Free resources

Trying to keep my computing as green as I can, I am always looking for ways to improve its use. Here are a couple of utilities that I would like to share with anyone interested. Both are free to use and will cut down on waste.

The first is an ink saver called Preton Saver Home. When you click the final print button, Preton pops up where you adjust the amount of ink used for the print job. It ranges from high quality print to draught print, with in between's so you can adjust to your own liking. It even tells you how much  money you have saved in ink for each job. A great way to cut down on ink wastage.

The next helps save on paper and frustration. How many times have you wanted to print out information from the web and ended up with all the bits on the web page you don't, want printed out?

Copy and pasting into Word or Open Office from the web page is laborious, and the formatting of the page is always to cock. Get Print What You Like. It sits on the toolbar in the browser ready to click when you want to print out information from the web page. You then cut out anything you don't want until you get to the bare bones of the information you want printed. Click print and you have a good clean copy. No more coloured ads, web buttons or pictures that have no relevance to the information. A great ink saver along with Preton.

Another handy thing with Print What You Like, the information can be saved as a PDF file and not printed at all, 0% ink used!

Nothing to do with what I have written above, just thought you might like to see this lovely Rambler of ours, Leo's Eye.

Snake

Walking up to the shed this morning I came across the most beautiful grass snake sunning itself on the warm concrete. A deep olive green with bright yellow V behind it's head. It was at least 2 1/2 foot (75cm) long. Slipping away as quiet as I could to get the camera, I got back as fast as was possible without too much noise, but alas it was gone.

Back to digging out compost from the heap, I found yet more evidence of grass snakes in the garden, egg shells from previously hatched youngsters.

Grass snake egg shells

All in all there were thirty two shells, so there should be a good few survive to adulthood.

Our garden certainly suits them with its wild and uncultivated areas, which Grass snakes love. Along with large slow compost heaps that make the ideal place to lay eggs with the gentle warmth from this type of heap.

Principle food are amphibians, which means the toads and the frogs have to watch out, but as we see quite a number of these around, the snake population are not making too many inroads into the numbers.

We feel proud though to have Britain's largest reptile living around us, marvellous.