tommy w

That too! Good spot.

That's red valerian - Centranthus ruber not valerian - Valeriana officialanis. Both commonly called valerian just to be confusing

You have an honest team, or a team of statisticians.

So 40% of sick days were taken during 40% of the working week? I'm not sure what that tells us!

I had four maybe a touch smaller, winched and dug them out. Easy morning's work including taking the roots to the tip. No major roots left to annoy me in my new veg patch now.

Super! As long as you're happy use whatever guard you like. I always over egged the visor, helmet, glasses, buff, overalls, gloves etc just in case of dog eggs.

Fins down so they mash up what's on the ground. It's been a while since I used one but you might need a different guard too.

I placed an order with treesource/Summerfield books which for some reason wouldn't allow me to pay. Had an email today saying they will send me my order for free! Customer service is not dead. Just thought I'd share some positive news and a definite recommendation from me. Tom

Good point but what other reasons are there not to have the certs/training?

If you think training and H&S are expensive and a waste of time I can guarantee that having an accident is even more expensive and an HSE investigation will take up more time.

Perhaps if it read "adequate training to be competent" it would make more sense. The nptc certs show competence, the amount of training required is personal so will of course vary.

You can get Sylva for free on kindle, probably on others too. That's not a bad start.

Having no direct link to the article it is difficult to appraise the facts. However the website's only quote from the original is “showed that mortality was about double in women who avoided sun exposure compared to the highest exposure group.” it offers no reason WHY this is so. Perhaps they were older, less fit, smoked, climbed trees for a living, or some other high risk was involved. It does not state that lack of sunlight is the reason for the higher mortality rate; instead it lets you assume that is the case. The second linked article states that melanoma incidence rates have increased due to diagnostic drift, not due to increased sunlight levels. It goes on to suggest that more work is done on sunlight and the causes of melanoma, in no way does it say sunlight does not cause melanoma. I understand the need to be skeptical but there is no science behind the claims; certainly not in those links. Spreading misinformation is not going to help anyone make an informed decision. Also given that the first link managed to get a pop up ad to come up trying to sell me medical stuff I would take anything that site says with a very large pinch of salt.

Sun burn stops me from working, factor 30 stops me from burning, therefore I shall use it! That article seems dubious to me; lack of exposure to the sun is more likely to be caused by the modern sedentary lifestyle (slobbing indoors watching TV etc) which is probably the cause of Ill health, not the lack of sunlight caused by sun cream. A very poor scientific study indeed.

Good answers there billhook; it would appear not to bio accumulate then. There are plenty of far more poisonous and more common plants that get little or no attention.

Doesn't it bioaccumulate? So one sheep eats very little but one human could eat lots, potentially.

Pretty much had to be pulled on SSSI grazed with ponies. Formula H is pretty effective but as usual in conservation, pretty expensive too.

Is ragwort capable of making humans photosensitive without ingesting it? I've pulled tonnes of it, literally, never had an issue.

Cheers Eggs, thought I was missing out on something important!

Cheers Richie, Arbtalk showing its collective wealth of information yet again!

Thanks Ti, will have a google.

I'm not with you Eggs...

Thank you, good to know. Tom

Bit of a late reply. I Have worked for Cleartrack, I only left because I moved away. They seem to be growing and expanding which is no bad thing. The guys are good and the kit is new and generally looked after. Go for it.

Hi all, As the title says, any recommendations for where to do CS38 and possibly CS39 in Shropshire/Midlands area? I'm total novice, just trying to improve my employablilty. Thanks, Tom