Green roofs bring more toys for Christmas
There could be a new benefit from adding a green roof to your house – extra gifts from Father Christmas. In an exclusive interview with The Ecology Consultancy Santa revealed that he favoured houses with green roofs when delivering toys. He commented ‘A green roof really draws in Santa, I favour the comfier landing they provide and the reindeer appreciate the opportunity to snack. I always stay longer at houses with green roofs so they can refuel and that means I leave extra gifts for the good people inside’. Father Christmas then continued ‘as we are going for ISO14001 certification we are also keen on the biodiversity aspects and insulating properties of the roof and use them for evidence of us greening our supply chain. We already land outside of the bird nesting season so that we avoid any breach of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in relation to ground nesting birds and black redstarts and this is another step in the right direction.’
Picea abies added to the list of Schedule 9 species
After lobbying from homeowners throughout the UK the Norwegian interloper Picea abies has been added to the list of invasive species. The tree is not a problem in it’s native Norway as the local troll population use it for toothpicks and keep the numbers at manageable levels. However
since the last UK trolls were hunted to extinction during the reign of Queen Victoria the tree has reached unmanageable levels in the UK. A homeowner said ‘ I am delighted at this news, every year this menace appears in the corner of our living room, whatever I do to try and stop it. If it was just the tree it wouldn’t be too bad but it has an insatiable desire for fancy trinkets to be wrapped around it and demands tribute in the form of wrapped gifts. It usually takes us until Christmas day to kill the thing and get the gifts back to the kids. I for one will be delighted when this struggle with nature is over’.
Other news
Holly and mistletoe rejected as biodiversity measures by BREEAM assessor
Great Crested Newts prepare for Christmas by finding a ‘really festive’ log to hibernate under
Recipe Corner
Following on from last year’s Schedule 1 three bird roast we are this year preparing an invasive species Christmas dinner as follows
Starters
Signal Crayfish sautéed in three cornered garlic butter
Or
Giant Kelp and Curly Waterweed Salad (v)
Main Course
Whole Roasted Muntjac deer with all the trimmings
Or
Oven Baked Zander in a Slipper Limpet jus
Or
Few flowered leek and Japanese Knotweed stir fry (v)
Dessert
Giant Rhubarb in a Water Primrose sauce
Drinks
Hottentot Fig liqueur
Japanese knotweed tea
