street scene in kathmandu

street scene in kathmandu

Monday, 29 November 2010

http://www.passagetoredemption.com

http://www,acclaimedbooks.com/best

Links

http://thebooknews.blogspot.com

Read about two exciting new books! You already know about Rachel's Shoe - well the sequel 'The Causeway' is now available!
Also take a look at the collaborative book project 'Passage to Redemption'

Sunday, 14 November 2010

Title: Project Alien InvAsion: we have to stop it!

Group: ASOCIACIóN RUTAS Y CAMINOS DE LA SAL Y PARQUE NATURAL DE LAS LAGUNAS DE LA MATA Y TORREVIEJA

(http://www.lamataparkvolunteersblogspot.com/)

The Asociación Rutas y Caminos de la Sal is a group of people of different European nationalities, which since its inception has “had as its objective the promotion, diffusion, protection, and conservation of the natural environment of the Natural Park of the Lakes of La Mata and Torrevieja”. (Art.3 Statutes of the Asociación Rutas y Caminos de la Sal)

Since 2004 the volunteers of this association have actively collaborated with the staff of the Natural Park of the Lakes of La Mata and Torrevieja in various tasks such as giving information to visitors, collating catalogues of fauna and flora in various languages, detection of incidences in the areas allocated to public use, or collecting rubbish, amongst many other things.

However it was in 2009 that this environmental volunteer group committed itself to confronting the problems arising from the introduction and expansion of exotic invasive vegetation (VEI) in this Protected Natural Area.(ENP). The project of “Alien Invasion” was launched.

The above project is based mainly in noting not only the causes but also the consequences of the introduction of this type of species into the Park. With this in mind the project is based on two major and indivisible concepts: alerting the local population to and control of the exotic invasive species of vegetation.

To achieve this the staff of the Protected Natural Area (ENP) train the volunteers and plan the work schedule, organising this in four work groups: Communication, Elimination, Posters and Detection and Control.

Since December 2009 until now the volunteers have taken part in 12 activities, which have eliminated some 77 cubic metres of invasive species such as Carpobrotus sp, Yucca alaifolia, Opuntia subulata and Aptenia sp, among others. These actions have resulted in the recuperation of an area of 1650 square metres.

Sunday, 7 November 2010

Cartagena Romans and Carthagenians

Recently a few of my friends and I visited Cartagena to see the Romans and Carthagenians parade. Wow! A couple of hours of exotic costumes, music and dance...
We were lucky to find a bar/restaurant on the main street and sat in comfort sipping wine and savouring tapas as the parade passed only a couple of metres from our table!
A fabulous evening out - just one of the many first class celebrations that take place here throughout the year.......

Protecting the environment in Spain

Here at home in Spain our local group of environmental volunteers visited an exhibition in Valencia and guess what - we were the stars of the show!
Our group was 'mentioned in dispatches' for the work we have done pulling up invasive plants and replacing them with indigenous ones - as you can see on a couple of the photos of the exhibition boards
This project brings us together for some 'hands on' environmental work with the staff of our local Nature Reserve --and is great fun!

Tuesday, 2 November 2010