Interesting Facts

In the UK a power of entry is a statutory right for a person (usually a state official such as a police officer, local authority trading standards officer or a member of enforcement staff of a regulatory body) to legally enter defined premises. What kind of things grant anyone such a right? (Public officials in the UK have the power to demand entry to your home without a warrant to make sure illegal hypnotism isn't taking place. They can also demand to inspect your pot plants, under a plant health order. They can demand to see your refrigerator, to make sure it's at the correct setting. And they can go into your garden, to check the height of your hedge. Bin snooping is quite popular too, just to make sure you are putting the right rubbish in the right bin.)

Tom Major was the father of the former Prime Minister of the UK, John Major.  He was a trapeze artist, music-hall entertainer and the owner of a garden gnome factory. (In his book, "The Old Man", John Major writes: Tom spent nearly 30 years on the road as a music-hall artist, for much of that time the proprietor of his own show. He cut his teeth working in circuses and travelling galas, but in 1902 formed a double act with a singer and dancer called Kitty Grant, whom he later married – performing acrobatics, baton-twirling, patter, comic duets and comedy sketches. They became known as Drum and Major, and topped the bill at big halls such as the Leeds City Varieties. Forty years later, Major was the name on his son's birth certificate. But Kitty wasn't John Major's mother. That distinction fell to Gwen Coates, a Lincolnshire girl who joined the company as a dancer. She stepped into Kitty's shoes when a steel girder from a safety curtain struck the unfort...

Spring is springing in the UK, and one of the first signs of spring here is the appearance of snowdrops. According to the official website of the Colesbourne estate, famous for its snowdrop gardens, there are 19 wild species of the genus Galanthus.  Amatsu has taken a lovely photo for us :- (They can be found in the wild from Spain to the Caucasus, but gardeners have selectively bred over 1000 distinct types of snowdrop, and that number increases every year. At the gardens on the estate, they grow over 250 different types, although sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference.)

We have a saying in the UK, "Every man needs a shed", and according to a survey carried out by Big Yellow Self Storage, men in the UK spend an average of 24 days a year in their shed. (Psychologist Anjula Mutanda said: ‘It’s important for men to have a space where they can be alone and uninterrupted, tinker with their collections and indulge in hobbies.’  (Is that what you call it?) We only have a small garden, so poor hubby doesn't have a shed. He has a whole cellar though.)

According to research by the company, Big Yellow Self Storage, most people stash away garden equipment in their shed. (But some men, 7%, set up the shed with a snooker or pool table and 22% store musical instruments, 18% keep exercise equipment there, 17% use it to store bicycles and bike accessories, 13% set up a model railway, 10% have fishing gear,  and many stash comics, books and old gadgets away, and a massive 29% say the shed is where they keep their music collection. If I told hubby to store his music collection in a shed, it would be divorce time.)

The world's largest public toilet is (or maybe the largest plot of land for a single toilet) is a 200-sq meter plot of land in Ichihara City, Japan. (It cost ¥10 million and was installed for tourists to the area, but the loo is in a transparent booth! It's boxed in glass, in the middle of a spacious garden of potted flowers and plants surrounded by a two-meter-high fence, with spy satellites and Google Earth, who on earth would use it?)

Sadly the red red robin might not be bob bob bobbin' along in the UK's front gardens. The recent trend for decking, patios, gravel, and let's face it "low maintenance" gardens may be contributing to a decline in song thrushes, house sparrows and starlings, the RSPB has warned. Richard Bashford said that even small "traditional" front gardens can house more than 700 different species of insect. Food for the birds. (I'm afraid that garden makeover programs have a lot to answer for. Not many animals can live on tarmac.)