The Tinderbox - Audio Story

 
From Prince Bertie the Frog

23 mins


by
www.storynory.com

A Costly Ringtone - Driving hints

A Costly Ringtone!

Drivers who are fined for using their mobile whilst driving will now see their insurance premiums go sky high. One insurance company Allianz is the first company to upgrade this offence to careless driving.

Previously this conviction was the same as speeding - £60 fine, 3 penalty points. Watch out, many insurance companies I am sure will follow suit.

It has been illegal to use a mobile phone while driving this came in December 2003.

This last February the original £30 fine was raised to £60 and the driver gets 3 points on their license.

This will bring increased car insurance. The average policy is £629 so if you are convicted of a mobile phone offence your premium could face an increase of £208 per year.

And switching to new insurers may become harder to do.

Very clear evidence suggests you are more likely to have an accident if you use a mobile phone while driving.

It's not worth dying to answer your phone.

Mike Daniels AcciDON'T - Making drivers safer world wide.
Retraining Drivers for Insurance Companies,
please don't let us meet you by Accident . . .

Mike Daniels and AcciDON’T
D.S.A. Registered Instructor, Awarded Highest Grade 6

Bureaucracy stops Southwold amber hunt!

Bureaucracy stops annual amber hunt at Southwold!

An annual amber hunt attracting 400 children has been axed because of safety restrictions.

Children had paid £1 each to search the beach at Southwold, Suffolk, for 12 pieces of resin left by Robin and Astrid Fournel.

No child has ever been hurt in seven years but the Fournels were told they needed to complete a risk assessment, have extra marshals and £5,000,000 public liability insurance.

'Perhaps the coast is no longer safe due to the lack of sea defences! . . . So what's next? . . . Are they going to stop kids building sandcastles because they have not got planning permission?"
– blog-ed

In The Mood, Sunday 13 July, bring your picnic and relax to the music

This Summer come and get . . .

In The Mood
(a trip down Memory Lane)

on
Sunday 13 July

bring your picnic and relax to the live music of

TIMESCAPE

at
Bone Hill, Rouse’s Lane
Off Low Road, Starston

Gates open 3.30pm
Music starts 4.30pm

Tickets
£10 Adults,
£5 U16s
U5s Free

Please phone 01603 506925

Event organised jointly by
Harleston Lions, Harleston Scouts and
Harleston Magpies Hockey Club

Gingerbread Bites - Susie’s Favourite Recipes

Susie’s Favourite Recipes

Gingerbread Bites

100 g (4 oz) Butter
350 g (12 oz) Castor Sugar
1 egg, beaten
250 g (9 oz) Self-Raising Flour
5 ml (1 level tsp) Ground Ginger
Lightly greased tray

* Pre-heat oven to 150 C, 300 F, Gas Mark 2.

* Whisk the butter and sugar together until mixture is pale and fluffy.

* Beat in the egg, a little at a time.

* Sift the flour and ginger into the mixture.

* Work in with a fork until you have a fairly firm dough.

* Roll the dough into small balls and put them on the tray.

* Bake for 40-45 minutes until crisp, well risen, hollow and golden.

* I sometimes add a few chocolate drops to the mixture.

* Enjoy them when they are still warm.

Barn Owl - Waveney Wildlife

Barn Owl

Characteristics
The upperparts of the Barn Owl are light grey with numerous fine dark lines and scattered pale spots on the feathers. There are buff markings on wings and on the back. The underparts are white with a few black spots, occasionally none.

Feathering on the lower legs may be sparse. The heart-shaped facial disc is white with a brownish edge, with brown marks at the front of the eyes. Its beak is off-white and the feet are yellowish-white to brownish.

Males and females are similar in size and colour, females and juveniles are generally more densely spotted.

Habitat
The Barn Owl is found in virtually all habitats but much more abundantly in open woodland, heaths and moors than forested country. They usually roost by day in tree hollows but have also been found in caves, wells, outbuildings or thick foliage and they often nest in barn lofts and church steeples.

Behaviour
The Barn Owl calls infrequently, the usual call being a drawn-out rasping screech. Adults returning to a nest may give a low, frog-like croak. When surprised in its roosting hollow or nest, it makes hissing and rasping noises and snapping sounds that are often called bill snapping, but possibly made by clicking the tongue.

Barn Owls specialise in hunting small ground mammals, and the vast majority of their food consists of small rodents. voles (field mice) are the single most important food, followed by shrews, mice and rats. Other prey may include baby rabbits, bats, frogs, lizards, birds and insects.

Their prey is mainly caught by night and is usually located by searching up and down likely looking land, particularly open grassland. They also use low perches such as fence posts as looking points from which to seek prey.

Barn Owls rely greatly on their silent flight and extremely acute hearing to locate prey. A velvety pile on the feather surface muffles the sound of the Barn Owls wings. In addition, the leading edges of the wing feathers have a fringe or fine comb, which deadens the sound of the wing, beats.
B.A.B.


www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife

BBC introducing at Latitude July 17th-20th 2008

17th - 20th July 2008

Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk
www.latitudefestival.co.uk

BBC introducing at Latitude

THE LAKE STAGE PRESENTS

curated by Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens

FRIDAY
*a.P.A.t.T*
*TRUCKERS OF HUSK* *KYTE*
*MATTHEW SAWYER AND THE GHOST*
*DERWYDDON DR GONZO*

SATURDAY
*THE BEEP SEALS*
*KATEGOES*
*ROD THOMAS*

SUNDAY
*BEARSUIT*
*ELLE S’APPELLE*
*LUKE LEIGHFIELD WITH TIM AND SAM’S TIM AND SAM BAND*
*ISLAND LINE*
*THE SCHOOL*

>> Click here for more info on the Waveney Valley Blog <<

WEEKEND TICKETS FOR LATITUDE FESTIVAL HAVE NOW SOLD OUT
Tickets for Friday day are still available to buy.

TICKET INFORMATION
Day tickets are £55 plus booking fee and include car parking.
C/Card line 0870 060 3775

Or online at www.festivalrepublic.com, www.seetickets.com,
For a full list of National and Regional outlets please visit www.latitudefestival.co.uk

Remember: Great Yarmouth Flood 2007

Family Fun Day at Frenze Beck, Diss

Family Fun Day

at

Frenze Beck Nature Reserve
Sawmills Road, Diss

There will be arrange of art and countryside activities on site with the addition of face painting and stilt walking bugs roaming around the site.

on

Saturday 19 July 2008

between

10am and 3pm

£3.00 per child
with accompanying adults free of charge

* * *

Frenze Beck

"We have embarked on the creation of a small wetland wildlife paradise on the western bank of the River Frenze in Diss, and this formerly unused ground has now been commended by the Environment Agency as part of its celebration of World Wetlands Day.

Frenze Beck was previously ecologically poor and overgrazed grazing marsh, within the floodplain of the river Frenze. It had become increasingly dry with peat build up and the remains of slubbing out works being deposited on the riverbank, reducing the ability of the river to flood onto the land".

insight issue 66 - NHS Mental Health Trust

NHS Mental Health Trust - insight issue 66

Click image to view or download a pdf file

Email us on foundationtrust@nwmhp.nhs.uk

website: www.nwmhp.nhs.uk

More June Flowers - photos

courtesy Keith Moore

Keith's Little Bit of England

THE COUNTERFEITERS (15) - Diss Film Society

www.dissfilmsociety.com

Next Screening:
7th July 2008

The Park Hotel, Diss

Film Starts 8pm
Members £3 Non-Members £4 Students £2 (under 21)

THE COUNTERFEITERS (15)
Origin: Austria/Germany
Year: 2007
Running Time: 98 mins

Director: Stefan Ruzowitsky
Cast: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow

Fictionalised truth about a Nazi plot to flood the allied economies with bogus banknotes, The Counterfeiters poses questions about moral choices made in terrible conditions. The (anti) hero, brilliantly played by Markovics, is a Jewish forger who can either collaborate in the counterfeit operation and help the German war effort, or refuse and die. A clear-eyed, provocative piece of work which deserved its Oscar for best foreign language film.

ABOUT US

www.dissfilmsociety.com


* * * * * *
What's On in Diss? visit
for a list of Diss Events

* * * * * *

Marvel Pulse, Weekly Newsletter 26 June

Local Mills - Scole Towermill

c. 1880

Scole Towermill

Scole Towermill was built of tarred red brick in 1799.

The tower had two doors on opposite sides showing that the mill was built with common sails.

1st June 1971

Edward Woodrow, who had moved from Billingford towermill, took over the mill in 1875 before leaving to take over at Horsford towermill in 1883.

His son, Charles Edward Woodrow, became the owner and miller at Lakenham Peafield towermill.

For more history about these mills and many others, please visit - www.norfolkmills.co.uk

Children's Fun and Activity Day, Bungay, 28 June

Children's Fun and Activity Day

Emmanuel Church, Bungay

Saturday 28th June
10am - 1pm

treasure hunt, face painting,
cake, clothes & toy stalls,
story time, 10p stall,
games, craft table,
refreshments
and much, much more.

We want to raise funds for UNICEF to help their campaign to ensure that babies can be born free from HIV. Every minute of every day, a baby is born with HIV, passed on by their mother during pregnancy, labour or delivery. For as little as 68p, there is an effective treatment that can prevent a mum passing HIV to her baby.

PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT OUR EVENT

WAVENEY Sport

Information about sports clubs in and around Waveney

If you would like your local sports club entered here,
email your web address to:
email@waveneyvalleyblog.com



Waveney Valley Canoe Club

www.waveneyvalleycanoeclub.co.uk


Waveney Valley Athletics Club (WVAC)
www.waveneyvalley.org


Waveney Angling
www.weybreadpits.freeserve.co.uk


BODYWISE FITNESS CENTRE
www.bodywisegym.co.uk



Bungay and Waveney Valley Golf Club
web-site


Bungay Pool & Gym
What's On


Eastern Counties Girls Rugby
www.easterncounties.girlsrugby.org.uk

Recruiting Trainee Reed and Sedge Cutters, Broads Authority

Recruiting for the Broads Heritage Skills
Heritage Lottery Funded Training Bursary Placements

The Broads Authority, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, is recruiting five individuals who are interested in learning new countryside skills as trainee reed and sedge cutters.

The project aims to provide individuals with practical experience and skills required to work as a Commercial Reed & Sedge Cutter or to obtain employment in the environmental conservation sector. We offer a combination of practical work based training combined with formal training in a College to work towards NVQ Level 2 Environmental Conservation. In addition we offer specific skills based accredited training to enhance your employment opportunities for the future.

Trainees receive a full Training bursary for 83 weeks. During this time trainees will work with professional Commercial Reed & Sedge Cutters and gain experience in the work place as well as the formal training at College in identifying species, habitat management and ecology. The work is physically hard and involves working on sites that are isolated and difficult to access, these facts must be considered before you apply.



Further details along with an application form are available from the
Bursary Application Form (pdf document) [455kb] which can be downloaded here.

All applications and any queries must be made to the Broads Heritage Skills Project Team and applications must arrive by 27 July 2008.

Interviews will take place during August and successful candidates will start in September 2008.

www.broads-authority.gov.uk

Life, the Universe and us - Then and Now!

With all the hustle and bustle of life, when you work out a schedule for the day to ensure everything will get done, do you ever stop and wonder why you do it? Of course you have a duty to your family, the community and lots of other people and much of it is out of love but do we derive real pleasure from it all?

Everyone has to have incentives of some kind to motivate and spur them on to certain goals. Many of these are laid down by Society while others, depending on our circumstances, we set for ourselves.

Whoever we are, from the day we are born we are caught up in a community that puts us under obligations from which there is no escape. No matter what ambitions we might have, most of us look for a way to happiness, contentment and satisfaction both for ourselves and our loved ones.

We all have our reasons for doing what we do but what if we look beyond our own personal targets and achievements? Is there a reason for our being here in the World as we know it or was our creation just coincidence and part of evolution.

If there is a purpose for our presence here, who knows what it is? Religious bodies all have their own individual and varied explanations but they can’t all be right. No matter how great we might become or how much good we do in our lifetime, how long in the history of the Universe will it be effective or remembered?

Did You Know?

Some butterflies and other insects only live for hours. That short time is probably the same to them as three score years and ten are to us. Humans have to think of everything as being relative to themselves. We see an elephant as big and an ant as small. How then does a trip to the planet Venus that takes nine months in a craft reaching speeds unheard of on Earth, fit within the boundaries of our Globe and life span.

It is difficult to see how anything relating to the past or present that might be found on such an expedition could have any great affect on us. Bearing in mind the millions of years it has taken for the Human Race to reach it’s maturity on this Planet, even if there is another World supporting life it is most unlikely their stage of development is within a million years of ours.

What advantage would there be to our population if such a discovery were made? As remote areas become more easily accessible we still have problems with the indigenous people that are sometimes found as we continue to destroy the rain forests that have been their homelands since we, the now civilised people, lived in caves.

Of course to travel in space and investigate other planets is a great scientific achievement and a big boost to the Nation that does it first but is this the right time? Couldn’t the scientists time and the money be put to better use and spent on the task of finding ways to restore our planet back to the way it was before modern civilisation blundered blindly ahead, with little or no thought for future generations. Now it seems no one has any idea how to make amends for their folly. If we continue as we are with ever increasing demands on the world’s natural resources we will all suffer much more than we are now.

It has been said that astronauts today are like the adventurers of years ago who set off in their ships to discover new lands. Actually, there is very little comparison. From the time they learned the earth was round and not flat our ancestors expected to find fertile regions with animal life and vegetation as well as people. Although not necessarily like those they were familiar with.

With millions of miles to travel and little hope of even being able to breathe fresh air when they reach their destination, space discovery seems to be more of an achievement to those in the labs and an adventure to the astronauts. Like being the first to climb a mountain or walk to the North Pole.

There must be great satisfaction for those working on space projects when they are able to add to their knowledge and make it easier for those that follow to understand more about our Planet but what will it do to improve the World’s problems today?

Will it find food for the starving or relief for the needy? Is it likely to reveal a new source of energy? Perhaps something will be discovered that incites all the people of the world to unite and live in harmony! Whatever they unearth it is unlikely to throw any light on what is in store for each of us when we have completed our allocated term on Earth. At the speeds they have reached so far, if they travelled for more than a lifetime there would still be little or no hope of revealing such facts.

Everything today seems to be planned for the short term and as the civilised world becomes better educated, strategic objectives proposed for the future are fast becoming tomorrow’s plans.

No doubt this lack of consideration for the future is partly due to the short terms of office held by those responsible. Their main concern is to make decisions that take effect right away. Much of the blame has to fall on those in our Society who are greedy and determined to have the best of everything now, regardless of whether or not it is within their budget. Unfortunately, they are encouraged to make things even worse by a Government who backs those advertisers in the media that constantly try to convince us all that we have a good chance of paying off our debts if we spend more of our income on gambling.

No matter why we are here, perhaps there is one thing we should all concentrate on. We have only this one life and we must do our best to make it happy and fulfilling. The main components to guarantee that are a loving family, relatives and friends.

There will always be good days and bad days for all of us but so long as we are prepared to ‘give and take’ and have companionship, coping with the bad ones will seem much easier.

valley lad - [FIFTY-TWO]

Wordz - games

Click image to play game

Conservation Management, Summer

www.leafuk.org

CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT
IDEAS FOR SUMMER

AVOID DISTURBANCE TO NESTING BIRDS
It is important to delay management of field boundaries and margins until at least September when you can be confident that birds have finished rearing late broods. Mowing margins or trimming hedges during breaks before harvest or when weather prevents harvesting can be very damaging for local bird populations.

(Peter Cornelius, RSPB)

BEWARE OF NESTING BIRDS AND LEVERETS IF YOU CUT POLLEN AND NECTAR MIXTURES
Pollen and nectar mixtures are often cut in June to promote late-flowering (cutting half of each area to 20cm in June is a requirement of the English Entry Level Stewardship scheme), but try to check that there are no nesting birds or leverets in the mixtures before cutting and seek a derogation to avoid cutting if these are present. An alternative for future years is to cut this half regularly through April until June so that it does not form suitable nesting cover.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR INSECTICIDE USE IN SUMMER
June is the peak month for rearing chicks in the bird calendar – many of these are dependent on insects to provide the chicks with a high-protein diet for healthy development. Adopt the Voluntary Initiative best practice guidance on use of insecticides:

• Know your farm's potential for pest attack; field records are essential in this. Assess the implications of cropping sequences and likely attacks.
• Where possible, take full advantage of varietal resistance.
• Use cultivation techniques and sowing dates to deter attack.
• Use seed treatments where available if significant damage is expected.
• Monitor crops regularly and base management decisions on the results.
• Make absolutely sure a treatment is really needed; treat only when pest thresholds has been exceeded.
• Wherever possible, use insecticides specific to a target pest. Try especially to avoid using broad-spectrum products when the young of birds are dependent on insects for food.
• Apply treatments as accurately and as close to ideal timings as possible.
• Use buffer zones and LERAPs to protect sensitive wildlife habitats and water courses.

DELAY SETASIDE MANAGEMENT
Any rotational set-aside that has not been sprayed yet will be providing important seed food for birds and nesting habitat for skylarks. Does the weed spectrum present problems for following crops? Consult your agronomist for the latest timing to achieve effective control. Non-rotational set-aside should remain uncut until at least mid-July (preferably August) to protect nesting birds, and up to 25% can be left uncut each year which will boost beneficial insects.

IS THERE A NEED FOR BRACKEN CONTROL?
Small stands of bracken, especially in upland situations, can provide useful habitat for some nesting birds, such as twite. However, large blocks of dense bracken are of little use for wildlife. Seek advice on whether spraying, cutting or rolling is the best management for your situation. Cutting and rolling will put ground-nesting birds at risk at this time of year. Spraying can be done later in the year, when the bracken is in full frond.

BIRDS NESTING IN HAY AND SILAGE MEADOWS
Several ground nesting birds that require cover are attracted to fields shut up for hay or silage. For these birds to breed successfully, they need sufficient time to complete incubation and for chicks to be able to be moved out of the field before mowing. The length of time needed will vary between species, but will generally be at least six weeks. Ground nesting birds are most commonly found in hay meadows as the grassland management generally results in vegetation that is less dense and cut at a more mature stage.

In fields where waders (snipe, lapwing, redshank, curlew) breed, leave damp hollows/corners uncut as unfledged chicks are most likely to use these areas.

DELAY CUTTING FLOWER-RICH MEADOWS UNTIL AFTER HERBS HAVE SET SEED
Hay meadows that are the product of traditional, low intensity farming support a rich variety of grasses and flowers. Such meadows are now a rare and irreplaceable habitat. Try to maintain the long-established management practices that have created these special areas.

TOPPING
Topping of pernicious weeds may need to be carried out relatively early in the season, but try to cut areas that are not as urgent as late as possible, if at all. Topping reduces the availability of seeds and the taller areas that many insects need to complete their lifecycles and over-winter. Always leave some areas uncut, even if only around edges of fields.

If these management ideas pose any questions, then post them on the discussion forum on www.farmwildlife.info to get your answers.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach c1926 - BFI YouTube archive

Bungay Rotary Club, Driving (Funday) Challenge

Rotary Club of Bungay

Driving (Funday) Challenge

HELPING TO MAKE THE COMMUNITY SAFER

Bungay Rotary Web Site

RSPB e-newsletter, June 2008

Click on image to read online

RSPB e-newsletter, June 2008 edition

Exhibits at The UpStairs Gallery, Beccles

Commission Free Gallery, UK