The McKenzies' Blog…

On June 26 Lisa’s pre-school, Ladybird Pre-School, had a day out at Wicken Fen.  This is a National Trust owned Nature Reserve near Cambridge.

The weather couldn’t have been better for the day.. it was a little overcast, but that kept the heat down which was good.

(click to see full sized images)

You can see the rest of the pics taken yesterday by CLICKING HERE

Click to read on ….

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The BBC is reporting a bizarre incident where an Antarctic Fur Seal spent 45 mins doing the rumpy pumpy with what can only be described as an unwilling King Penguin..

Why the seal attempted to have sex with the penguin is unclear. But the scientists who photographed the event speculate that it was the behaviour of a frustrated, sexually inexperienced young male seal.

Read the full story here..

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | ‘Sex pest’ seal attacks penguin

I found this while looking around for some new podcasts/vodcasts to watch.

Urban Forest 2.0, come from KQED in San Francisco. I’ve been listening to their NPR mp3 stream for a few weeks.. it’s quite an entertaining broadcast covering pretty much much everything imaginable.

I’m not a tree hugger by any means but I do like green space. One thing that really impressed me when I moved to the UK was how much green space they have in their cities, towns and villages. Every village it seems has a “village green”.. these are usually lined or ringed with trees along with a large area of grassy area. In a lot of villages they will have fairs or carnivals come and setup in these greens, as well as they will hold local events in them. You will have no doubt seen a number of pics from events we’ve been to in Cottenham on it’s village green.

KQED have a story about a new database that is trying to catalogue every tree in and around San Francisco, a monumental task to say the least. They’ve then stuck this on the net for all to access. From the KQED website they have the following to say.

In the past, San Francisco’s long-term urban forest planning was hindered because there was no way to share information, much less get the community involved. That’s all changed, thanks to a significant partnership effort between Friends of the Urban Forest, the City and County of San Francisco, and Autodesk. By working together and leveraging new technology – MapGuide Open Source – the project team has created an Urban Forest Map, which digitally pinpoints the location of each tree, maintains tree data in a consistent database, and offers web access to the tree data – key for maintenance and planting efforts. The community can get involved by posting photos and stories about their own trees that they plant and map online. With the launch of this collaborative effort and the support of the Mayor’s Office, a critical step has been taken to move San Francisco’s urban greening efforts forward.

Check out the video: