10 Bears

Not quite sure about a single cell, but certainly from any small e.g. 1 cm size piece that also contains a node. This is why it is not permitted to cut JKN and haul it down the road to the tip, notwithstanding commercial waste disposal regulations/licence, due to the risk of further contamination should it fall from the back of your truck/trailer. JKN has to be chemically treated on site, or as already mentioned, controlled large scale soil excavation followed by heat treatment of the soils (very, very expensive if done to the correct standard and I've never heard of this actually being done anywhere). Another approach is to have a very high heat burn up, ie with accelerants involved, but even then, this doesn't always work.

Well no, that's what happens with an invitation to treat. The seller just didn't accept the tender offered. This is why eBay is not really an auction. Sorry this happened to you Steve. Sent via the arbtalk app, hence the brevity...

Of course, but you have left that with the auctioneer, at the auction house etc. I can see the point you are trying to make, that its no different, but legally, it is.

This is probably a tenuous link, but I have had this on my headphones at my desk for the last month or so: [ame] [/ame] There is birdsong in there hence the tenuous link! I've been mainly stuck inside working on the PC, so playing this tricks my subconscious into thinking that I'm out in the woods, relaxing and enjoying life. Ah, well. Back to the reports...

I am a wheelbarrow. Well, I'm not really a wheelbarrow, but I hope you see my point. This may seem like semantics, but there are several differences between auctions and eBay. For an auction, you have the following: An auctioneer A registered auction house The auction house in possession of the goods A bidder tenders their individual maximum bid each time The highest bidder wins there are a few other points, but essentially eBay does not comply with any of these. A key part of eBay not being an auction is the way the bids work according to their model. If it was a real auction, then you would put in your maximum bid each time, and the seller gets that amount. On eBay, you may put in £200 as your maximum, but the last other closest bid was £125, so you win for £130. The fact that you don't win at £200, means that you have not put in your maximum bid, as you would have if this were a real auction. It goes back to the sales being an invitation to treat, where offers and counter offers are made until agreement, not maximum binding bids as in a real auction.

I totally agree with you Easy. I read this interesting article - see the comments for points 3 and 4. There was also a leading biological disease scientist over here on the news recently saying if there is one way to make a disease spread rapidly, it is to collect a load of people together, let just a few become infected, and then release them back into different parts of the world. Zika will inevitably become another global disease crisis all due to the current Olympics.

Unfortunately, this comment above is absolutely correct. The seller can simply refuse to sell the item if they subsequently claim the item was not described properly in the advert (so was unfair), or, is not fit for sale as originally thought (again fairness), or, has suddenly become damaged...etc. etc. Lots of folk have mentioned 'its a legally binding contract...' and yes it is - but it is not as straightforward as you would think in contract terms. A 'sale' is actually a formation of a contract which is based upon an "invitation to treat". What people miss out from the 'its a legally binding contract' bit, is that its actually a legally binding VOLUNTARY contract (and contract should probably more accurately as agreement). What this means in simple terms is, one person offers a price to pay and the other accepts it. The problem is, with an invitation to treat, there remains the possibility of further negotiation, and in fact the other person does not have to accept the offered price - even though a legal contract is in the process of being formed. So in actuality, you can go into Tesco and while everything has a price on it, this type of sale being an invitation to treat, you can in fact go to the till to be told you have spent £58.32, but then you can start the counter-offer, "tell you what mate, I'll give you £40 for the lot instead..." and so on until you reach an agreement where both sides are happy. Or until security are called and you are thrown into the car park and land on your chin. The problem here is with online bidding, its actually not as straightforward as described above. An online sale/auction is an invitation to treat also, so is broadly covered by the same as above, and relies on the bidder to tender an offer. If the seller makes no stipulation about reserve or other similar terms, then it is sold without reserve and it is implied that they will sell to the highest bidder (so depending on what it said in the advert, the OP may have due recourse here). BUT... as someone suggested earlier eBay may not actually be an auction. The Sale of Goods Act (1979) states the auction, "is complete when the auctioneer announces its completion by the fall of the hammer, or in other customary manner. Until the announcement is made any bidder any retract his bid". Unfortunately, by this definition, an eBay sale is not necessarily an auction unless you try to define it under the 'customary manner' element. Although the law states a higher bid means, contractually, that a previous lower bid is null and void, apparently eBay have lawfully amended this so that a seller can accept an earlier lower bid if the winning bidder does not pay. According to the judgement of Spencer and Harding, "he absence of any specific wording such as "and we undertake to sell to the highest bidder" rebutted any presumption that the Defendants (read eBay seller) had intended to be bound by a contract". So, while I feel for the OP as this is a massive pain when someone does you over like this, ultimately, I feel the seller will get away with it (rightly or wrongly. In fact, its mostly wrong). Just this week I was buying a quad bike on eBay, I had visited the local seller to see the item before auction end, and made him a good offer. He kept me waiting while the auction crept up, and then after it had finished sent me a text admitting his mate had bought it by accident as he had 'told him to bid it up' (shill bidding), and asked if I still wanted it at the price I offered in the week. In short, I said no and reported him to eBay. He will still get away without any punishment, despite admitting to committing fraud. The point is, eBay is a murky world where not everything is fair and lots of people abuse the system. There are some good folk on there of course, but IME there are many that will take advantage and do things like this to the OP. It always comes back to, buyer beware...

Yep, its definitely a food pyramid...

As others have said, the neighbour isn't being awkward, he is just taking the actions of a 'reasonable' man by taking steps that the person he hasn't employed directly - but will be accessing his property to undertake work, is reliable/honest/trustworthy/insured/experienced (delete as appropriate). Without asking for proof of insurance, certs and references (and a bit of a chat as someone else mentioned) - how else is he to determine that the OP is not a fly-by-night who could potentially cause damage on or to his property, then scarper without putting anything right? This neighbour is acting reasonably in the circumstances presented. I applied this line of thought - what would I do if I was in his shoes? I certainly wouldn't let someone traipse all around my property to conduct commercial work, and with the potential for damage without knowing who they were, what they were able to do, and yes ultimately, who can I contact to seek restitution if something goes wrong. I'd arrange a time to call round for a chat, be courteous, give him copies of the paperwork and a couple of business cards, and you never know you may get more work or another referral from it...

Auricularia auricula-judae. I agree, looks like a desiccated fruiting body.

You have probably done all you can in the immediate term. Just make sure that the camera has a good shot of the house frontage, perhaps even looking along the pavement somehow so you can capture the number plate. Going forward, you could also ask neighbours across the road or next door if you can secrete a camera on their property for a better view as the scum are less likely to be looking at other properties for cameras pointing in. Of course, also ask all immediate neighbours to keep an eye out and note down any registrations they are suspicious of. Is it a neighbourhood watch area? I think this site can be used to find out - If it is it would be useful to discuss with the local coordinator too. Just trying to offer some practical solutions here. I don't want to write what I would do to them if I caught them in the act.

Edward - a good review, I agree with your viewpoints entirely. Simon, you should really consider is what job you want to do, and particularly, what is commonly asked for in the job adverts. Over the years I have seen many job ads specifically requesting one affiliation over another, so spend sometime looking at the ads for jobs you are interested in and work out which membership would be most beneficial to you. From a personal view - If I were to only choose one, it would be ICF, but then, most of my work is consultancy level and I don't spend too much time on the saw anymore, so it is best representative of my skill set. Best of luck in your search...

Adam, I don't understand your comment about it (the tree images) not being an avenue in the traditional sense, as in fact that picture is of a *very* traditional avenue. An avenue is simply a lining out of trees along a preferred route. It doesn't have to include a road or highway per se if this is what you mean as a traditional avenue. Victorian parklands are full of complex avenues as you show in your image above, and often were pointed towards a feature of some sort eg a folly, the local church, water feature etc. It was a common parkland design in the Victorian era to overcome the randomness of nature and to control it with the installation of geometric or linear shapes - hence avenues like your were common. Although a little earlier, you may also want to introduce the ideas of Capability Brown, as Brown's parkland landscapes were what the Victorians inherited and hence began to work with. So, my approach to this problem would be to really work on the history of the site, delving into original layouts/designs/features if possible. Add in a bit of local history and try to use this information to guide my 21st century management. I agree with the idea of managing for a changing climate - but I would do this strongly from the perspective of maintaining the traditional scene and use. Think of the avenue as a living museum in testimony to the generations of foresters that have managed the parkland, that will span the ages and although the avenue has one root in the past, and hopefully it will continue to branch into the future... (did ya like that?)

Nepia, Yes, just confirmed that this picture is just the ticket: http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/attachments/picture-forum/48602d1286124183-rip-twang-kipper-bang-beech-12.jpg Could you send me the original please and I will send you the release form. Thanks.

Eagleye, They also really like this and one other that you sent to me. I will send the release form to your email. Cheers.

Andy - the team are of the opinion that this picture is particularly good: Could you send me the original please and I will send you the release form. Many thanks.

Excellent Nepia thanks. That last one with the chap in the image for scale, looks a mighty impressive failure! Do you still have the original as when downloaded from AT they come out a bit grainy...

Thanks for your efforts Gary.

I have done a removal of a similar sized Cockspur Hawthorn using air-spading first, lifting with a small telehandler and a bit of manual handling to get it to the new site approx 100m away. Then at the new site, installed root anchorage, guy lines and irrigation. When I last saw it about 3 years ago (job done about 2010), it was growing well...

Thank you Mr. Prentice! Only meant in a jovial way - not calling you by your Sunday name because you are in trouble or anything... Thanks for taking the time to do this.

There is a section in here about managing hogweed with chems - and particularly glyphosate. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=458#section-4 Just scroll down a little from the 'control' heading.

Thanks Jules - Could you email me that one? You should have my email address. Are there any others in the offering? Did you find any good ones Mr. Prentice?

Eagle and Andy - just to let you know I have emailed you both.

Thanks everyone for the responses thus far. Andy, the chapel image in particular looks good (or bad depending on your perspective!). Ill email you via the forum to send you my email for the picture. Thanks again.

Excellent, thanks Eagleye. This is just the type of image we are looking for. Did you do the number plate blackout in paint or similar? We would be able to blur the plate if it is un-doctored on the original. Are there any others, anyone?