It's Thursday 9th March 2006

The red objects to the right of the picture are recycling boxes, they are empty because the dustbin men called at 7am to empty them and the normal wheelie bins.















I forgot to put our wheelie bin and recycling box out last night (again). They won't take anything that isn't in the bin or red box...anything at all.

This is our compost bin















It's the one with the brown top which means you put garden waste in it. South Derbyshire district council starts it's composting collections today.

Hopefully we won't need to use the brown bin as we bought a compost bin last month through the discounted compost bin programme.

It's bigger than we expected - 700 litres. Doesn't sound a lot but I'm thinking of renting it out.















We got it because Amanda now has two Hermanns tortoises
















The substrate used in a tortoise enclosure depends on the owner and the available materials. some "experts" recommend a mixture of 3 parts John Innes compost and play sand. You need to change the substrate frequently (or buy very small nappies) and the border was getting a bit full. We now put the used substrate in the composter together with the household waste so hopefully it will make a nice rich compost in a few months time.