Thursday, August 28, 2008

Hi all,

The following is the wording of a petition we received from the Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation.

Please take a few moments to read it and then visit and sign the petition at;

http://forthenature.org/petitions/6

Let’s say NO to the changes in the Hunting and Game Protection Act and the prolonging of the waterfowl birds hunting season!

To:

The President of the Republic of Bulgaria press@president.bg
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria primeminister@government.bg
The Chairman of the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria Priemna@parliament.bg
The Chairman of the State Forest Agency syurukov@dag.bg
The Agriculture and Forest Commission of the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria infocenter@parliament.bg
The Commission on Environment and Water of the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria env422@nt52.parliament.bg
The Anticorruption Commission of the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria anticorruption@parliament.bg
The Commission on Prevention and Combating Corruption at the Council of Ministers anticorruption@government.bg
The Prosecutor General of the Republic of Bulgaria n.markov@prb.bg
The Parliament Members of the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria

The European Commission
The GD Environment of the European Commission stavros.dimas@ec.europa.eu


Dear Ladies and Gentleman,

I am seriously concerned that the proposed bill for changes of the Hunting and Game Protection Act, which have been developed in complete lack of transparency and without any public participation, do break the established principles of sustainable use of the game recourses, thus creating environment of corruption and non-democratic practices.

I insist strongly that the Bulgarian Parliament sends back this bill for revision to the respective Commission!

I strongly recommend that a new bill is developed by a task force involving experts of all stakeholders and keeping up with the principles of complete transparency. I believe that a bill developed by such a group would not allow for:
1. Prolonging of the hunting season for waterfowl birds from January 31st to February 29th, which represents a serious breach of the Birds Directive, the national Biodiversity Act, as well as of the Bern and Bonn Conventions ratified by the Republic of Bulgaria;
2. Hidden privatization of the state game breeding stations in the form of concluding contracts for joint management and the unprofitable leasing of the state hunting grounds;
3. Providing exclusive rights to a single hunting organization placing it above all other hunting and nature conservation organizations working for the protection and management of the Bulgarian wildlife in complete discrepancy with the democratic and the non-discrimination principles.

With this letter, I would like to urge you to support actively the elaboration of an adequate and contemporary Hunting Act that meets the expectations of the Bulgarian society!



Thank you for taking the time to show your support for this very worthwhile cause.

Mike.

Monday, August 4, 2008

August...still in the high 30's!

Well its been hot and I must admit even after 3 years living here I still find it very difficult to find the energy to garden in this weather.
But I look at the plants doing their best to keep growing and cropping and I must admit I get a terrible feeling of guilt!





So I hang on in there, make a list of my chores and get out there between 7.30am-9.30am and after 7.30pm...




The morning glory seed I picked up from last years trip to Shabla on the coast puts out a fine display every morning at the back gate before the sun gets to hot..



...the colour is superb...it matches the house.....




The other flowers too are great first thing in the cool of the day....won't lie...no idea what either of these two are but they do well in this heat!






















The cherry tree we had to hack back severely a few months ago has come back to life thankfully. it was touch and go there for a while.I have been feeding it once every two weeks with a homemade horse manure liquid feeder and it seems to be doing the trick!













The bougainvillea is still happy enough in its pot outside....it really needs potting on now but it's started to flower again so I will leave it for a while...






















The veggies are doing incredibly well again despite the dry heat.The soya beans although did not come up 100% are fruiting beautifully.I do water them though twice a week now that the fruits have appeared...














and the peppers and aubergines are ready to eat now....though no tomatoes for me this year ..next year I shall definitely have a small greenhouse for them.





Although the sweetcorn I planted a little late will be another two weeks or more.I have been sampling the neighbours though and its delicious...can't wait for ours to be ready! I would definitely grow more next year ...it's easy ...low maintenance ....looks attractive and is yummy too!




I am still remembering to feed and water the birds every day and Vladi still wants to get out and about ...while Peggy ....
















well she's Peggy.....