Iran is still actively seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction according to a German intelligence report in direct contradiction to Angela Merkel's belief that the 2015 atomic deal with the Islamic Republic ended Tehran's nuclear weapons ambitions. IF YOU BELIEVED THAT YOU MUST BELIEVE IN FLYING PIGS. ... but then maybe Angela does...

is Merkel suffering from a cognition problem?

Jul 22, 2018 at 10:04 PM | Uibhist a Tuath

For any form of pest, human or otherwise, there will always be favoured and less favoured foods, whether they are best for overall health or not.

If Field Mice were always present, what did they prefer to eat in previous years, that was not available this year?

On the Hampshire Downs, 2018 was noticeable for the periods of snow, and consecutive days without temperatures rising above 0°C. The garden daffodils flowered, but not brilliantly, the wild garlic and bluebells in adjacent woods were not spectacular, nor were the tree blossoms. If fruit crops are poor this year, the drought will be blamed, and the late frosts forgotten.

I have scarcely seen hedgehogs this year, badgers are down, foxes and deer up. I have tried to zero-in the air rifle. The air rifle is fine, I just can't shoot straight. Rabbits have invaded, and the local foxes have been negligent in allowing their numbers to rise.

Rats were a big problem last winter, dealt with by shop bought rat poison, that was banned from sale as of April 2018, and I have very little left. High velocity lead poisoning is my only option, should rats reappear, but I need some form of steadying bipod mount, or high density bean bag, as my aim is currently Junckered.

Jul 22, 2018 at 7:51 PM | Supertroll

US and UK Law are completely different! Does the US even have Planning Law?

The UK's Green Taliban have obstructed exploratory drilling and associated work, to assess the potential for Fracking. This Permitted Development is for exploratory drilling, not for commercial extraction of shale gas.

If you go back 20(?) years ago, every mobile phone mast could be objected to under the Planning process. Then things changed with a simple change in Government wording, that meant there had to be exceptional circumstances to object. Wind turbines got a simiar free pass. Now, Exploratory Drilling for Fracking Survey purposes will get the same.

UK Planning Law does cover almost all development. It is generally administered and enforced by LOCAL Government, not Central Government or County Councils, and the public underestimate how powerful it can be as a political power. The Green Blob have been very "astute" about influencing Planning Committees, especially when they have no elected representation at all.

Pcar
I've heard of onions on the perimeter of gardens to deter deer where cervine raids are a problem.

Various Duckduckgo searches reveal the following

Field mice commonly live in gardens, where their vegetarian diet can cause problems for gardeners. For most of the year their numbers tend to remain low. However, in autumn they can build up high populations and cause a great deal of damage into early winter.

The diet of field mice is mostly vegetarian. They often eat seeds, especially the pea and bean seeds. They’ll readily attack the seeds of newly planted legumes. They also feed on the seed crops of trees such as beech, oak, lime, ash, sycamore, and hawthorn. They may also consume tubers, corms, and bulbs, especially those that have been planted recently

https://pestkill.org/mice/field-mouse-eat/

So I think it's a strong possibly that I have field mice with a taste for onions, and thinking about it this Springs daffodils and crocus displays didn't match expectations again I itially put down to hostile winter and late Spring.

Jul 22, 2018 at 4:45 PM | Supertroll
Jul 22, 2018 at 5:45 PM | Uibhist a Tuath

There are many "roads" on the South Downs that could do with similar signs. The Private Driveway opposite is marked on some Maps and GPS as a road, something it ceased to be in the 1930s.

I know the Ordnance Survey Maps do have deliberate errors, to help identify blatant cheating/copying by rivals, but I do wonder whether the OS got themselves lost up here in the first place, given the number of errors.