Here I am at the edge

Growing mint Though it has been raining in South Bristol for most of the day; the gardener in me knows this is doing my mint patch wonders.

  Bees in our herb garden One of the reasons we grow herbs is for cooking ; another reason is for nature conservation as we wish to attract bees and other pollenating friends to the garden . So far, I have noticed seven varities of bee and two of butterfly today.

  Badger gassing should be banned . During the late 60's and early 70's in the UK there was an outbreak of  tubercolosis which was wrongly attributed to have been spread by badgers.  The proof of their innocence did nothing to stop the spread of the inhumane spread of badger gassing and culling that still goes on.  True, they can be vicious but if you were being gassed or clubbed to death I bet you would be nasty; having survived a fire, three years ago, I can imagine how these lovely animals felt as I still have nightmares of that night.

  Keep The Ban For most of my life, until a few years ago when walking became too painful, I had been a photographer and a naturalist. When I was working in Scotland, during my posting to RAF Lossiemouth ; I earned a reputation for going on walks for hours. Some of the best photos I took were of the fishing fleet, and the cormorants around the docks. For years, I was a member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds , until I found out that my money was not going to help the birds, it was going to build office blocks in Sandy , Berkshire . I did not want to stop paying as I am a lover of nature, but at the same time I saw my money was not going to what it was intended for, so I had no other options as the birds were not being helped. It is not known generally, but during those years I became a small landowner in Scotland as I bought a small patch of land to give migration birds a rest on their long journey from Canada / USA to Russia . Though I have taken many thousands ...