Gave the Disco 300TDI a service today. This is the first service since rebuilding the engine and by the thick and lumpy oil coming out I should have done it earlier. Decided to use just cheapo 15/40W engine oil (value branded) and see how it goes. Sump plug was a little tight, but other than that everything went ok. Because I run on old veggie oil I change the fuel filter at every service (and even in between services) and it was a good job too - quite a few bits in there caused by my less that perfect filtering techniques on the waste veggie oil plus I ran out a few weeks back pulling loadsa crud down the line and into the filter. Finished off with a good spray round of light oil to arrest some of the rust and a cetane booster in the fuel tank for a bit more go. Seemed much quieter on the journey home from the field. Next items are the gearbox/transfer box oil levels, FTC2203 in the gearbox yolk and all round greasing.

"I had the great privilege to send my daughter to the Buzzin Brass workshop at Trinity School in Newbury on Saturday 6th March. Run by Berkshire Maestros the kids played five new arrangements starting increasing in complexity, played a few games, sang a few songs and won a few prizes for answering questions correctly. All of the teachers demonstrated new instruments and their obvious skills both with the kids and with the instruments they were playing. At the end of the event there was a concert from all of the kids to the parents which was a resounding success. Please pass on my many thanks for the event and I strongly recommend that anyone interested in music for their kids should get in contact with the Berkshire Maestros on 0118 9012370 or email johnwatts@berkshiremaestros.org.uk.

Adrian Hollister
Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for West Berkshire"

Also see the Berkshire Maestros web site.

The great thing about having your own land with barns is that you have a lot of flexibility - at least in terms of what you can do and what you can store. This year we were able to secure a large number of bags of kindling and general firewood from off-cuts and general wood waste. So up I trundle with a landy full of bags of wood and logs and I safely stored them in the driest part of the barn for safe keeping. I brought back the last two bags a couple of weeks ago now and busily set about using the wood in the fire - which has been an especially good boost over this cold winter. Anyway, most of the way through the second bag I noticed the dogs going bonkers at the bag. The usual alarm bells went off in my head thinking it was rats or similar (something the dogs especially love to chase when we walk the field boundaries), so I dropped the bag and let the dogs loose. After a few minutes of the dogs sniffing like a loss-less vacuum cleaner should they came up with nothing apart from a lot of old leaves, a few seeds and what turns out to be a very large mouse nest.

This normally wouldn't be a problem, but the bags were stored in my outbuilding and there were no sign of the mice. So I did perhaps not the most humane thing and left the dogs to stuff around the whole of the outbuilding looking for other signs of life, but they were not interested in anything but their large bag of dog food (no surprises there). So thinking that this was an old nest I cleared everything up and didn't think any more about it.

In hindsight this may have not been the best tactic. Last week whilst moving the filing cabinet I noticed a trail of little bits of paper underneath the filing cabinet. It's not one we use often and generally stores our serious 'to keep but no need to look at' type documentation. So with a slight opening of the top draw of the cabinet it was clear that all was not well with my files. Only a super enthusiastic shredder would have done a better job on them. They were just piles of paper dust. But alas no sign of mice.

With my finest Shelock Holmes hat, pipe and super large magnifying glass I followed the shredded paper trail to find my first nest. I say my first as that day I found three others the last of which the dogs firmly pointed out were in my tool box. It's a plastic thing, industrial enough to stand on and no obvious holes in them (I have a few of them). Anyway, the dogs were going mad telling me that the tool box was 'hot' - actually one dog (the boy dog) was insistent that I should look at the big bag of dog food - daft thing.

With tool box in hand I took it outside and gave it a thorough examination. In one corner there was a small hole with neatly nibbled edges. Out of that hole was a small nose and whiskers. I'm not sure who was more shocked: me the mouse or the dog. Anyway the mouse got a away and the daft dog just sat there looking at me as though it was my fault. The inside of the tool box was a mess - smelly old mouse nest with bits of paper, bag and anything else the mouse could gnaw away at in there.

Feeling slightly more confident I went back in the outbuilding with the dogs and let them loose again. No surprises that the boy dog went straight for the big bad of dog food again. I know he's a little (well ok a lot) motivated by food, but this was a little unusual for him so I went over to the bag to look it over. It's in a clear plastic bag so I could see through into the brown contents. Sure enough in one corner was a little hole and yet another mouse nest. I shouldn't have chastised the poor dog so much but to be fair he did find a nest so I gave him a treat.

After a good sweep out and a clean of every cupboard, work surface and nest area I felt quite confident that they were now all gone. At least I felt confident until yesterday when I opened one of my tool cupboards to find a ruddy huge nest on the top shelf. How the bleeding heck the things managed to get into a closed cupboard I've no idea, but get in there they did. Electrical wire, some tools, gloves and anything non metal has had a bite or two. So another round of cleaning has begun and tomorrow I'm off to find some mouse traps. Humane ones if I can find them, if not it back to the basics and off with their nibbly little heads.

What a great village hall in Speen. We had a small jumble sale today to raise funds for the Green Party - made a nice amount of money and met some really great people too. So from Adrian Hollister: Thanks to all those that donated items for the jumble sale, those that can along to help and those that turned up. Hope to do another one in a month or so and see you all again!

As Tory policy starts to fall apart under scrutiny it's looking more and more like a hung parliament. It's easy to see why people are questioning the Conservative policies who's headlines seem to be to make the top 2% much richer and the rest of us have to pay the countries debt off. Not a great set of policies by any stretch of the imagination. I also can't help thinking if the latest Gordon personality bashing has been inspired by Tory spin doctors - doesn't sound like something New Labour would actually release at this time - their spin machine is just far too professional; but the reports of concessions the Conservatives have offered the Murdock news empire may explain their entry into print.

So now we just wait for the official release of an election date and see how things pan out. Adrian Hollister said "Let's hope it's possible to change the political system during the next parliament - from confrontational to co-operative; from unfair voting systems to a fair one."

The darn glass has cracked in my Charnwood multifuel stove. It started with a little crack and soon developed to a full blown glass falling out of the door sized crack. This is a right pain as the old screws holding the fixing plates in place are just stubs of their former glory. So I've let the stove go out and cool right down. Taken all the glass out and have had to drill the four screws out and re-tap them. Only managed to do two of them today, but that's enough to get the new glass back in with one of the two screws in each of the glazing bars. It's a good enough hold for the moment and I'll have to work out how to safely drill the other two without breaking the cast iron doors.

Interesting though the price of new glass: the two local fireplace shops in and around Newbury stock glass at over £96 for just one door; Charnwood themselves are cheaper even including delivery; but I ended up searching the web and got the glass and the gasket for £20. It's a wonder these local shops get any business - if their stove prices are the same as their glass prices it won't be too long before all of their potential customers look in their showroom, get a price and then compare it to web prices.

My other gripe for today is why is the price of wood and coal 50% more in West Berkshire than in Somerset or Devon - even from the same branded shops?

How the Tories have changed. They have embraced elements Blairism and decided marketing is better than real policy; sound bites are more important that real decisions; and honesty is allowed to be embellished to sell the Tory message. A lot of the Sunday rags and online web sites have made great fun mocking the Tory need to airbrush Cameron's picture to make him look - well who knows - perhaps more human? less like a dodgy car salesman? less like an Etonian toff?

My favourite site out there has to be 'Airbrushed for change' by http://mydavidcameron.com where there are a multitudes of mockup's of the latest Tory posters. Perhaps my favourite is entitled 'This is going to hurt. Don't worry your not going to feel a thing.' or 'My chums from school and I are going to absolutely, thoroughly, bloody-well sort the country out.'

Either way it's good for a laugh at the latest tory sham sales campaign - aimed to make you all think that it's in your interest to vote tory.

What is going on in David Cameron's head? After deciding to cut services heavily to save money (whilst of course giving tax benefits to the top 3,000 estate owners etc) - he has now decided that because that sales message was not going down too well with real people he would back track and change his mind. The Tory sales campaign is just so transparently inept it yet again shows how sleezy and cheap british politics have become. It's time for a change in our electoral system and it's time to end the existing 'old boys club' and 'ya boo' politics that we are suffering from in this country. The country has grown up why can't the political system?

I like a comment left on the Guardian's web site from zinoviev: "Dave knows that you can't fool all the people all the time. He's not attempting that. He's just going to fool everyone until May."

West Berkshire Council bought a number of snow plough attachments for tractors quite some time ago. They now lie rotting in farmers yards unused. Unused because the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in the council decided not to pay or insure farmers to clear their local roads. Walking through the villages of Chaddleworth, Britghtwalton and Lekhampstead today not one single road has been cleared - either salted or snow ploughed. Why don't the council re-instate the use of these local snow ploughs and help share out the work with our local gritters?

Adrian Hollister
Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for West Berkshire

A happy new year to everyone. I've a twitter blog going now as well, so anyone interesting in following me can find me with the following:

twitter: adrianhollister

I've been out and about walking the dogs all over the place during this cold snap and up here on Berkshire's north downs the Ridgeway and other ancient tracks offer great walks. The salting of the roads have been excellent even up here where our single track roads are often missed leaving some of our community with a much more difficult journey. There were a few notable exceptions with some roads deep in a very skiddy snow and ice combination. The locals avoided these roads and used the ones salted, but others (and I've seen some rather daft speeding delivery drivers skidding into the bank and a few of the 'beemer' set thinking they are invulnerable) have been crashing into banks, cars, walls etc.

It does seem that because of this other set of drivers that we consume so much salt. In order to attempt to stop the looney drivers from crashing we have to liberally salt every road. This consumes a lot of salt - not the most environmentally friendly product out there; a lot of our cash buying and spreading it; and diverts salt from path ways and cycle paths - where it could be better used.

With the continued cold snap and likely requirement for more and more salt to keep our roads open and free - I can't help wondering if we have enough salt stored and available to us. I also wonder if simulated cold weather and skid driving should be part of the driving test - and perhaps even a mandatory top up test for professional drivers and optional education for the rest of us (with insurance discounts?).

It's cold out there tonight. My thermometer shows -1 at 1am, so I'm guessing it's going to get colder up here throughout the night. We seem to be a bit of an odd microcosm up here on the downs in north Berkshire. Nestled around the ancient Ridgeway on high, wind swept chall hill's we seem to largely have a climate of our own. A mile down the road and you can drive off the downs and end up with completely different weather.

The grass tonight though is crunchy under foot and the roads are quite slippery. The dog's of course love the weather, bounding about and eating anything frosty, smelly or both.

It's interesting tonight as at the time of writing there is no wind up here. Something that seems quite unusual, but something that also shows what much of the country must have been like in the early 20th century - at least in terms of heating. We are mostly solid fuel up here and as you walk around the smell of coal and wood burning is heavy in the air. Without the wind blowing it away our houses and of course all of us live in this smog.

We are of course just a very small village, so the pollution we must have endured in the towns or cities must have been appalling. We have come so far from these days, but of course we have just replaced one fossil fuel (local coal and wood) with gas and oil that may have been transported half way around the world. It's true that you don't get the smell and visible smog of smoke and that the heating appliances are on the whole much more efficient; but is their net CO2 increase really that much better when transport and storage are taken into account?

I am happy that my mostly coal and about one fifth 20% wood burn on my multi-fuel stove adds about the same net new co2 as a good gas boiler. I am happy that my sources for my coal and wood are only within the UK with the wood coming no more than a few miles.

So does Adrian Hollister recommend that we all move back to wood and coal? No. But we do need to invest heavily in industry areas that support sustainable heating sources. The use of heat pumps (ground or air source); the use of biomass; and the use of community heating systems would vastly improve our co2 emissions in this country. What are we waiting for?

It was good to see support for The Wave event in London by both the Green Party and Lib Dems in West Berkshire. Amazingly absent were the tories and labour (as usual). The march was great fun with a thankfully discrete police presence. I only saw one point of aggravation in front of the US embassy, but it's amazing how a simple smile with a word of advise from a police officer diffused the situation. My only complaint from the day is perhaps the commercialisation of the event - it was clearly a co-op branded event. I don't mind the sponsorship or the company in question, but to see heaps and heaps of their banners was just a bit ott.

I can only hope that this march will help demonstrate the support for action on environmental issues.

I can empathise with the frustration demonstrated by the striking Royal Mail postal workers. For too long the Conservatives and now New Labour have tried to introduce business competition to our national assets as an excuse to improve efficiency or introduce innovation. Royal Mail was caught up in this and had stifling competition rules imposed upon it. These rules were designed to disable Royal Mail's ability to fairly compete and have forced the business to contract.

I struggle to find an example where this competitive business model has actually benefited us directly. In many cases it is clear to see that the lining of shareholders pockets or directors bonus' takes precedence over the citizens of this country. The water companies have demonstrated this over and over again by skimping on investment. Banks have also demonstrated that the concept of competition in a market place can easily lead to corrupting and destabilising greed and inefficiency.

It is time the government recognised that the selling off of our national services to introduce competition is flawed and unworkable. It is time for the government to remove the competitive disadvantages imposed on Royal Mail. With these shackles off and with a positive Royal Mail management, there would be no need for our postal workers to be in dispute - for their jobs would be safe and their compensation and conditions could reflect those of any healthy business.

So I wish the postal workers the best. They are part of a great public service that could so easily be an exemplar for the rest of government.

I would like to think that there is a bit of a race going on here. A race to see who can be the greenest, the most efficient and the ones with the most vision. Councils, towns and authorities are included. Who will be the first to host a commercial renewable energy system to compliment to supplement a good deal of local power consumption. Oxford City spoke about this a while ago now, but I've not seen any progress to date (early days); and at the beginning of the year Bristol City also announced their intention to do something.

All of this is being championed by Friends of the Earth with their Get Serious About CO2 campaign.

There are all quite large scale systems with large budgets and large expectations. I wonder if there are a number of much smaller opportunities that should be explored first - several smaller microgeneration systems would help local people and businesses understand how it could be achieved. Sustainable Newbury discussed some excellent ideas about using the weirs in Newbury to add less than 10KW to the grid each. Not much you may think, but it's local generation (and not subject to the 40% or so loss experienced across the national grid) and would be an excellent exemplar not just for the local area but to much of the south.

What a great day at the think green act green day at Thatchams Discovery Centre. Great bacon butties too - thanks to Catherine at Royal Berkshire pork. We took over 100 new signatures for our support renewable campaign and gave out over 200 wind mills to kids. Met some great like minded people there too.

Free event at Thatcham's Nature Discovery Centre will feature activities, displays and ideas on being green - from the Newbury Today web site.

Article follows:

AN environmental event organised by West Berkshire Council will be held tomorrow (Saturday). The event, called Think Green, Act Green, will be held at the Nature Discovery Centre in Thatcham and will include activities, demonstrations, and ideas on show to help local people think about saving the environment. Activities will include pedal powered generators, fuel efficient transport, puppet shows, face painting, wildlife displays, live music, and lots of local foods on display and refreshments for sale.
Waitrose, Volvo, Hill View Farm produce, 'WRAP' composting activities, and Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust are just some of the featured names taking part in the event. West Berkshire executive councillor Graham Pask (Con, Bucklebury), said: "Green issues are now firmly in the spotlight, and this is a great chance to get some ideas on how to help make a difference."

The event is being held from 11am until 4.30pm, all are welcome and entrance is free.

End.

I voted in the Trident Replacement Referendum Gordon Brown didn’t want me to have; you can too! Please go to http://bit.ly/g4W48

The Greens won 68 seats in the German federal election, a gain of 17 seats. They secured 10.7% of the vote nationally. One commentator said: "the Green party remains strikingly resilient."

Did a car boot today with the things donated to help Green Party funds. The car boot was in Newbury Racecourse and seems to run every Sunday. Not a bad price either at £7 to get in for traders. We shifted quite a bit of stuff and donated the rest to charity. Darn hot morning's work though and I seem to have a bit of a sun tan

Great fun today had a long walk with the dogs to raise money for the green party. We started at Great Bedwyn and walked down the Kennet and Avon canal to Newbury. It's about 15 miles and is a stunning walk. Most of Great Bedwyn to Hungerford is unspoilt by selfish dog owners and has stunning views. Why does anyone go on holiday abroad when we have such amazing things right here in England? Anyway, for anyone thinking of doing it - Great Bedwyn is on the train line from Reading. Walking back towards Newbury you follow the A4 and the railway line - so if you get stuck you can always ask for a lift or jump on a train.

The Jumble sale raised £143 pounds for Green Party funds. Not bad for two hours work! Thanks mostly to Pam for organising the sale and to both Pam and Adrian's families for helping out. Let's see if we can run another one before Christmas

Did my first fund raising Jumble Sale ever today. Pam did a great job arranging everything - Thatcham's Catholic Church Hall was packed with stuff and people. There was one big scrum to get at our wares. Not only have we made money for the Green Party but we have recycled a whole bunch of items that are now back into use. Thanks to everyone that turned up with of course special thanks to Pam, Gif and our families who helped out. I hope that we can run another one of these for the Green Party in Newbury, Lambourn, and Hungerford. So we are well on our way to secure funds to allow Adrian Hollister to stand for Parliament at the next election and field a good few candidates in the regional West Berkshire council elections too.

Pam Ayres gave an excellent and, if you think about it, very disturbing poem 'Nowadays We Worship at Saint Tesco'. You may be able to still hear it on BBC iPlayer here or find out more here. It is scary how she seems to have captured our greedy nature and our recent need for stuff to make us happy - still as she says we have Saint Tesco to help us.

If you host a web site or domain, think carefully about your provider. I use 1&1 Internet their press release explains why...

1&1 is proud to be the first large web host who relies solely on renewable energy. At 1&1 we believe in a sustainable society for all and that every business has a role in this responsibility. We have therefore made a strong commitment to fight pollution and preserve our natural resources. 1&1 now uses wind, water and solar power in accordance with the Renewable Energy Certification System (RECS).

The use of renewable energy technologies reduces hazardous greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional power plants.
We Use Energy Efficiently

We do not only strive to use clean energy, we also endeavour to use energy as efficiently as possible. In our European data centres, we currently run some 40,000 servers which consume between 50 and 60 Gigawatts per hour (GWh).

For years, 1&1 has been using energy highly economically, with less than 20 per cent heat loss – one of the best figures in the industry. As soon as the outside temperature falls below 10 degrees Celsius, we cool our data centre using open-air coolers that work without energy-consuming compressors.

The choice of software also plays a critical role in saving electrical power. Based on Linux, 1&1 has developed its own operating system uses server resources efficiently, saving valuable energy.

By hosting your site with 1&1, you choose an environmentally sound and sustainable future and directly support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that come from conventional power plants."


You can find their site here.

Today I've got to rant - I'm just fed up with school run speeding. If I'm walking, cycling or driving with the kids all I get to see is mad school run parents driving at bonkers speeds. I see kids all the time flung around by panicing swerving and heavily breaking parents who are going too fast for the conditions.

If your late you should accept the fact that you are late.

Why put people, including your and our children in danger because you are attempting to make up a few seconds on your journey time?

Keep yourself at a sensible speed and please don't pose a risk to you, your family, me, my kids and anyone else. Better still, walk your short journey (yes that may mean you have to leave your house earlier), or start cycling it.

Personally, I'm for a 20mph blanket speed around any school and 20mph in all residential areas where the residents vote for it. I can also see the argument for a strong instant one week driving ban for anyone caught breaking that speed limit.

Just a quick reminder that there is a Jumble Sales this Saturday (19th Sept 09) at 10am onwards to raise funds for West Berks Green Party. Come along and see if you can grab yourself a bargain!

I don't usually blog about my charity face painting, but today I had a great day out at Paices Wood Country Parkland. The event was arranged by Pang, Kennet and Lambourn Valleys Countryside Project (PKLVCP), which is part of the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group - a national charity. Paices Wood is certainly one of those places that unless you lived near Aldermaston you would never know about - it's a hidden little gem for sure. Paices Wood Country Parkland is accessed through Young (Aldermaston) Industrial Estate, which is on the A340 between Aldermaston and Tadley.

It seems a shame that West Berkshire Council have reduced their grant to the Countryside Project by 50% for 2009/10. I need to make up a logo for West Berkshire - NOT cleaner and NOT greener ?

As always if your in West Berkshire and are in need of someone to come along and face paint for your charity event foc then please drop Adrian Hollister an email.

I do like this type of technology - without backing from the train operators some very ingenious programmers have come up with a way of showing where trains are on the network in real(ish) time. I don't suppose it's hugely accurate, but it's good to see what innovation can create without the need for competition. Each train operating company is in vague competition, but there is still no incentive to excel. This is where private individuals come along. I wonder when the government of the day will realise that our 'profit' and 'greed' based public service models just don't work.