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🐌CURMUDGEONS' CORNER XIV🐌

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  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    Being decidedly non-standard in clothes size (4ft 10ins tall), I've always bought second hand or made my own clothes.  Can't see the point of buying new and then cutting inches off the sleeves and legs...

    Today the delinquent magpies have found my 2-foot tall acer, and have been stripping off the young growth.   :#
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Not shop-shaped either, being too curvy so easier to make for me too.   

    Have a look at this link @Liriodendron - https://countrypests.com/how-to-effectively-scare-and-keep-magpies-away/ I quite like the idea of eyes everywhere.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    That's interesting, thanks, @Obelixx.  I've got a stack of old CDs somewhere in the shed to use as bird scarers so I must look for them...  for the moment I've surrounded the acer (which is in the ground) with pots of less vulnerable plants waiting for their homes to be prepared.  I'm hoping the magpies will be unable to see the acer any more.

    No chance of getting rid of them permanently.  They nest at the top of a large beech tree at the end of the garden.
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    There's a pair trying to nest in one of our ash trees @Liriodendron and they do a lot of chasing away of collared doves and raiding of our ground feeders but I don't think they're having any more success than the pair that tried nesting in a hawthorn on the boundary between us and the horsey neighbours last year.  They abandoned in late June.  No babies but a lot of noise.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • NorthernJoeNorthernJoe Posts: 660
    Are so called dumb phone batteries any better than smartphone ones? What about the humble copper coloured tip batteries? Got a cordless phone at home by any chance? Are those batteries more ethical? 

    I applaud every effort made to be ethical and environmental with your choices but I wonder how on earth are the ordinary man/ woman/ non binary supposed to find out the truth? 
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    Are so called dumb phone batteries any better than smartphone ones? What about the humble copper coloured tip batteries? Got a cordless phone at home by any chance? Are those batteries more ethical? 

    I applaud every effort made to be ethical and environmental with your choices but I wonder how on earth are the ordinary man/ woman/ non binary supposed to find out the truth? 
    Indeed so. 
    The  like the " I never use peat, i use coir based" folk who use coir which is shipped literally half way across the planet.
    Devon.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    edited May 2021
    .
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497

    Coir v peat: calculating its carbon footprint.

    We asked Craig Sams, Founder of Carbon Gold, to explain why coir is a better choice for the planet.

    “A tonne of peat represents 2 tonnes of CO2 in transport costs to the UK (usually from Lithuania or thereabouts). Same for a tonne of coir even though it travels further as coir has a much lower moisture content – you add the water here in the UK.  

    A coconut tree sequesters about 2 tonnes of CO2 every year in its wood and in the soil and after 100 years is almost always used as a building material so that carbon is sequestered in a house or other building.The coconut tree itself produces a highly concentrated nutrient-rich food and also a hard shell that makes activated charcoal for water purification and the outer husk is the coir, which used to be burned but is now pressed into bricks and shipped to growers in Europe and elsewhere.So there is the economic value and calorific value to coconut which you don’t get with peat – all you get is the coir equivalent.A rough estimate is that a tonne of peat costs the planet 2 tonnes of CO2 and a tonne of coir actually adds to the planet’s store of CO2 by 3 tonnes, so a 5-tonne difference.OK maybe that’s optimistic, but in principle it is true."

    Optimistic back of a fag packet maths but you get the idea.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    edited May 2021
    No. @pansyface. I tried to post a video off the BBC news site and couldn't get it to work.😊
    It was the one about the wall falling down near a man who continued to walk past with his hands in his pockets. A very cool customer
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    edited May 2021

    Coir v peat: calculating its carbon footprint.

    We asked Craig Sams, Founder of Carbon Gold, to explain why coir is a better choice for the planet.

    “A tonne of peat represents 2 tonnes of CO2 in transport costs to the UK (usually from Lithuania or thereabouts). Same for a tonne of coir even though it travels further as coir has a much lower moisture content – you add the water here in the UK.  

    A coconut tree sequesters about 2 tonnes of CO2 every year in its wood and in the soil and after 100 years is almost always used as a building material so that carbon is sequestered in a house or other building.The coconut tree itself produces a highly concentrated nutrient-rich food and also a hard shell that makes activated charcoal for water purification and the outer husk is the coir, which used to be burned but is now pressed into bricks and shipped to growers in Europe and elsewhere.So there is the economic value and calorific value to coconut which you don’t get with peat – all you get is the coir equivalent.A rough estimate is that a tonne of peat costs the planet 2 tonnes of CO2 and a tonne of coir actually adds to the planet’s store of CO2 by 3 tonnes, so a 5-tonne difference.OK maybe that’s optimistic, but in principle it is true."

    Optimistic back of a fag packet maths but you get the idea.
    Nothing in there about the fuel used to harvest / process and transport  it
    Devon.
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