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Tarrel,

My hat is off to all who work to eliminate the confer plantations, there in the most beautiful landscape in the world. Bringing back the old mix of trees verges on the saintly in my book.

Aw shucks

Seriously though, thanks for the welcome folks.

Synapsid, to be honest a bigger problem for me is that the woodland was planted on prime agricultural land. I know that woodlands are useful to create shelter belt and wildlife corridors, but this is a block all on its own. I feel almost obliged to grow food on it!

Up till now, we have been running the woodland on a "business as usual" basis, continuing the production of ornamental foliage boughs that the previous owners planted it for. But we've just started to make some significant changes. Ideas we have include:

- Edge planting of mixed species around the edges of glades, including fruit and nut species and fast growing coppice-wood such as hazel.

- Introduction of some livestock in order to manage weeds, add fertiliser and till the soil. To include chickens in a "chicken tractor" and maybe some goats.

- Encourage the existing deer population (our trees are mature enough to be not bothered by a few roe deer).

- Desisting from the use of artificial inputs such as artificial fertiliser and glyphosate weedkiller.

Interestingly, this project has had profound psychological effect on me. The previous owners were farming the woodland for foliage on an industrial scale. They were taking out upwards of 100 tonnes of foliage from the 60 acre plantation each year. The trees are suffering as a result. Initially we tried to emulate this business but, to be honest, we weren't as "good" at it as they were! It depressed me and made me question whether we'd made the right decision to buy it. Deciding to change the use and nature of the woodland has reignited my enthusiasm. There is now a purpose. It is "my" project. Knowing that we are creating something more appropriate for the world to come also helps. before "discovering" PO, it was all about "how much money can we make from it". I now know that what we have goes way beyond that in value.

Lots to learn, but I find it fascinating.

let's be honest and admit we hiding away, afraid of the coming storm.

Yep, that too.

Nothing wrong with a bit of romance IMHO!

I may have painted a slightly misleading picture of our environment (or maybe stereotypical images of Scotland are kicking in?). We're on the East Coast, on a peninsula between two estuaries. The area is mostly quality agricultural land, and is sheltered from the Atlantic fronts by the North West Highlands. It has the highest sunshine record in mainland Scotland (not saying much, I know!). There's great foraging on the coast for seafood, and good sea fishing.

The house is in a sheltered location on the edge of a small town. The downside is that we don't have much scope for wind power, and any solar PV would have to be stand-alone, away from the house (due to shading). The upside is we're sheltered from the weather and close to all the services in town.

Regarding the Land Rover in the South East? Guilty as charged! Great for bundling the kids, dog, etc. in for family camping trips though.

Hi everyone, I'm from Italy but I'm living in UK.

Hope to learn a lot through your interesting topics.

Howdy from Texas. Curious: how are you dealing with the notorious Brit food? It must be a bit of culture shock for you. LOL.

yes, it is definitely. Sometimes i try to prepare Italian meals but it's even difficult to find the ingredients. And I cannot talk about the coffee... I miss my real espresso.

Lots of People from Italy Spain France Greece etc are immigrating to the UK to find work since the economy in their home countries is so bad

Maybe you could start an expresso business there to meet the demand for good coffee?

P - So far I've been disappointed: was hoping to get a rise out of our Brit buddies with that cheap shot. LOL
C - Have you developed a sense of the difference in the energy situation in the UK then what you left behind in Italy? So you haven't develop a taste for beans and spotted dicks for breakfast yet?

chiarabrt wrote::-D yes, it is definitely. Sometimes i try to prepare Italian meals but it's even difficult to find the ingredients. And I cannot talk about the coffee... I miss my real espresso.

LOL. Did you move to 19th Century Britain?

Here in the 21st Century, with the internet and various home delivery options, if you can't get Italian ingredients and espresso machines anywhere in the world, you're doing something wrong. Of course, you have to pay for it, but I hear that even in Britain they have long since replaced the barter system with a modern banking system.

Sure, you're not likely to find Italian brands in your local British corner store. Then again, the same applies in the US or any other country that isn't Italy, for the same reason Italian stores don't exactly do great business selling jars of Marmite, P.G. Tips Tea or Crunchie bars.

This is what the internet is for. No one needs feel homesick when everything you had at home can be yours in a couple of days as long as you're willing to pay for it.

I'm from Planet Earth, just wondering WHY the direction NORTH is always on top of the Globe.

Anyone think they know why?

vision-master wrote:I'm from Planet Earth, just wondering WHY the direction NORTH is always on top of the Globe.

Anyone think they know why?

Because Santa rules!

Beery1 wrote:

vision-master wrote:I'm from Planet Earth, just wondering WHY the direction NORTH is always on top of the Globe.

Anyone think they know why?

Because Santa rules!

Good point (NOT)

I'm serious, look at any map and North is always on top, why?

Berry, you seem like a smart man, can you figure it out?

The idea that north is up was originally set forth by the Egyptian astronomer, Ptolemy. There's no really great reason for it, but by and large, cartographers have followed suit. "Perhaps this was because the better-known places in his world were in the northern hemisphere, and on a flat map these were most convenient for study if they were in the upper right-hand corner," historian Daniel Boorstin opines

Long ago I had a globe that was oriented with the South at top. Really messed with folks' mind. If you want the map: http://flourish.org/upsidedownmap/

ROCKMAN wrote:The idea that north is up was originally set forth by the Egyptian astronomer, Ptolemy. There's no really great reason for it, but by and large, cartographers have followed suit. "Perhaps this was because the better-known places in his world were in the northern hemisphere, and on a flat map these were most convenient for study if they were in the upper right-hand corner," historian Daniel Boorstin opines

Long ago I had a globe that was oriented with the South at top. Really messed with folks' mind.

I'm thinking this is why North is Up. Earth has to have some kind of reference point.



Why Doesn't Polaris Move?
Polaris is very distant from Earth, and located in a position very near Earth's north celestial pole.

Earth rotates once a day on its axis, an imaginary line that passes through Earth from its north pole to its south pole. If that imaginary line — the axis — is projected into space above the north pole, it points to Earth's north celestial pole. As the Earth spins on its axis, it also “spins around” the north celestial pole. Polaris, located almost exactly at the north celestial pole, the center of spin, stays in the same place, while stars farther away from the north celestial pole can be seen to move in a wider circle around Polaris as viewed from Earth during its daily rotation.

Polaris actually lies just a short distance away from where Earth's axis points. Polaris is located about 1 degree off to the side of the north celestial pole, so Polaris does move a little, tracing a very small arc in the night sky, around which the other visible stars make wider circles.


http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/skyte ... bout.shtml

The fact compasses tend to point that way seems a slightly more prosaic reason, but your reason is pretty plausible too.

davep:

Compasses point south too.

I think, though, that a worthier, um, point to consider is that in one of the Winnie the Pooh books the company set out to discover the East Pole. What's more, they found it.

There is hazard in applying logic to the natural world.

I'm down with up. But I never did actually understand why.

For the same reason as the word for 'people', 'us' and 'human' is the same word as the name of the tribe coining it. We tend to put where we are from at top and center. The south was for a very long time a great mystery. It's still about 90% ocean.

Hello! I have read some really interesting topics here and I am very keen to know more!

Hi, new member here!
Im from England and have recently become aware of the issue of peak oil. Although I am in no way very informed about peak oil, it is something I am definately interested in getting to know more about so forgive me if at times i am abit naive.