Stay updated with breaking news from Pakistani culture. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
The Unseen Contributions Of The Pakistani Diaspora – OpEd eurasiareview.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from eurasiareview.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Islamabad:Jamal Shah, Interim Federal Minister for National Heritage and Culture on Tuesday said that no country can move forward unless its people have a strong cultural identity connecting an...
LAHORE:The Lahore Arts Council has announced holding a competition for script-writing for theatre drama. This competition's primary aim is to promote theatre to address important social...
Huawei ICT competition cultivating new talent | By Hashim Ali pakobserver.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pakobserver.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
of the cricketers, i believe, involved in trying to help with the effort to get aid to people. indeed, the proceeds _ effort to get aid to people. indeed, the proceeds from _ effort to get aid to people. indeed, the proceeds from the _ effort to get aid to people. indeed, the proceeds from the first - effort to get aid to people. indeed, the proceeds from the first match i the proceeds from the first match will all go towards the prime minister's fund for flood relief, but the pakistani cricket board have commissioned a special shout that the team are going to wear for the first match as well, and proceeds from that will go towards flood relief as well. they will do a minute's silence for her majesty the queen's passing and also in honour of the flood victims, it has been devastating, as i'm sure you have been reporting. so it has been very difficult for pakistan, and again cricket is such a huge part of pakistani culture and identity, they look to cricket in the darkest times to offer some light at the end of the tunnel. and it appears that this series, at the very least, has encouraged a lot of excitement and goodwill amongst the people there. so sport, charity, remembrance,
Cultural cosmopolitanism and Pakistan tribune.com.pk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tribune.com.pk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
January 10, 2021 Jalibi’s scholarly contribution will keep him alive in the memories of those who love Urdu as a language and as a vehicle of literary articulation. Kudos are due to Prof Zahid Munir Amir on compiling a volume, Armaghan-i-Jamil, in honour of Dr Jamil Jalibi (1929-2019), who does not need an introduction. Putting together such a well written and edited volume in the memory of the “eminent historiographer, brilliant critic and scholar of high merit” is a highly commendable effort indeed. Particularly noteworthy in this regard is Prof Amir’s initiative to include his graduate students in this venture. Almost a dozen of them are credited with contributions to this volume. This must have provided them the much-needed training in the art of writing serious Urdu prose – a vital skill for the young scholars to acquire. These very cogently written chapters are preceded by an exhaustive introduction by Prof Amir himself that provides a comprehensive overview on Jalibi sahib’s life, his personal traits and his services for Urdu language and literature. The volume also includes facsimiles of Jalibi sahib’s letters addressed to the editor of the volume which I found quite a valuable source of history.
1800. 792 medium b.b.c. Radio. News at 9 o'clock with Richard O'Reilly the east Belfast m.p. Govern Robinson says a major trade ruling in favor of bombarded last night is fantastic news for workers in Northern Ireland they are a space firm one an international ruling in the us against as rival Boeing meaning that it avoids high u.s. Import tariffs on the c. Series plans the wings of which are made in Belfast the day you pm pay says the decision is a great boost for the city the fundamentals of the c. Series and the fundamental arguments upon bar day have made at 3 Ike that have been vindicated and sort of par to them I'm delighted with the news this evening and I wish some every success in selling what is a magical aircraft there's been a shooting at a juvenile boxing tournaments in Dublin that happened last night last than a week after the 14th murder in the feud between the hutch and Ken and crime gangs 44 year old convicted armed robber was shot in the food a 2nd person believed to be a student with no links to criminality is also believed to have received pellet wins in the crossfire Gardy believe 2 gunmen wearing ski masks were involved in the tea Shockley over up here has told the b.b.c. He will come pm for Ireland's abortion laws to be liberalized in a referendum on the issue later this year a vote is expected this summer on whether to repeal an amendment off the Irish constitution which in effect terminations thousands of children in Northern Ireland are receiving the results off their post primary school entrance exams this morning but testing organizations have reported a significant rise in entrants this year our education correspondent Robbie Meredith reports a q.b. And the post-primary transfer consortium say there were well over 15000 entrants for their tests this school year that's a rise of around 6 percent on. Last year though it's estimated that around 2 and a half those children sit both tests it's been a decade since the Department of Education decided to scrap the official 11 plus but the vast majority of grammar schools still use the unofficial tests to decide who to admit why people's will get their results the small orning which school they'll go to though will only be confirmed later this year with the support Here's Desi McCallion Rory McILROY has surged to the top of the leader board at the Dubai Desert Classic after charging 5 birdies and 7 holes as he completed his 2nd round this morning he's just gone I don't know his 3rd round alongside overnight leader Jamie Donaldson who's No 2 shots back play is underway at the Australian ladies tennis final Caroline Wozniacki has made the best start on a few moments ago she was 42 up against the more I'll up and the 1st set both players are betting 2 on a 1st Grand Slam title a month test United are through to the 1st round of the f.a. Cup Alexis Sanchez made his debut as they comfortably saw fuel full time by 4 goals to no and last night's all like him Sheffield Wednesday paid reading 3 warm thanks for that there's a hand on to the weather start to that for the day but the only reason Wilson clear up with bright and sunny intervals although there will be a few showers a mild start but turning colder later with some like to strong winds maximum temperature of 12 the Greece a.b.c. News I'm going to Macaulay and on your behalf at a quarter to 10 when it's all about money and the song goes Money makes the world go round but does it Katherine's money may well have gone round the world it certainly went straight out of her bank account when she was scammed out of her wages just before Christmas and what would that do for her credit rating and what could she do to mitigate the damage John has money in the form of 2 checks had gone nowhere he'd forgotten all about them but at 3 years old were they too old Jones has his bank said they were on Philomena says her bank sent her 15 year old traveler's checks remember them couldn't be cashed either they both got their money find a tie on your behalf on the experts are with me but on gentleman's been David Creswell is in Belfast so you've got to quit. Pick up the phone 30385555 text 81 double 71 and join me 945 til 1030 on your behalf. Good morning. Gardeners corner. Of January believe it or not but winter is still with us and it's the perfect time to print for a tree. Put. Up a. Light. For. A great crop to so with this time of year is broad beans. But there's. A lot to choose from no day gardening we find the benefits. If you mulch with reason we will decompose compost. The slugs. Because you for example destroy beetles beetles slugs much less disappears you know. And it's a big garden bird watch this weekend we had to find out more about making our feathered friends. If you can create interface between. The perfect because. They can feed. Coming up this morning as the days lengthen the promise of spring is all around us plenty of boulders peeping through on white carpets of snowdrops appearing We'll have more on those bulbs next week but there is already a piece on the gardeners corner program paid. All about them just go to the garden notes section on b.b.c. Doco to u.k. Forward slash gardeners corner and you can of course find me on Twitter Well this pair is just in it's what I would call winter dormancy night but this is a really good time to be thinking about your fruit trees because you don't want to be putting them to lay it all in the spring and if you get a flush of growth or a flush stop coming up then you're actually you know knocking the energy off the plants or better to prison earlier on in the season so John Raese the time to do that yes it's a perfect time to prune those fruit trees and is an expert she took me through the do's and don'ts. We have an old pair here that's growing up on one of the walls and I've got that already a lovely brunch framework as you can see there to print and t.v. So I'm going to be cutting back some moves longer growths back into fitting buds at the base but if you were new to all of this really your looking at your frameworks you're looking at branches that you want to expand out hopefully you have planted it summer or you've got something that you can you can actually tired and so if that's what the way you want to go but we call this a spa layer this sort of fashion of getting your branches to come out the whole idea is because you want your branches to be setting up $45.00 degree angles so that the sunlight is hitting those branches and you get a much much better footing crop from that this is why all of these old methods work extremely well because they've been tried and tested over the years a strain has a fancy name but essentially it's just getting more fruit at the end of the day by making the plant grow better yes it's like farming out the branches and then what you're wanting to do at the very start is trying to imagine what do you want your tree to look like so it's a bit like a peacock's tree and you know what every puts is lovely big feathers right this is sort of the idea of spotting up on the idea thought is that each of the branches have light and air and running them so as if it buds can actually form and produce for it right we're coming right up to the tree now as you say it's very established what we can see here are some horizontal branches been trained across the wall and then a lot of the shoots coming off of them which are either coming towards us or straight up in the air what are you going to be doing with those when you see those these ones that are coming straight up from horizontals these are the ones that we're going to be printing back quite hard because you what you don't want is if I let that continue before you know it you've got the whole wall covered with a whole mass of branches so much won't get in It'll put a whole pile of energy into growing growing growing and you have less fit production so the idea of this printing is to encourage them to for. But because they have to actually do something so in a way it's a bit of a shock mechanism and this is why all of your fruit that you eat all the time is produced by careful printing so we're looking at this large shoot pointing towards is up in the air it's at 90 degrees to the horizontal What are you going to do with are you going to cut away completely Well what I do before I even get too excited about getting the 2nd Her David is I start to look at the color actually of the wood number one and also sort of a bud at the very end of the branches because there's 2 different types of buds and if you go into to it you look for thought buds and those are your fruiting buds those are the odds over just your fruit and then if you've got a long narrow bods those are the ones that produce growth so you can imagine your growth buds are the ones that you're probably going to print quite heavily there are other fast bugs you're probably going to try and leave unless they're all you have to print on the thing for a while and then you're looking at a different type of printing technique so I will be looking for these long ships that are coming up and you can see the difference in the color of the wood here the older wood is inclined to be much paler and grayer and the young growth that has been for of last year as you might see is much much more like a what you call it like a donkey Brian car so it's quite distinctly different but if you stand in here and the great thing at this time of the years you know fully no distractions so you can see really end to your tree for a while when you're here and also when you're out here on your r. Op close and you're looking at your printing also be looking for ships that are crossing think about that you don't want crossing shoots also be looking for maybe like disease signs of disease and your bark and the thing and it looks a bit as if it might have canker starting to form those are good times to get those are things printed as well so when you look here at this bottom shit that we have here we've got 12345678910111213 or 14 Spurs as we call them come. No I if you look at the very bottom part here you'll see that there has been it's been nice print in the past and you can see that it's got a nice growth pattern there for 2 days Fareed tall but then as we come on up closer to trade you'll see that there's a quite a long shot here which is probably a bite to maybe 2 foot long and then there's another one here this is at least 3 foot long so these are the ones that will be printing right take back and I were printing these back to picked at least 2 buds from the base because these are not going to produce anything except extra growth and more congestion so when you say they're going to produce anything apart from extra growth that's because there are no frigging bones or not should absolutely no fitting budging see here they're all tight narrow buds so tight and narrow bods means no fruit so we'll cut these back to probably a bite 2 to 3 from the way they actually And this is why we call it spur printing because if you get your 1st sticking out before you get on your horse This is what it looks like a spur. You know what you can imagine if you can think of some of the westerns and you just cut that at about a 45 degree angle to the cut itself just above about as well so you don't you want you don't want to leave a snag a snag is a piece of wood that ends up rotting back and towards the not that's never good because what can happen there is it just ruins the bud and then you only have another couple for the Dying for that brick from again so just cut these back and then what you want this to do eventually next year is that this is not going to grow but because you've pruned it the plant starts to think differently and it's thinking actually I think maybe I'll just put on effort but here and so this is what you're doing all the time with us is you're encouraging the plant to produce more for it by taking out this extra wood which is not required for us but in the wild a normal tree will just get larger and larger and what we're trying to do of course is contain things. Evillest pear tree is well Jennifer Grey is about 20 food. Absolutely tarring above us and is clearly pretty vigorous as well as would be a lot of printing to be done here but is there anything gardeners can do when they're maybe working on a slightly smaller scale to get a plant that will be naturally more contained. You can get for it to grow on different routes stalks and it depends on the vicar of thrift store you can have a conversation about which routes talk is the best just actually noticed this was amazing because there are lines across the what are they about a foot apart with the holes where you can obviously put ties in and tie the tree to it's an absolutely. None of it is going to have that of course you need to keep in mind in terms of maybe preventing damage to the tree you've just pointed out something that's very unique to our these walls this is a fantastic where you can actually tied directly to the wall is no need to put wires or strainers up but most people won't have this at all so you do have to think bite ways of getting them it mean it is a fantastic opportunity to be able to grow up against a wall because you've got vertical gardening but you are going to have to put some sort of means of support up through Should it be a fence or should it be. So if you can tie up today it's easy enough to do just what you've got to the planning for that but once you've got your supports up you do need to be tying your shoots to that now you can use all sorts of different things all types if you want to. Strings usually roughly or all of those sort of plant if plastic ties available and if the garden centers the idea that doesn't damage the bark don't forget if you are tying anything up on a permanent basis so especially with wire is that you do need to come and check those overpaid a time because look at this except the conference of some of these lovely ships that are coming out and you can see there that you know the real whole idea of having the ships coming out from the plant that got as you do you always have to have an extra bit of growth coming along because this. But closer to the tree will become less productive as a treat gets older and older i see need to always have to have young fresh shoots coming on for the right that's going to be just sure your fruit for the future a master class from getting there and if you'd like to see that quite impressive pear tree and the just as impressive wall I mentioned head over to our program page b.b.c. Don't you k. Forward slash gardeners corner it's not just time to prune but supplants and a great seed to sew at this time of year is broad beans particularly with children I know we've been doing it and our house it's messy but coming up some of Barbara Pilcher's fear for days so. Well Barbara if anyone ever thought that there's nothing to do in the garden in winter and that's dumb but a dreary place you're on the answer to that because we're in your greenhouse at the moment and it's all go in here plenty of things happening at the moment we're looking at 2 trays there which you planted up with broad beans I think I love this having air there and as you say I mean there's a mass of things to do finishing off things from last year and starting new and yes I have my broad beans here and I like to start them off and parts use fairly deep pots if I have them you can also use root trainers I have a few of those as well and you can and 5 so of them any time from also on I think that traditional time was Badman the king and that's what his day was 28th of November but any time so I'm slightly late this year but they come on and plenty of time there's a little bit warms here is just about frost free I could even cover them with a lead which I might do and I will plant the my twin there and there while up and when the soil has warmed up a little bit I sighed when do you expect to see those Barbara any time nah I have one little heated proper gator in here and I moved a few pots into to see if it could get them up soon and give me an indication that's probably be about a couple of weeks earlier than what they'll come up with identity x. Tree a good thing maybe for someone who's starting odds with regards to the verge garden broad beans a good thing to try and props with children as well they're lovely with children because they have such big seeds and you know even if you dig them up and sort of have a look to see if things happening it will probably if you do it carefully it will not do them any harm you're pop them in there is not standard practice though and I think there are joys seeing them because once they do come up they make leaves very quickly and if you get them. Eating broad beans as well and if they pick nice and young you know they are going to love them any particular varieties you would recommend Barbara if you're sewing an autumn act with alt there's the the one that's usually recommend I've got one that was recommended to me called Express and I like the idea of come up quickly and but there's lots of others there's a lovely heritage crimson flowered broad being or if you like a short broad been there's there's a something short variety so there's a lot to choose from so we lose sight of the greenhouse here Barbara what we've got going on plenty of green vegetation in front of me here well I sowed my careens and they also I'm quite extensively and I've been using them right through just to cut and I had to salads over the winter and they're terribly useful but what I'm finding 9 is especially with the things that have still a lot of growth to make and if they're not too tightly packed and tend to bolt I have been able to pick some of the might so I've got charred and leaf beat I've got to. Spend it and I can pick those side and plant them I garden they're on so I've got a double whammy if you if you like I can cut away at my micro greens and wait for the mature plants to come on and go outside and do their normal thing and this is an unheated greenhouse and they're perfectly happy in these conditions Well I have a little tubular heater and it just takes you wouldn't notice the heat but it just takes the absolute chill off and I think it does help a little bit but no you don't need heat particularly if you saw them in the autumn that's the trick with micro grains don't leave it to look at other ways it is lower it takes longer for them to come up and some piece should Syria's Well yes a piece shoots and they're quite well cupped as you can see and I could take another cutting off. They're they're lovely just for garnishing silence and nice flavor nice people ever all these different flavors they do such an extra dimension to your cooking you can use them as garnish you can use them you know on top of super You can just put them in the salad and you know mustard you'll have hot leaves from that and and rocket is you know it's quite hot then you've got all the onions things. And coriander it so lovely to have all these different flavors coming from a cold greenhouse in the middle of the winter when it's hard to think of a greenhouse which has been better used as well in terms of the space inside because my greens you talk about they're on a 1st tier shelf if you like there's another tier above that was some of your your succulents and then at our feet you actually have a bed here were some other bits and pieces or being grown including some partially think yes there's a flat leaf parsley Tallon giant in the corner and I love the parsley and I can just pick the odd leaf off it at the moment I don't I try not to take too much of it because I really wanted and when some of the plants are big enough I'll put them I'd side but that's a great parsley and you know gets quite enormous and you can cut cut cut at that during the spring and summer What's next for you in here I suppose I go all done by lakes and I've done my garlic and I've done my broad beans the next thing on the list is chilies So I like to get chilies and they need a long season and I'd be selecting my chilli seed and putting it in February and hopefully I'll get a good crop this year I had a traffic crop of several different kinds last year and I want to build on that they share and after that tomatoes so in my head there's a calendar of sowing I've got to the stage and I were sort of built into Melbourne in the homeless do it automatically but there's always room for a few surprises. Ridge and I didn't know much about it and it just felt the right thing to do honestly it was not based on great knowledge and it hasn't been until recently that it's a living part of us all that I was feeling for and you know when you dig all disturb a soul and you see all these worms struggling in and the other things that look damaged all of you know I since discovered there's less of other reasons for being know to quit which just reinforce that original feeling Charles darting has been a passionate advocate of no day gardening for decades he claims that gardeners can get just as good or even a better use from of edge pots with all it's all in the back breaking digging I spoke to him down the line from his home in Somerset about the evidence in favor of no desc the main thing is to understand how nature works by soil absorbing food from the surface us just the key points you know everything happens all over the planet Earth and if we try and break that method then then we get problems so what you want to do is put the organic matter on the surface and that way you off feeding the soil it's about freezing the life in the soil and feeding that organisms from the surface without disturbing the main is they are encouraged and able to breed and thrive multiply and then they do all the amazing work in the soil which our machines have been trying to do not rotating to evoke whatever it might be a later fall but you know they keep a structure in the soil while they working at rates that drain it for us so it's just a question of working out how best to feed the soil surface since 2007 and for. Talk been running what I call it Big No Dick trial it's not like a scientific experiment because I'm you know I'm not a scientific research session but what I do very simply is have that side by side one better dig and incorporate be compost or whatever compost I'm using on the other bed I put the same amount of the same compost on the surface and then or so and plant the same vegetables in each bed side by side observe the growth and record all the harvest and I didn't know when I started that 11 years ago what was going to happen and brother to my surprise if I really you know I thought maybe you know perhaps that dog saw will do a bit better for all x. True you know turns out the other way round that in 9 years at 11 the obvious from the no dig bed have been higher and all that for less work and I even noticed a really nice things like I need a bit less water 40 noted but I get a little less like damage there's many many pluses as well as the fact that the harvest is slightly higher there's pluses there's extra plusses you talk about are really interesting when you say that you know after a few seasons you'll see a lot less weed growth and you can actually get in top of the slugs as well the gardeners number one enemy absolutely Well that's where when I started out no dig I was basing my methods on an American exponent called roof stocks who wrote this lovely book called No work gardening not strictly true but her method was using hay most because it just so happened her husband was a farmer and he had spoil that she could use and her results were brilliant and I did that in my 1st year I thought well I'm not sure we got it and then I got those slugs and then if I don't I'm in the hay is perfect habitat for slugs and so I went back to her book and in not book there is no mention of the word slug does not even occur so a right is the climate you know there she's in continental USA hot dry summers very cold winters they just don't have slugs so my mulch not is. Impost I mean that's in a nutshell if you mulch with reason we will decompose compost you're not offering any extra happy times for slugs and then with a no dig because you are not for example destroying beetles there are beetles that eat slugs and all the other network of organisms that interact with each other in the soil and around and above the so you are leaving them all intact under the balance can happen and yes you will still have some slugs but I find that the slight damage I get is much less It appears you know from what I see elsewhere than other people who are disturbing this off very interesting gardeners always looking for ways to beat those slugs and get the yeah veggie way from the one your book is called the vegetable Charles Darden's vege journal it's been released now in paperback and it takes one through each month of the year practical tips on sowing and harvesting alongside other useful information on organic fertilizers as a dealing with Wade's and also some interesting experiments in the garden and you go through the various results you had with them one thing that really interested beach I was near the back is you're experimenting with planting with the moon as it were but you had some quite interesting results with that yes I would say probably about 6 years out of 10 the results favor following the moving calendar but the other 4 for whatever reason it's more or less the same actually and it's made me realize that it's definitely worth sowing by them and there is a choice of different approaches within that and the moon definitely affects growth but there are also other factors and it's really taught me how in a way I see how little we know still you know modern science does tend to claim it knows a lot which it does but there's still huge areas that are unexplored and moon sewing is certainly one of them but there were these 2 Russian scientists in the 1920 s. And thirty's who did 10 years of trials and discovered that the biggest harvest came consistently from sowing planting 2 days before full moon Yes So you see. In the book about Damn I think you planted was just when the man was waxing is that right yes on the whole I find you get stronger emergence and generally stronger plants from planting when or showing it's showing actually more than planting just to be clear it's we're talking about showing seeds that's the key point you know when the seed hits moist soil moist compost that even in a greenhouse it kind of receives a like a moon horoscope if you like rather like the same idea of one with one root it's just on horoscope and not affects the growth and generally sowing on the waxing moon the plants then in my experience grossly stronger. Throughout but not always absolutely fascinating Charles And just finally I was going to ask you as it's a journal which goes through the months of the year I don't know if you've got it in front of you but I wonder if you have any tips for our listeners for January in the vegie garden you know the main one is to wait until you show I've been over the years I've come to the conclusion it's not much benefit from showing anything in general except possibly but one thing I would recommend is peas and you can grow fantastic piece if you grow them slightly closer than peas would you care for pods to harvest shoots peashooters is a coming vegetable now and it is something you do easily at home so you're so you appease a bit closer than you would normally I would show them on the cover now and in pots trays to plant tight in say March and then cover with fleece if you can because that will promote growth keep the pigeons off and you can have these lovely piece shoot harvest April May June and I give methods for picking so that you harvest regularly little and often in fact that is a theme of the book Little and often successful gardening comes from not trying to do everything all at once but little phases even every day if you can a certain every week and that's why the book is laid out in the monthly format because it takes you through and gives you hence all the time as you go through the . Chose darting there so what about lunar planting ever tried it if you have get in touch with the program on gardeners corner at b.b.c. Dog u.k. I will definitely have to investigate That's a bit more in the weeks ahead as book is published by Francis Lincoln and you can read my brief summary of no dig in the garden notes section of our program page now it's the weekend of the r.s.p.b. Zbig garden bird watch so if you have an art to spare today why not sit with a cup at sea and have a look at the birds which come into your garden 17000 people here took part last year counting 130000 birds and you can get more information on it by going to r.s.p.b. Dot org dot u.k. Forward slash birdwatch hard to. Say well with this weekend in mind I headed off a few days ago to a place where there is no shortage of birds. Well I'm here at the castle as be wetlands center on a cold crisp but a very beautiful morning and with me is the reserve manager Morris Charlie Morris thanks for having me here today to have a look at what's going on on the site you know you're very welcome to the source of strength for luck and cost less be wise for the Wetlands Trust Center this time of year is actually really nice time to visit the center because you know you can quite onto the ashtray and have a look at all the wintering boards but at the same time you know you'll see all those birds that you're familiar with in the garden and on a few visitors as well as great Fred if habitats on the reserve plus we have our you know collection area with of course from all over the world so you know you're very welcome That's what have a closer look Mark's. Well Morris we've come dying to the brand's discovery hide to our right we can see the mudflats of strength for luck What's this area in front of us known us this area here is known as the marsh so this is one of the habitats on the reserve. And yeah we're doing our best here to try to you know encourage some of the birds in and feed on the on the salt marsh who are quite lucky this morning though we have quite a few birds out there some red green shank I see a curly there in the distance which is nice and a few there too so that's that's really good for us and it's showing us that you know things are developing there's lots of invertebrates you know what there for them to feed on so looking here at Castle asked me actually because the hay they were in at the minute is actually one of the best vantage points on strength for a block and we're looking over the flats here at the northern end of the loch and it's you know the spectacle is just at the start of the winter season watch and the wintering you know birds are right and I mean it really is spectacular and so one of the main species for us on the one that we really look forward to is the is the Bryant case which come here and huge numbers each year so we're always kind of less than an aid to the end of August for that distinctive say of the Bryant case but we're very we're very lucky we get a huge variety of winter birds come and dine a lot of waiters lots of ducks get some you know who performs as well it's really magical place a massive numbers you talk about what kind of numbers you see and here we take the brant geese for example I mean were told can if we sort of consider strength for luck as a whole Republican in numbers around the $20000.00 mark and the majority of those birds will be in the northern end of the locks on the on the mudflats here either Britain in the Arctic in northern Canada and their commentary in here sort of a skip but cold weather up there they're not going to get too much out there but we have there's a plant that grows on the mud out here called grass it was really protein rich plant so as those birds are migrating So this is this is a staging post for them and we can recognise the importance of staging post and things like that so they're coming here to Kenya feed in in big numbers and I know a lot of the local people in the area you know they'll be less than for the birds come in and see them sort of flying over their gardens and things which is really good. Morris we've come up to the woodlands know which overlooks the whole Reserve really and of course provides a completely different type of tap for birds or perhaps more familiar to gardeners who work can a standing on the fringe between 2 habitats and that's really really good for for birds. Sort of thing that people try to recreate in their gardens and that's what actually makes a difference if you can create that interface between say a woodland and a grassland area you know a little Hazel shrubbery and things like that I mean that's absolutely perfect for birds because they have areas that they can shelter if areas that they can feed this was cost less just like a garden. Kind of birds are you saying up in this area and encouraging here we can hear Robin Bray and we hear a great tent there so these are all birds that people will be familiar with in their gardens here we see them quite regular and things like that but we do get a lot of the wintering flock So for example you know Red Wing and field for things like that are also been quite lucky as well we've got a lot of flocks of tensions So for example we get flocks of cold french chaffinch we've actually recently had a little flock of Bullfinch which is really really nice a really spectacular bird to see we've also had a wee wee group of Siskind which have been hanging around for a while which has been really really nice and they're real charismatic but really like those as well the Bullfinch one of my absolute favorite birds and I haven't seen it in my garden so far this year what can guard inners do to make their gardens more white a friendly generally I suppose but but friendly for these little birds but I suppose one of the main things you can do over the winter months is to provide some food for these birds and that's obviously the reason that a lot of these birds are coming into the garden by putting some food in the wintertime obviously you know it's really good for them it'll help their survivability over the winter time and it's good to provide a variety of different types of food because the more variety of the more different types of birds that you will have coming in they all have their little preferences you know so like your nature so. The Goldfinch love that you put in the words with things like you know the the robins like for example help just said over here has just arrived beside is being a bit new See I think yeah. Looking for some food who has. Things like that we do will encourage them and even like stuff if you have your fruit tree in your in your garden. Be tempted to take away all the protein was it falls but beyond the food I mean providing the right. You can always be to put up some bird boxes and things like that for the summertime provide not like I said that mix of vegetation to sort of trees shrubbery sort of grassland areas is really nice for them and provides good shelter opportunities and also I think things were just to be careful about chemicals in your garden you know try to reduce that as much as he can because that will have an effect on the wildlife and actually sons obvious because woodland type area here rather nice behind as Blackbird behind us as well they're. Going to have a drink of my dear that he comes you know funding trees in the garden providing somewhere for them to NASA providing somewhere full and shelter Absolutely I mean if he plan to hedge or plant a tree you are basically providing. The help out for birds. Like Morris Turly there and I had a great time with him dine at Castle as be understood forget about the big garden bird watch this weekend video on putting up nest boxes has been popular on our program page and also on the b.b.c. Radio whilst her Facebook page and links for some of the great pictures tweeted to me this week of garden birds and one listener even cooking up their own treats for the birds to keep those coming in now we're off to Bali voyage working gardener Conrad McCormack lives he's no stranger to the program and Helen Mark has been to see him and his uncle Brendan to talk about community gardening in the country entre village. We've got a lovely valley but as not being kept Katie to say it. Hated by the child. Is very they are trying to take shelter in the bus stop here. Late today one of the things we've been talking about. Boxes along the way verge if you look at that wall there's old ruin over who. Can get enough people together to clean out and take a bite. As going to help. It's very. Briers and pushing off the stones What a great way of trying to understand for other small communities who want to beautify their village and make it look better and maybe even feel proud of would follow what you're doing in Bali boy so what are the things that any of the communities would have to think about I make sure they have organized for the even and start like Charlie and his dad here clearing the site path and you see along the curb where the tufts of grass growing out there hacking their way through those villages or any other reason is wrong to do something the 1st thing they need to get to do is get in touch with their local representatives. And then they're a patient if you can't do this without searching for funding I mean you have all the volunteers in the village but you can't do it without funding you need money tomorrow what you go to do you need me there's a lot from all is how because from a start of the grip that states were starting to do work there are a lot of people saw. Things as. Nephew. To do as. Has been understood in gardening. It's no surprise that you've been given the child. Coming up with all the planting ideas so if we just take a walk up to the top you can give us some ideas of what a village can do to improve their environment and drawing up plans for the village have to be mindful of commitment and because I don't want to end up given ideas are going to be hard to maintain because we're relying on people's good well to look after us now that we've got the equipment we have to purchase a road of people are going to be well into the car at work you know every She wakes in terms of cutting the grass and maybe once a year come his bike come we're not going to go in for like a really manicured look because we're in the countryside so we don't want to look like a bowling green as we walk by Di in the village towards a bus stop there's quite a steep bank there at the minute and it was searched quite a few species of different cross and different white flowers are starting to see it done to it's real of the state so in terms of men and so it would be difficult you know you couldn't cut it with a lot more so as I think than some would be good to over so with a wild flower take mix a maybe under just a species like yellow Royal which is a small yellow flowers in its parser take on grass so the richness of Acre of the grasses and then I'll help to encourage other wildflowers to see Dan as we look into the grass is thick and heavy and then it's flattened into a dense matter because of of the rain so when would you tackle that particular project I have seed of yellow I was given by a friend and then autumn is the time to show you so I would have oversold with the seed of the in the not Germany it's and then next year because it's partly parsley and it's rich to say richesses of Acre of the cross and it means otherwise flowers and conceit and when the white flowers and all start to establish them we won't really need to be honest until until say July or August and then help him out of you know spend a couple of hours going over all this. Drummer and maybe another cop in the autumn again before the wonder So it's really it's cutting down on the maintenance as well and that is land belongs to the road service so the negotiations that your uncle Brendan a done mean that you can go ahead with that plan that this seems to be the thing you've got to do an awful lot of talking with authorities 1st before you get out there with your hose and your streamers and everything yeah that's very important and also the thing is I don't want to show a wide format Oh and then pay and pick and sage and or July time and then the road service to come on and to say to the stage to cut it all so we have to talk to the right people to ensure they know what we're doing on as we're walking down the hill towards the very sharp corner at the bottom and where the pub is and then you look down into a valley there's a stream running through but it's cast with trees everywhere you can barely see the water yeah but that's an area that's owned by private landowners room 53 and it's and before. So that's another challenge that even the chases Yeah yeah but it's because you just have to work before you have and work with an insurance you have you know not everybody is going to be on board with everything that you're hoping to 3 people might immediately assume if you're going to fight your village it's all about planters with colorful on us in it now I don't know if that's part of your plan and how you feel about that sort of floral decor in the village but not well form part of a what we want to get the ground work in place beforehand because there's no point of and lovely planters filled with flowers and then and then grass to for I find it you know looking on a day so it's got not groundwork in place before we 100 years all those nice decorative finishing touches. So as we walk along here along along this little wall and then run pasta corner on this really take corner you can see in front of you that there's quite a large crust flat area and then a real they stick 6 foot bank behind it so the idea of mint in this area is that we're going to keep the cross moved along the top of the slope and then the sort of steep bank there are behind them we're going to plant it up with shrubs become clogged the sight lines for vehicles come to night so you have to be mindful of in terms of what punch you're going to use for hatred on a group tree house to be things that you can put on on that don't require much maintenance you don't want to put on paper to roses that you have to spray every 3 weeks for blackballed or anything about so easy care punks like holy dog words and things will provide color have also included some edible plants there's a taper myrtle a small yellow berries or but like dark crumb berries but they're really sweet in Persia and also the war for. To try and encourage people to maybe try things that they wouldn't normally try as well Conrad McCormick and that brings us to the end of this week's program a quick look at the diary now on Wednesday the 31st of January Bali castle and district gardening club will meet at half past 7 Castle Presbyterian Church will deliver a talk in Titans an Indian evening gardens and gardeners and speaking of India Monty Don was there last night in the 2nd part of his paradise Garden series if you missed it the series is available on the b.b.c. I Player also on Wednesday Hillsborough horticultural societies next meeting will take place at Hillsborough village center and street at its pm This month speaker will be Barbara Pilcher who subject will be a freak his garden bringing her back to Grey Abbey Thanks week we're seeking out snowdrops in Derry stroke Londonderry and do join us for that but for now from Egypt Maxwell and producer Julie Bryan. Thanks for listening and enjoy your garden . Thanks David good morning and welcome Freddie whilst his consumer program on your behalf and this week it's all about money cash checks travelers checks unforgotten checks is a 3 year old check worth anything if you've got one and what about a 15 year old travelers check who remembers those i.d. The elaborate scam that left a single mother with no money for nearly 2 months over Christmas the bank held the accounts for both the victim and the scammer So why can't the money be traced and why was she getting texts about overdraft charges and quite literally what should have happened and when something like that happens how easy is it to improve your credit rating steps everyone can take and the difference it could make and we'd like to hear from you this morning of 30385555 text 81 double 71 you can tweet me at consumer Linda in the studio with me here in Belfast is Financial Ombudsman David Creswell And joining me from Nottingham is James Jones of the credit reference agency Experian So any money question to pick up the phone and here's a question that I didn't know the answer to high long have you got to cash a check is it a mob is it 6 months or is it more than a year well the answer is quite interesting and it leads us on to John's question this week can he cash to Forgotten 3 year old checks from Carphone Warehouse for us got the December 2014 probably over the Christmas period because it's one. Thing to probably with Christmas meal everything else I would imagine right the Christmas spirit under from Carphone Warehouse and one for 40 ponds and ones for 72 pints I know you forgot to write the checks but can you remember why you gulp them I remember getting a knife or. Standing up to your contract. So I presume warmest I for one for the contract. So you completely forgot all about the well of course and just not. Mean keeping well for a few years in the tears can I. And I'm only assuming again that someone left with letters apart from the one side tied it up in other words or less there is a box or the letters are put aside on a night of protest during the night to say that the prayer this would. Find I came upon these 2 checks and what did you think you know I was just wondering myself I mean how long is the chalk valid of your new ideas so I googled it and a lot of people say the banks will tell you 6 months allers will say 6 years on dollars will say a check never tried it it's actually proof of it that between one person from one person to the over what does Carphone Warehouse say about it well I honestly wrong Carphone Warehouse and the carrier stuck to her guns 6 months so that it's tough and I. Could keep up with through your supervisor. At that point it was cut off rang back and spoke to someone else they told them the story they grow me open during way hadn't been cast he says hold on to anticipate their ship operations to back to supervisors put me I can make the call so I'm going to make the call and get these checks reissued up as over a week ago so arriving back yesterday spoke to someone else there was no record of our total I think we just to get me off the full and the owner was talking to hold again through. I've spoken to your accounts to partner them the canary issues these 2 checks between 14 and 28 days I just don't know what to believe it or I think it's a long time 3 if you can't you know well tell you what given the 14 to 28 days and about point if you haven't got them another pretty much be Christmas 27 tane and this was Christmas 2014 and they haven't derived gave me a call right by the way at that ring time skipping the crank would go back to see a favorite kept these or check no over 6 months they're not interested either well as you know gather from that I was talking to John before Christmas and the 14 days came and went and he was back on the phone again said he hadn't got them and didn't know what to do so we decided to ask a few more questions and I asked Mark Bannerman a spokesman for the check and credit carrying company is a 3 year old check still valid yes and no I suppose you don't mean by that is obviously the debt is likely to still exist if you receive the check in payment for something and you haven't paid it in then that still exists but most banks are likely to reject checks that there are 6 months old and that may be in your terms of conduct terms and conditions so what that means is you. Have to go back to the person unfortunately in Austin to issue you with another check or give you another forms of payment so that's why it's a yes or no answer so the debt the debt will still exist but the bank is unlikely to process a check that is over 6 months old is not to protect the person really because such a an amount of time has elapsed the bank takes the view that debt may have been settled Vajra not the mains so to avoid a debt being paid twice it's common banking practices across the industry to reject checks that are over 6 months old but they are valid so to speak I mean that it doesn't disappear for 6 years or so it still is still a debt and you're still going to get some kind of payment Exactly and if it turns into a situation where there is a dispute as you say a check remains legally valid for 6 years which is the statute of limitations and if you've got that check then you know and it does go to as far as going to coach then that check is evidence that that debt does exist at one stage between the 2 parties so it's much easier for you to claim the funds that are owed to you and you've got some kind of proof all that it's not funny here we are still talking about checks I'm trying to think back to when we 1st started talking checks disappearing and here we are still talking about them spittle still writing them and am I right in saying that the checks and I commend to sort of the 21st century that they're sent electronically NY rather than by them well you're absolutely right I think it was probably about 2009 when it was longer as it was 1st mooted to that the check might disappear but no the check has a new lease of life as of the 30th of October a new clearing system was introduced the image clearing system and what that means it's a phased rollout this new system site is quite slow to begin with so the vast majority of users won't notice any difference until next year but. What is going to happen with the new system is that instead of the bits of paper the physical checks themselves being exchanged between the banks by being driven around the country for that physical exchange to happen high low tech is that very low tech Yeah I mean it's a system that hasn't really changed for about 350 years really this physical exchange but with the new system it's going to be an image of the check that is exchanged between the banks rather than the physical piece of paper so what that great benefit is for us as customers is that the check will clear much more quickly than it does at the moment at the moment it's 6 week days to be absolutely certain that the funds from a check us with the new system it's going to be the end of the next week day so if you paid it on a Monday then by 2359 pm on the Tuesday you'll have the phones in your account ready to spend and that's a maximum times go so some banks building societies my actually let you have the funds sooner than that so they couldn't stop us using them so that they had to kind of make it a little easier today so I remember the days of people would write your check and say I post a to that because they don't have funds until the end of the month does the system even look at the date on the check it does and that's a risky approach to stay to check because if the bank spots it and it probably will then it will reject the check and by that I mean if they check gets paid in early and that's the risk with the post-dated check you're giving it to someone and you're trusting them to pay it in on or slightly off to the date that you put on the check now in this day and age you know we lead very very busy lives and those checks are often paid in before the date on the check and if that happens then no as I say one of 2 things is likely to happen that the bank will spot it reject it and send it. Rock or perhaps even worse is that if it does go through early in you've posted it for a reason i.e. Before that date you want to have the funds in your account then that check is going about so obviously that's potentially embarrassing for you and costs money and costs money yes so most banks you'll find actually in your terms and conditions it will say that you should not play state your checks that you give to people when to be 1st right to check how long ago the been with us well the earliest surviving check that we have is dated 1659 so so that's a good 350 years there were probably in existence quite a few years before that but that's the earliest surviving one that we still have so you know we know for a fact that they were being used in the 17th century so I have been around a long time and if you even as recently as the the 19th sixty's it was it was really cash in checks they were the 2 dominant payment methods in the u.k. So I think that you know the check is going to be with us for a number of years to come especially now that we've introduced this new system that'll be interesting That's Marc Bolland of the u.k. You case check and credit clearing company and I must say I think they've been trying to discover just to write checks for years by making it sort of slow and difficult but we spoke to downscale Johns checks on the bank says it will not large them but there's no guarantee that the issuer will agree to pay up we got that argues because when we went to Carphone Warehouse we were told that they've spoken to John apologize for any inconvenience and given the circumstances the bank has agreed to refund the charge or Carphone Warehouse has agreed to refund the charges straight into his bank account that's card from where heist getting his money back straight into his bank and John emailed yesterday telling us that after your phone call to me and Wednesday he says the bank run me to arrange an appointment he says I was just off the phone or i again it was Carphone Warehouse they apologize they took my debit card number and he says I've checked online this morning and the 112 pile. In my back John says to finish his email so much thanks to you for all your help you and your team I'm pleased about that but it's raise so many questions because I know it's worked out not that I wonder if things hadn't worked out David Creswell Financial Ombudsman is with me in the studio stay but thank you very much it's not the kind of thing that you would accept could expect to come to do those kind of cases come to yeah yeah absolutely checks a few years ago certainly sort of 10 years ago problems like that made up quite a significant amount of the complaint caseload that we dealt with no less so in fact interesting Lee when we talk to new people beginning to work at the Ombudsman We're asking 2 questions to to try and get know when it's of how things are changing we ask people when did they lost by a stump stick it on a letter and post it and then we ask them when they last wrote a check and gave it to someone what kind of answers do you get well oddly enough it's absolutely linked to the age of our employee Yes but it's safe to say our research shows that people under 35 have a blankness if you pardon the pun Blanken checks a blankness in relation to both questions which is really important to us in terms of making sure that our adjudicators numbered some and even if it may not be their own experience having written a thing called a check now that they know enough about it to be able to recognize that these kinds of problems do still exist it is going to get better because as we've been hearing it is quite bizarre that launch really the whole way in which the check clearing system worked was so complicated we used to an officially offer a prize to anyone who could describe it in one piece of paper. And the fact that it went back was a nightmare that allegedly either a live exchange is just extraordinary and that's going to be a really good thing it will be so much easier that you can just take a photo on your phone and scan it and things like that but I don't know maybe the we have to remember in financial services the world is always moving on. But equally there will be some people who still work in these areas other people have lost be forgotten as a generation probably doesn't have a check but my son is used to say to them if I give you the money would you write the check they didn't own one right so you're quite right is it is millennia old thing but I mean checks have been around for so long people are loathe to get rid of the because there's always someone you want to write a check to would be a window cleaner or a gardener or a hairdresser people aren't going to come to contact your stuff so you think they'll never go it's an interesting one I think never exists in financial services I think the world will ultimately move on and it will just be a forms distant memory oddly enough having said all they know who uses checks these days checks from my goal children from birth that is because it's just enough and physical thing to do but my sister then tells me that if I catch them you know yes I'm giving them the cash so far but it takes a benefit from this enormous amount David stay with us because still to come on the program the clever scam that left one listener convinced that she was talking to her bank it was like a script from Barclays really even at that point I was still you know I haven't actually thought that I've been scammed I thought the Barclays were to me a favor by alerting me to you know unusual activity and the age barrier that left another listener struggling to cash her travelers check you don't understand.