How to photograph Koi carp

One of our latest features is for fish keepers who want to photograph their precious pets. Find it on Gardening Masterclass. Instead of murky shots of out of focus fish, have prints to be proud of, with our 'Do's and Don'ts'.

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Deafening silence from local councillors over Congleton trains

Not one Congleton Borough Councillor or Cheshire County Councillor for our area has replied to our e-mail (on 17th Nov) requesting their support and pressure on the Dept of Transport and train companies to provide Congleton with a decent train service. This despite local authorities signing up to minimising climate change. All talk and no action? Perhaps if a few more people phoned, e-mailed or wrote to them, they might realise that they are expected to pay more than lip service to issues?

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£50million for cycling and walking

Great news that Connect 2 won half the vote. Locally, we're looking forward to the new Nantwich-Crewe Greenway (a rural route), the new bridge in Northwich (Riversdale Swing Bridge - to replace the derelict 1930's timber bridge) and the Chester connection over the river Dee between residential areas and the city centre.

Vote now for £50million for UK pedestrian/cycle routes

Sustrans has just sent us this information:

Online voting for The People's £50 Million Lottery Giveaway is now open until 10th December 07 at 12 noon .

If you have previously registered at The People's £50 Million Website and have your username you can log in now to vote here.

The complete online voting process
Designed to ensure total fairness - please do cast your vote because we need your vote to count!

1. Register on The People's £50 Million website so you can vote. Go to The People's £50 Million Website registration page and complete all the required details.
2. Enter your name and a valid email address
3. Create a username and password.
4. Follow the instructions to complete the process.
5. You will receive an email containing a link for you to click on to continue the voting process.
6. Click on this link to return to the website.
7. Log in with the username and password you created.
8. Vote (there is an additional security feature for your vote to be counted, just follow the instructions on screen).

Telephone voting process:
by landline and mobile phone over the weekend 7-10 December 07.

1. Enter your details at 'Remind me to Vote by Phone' on Sustrans website.
2. Include your phone number and you will also be sent the number by text message.

More info on the project:
Sustrans' Connect2 will also be the subject of a television programme on ITV1 at 11pm Tuesday 4th December.

Please pass this information on to as many people as you can.

Thank you for your support.

The Connect2 Team

Garden designs for keen diy landscapers

Practical designs for practical people - that sums up our garden makeover service. You supply the details, we supply the design and know-how. Then it's up to you how quickly or slowly you create your ideal garden. More details on Garden Makeover.

Congleton and trains

Well, just e-mailed all the Congleton Borough and County Councillors to ask if they can put pressure on the Dept of Transport and the train companies to improve Congleton services. Since the councils have signed up to action to reduce climate change, it'll be interesting to see who walks the walk. Watch this space.

Disintegrated train travel for Congleton

Passengers have just successfully reversed a decision by Arriva Trains to delete the 7.09 Congleton-Manchester service (apparently it was Virgin's decision to drop it) - now the next challenge is to persuade the government to insist that Cross Country trains continue to call at Congleton and Macclesfield, rather than increase the carbon footprint of travellers who will be forced into cars.

Apparently from Dec 2008, the Dept for Transport has decided these trains won't be necessary at Congleton. (The proposed hourly stopping train Stoke-Manchester won't help people needing to travel to Birmingham in an hour, as is possible now, or Stockport and Manchester in 20-40 minutes.)

The withdrawal of Cross Country services is a further erosion of choice for us in Congleton, and even if you don't need these trains daily for commuting, they are extremely useful for quick journeys or connections for business, shopping or hospital trips. It doesn't help that there are numerous invisible passengers - those who are able to dodge fares due to lack of ticket checks on trains and at some stations, including Manchester.

There's a specific petition regarding southbound trains on this link below - sign up before 29th Nov to make your voice heard. Protest can and does make a difference:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/congletontrains

You could also let these people know your views about their proposed further downgrading of our train service:
Ruth Kelly, Dept of Transport - kellyr@parliament.uk
Tom Harris, Rail Minister - tomharrismp@parliament.uk
Anne Winterton, local MP - awinterton@riverside14.fsnet.co.uk
Dorothy Littler, Anne Winterton's secretary - littlerd@parliament.uk
Arriva Trains - gordonf@arrivatrains.co.uk

Oh, and you could join East Cheshire Line Railway Users' Group (ECLRUG) - details on local train timetables.

Let's make a difference - if it's only to keep things the same!

Stuck for gift ideas?

We usually think of a great gift idea too late, once the occasion has passed and after we've had to rush to get something that has usually not been quite right. And at Christmas, with lots of people to think of, it really can become a headache.

So that's why we've put a list of ideas for presents on our Gardening Masterclass site - they're all garden related but not necessarily for gardening. For children, for garden lovers, and for pondkeepers.

Also there are more ideas on Photobox where this company creates prints for framing, calendars and other items using your own photographs or other people's, including Alec's landscapes.

Low carbon businesses

Who would have ever predicted adverts by companies proclaiming their carbon neutralness, and business advisors offering carbon footprint analyses. After years of ignoring the issues and labelling those who protested as cranks, perhaps people really have woken up to the effects we're having on our surroundings.

Carbon neutral and eco-friendly holidays are being advertised by the bucketful - strange that, as most of them seem to involve flying half-way around the planet. But with the long security checks and threats of strikes or bad weather delaying flights, adding stress to the departure and return, it won't be much longer before more people start looking at their own country for a relaxing holiday. Cycling and walking holidays must be the most carbon neutral ones around, especially if you hop on a train to get to your starting point.

Making a pond using puddled clay

We've just put a new feature on Gardening Masterclass about making a pond with a traditional puddled clay liner. Not as easy as with a butyl liner, but great fun if you like getting muddy. Good luck!

£50 million for UK walking and cycling routes

There's a huge pot of money from the lottery fund being made available for a worthwhile project, and Sustrans have got their Connect2 project into the running. There'll be a TV vote in December to decide which of four projects will win.

Connect2 is a project to link up existing everyday walking and cycling routes to school, work, parks and so on with bridges over main roads, railway lines and other major obstacles.

Of the four projects, this is the only one nationwide one, with 79 areas set to benefit from the increased opportunities to make daily journeys more pleasant and safer, reduce congestion and pollution and increase people's health.

To increase the chances of this project winning, spread the word to your friends and colleagues. We can all vote in December 2007, but in case we forget, register with Sustrans, or send them a text message, so they can send out a reminder message with details of how to vote.

Either text the message 'Connect2' to 80010 or register on the Sustrans' Connect2 website, where there's more information.

Foray for fungi in Brereton Country Park

Congleton Cycle Campaign's annual fungal foray is on Sunday 9th Sept, meeting in Congleton Park (by the bowling green) at 10.30am for a pedal along country lanes to the woods at Brereton. If we have our knowledgeable guide with us, we can look for edible fungi to take home and try. If not, then we'll have fun identifying the mushrooms, but leave them in the woods for the insects to eat.

New web site for Congleton Cycling Campaign

This group of volunteers has helped make cycling easier for everyone around Congleton. The more members they have gives them more influence, so take a look at the website (www.congletoncycling.co.uk) for their achievements and think about joining. It's only a fiver a year per family and membership gives you 10% discount in the local cycle shops, so you can't lose.

The grass alternative

Crouched down weeding grass seedlings and other weeny plants from between our ‘alternative’ lawn plants, I know full well why we use grass for lawns, and how easy mowing is compared to this. So much for low maintenance, although these plants are beginning to knit together now, so it should work. Third time lucky and all that.

The idea was that it wouldn’t matter if we went away during the mowing season if our lawn wasn’t grass. It’s only a five foot circle anyway and we only walk on it to reach the borders that need work on them. It also gets the drips and shade from our rotary washing line and the past-its-sell-by-date native cherry.

First we tried red clover but used seed that turned out to contain white clover too. The idea was to have red clover because it doesn’t spread by runners. White clover does. And we mistakenly bought an agricultural red clover that grows up and up, so looked as trampled as it felt when we walked over it.

Next idea. There’s plenty of pearlwort (Sagina procumbens) that grows in our area. It’s considered a weed but makes good ground cover. So we scraped it up from around and about, put it in place … and went away for far too long. A hot sunny spell before the trees could cast any shade did for that idea.

Back to a weedy patch again, trying to revert to grass. But then we found a great little plant, New Zealand brass buttons (Cotula squalida is its old name; Leptinella squalida its new). Squalid it isn't, but a teeny ferny-leaved creeping plant with bronze-ish leaves in winter and bright green cheerful growth once spring begins (there's a photo on Gardening Masterclass). Likes semi-shade, likes some sun, doesn’t mind a bit of being walked on, so we dug up some from the drive side where it has successfully spread (over the tarmac as much as the ground, so will need a feed soon enough) and transplanted it into our circle. Covered it with fleece to stop the young blackbirds pulling it out in case it was an earthworm, and it was happy enough until the heatwave, when it sulked a bit. But now – it’s romping away. Still having to weed in the clumps though – and guess what’s growing really well in the gaps? Yep, it’s pearlwort. But at least between the two of them, we’ve got an almost completely green circle now.

Bumble bees need gardeners

It's not just humans flooded out in all this rain - bumble bees are suffering too as they can't fly in heavy rain and their nests (on the ground) are being flooded too. And because of changes in farming practice over the past 50 years, there aren't as many flowers around, so numbers are falling.

So it's good news that gardeners can help with flowers that bumblebees love, often but not exclusively purple-blue ones, and including foxglove, aquilegia, lupins, chives, sage, thyme (in our garden, they love the comfrey that we grow for groundcover). Gardeners can also help out with artificial nestboxes, but need to patient, according to Prof Dave Goulson at Stirling University (home of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust) who's researching the ideal artificial bumblebee nest so gardeners can help survival. He was interviewed on Radio 4's Shared Earth yesterday and explained that bumblebees usually nest in old mouse nests. So although the artificial nests sold at garden centres don't seem to work, if you wait long enough for mice to use them, and then, just as importantly, abandon them, bumblebee queens sniff these sites out and move in. It's all because they can't carry nesting material easily, so have to find a ready-lined place.

You can listen to the programme via the web - just fast forward to around 18 minutes in for the bumblebee bit. The Prof asked listeners to e-mail him with info on successful and unsuccessful bumblebee nests in your garden, but I couldn't find details on the BBC site. However the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website has info on the nest site trial and an e-mail address for your input. The site also has useful lists of flowering plants to grow for bumblebees, plus plenty of other bumblebee bumf. We’ll be adding details of the trust to our list of conservation sites on our Gardening Masterclass site soon too.

Congleton Cycling Campaign

Congleton Cycling Campaign have made their mark on the town by lobbying the local authorities for cycling facilities and devising routes for workers, shoppers and schoolchildren. Their leaflet, Congleton Cycle Network, contains a map of national and local routes through the town, plus contact details for membership - pick it up from the local library or the town's tourist information centre (details on www.congleton.gov.uk).

Map key: National and local cycle networks National and local cycle networks (off road) Congleton cycle network Congleton cycle network (off road) Walk here

A new bar in an ancient village

One of the highlights of our visit to the medieval village of Rodemack (Lorraine’s little Carcassonne) was stumbling over a barn conversion with a difference. Tucked away in a back street, it’s a mix of old stonework and contemporary wood, with an eclectic mix of tables and seating to appeal to all ages.

Georges has spent his spare time over the past seven years converting this old building into a place that locals will feel comfortable in whether young or old, because, incredibly for a French village, there was no bar before this opened. Being newly opened, no smoking is allowed inside (established bars will have to toe the line by the end of 2007), but there’s a terrace in the back garden for those in need. And also being new, it is accessible to all – no tricky steps or narrow doors.

Georges has obviously enjoyed creating unique designs – the bar itself is a beautiful mix of different woods; he’s made all the table tops himself from different materials, and his glass-topped tables are works of art. One contains a display of shells and stones from Brittany beaches; the other has a poultry theme (not too sure why) with proverbs, lyrics and jokes. Perhaps that’s why – they’re a source of inspiration. How about this French saying: If you have chicken skin, you need feathers. Lost in translation? Chicken skin=goose pimples.

The background music is familiar – Celtic – not Irish as we first thought, but from Quebec and Brittany (reflecting Georges’ roots). He’s planning to get his musician friends along once the bar’s established….

As Georges has a day job, ‘La Grange à georges’ is only open at certain times:

Wednesday evenings (7pm-1.30am)
Friday afternoons and evenings (1pm-1.30am)
Saturday all day and night (10am-1h30am)
Sundays (10am-8pm)

If you get the chance to go, and it’s quiet, ask to see his recumbent that he designed himself – and check out the front wheel drive.

No need to go thirsty

A Belgian cyclist we met in France reminded us of this tip - if you can’t find anyone to top up your water bottle, then cemeteries are a good bet. There’s nearly always a tap somewhere for people tending the graves.

Churches and cemeteries are marked on UK Ordnance Survey 1: 50,000 (Landranger) and larger scale maps.

1:200,000 and larger scale Michelin maps for France, Belgium and Luxembourg also show cemeteries, but lots of villages have them so you’re bound to pass a few as you cycle around.

Another tip from the Belgian - the sign 'eau non-potable' (i.e. not drinking water) is usually for insurance purposes only. So in most cases, it's safe to drink.

Road-building madness

Coming back from Dover via the M25 and M1 on the European Bike Express after cycle-camping in the Moselle valley, we were struck by the huge amount of road building going on in the south east of England.

Oil’s running out, and there’s not enough land to grow food and biofuel crops. So let’s spend money and energy on road building.

Oh well, all that new tarmac will make wonderful cycle paths one day soon.

Towpath stoppage in Chester until 11th June 07

Post from Alec

Just discovered that there's useful info about cycling on the British Waterways' leisure site (www.waterscape.com) - including towpath closures on the Cheshire Cycleway and elsewhere:

Chester
16 Apr 2007 - 11 Jun 2007

Towpath Closure - South View at Tower Wharf and Blacon Ave Bridge 129
A section of the Shropshire Union Canal towpath in Chester will be closed temporarily to allow work to take place on mains replacement work to the city's gas supply. Closed to pedestrians from Monday 16th April for eight weeks. This is to enable National Grid to undertake the works. Towpath closure notices with diversions will be put in place while signage is already in place informing local communities of the works.

Kidsgrove railway station - correction to website entry

Post from Val:
Coming back from London on the train yesterday, I realised that the footbridge at Kidsgrove is continuous across both tracks, but on our Cheshire Cycleway website we've said there are two footbridges. So good news that there's only flight of steps to lug the bike up, not two as we had thought (memory must be going - aaaaaaaaah).

Duckweed growth explosion

Post from Val:

This year the growth of common duck weed (Lemna minor) in our pond has exploded. In other years, it has just grown at a steady rate, but this year it’s exceptional, covering the pond in just a day or two. I think it must be due to the recent warm weather and the increasing light levels.

We discovered a long time ago that you can't beat duckweed and to just go with it. It doesn't matter what you try to get rid of it – it always comes back. Even after we re-lined the pond (the liner was leaking) and re-filled it, the duckweed was back in a few months. Where does it come from? Presumably some blows in, but mostly it comes from birds that do the rounds of local water supplies for bathing and drinking. One of the reasons we put a pond in our garden was for the wildlife, to help it survive and provide us with entertainment too.

We created an easily accessible place for birds and other creatures to visit by making a shelf on one side and piling up some pebbles. Every day a bathing party turns up for a dip - if it's not the blackbird with its groupie sparrows in tow, it's the starlings hustling and barging in. But it's the starlings that provide the most entertainment - they splash about like noisy kids – so we call them ‘the boys’.

So, what do we do about the duckweed? Well, it’s not a problem to wildlife, and the weed provides useful shade and takes up nutrients so we don’t have blanket weed problems. But we put in water crowfoot (Ranunculus peltatus) to do this – it’s less of a thug and has pretty white flowers too in spring. The duckweed problem is that it blocks the view of the newts and frogs, and eventually makes the pond look like a bright green lawn. A local cat got a shock when it thought the green surface was solid – never seen a cat move so fast, just like in the cartoons with legs spinning in the air.

So we just skim the duckweed off with a net or a sieve, returning any newts and snails that we accidentally scoop up in the process, and restoring the reflective surface, which is what makes a pond so attractive.

And that’s it. Apart from skimming duckweed in spring and summer, and fallen leaves in autumn, our pond looks after itself.

See: www.gardenmasterclass.co.uk