lotusinthemud

it's a bank holiday and my children and grandchildren are going camping

Rain and delays set for weekend

Busy roads, disruption on the railways and wet and cold weather for some are predicted for the Bank Holiday weekend.

children acting older at "young age"

Children's author Jacqueline Wilson says she thinks young people are growing up too quickly, an opinion backed up by a survey showing over half of parents think childhood is over by the age of 11.

making a home for minibeasts

I talked with my sister on her mobile as she was accompanying her husband on his walk - he added this photo at my request so I could see what the log home looked like:

This strange looking "log-sculpture" is one of the wildlife features at the park, where these logs are being allowed to rot down and decay. This newly installed beetle-pyramid will hopefully provide a home for all sorts of creepy-crawlies.

a gorgeous picture of simon and jack from our visit on saturday

::from Simon's blog

marsedit and apple leopard timemachine - transforming my computer usage

....thanks to the amazing Apple Leopard's Time Machine, but, also thanks to my lovely son Simon (who spent Saturday backing up the contents of my PowerBook onto an external hard drive and installing Leopard - and gave me the below as part of my Christmas present along with the wonderful IT Crowd), I'm now uploading to the blogging universe using MarsEdit. I love Apple!

not only am i a timelord...

....thanks to the amazing Leopard's Time Machine, but, also thanks to lovely Simon (who gave me the below as part of my Christmas present along with the wonderful IT Crowd), I'm now uploading to the blogging universe using MarsEdit. So I have plenty to smile about.

leopard on the prowl

All thanks to my son for setting up Leopard on my Powerbook

poor wee thing

Here's (brother-in law) Dougal's photo of this little great tit - bet he wished he'd stayed cosy and warm in his nest.

everyone on earth is related: get used to it!

Boomer says:

When renowned geneticist Spencer Wells is asked where the very first human lived, he responds:

“The unequivocal answer is that he lived in Africa. Every piece of DNA in our bodies can be traced back to an African source. The Y-chromosome traces back to eastern or southern Africa, around 60,000 years ago…”

Wells, who is probably best known for his book The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, which is also the subject of a fascinating PBS special, has collected blood samples from people all over the world to study the human journey out of Africa and into the rest of the world. Technological advances in a field known as population genetics have made this possible. You can read the full interview with Wells here.

Basically, it comes down to this: We’re all related. Can we all just get along now?
::link

Any chance the BNP (and other racists) will take this on board? If they want everyone to go back to where they come from, Africa is going to get very crowded.

 

wonderful open spaces on mersea island......

....under threat. Here's what my sister, aka Councillor Urqhart, has written. But she's up against the more materialistic of her fellow councillors. Wanting to care for the environment, the sparrowhawks and beetles, isn't the easy option!

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