down on the farm

Yesterday, some of us went along to do a day's volunteering at Hounslow Urban Farm, one of London's largest community farms.

They have a whole host of animals there, including 5 breeds of pig, some goats, sheep and cows and even a few rheas chipmunks. It's a lovely place.

While they were there, our volunteers got the chance to name a little lamb. They decided to call her 'Carlton' or 'Carly for short. Carlton is Jon Wright's middle name so it's a fitting tribute indeed.

They then spent the day building some very fine animal shelters and mucking out the odd field. Which was all very helpful according to Mary who works there.

Jeremy even managed to rescue a runaway sheep on his way back to the car.

Whaddaguy.

on your bike

This is Ben. Ben works for Cycle Training UK, who teach people how to use their bikes safely and cycle with confidence on the roads. And if you live or work in London, quite a few local authorities subsidise the training. Which means it's free.

Seeing as that cycling proficiency test was probably a while ago now and the playground you did it in lacked speeding cars and buses, it's a great way to improve your cycling technique and gain some confidence on the roads.

You get 4 hours of one-to-one tuition, during which you learn all about assertive road positioning and how to slow down traffic with your eyes. Your instructor will also teach you how to use your gears properly, check if your bike is roadworthy and will even accompany you on your ride to work to make sure your route is as safe and swift as possible.

Plus if you're good, they'll give you a shiny set of badges to prove your roadworthiness.

This sort of scheme is available in towns and cities up and down the country. So why not have a look on your local council website to see if you can get some free training and a set of posh new badges to impress your mum.

Back in '89, it was Cycling Proficiency. Now they're calling it Bikeability. How times change.

duck shaped

Recently we ran a competition for our family to upload pictures of funny shaped fruit/veg/crisps/cloud formations to our flickr group so as to make the days here pass a little quicker.

We started the ball rolling with this duck shaped peanut:

All entries were then judged by Ben W (aged 22) and we're pleased to reveal that the 3 winning photos are:

The mutant ninja carrot from outer space

The beetroot penguin (he's the one on the left)

And the double banana.

Congratulations to Geli b, melandjedi and eviljamr who each win a shedload of smoothies and a nice pair of innocent gloves which are shaped in the form of hands.

out with the old

Our Matt's old semi-tartan trousers have gone. They were won in an eBay auction by someone called Caroline, who paid £132 for them. Worth every penny.

L - new pants, R - old auctioned pants

Matt was sad to see them go, but happy at the fact that all proceeds will go to Orangutan Appeal UK, and also touched that his mum and dad sent him a new pair of patterned pants to replace the old ones. He is one lucky boy.

let us pray

Clover, one of the first innocent vans ever to grace the highways of Britain passed over to the car crusher in the sky last week. She has done us proud, serving alongside Ermintrude, Belle and our grassy herd for many years. Goodbye.

you will be with us Clover, forever.

how many people can you fit in the post room?

To celebrate Meera's birthday, we tried to see how many people we could fit into the post room.

It's a small place so it soon filled up.

We finally got 35 people in there, including Meera herself, who is being held aloft by the crowd n the picture below.

Next year we're going to try it with the ladies' toilets.

monday makes you get it wrong

Today has been tough for our Ben. Not only is it the day after Sunday, when people feel tired and confused, it's also the day when he put odd shoes on before he left the house. He assures us that it's not a fashion thing; it's a cock up. Poor Ben.

something for the weekend

Stevie on the talk box.

And thanks for all of the bottle bottom suggestions this week. We're going to sit down in a minute and go through them all. Might take a while.

our felicity's on the telly

Please say hello to Felicity. Felicity is one of our product developers here which means she is responsible for coming up with new recipe ideas and then making sure they taste just right.

As the creator of our brand new blackberries, raspberries and boysenberries recipe, we thought it only fair that Felicity star in our other new telly ad.

In anticipation of all the fan mail she’ll be receiving, here’s a few more facts about our Fliss:

She likes baking (her speciality is a coconut macaroon)

She does a good cross stitch

She is a member of the Rabbit Welfare Association and has two of her own rabbits called Pistachio and David. You must pronounce David as 'Davv-id' or he will give you the cold shoulder.

is fruit good for you?

We’ve always thought that fruit is pretty good for you. Some other people think so too (these people and these people), but today's Guardian G2 isn’t so sure.

They’ve written an article challenging whether fruit is really that good for you. One of their experts has been quoted saying "it’s a myth that fruit is packed full of vitamins and minerals", which is quite surprising. It’s not like we’re brilliant at eating fruit in the first place - a recent survey by the Food Standards Agency reported that 83% of us aren't eating the recommended five portions of fruit and veg a day: most adults just about manage two.

Dr Shilpee , our nutritionist, has this to say on the subject: "For the past couple of years, the government has been pulling out all the stops to encourage us to eat our five portions of fruit and veg a day, to make sure that we stay fit and healthy. And to make it even easier, it doesn’t need to be fresh fruit or veg, it can be frozen, crushed, juiced, dried or canned. I hope this article doesn’t mislead people into believing that fruit is bad for you. It’s packed with antioxidants, dietary fibre, phytonutrients and is an integral part of a health diet and lifestyle; not only does fruit taste great, it has a low GI which means that it will keep you feeling fuller for longer and perhaps stop you becoming too friendly with the biscuit tin."

We definitely think that people need to think carefully about what they eat. Everyone’s got to weigh up the pros and cons of all the foods they consume and work out the right balance for them. But we don’t feel that becoming suspicious about fruit is going to help our nation become healthier. And we hope this one article won’t discourage people from doing what the government reckons is the second best thing for your health after giving up smoking: getting your five a day.