This beautiful and huge 'nest' is a work of art by Land Art artist Jody Joyner from Tucson, Arizona. You can see it at Soekershof, just outside Robertson.

Inspired by the weaver birds' nests that run along the Klaas Voogds River through the gardens, the nest is made of woven hibiscus twigs...

This incredible pic was taken the other night in our garden, with an ordinary 'point and click' digital camera. She's one of a series of rather big, scary-looking eight-legged creatures that come out at night above our vegetable garden to spin their webs.

We're grateful for them though, as they keep the bugs at bay...

Some of you will remember the petition that went out from Avaaz in January, in which we sent the following message to big brands sourcing cocoa from Ivory Coast:

Ivory Coast is on the brink of a war that could cause unspeakable bloodshed. Please end your company's trade with Laurent Gbagbo and his forces and immediately and publicly commit to working only with President Alassane Ouattara's democratically elected government. Gbagbo relies on revenues and tariffs from cocoa exports to finance his repressive troops perpetuating his illegal grip on power. Millions of Ivorians risked their lives to vote last month. Your urgent action now could tip the balance towards democracy and save lives...

The Oude Molen Eco Village in Pinelands, Cape Town is the first and ONLY eco village set on public land on earth.

From their : Oude Molen is an unique village in Cape Town with many historic, agricultural, social, educational and cultural features. It has the first farm house ever built in SA and demonstrates how under-utilised public assets can be used in a more holistic way, providing accommodation, education, healing and employment opportunities.

Faced with possible eviction the village wants to make sure that it remains to become a National Treasure. For this reason any interested parties (that's you) are welcome to meet:

where: in the hall at the eco village
when: tonight, 1 February, 6-8pm

For comment, visit their
Find out more about the children food garden village

Rosemary Hill Farm Market has been around for two years. They're trying something slightly new as of this weekend, with a focus on family and food. They're also moving the market to Friday evenings in order to accommodate this.

Rosemary Hill is just that, a hill on a stretch of gorgeous organic farmland only 10 minutes outside Pretoria, or 45 minutes from Sandton (considering it takes at least that to get across Jo'burg, it isn't far).

The farm has been organic since 1978 and grows African potato, sutherlandia, rosemary, lavender, artemisia, lippia, spearmint, eucalyptus and other plants from which they distill essential oils. They have a herd of Nguni cattle and grow other crops like pecan nuts, as well as vegetables. Next door to them is the Max Stibbe Waldorf School.

Taking a gap year? And want to learn all there is to know about working on a biodynamic cheese farm?

We are a small mixed (mainly cheese-making and dairy goods) biodynamic farm in the Western Cape, South Africa. We are looking for one or two volunteers or apprentices to come and work on our farm for six months or more.

The 800ha farm is situated in a remote beautiful valley in majestic mountains. Most of the farm is indigenous bush and streams. We farm +/- 15ha. We have 45 goats in milk, 25 young female kids, 1 billy goat, 4 Jersey milk cows, a small beef heard with an Nguni bull, a sow with 7 young pigs and a new litter of 9. We also have 4 horses, 2 beehives, a 0.1ha vegetable garden, +/- 8ha gravity irrigated pastures, +/- 7ha wild grasses pasture and a dam.

We received the most beautiful peaches and figs yesterday from Hoogwater Farm via the food collective. These have to be the biggest and juiciest peaches I've tasted in a long time, and the figs, well....

The Food Collective isn’t a business, or a formal organization. It encompasses the friendship, koffieklets, food activism projects and support group of three women called Kate, Pia and Liz. We became friends through our work founding and running Slow Food Mother City, and the relationship developed into weekly (or bi-weekly. And market visits. And cherry-picking road trips) sessions where we generate ideas, projects, and websites, support each other’s fledgling business ideas and also recipe- and plant-swap, complain about our menfolk, and drink tea.

You can urge the government to meaningfully label all genetically-modified (GM) foods by signing this petition , launched by ACB (African Centre for Biosafety), and SAFeAGE via Activist.

It was way back in 2008 that the government announced that GM food would 'soon' be labelled. but according to the two watch dogs, the latest draft regulations on GM food published by the DTI (department of trade and industry) 'fails to protect the citizens' freedom of choice of what they eat'...

As part of the HumanEarth exhibition showing at Wessel Snyman Creative, the group of young artists is putting on a performance art event on Thursday evening, 20 January, from 6pm.

The theme is human interaction with nature, the ways that we either harm or help the natural environment, and the exhibition as well as the event is aimed at promoting and initiating conversation and dialogue around this.

What you can expect to see:

6pm - see painters Thabiso Phepeng and Atang Tshikare in action

6.30pm - experience Danny Shorkend's work in sound, motion and action and find out how your futurre entertwines with that of the planet, with Janet Ranson's environmental art tarot cards

7pm - join for Land Art and poetry in an urban setting with Janet Botes

WHEN: Thursday 20 January
WHERE: Wessel Snyman Creative, 17 Bree Street, Cape Town

A friend of mine, who lives in Hong Kong, got the following via email the other day:

API ALERT - Causeway Bay Roadside

The Average Pollution Index at the Causeway Bay Roadside air quality monitoring station is 178. The air is hazardous. We recommend that you avoid roadside situations and refrain from vigorous outdoor exercise.

The contributing pollutants are: