Spider webs in the mist

Mist conceals but it also reveals, as with these two webs on neighbouring openings in the railings. In each case the spider is tucked out of sight up in the right hand corner.

The two webs are not identical, but so similar that it seems obvious that the two spiders are of the same kind. It's commonsense.

In other words we assume regularity in nature. Seeing two webs with this degree of similarity we automatically conclude that there is a kind of spider that makes this kind of web, and if we see the same kind tomorrow we shall be able to say that it is the same kind of spider that has made it.

The same commonsense refined becomes science. Nature, our world, our universe, follow rules, beneath which there are other rules, and so on beyond the current reach of human intelligence.

And knowing all that we can still wonder at the web's beauty.

Strange diet

Really I am a fairweather gardener. But despite the cold, these last couple of days have been sunny enough to tempt me out, to check the composting experiment (see 14 July 07) and to start tidying up. What a blessing winter is, cutting down August's intimidating jungle to something manageable!


This was an odd find, just lying on the soil where, I suppose, I'd carelessly left it some hot summer day. It is one of those very thin plastic plant pots that bought plants come in, made (so the maker tells me) of polypropylene; and it appears to have been nibbled. Well nibbled. I assume the nibbler was a small rodent, let us say a mouse. But why should it have nibbled the pot? I know mice will gnaw though plastic very effectively when it is a question of getting out (or even getting in), but I'd never thought they actually ate the stuff. That still still seems unlikely, so the initial question remains.

Goldfinches

This is just one, of course, but last Friday we had nine between the two feeders.

Astonishing.

In a compost bin near you

We are interested in the compostability of nappies (well, in compostability generally - see 20/3/07). This is the latest bulletin from the front. I had to empty one of the bins the other day and some nasties were revealed.
First, above, what it should look like: rich, friable, odourless brown stuff with a few eggshells, chicken bones and twigs (and, this being more than a year old, teabags - see 22/6/07).


But lurking in the well-composted material was a large number of completely uncomposted Moltex nappies which had been put in last September, i.e. fourteen months ago, in the belief that they were biodegradable. So why did we think that they would compost?

I don't know of any claim that Moltex nappies are wholly or largely biodegradable, but there is a very clear one they will be broken down in few weeks by worms, and a cool compost bin normally functions as a wormery. The claim appears, for example, at naturebotts.co.uk,
"· NEW breathable backsheet which is 100% biodegradable · Compostable - proven to break down within 8 weeks in a wormery - tests carried out by ecobaby in Ireland, visit www.ecobaby.ie for further information". Here and elsewhere one receives a strong impression of at least partial compostability.

In fourteen months I really would have expected some sign of deterioration. After all, it is not as though the thing is sealed. The outside is polythene or polypropylene and so quite un-biodegradable. But the little bundle is only closed with Velcro, and then the whole point of the inside surface is that it is permeable. Nonetheless the nappies are still heavy and rubbery with no sign at all of biodegradation. I suspect that the problem is the gel, the super-absorbent polymer that is used in such quantity in Pampers and the like. No claim for biodegradability has ever been made for it, but it seems as though it acts as a barrier to microbial attack, so that cellulose (i.e. the wood pulp in the middle of the nappy) impregnated with gel will no longer decompose in the way one would otherwise expect. In brief, thumbs down to Moltex.

The bag is interesting too. Each one says on it, "100% degradable nappy bag", and lower down, "ECO DISPOSABLE", and at the bottom, again, "This bag is 100% degradable". So, compostable, you might think. But not at all. It doesn't say compostable nor indeed does it say biodegradable. The bags are made from a modified version of polythene for which the manufacturers, Symphony Environmental Technologies, do not make any compostability claim. And, indeed, the bags are quite unscathed by the same sojourn in the compost bin. Which just leaves the misleadingness of the Moltex wording.

Rocket science

This is the same story as before: seeds growing in water and different concentrations of Ecover washing-up liquid. And the results are similar to those with mung beans and wheat: little adverse effect, indeed even some beneficial effect up to a concentration of 0.001 (i.e. 0.1%), but increasing growth inhibition thereafter.

Recycling at Manor Place

In addition to what will go in the blue box, we seem to accumulate odd bits of defunct electronic equipment, yellow pages and, in a relentless trickle, batteries. I've been keeping these in a plastic tub for a year or two, meaning to get to Manor Place and not getting round to it, so having to increase the size of the tub every so often. But the other day I finally made the move. It was really most satisfying to add my contributions to the bin for electrical stuff, the bin for yellow pages and the bin for batteries.

Harlequins again

Evidently they have decided that this is a harlequin-friendly house (see 13 May 2007) and so have come to spend the winter in a corner of the ceiling of the front porch. It'll be interesting to see if they survive - not that London winters set much of a test these days.