30/05/2008 by admin.

Paddington Bear is celebrating his 50th anniversary today.  Here’s a picture of the famed stowaway bear from Peru discovered by the Brown’s at a railway station in West London.  They found him craving a better life at platform 8 and had the good heart to take him in and ‘look after the bear’.

As you can discover from the video below, Paddington emigrated on the advice of his dear old Aunt Lucy!

 http://www.truveo.com/Paddington-Bear-Please-look-after-this-bear/id/1035976138

As our story explains, Malachi was pleased he wasn’t called Paddington as he felt he’d have to wear Wellingon boots, but he secretly has much love for the mischevious bear!

How curious then that the Brazilian national Indian Foundation today released amazing picture of an uncontacted tribe on its border with Peru.  The Brazilian government says it wants to help protect the tribe’s land from illegal logging.  They are designed to prove those who doubted the tribe’s existence wrong.  More than half the world’s uncontacted 100 tribes live in Brazil and Peru.  Take a look at these warriors reacting to the plane… didn’t cupid draw back his bow in our story? Does this mean humanity should live in better harmony with nature?

Let’s ask Amy Winehouse. Does she think that’s right? Here’s a video aired on BBC Three

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymcPoYo8S20

Oh… an anagram of AMY WINEHOUSE is  HAY IN ME HOUSE.  In April, Amy won 5 Grammy awards at the biggest night in the rock and pop calendar.  The star celebrated by visiting her husband, Blake Civil-Fielder, in Pentonville Prison.  She dedicated her awards to her imprisoned husband and London’s blaze hit Camden Market, expressing sadness as the fire destroyed her favourite pub amongst other buildings.

Posted in Q31 Are you a charitable neighbour?, Q43 Do you believe in happy endings?, Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Q22 Do you love our Earth? FREE CHRISTMAS PRIZE DRAW!, Q21 Have you ever hugged a tree?, Q11 Do you believe in justice?, Q18 Do you let your heart rule your head?, Q.8 Do you crave a better life? | No Comments »

15/05/2008 by admin.

Levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere have hit record levels. 

Scientists in Hawaii say levels of the climate change gas had hit 387 parts per million (ppm), the highest level for 650,000 years.  Levels of CO2 have been rising since 1958 and the rate of growth is increasing, rising by more than 2 ppm most years since 2000.  The level is just a few years away from what many regard as the tipping point of 400 ppm, when experts say the world will start heating up dangerously. 

Timely then that Madonna should release her new song, ‘Four Minutes to Save the World’, especially as her work, ‘Hey You’  was captured early in our Watch.  Here’s the video link:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5-BJY00nHI

More curious though is her YouTube message - what was it Malachi said to the world about humans obsession with cleanliness! Take a look (video contains a swear word)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCkwYuoqnyo&feature=related

Meanwhile, HRH Prince Charles has spoken of an urgent need to stop deforestation of the tropical rainforests.  The Prince asks for us to make the connection between felling of the Amazon, and the poverty of the local people.  He suggests investment in the local people is a like an insurance policy for the world; preventing climate chaos from escalating.  Acting against deforestation is a dramatic way to take action that will have an immediate impact, whilst other solutions are explored.  Listen:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7402104.stm

Posted in Q76 Are you going to take action now to save our world?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Q39 Do you believe in magic?, Q21 Have you ever hugged a tree?, Q28 Have you ever lived in poverty?, Q.4 Have you ever wanted to stop the clock? | No Comments »

06/05/2008 by admin.

As the number of casualties from the Burma cyclone continues to grow, it seems the destruction of the countries mangrove forests left coastal areas exposed to the devastating force of the storm.   The combination of more people living in coastal areas and the loss of mangroves had exacerbated the tragedy. A leading Asian politician, Surin Pitsuwan, said, “Encroachment into mangrove forests, which used to serve as a buffer between the rising tide, between big waves and storms and residential areas; all those lands have been destroyed.”

The UN has launched an appeal to raise funds to help the victims of the disaster.

On a much lighter note, a pair of rare pure albino ‘blackbirds’ have been caught on camera in Gosport, Hampshire. It’s another in a string of albino animals seen recently, which is curious given Lucy’s suggestion that we should celebrate diversity as illustrated by the spectrum of colour hidden within the colour white in Nature.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7385714.stm

A closely related condition to albinism is leucism - which involves reduced pigmentation in animals.

Posted in Q34 Have you ever restored something?, Q31 Are you a charitable neighbour?, Q21 Have you ever hugged a tree?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you? | No Comments »

09/04/2008 by admin.

The influential artist David Hockney has donated his largest work, Bigger Trees near Warter to Tate Britain, home of Stubbs’  Haymakers painting.  The landscape - 12 metres long and 5 metres tall - was first exhibited last year at the Royal Academy.

It was painted in situ on 50 individual canvases that fit together like a jigsaw.  Trees especially have caught his imagination - we know the feeling! Oh an anagram of DAVID HOCKNEY is C KIND HAY DOVE!

Proposals to protect honey bees in England and Wales have been announced, with the Government seeking advice of 44,000 bee keepers. Numbers have fallen by 30 percent in the past 50 years. One of the main causes has been an invasion of foreign bacterial diseases which have been thriving thanks to higher temperatures in recent decades.  The Farming Minister, Lord Rucker to the House of Lords has said the English honey bee population could be wiped out within 10 years.  Sir David Attenborough recently said, “If bees and butterflies disappeared, you wouldn’t have any food on your table.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niEZaD_G6PM

What do you think of it so far? Rubbish! Well plastic rubbish. The quantity of rubbish on British beaches has increased by over 100% over the past decade, and most of it is due to plastic. Not only is the rubbish ugly, its also a threat to wildlife. As Emma says, “its like living in the dark ages.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7339737.stm

Posted in Q78 Do you want to be part of the picture?, Q79 Have you ever looked into the shadows?, Q74 Do you like puzzles?, Q31 Are you a charitable neighbour?, Q21 Have you ever hugged a tree?, Q.2 Are you an art lover? | No Comments »

17/02/2008 by admin.

Timber washed ashore in Worthing, Sussex, from the stricken Ice Prince has caught fire. Here’s a video of firefighters tackling the blaze.  we see this as a warning of deforestation for land clearance to allow for farming and building.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7240000/newsid_7249200/7249248.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&asb=1&news=1&bbcws=1

Posted in Q21 Have you ever hugged a tree?, Q15 Do you sometimes fear the worst? | No Comments »

13/02/2008 by admin.

A striking 3o feet fibreglass sculpture of a rearing mustang has been installed at Denver airport in Colorado, USA.

Tragically, the artist, Luis Jimenez died in June 2006 when a prototype of the work fell on him.  The sculpture will look out over the incredible purple moutains. You can view the story below…

http://cbs4denver.com/video/?id=38937@kcnc.dayport.com

We find this piece curious, as it was Albert Thorvaldsen’s intention to shape the ‘Goblin Tree’ in the shape of a horse, ‘Odin’s Steed.’   The Danish sculptor would surely have been impressed by Juis’ work.  Perhaps the mustang can serve as a warning about the need to be reasonable about our love-affair with flying?

Dark, rose coloured magnolia plants are flowering in Britain earlier than ones in their native India, due to the unseasonally warm weather.  Botanists are surprised as the flower - magnolia campbellii - normally blooms in April. Jonathon Jones, of the Tregnothnan Botanical Garden in Truro, Cornwall says, “We here about strange events in nature every day, but these magnolia are among the best I’ve ever seen.”

THE wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC issued a wake-up call to the Indonesian authorities this week: stop the illegal trade in Sumatran tiger body parts or the species will be hunted to extinction.

TRAFFIC claims to have found tiger body parts on sale in 10 per cent of Sumatran shops surveyed in 2006. It estimates that at least 23 tigers were killed that year to supply the trade. That’s down from 52 kills per year in 1999 and 2000, but TRAFFIC fears the decline is the result of the tiger’s increased scarcity, not improved law enforcement. Trade is just one factor contributing to the tiger’s decline, says Tonny Soehartono of Indonesia’s ministry of forestry. They are also being driven into conflict with humans through “land use changes and habitat fragmentation”.

Posted in Q52 Do you believe in miracles?, Q76 Are you going to take action now to save our world?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q48 Have you ever played solitaire?, Q27 Do you like gardening?, Q.2 Are you an art lover?, Q15 Do you sometimes fear the worst?, Q21 Have you ever hugged a tree?, Q.1 Does your life have a purpose? | No Comments »

16/11/2007 by admin.

London’s Royal College of Art are displaying over 2,000 postcard sized artworks made by professionals and artists.   This is curious as ‘The Haymakers Survey’ includes an art postcard collection of it’s own too!  

In Holland, campaigners are trying to save a diseased chestnut tree - one of the few things the World War II diarist, Anne Frank, was able to see from her attic hiding place.   Strange that, as in ‘The Haymakers Survey’ Sarah was inspired by Anne’s thoughts about nature and our choice to include commentary on her by her father in our video collection.  

Posted in Q80a Do you keep a diary?, Q21 Have you ever hugged a tree?, Q.2 Are you an art lover? | No Comments »