GREY SQUIRREL SPOTTED IN GARDEN

GARDEN REPORT-THIS MORNING THURSDAY 10TH JULY SPOTTED A GREY SQUIRREL COMING ALONG FENCE TO THEN CLIMB BIRDFEEDERS TO ACCESS FOOD-COOLEastern gray squirrel
The eastern gray squirrel or grey squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis, is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus.

Penny Odell commented on your status.

Penny wrote: "I saw a grey squirrel run along the fence in front of our house the other day for the first time in 3 years. I'm waiting to see it again. I don't wish to feed it as we have 2 neighbourhood cats within this territory one of which is hell bent on catching the fledglings."

CFZ-COMEDY FRIENDLY ZOMBIES PRODUCTION

SMALL SCHOOL HARTLAND -VENUE FOR WEIRDWEEKEND -15-17 AUGUST 2014

At the end of the Summer, we collect seeds from the flowers and vegetables and these are saved till February when a local organic gardening group uses the school for a Seed Swap. Anyone can come along to this event and even if they do not bring seeds to share, they are welcome to help themselves to some of our seeds. The event is advertised throughout North Devon and it is a good meeting place for gardeners to chat over a cup of tea and a piece of cake made by parents and students.
All of the students at The Small School have lots of opportunities to learn about cooking. Every student at the school spends a week helping out in the school kitchen. During this time we work with a different parent each day and we learn how to cook for over thirty people each meal. It is really good fun and we can use the recipes at home too. We also have to learn about budgeting as we can only spend £1 a person on the ingredients. This will help us when we live on our own we will be able to cook for ourselves. There are also other opportunities for us to help with cooking as the school organises a lot of catering events. For example the school organises a monthly Farmers’ Market in the village and students help to cook a variety of dishes from full breakfasts to just tea and cake.
As well as learning about gardening and cooking, we can also choose from 16 subjects at GCSE level. The subjects are Maths, English Language and English Literature, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Drama, Music, Film, Photography, History, Geography, Latin, Classics, Art and Textiles.
Our school is in an old chapel building and it was set up just over thirty years ago by Satish Kumar as he was concerned about young people travelling long distances to large comprehensives. As a result of this we do not receive any government funding and parents only pay just over £500 a term. The rest of the money comes from the many fundraisers we have to organise and donations from people who support the philosophy of the school. We get quite a lot of visitors from all over the world and we often have volunteers who come into school to teach school to teach a workshop or help out for the day.
If you would like to visit our school then the contact details are on our website www.thesmallschool.org.uk
Year 8 and 9 students
The Small School, Hartland, North Devon

FOR RICHARD FREEMAN

More North Devon villages plugged in to superfast broadband

NORTH Devon villages are among the latest to be hooked up to high-speed fibre broadband, BT has announced today (Thursday).

Braunton; Ashford; Heanton Punchardon; Landkey; Swimbridge; and Mortehoe have been connected as part of the £94million Connecting Devon and Somerset programme, designed to bring superfast broadband to rural areas.

Locally, the programme has also been able to provide additional coverage around the fringes of Barnstaple, and Bideford.

Subject to engineering considerations, Combe Martin, Torrington, Ilfracombe, West Down and Woolsery are due to go live by October this year.

Devon and Somerset has been selected by the Government as one of the pilot areas for the £10million innovation fund to explore alternative technologies.

To date, Connecting Devon and Somerset has connected 173 new roadside superfast cabinets with a further 75 becoming ready for service by early July.

The programme has laid 980 kilometres of spine cable since the roll-out started last year.

Laurent Boon, the BT programme manager, said: “The Connecting Devon and Somerset roll-out of fibre broadband has already made substantial progress and is continuing at a rapid pace.

“This exciting technology is providing a vital boost for local communities across the two counties. Businesses are using fibre broadband to work more efficiently and spread their wings to find new customers in the UK and sometimes much further afield, whilst households are benefiting from the improved online learning and leisure opportunities.

“It means stronger businesses and better job opportunities for local people.”

Researchers translate Chimpanzee sign language

Chimpanzees use their hands to say ‘follow me,’ ‘stop that’ or ‘take this,’ according to new research seeking to translate the sophisticated messages flowing back and forth.
Previous research had revealed that our nearest genetic relatives use gestures to communicate, prompting questions over whether the communication systems shared ancestry with the origins of human language.
The new study, published Thursday in the US journal Current Biology, created the first ever chimpanzee dictionary of sorts, deciphering just what the apes were saying to each other. The researchers said the chimpanzee gestures - they decoded 66 in total - can be used in isolation or several can be strung together to create more complex exchanges.
And, importantly, the meaning remained consistent, regardless of which ape was making the gestures. The messages ranged from ‘simple requests associated with just a few gestures to broader social negotiation associated with a wider range of gesture types,’ said the authors from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.READ MORE

VIDEO BLOG NUMBER TWO