Ecology

It's that time of year when the grass is full of tick's and your pets are going to catch them. So please check your dogs and cats once a week and remove them the best way you can. Check they come out whole, if not it's a trip to the vets to check the wound. I've gone over our cats and dogs today and only found one tick. They are seriously ugly things and difficult to kill (often they are difficult to crush for example) so my suggestion is take them out by pinching as low as you can to the skin with paper towel around them, check they are whole and wrap the paper up tight around it, set it in the middle of the bbq and ...

Also of note, you can now buy non plastic bio degradeable dog poo bags - they are Skooperbox Dog Poop Scoop's. I've just tried a pack out and they work well. I was worried that on very wet days the whole thing would go soggy before I found a bin, but so far they seem quite resilient. Search on the web for them or try the Ethical Superstore.

I ran an event this evening at Brightwalton Youth Club - the idea is to raise awareness of farming standard with kids in association with the Compassion in World Farming 'good egg' campaign. We cooked cup cakes using our own local free range eggs for the event*, local flour milled in Wantage and butter from Newbury farmers market. Over 20 children attended the club and made over 120 cakes to take home to family and friends. Every child took part making the cakes and parents were seen enjoying their children's warm cakes as soon as they came to pick them up. It was a great evening and just shows how strong the community spirit is in West Berkshire.

*egg's from Adrian Hollister's own chickens - hoorah!