The plan to leave long grass around the new orchards is paying off for insects. Every time I weed in one of the orchards I discover lots of great creepy crawlies. Identifying them all is quite challenging but fortunately most are fairly common species and I'm even beginning to get my eye in a bit. Here's a selection from the recent orchard care day on South Millfields last weekend (16 Jan).

Hibernating …

There are a couple of initiatives in HAckney right now to get people using photo voltaic solar cells to produce electricity on roofs.  I'm thinking of installing a system on my roof in Dalston.  It should produce a good proportion of my electricity but only during the day.  There's no storage but it can feed back to the local grid (I'm told).

The other attraction is a feed in tarrif (FIT) return on the investment (about £10k).  The whole carbon economy is fraught with complexity…