If you haven't booked your holidays yet this year, you may want to consider one of these ideas:

50 holidays under £500

(link via telegraph.co.uk)

Nature's Voice is a monthly podcast from the RSPB:

Listen right now to the latest episode, Big Garden Birdwatch results and a new RSPB centre for Wales,  by downloading the RSPB's free podcast

Oh dear. Garden bird numbers have slumped 20 per cent in the past four years, the latest survey reveals.

There is some good news though:

The biggest success story this year was the finch with four species who spend the winter in the UK increasing and the goldfinch entering the top 10 list - at number 10 - for the first time.

(link via telegraph.co.uk)

The UK's top 10 garden birds:

1. House sparrow
2. Starling
3. Blackbird
4. Blue tit
5. Chaffinch
6. Woodpigeon
7. Collared dove
8. Robin
9. Great tit
10. Goldfinch

(link via The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds - Big Garden Birdwatch)

I can vouch for the big increase in goldfinches. I see a lot of them in our back garden. They are lovely. Unfortunately, we also see a lot of the woodpigeons and collared doves too. They are not so lovely - in fact I've stopped putting birdseed on the birdtable to feed the birds because the greedy pigeons and doves scarf it all. I only fill tube feeders with seed now.

One of my favourite birds is the friendly blackbird. I put raisins out for them which they love and now I think I'm supporting about a dozen blackbird families!

Did you watch The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency last night? I thought everything about it was excellent - the story (from the book by Alexander McCall Smith),  the acting, the music, the costumes, and the stunning scenery (it was shot entirely on location in Botswana).

If you missed it last night, don't despair! You can watch it again via BBC iPlayer.

I'm really pleased to learn that last night's film was to kick off a 13-part series, in a deal between the BBC and the HBO network in the USA. They are due to start shooting on the new episodes in August.

Sadly, the film shown last night was the last programme directed by the late Anthony Minghella.

We had a real hodgepodge of weather yesterday - rain, sunshine, sleet, snow flurries, and hail. Taday? Well, we woke up to a pretty picture. We didn't have a white Christmas but we defintely have a white Easter.

I know 'they' predicted it but it's still a lovely surprise. Usually when they say snow, it's just snow flurries or a miniscule dusting that disappears very quickly so it's exciting to see a considerable amount of snow - okay it's only about an inch - but it happens so rarely here (near the London area) that I'm impressed (and I'm from Minnesota!). For those of you who don't know, Minnesota is one of the states in the USA that is known for its (very) cold winters and lots of snow.

Did you know that a pilot scheme to set up a national database of mugshots is already being used in some parts of England? Yes, another database:

The police are developing the first national database of mugshots so that they can use face recognition technology to match CCTV images with details of offenders, MPs were told yesterday.

The system is being developed in a pilot scheme involving the Lancashire, West Yorkshire and Merseyside police which has generated a database of more than 750,000 facial images over the past 18 months.

(link via guardian.co.uk)