grid to get the air through them. The wood embers drop out the bottom & you end opening the air vent too much to keep it going, so it burns out.

The propper name for these is the Cornish shovel, exported all over the world by Cornish miners.