Some good news to start. I phoned the kennel today to check on the progress of our stray friend. Happily, he has been reunited with his owner. The lady in the kennel wasn't able to tell me much more, as it is the local authority who hold all the info, but it's great to hear a happy ending.

We travelled this afternoon to the bungalow we are going to be renting shortly, as we wanted to do lots of prosaic things like work out where our fridge will live (we have one of those big American style ones), count the sockets, sort out what furniture will fit where, you know the sort of thing. A very successful trip. I had planned on taking my camera and indeed did so, but when I pulled it out to take some pics, realised that I'd left the battery at home in the charger - doh! The garden is nice too - amazingly, there was a huge clump of wild strawberries, still with berries on, so I ate one (!) and we were welcomed by a very friendly little robin who didn't seem to mind either us or the dogs. Once we move in, we will of course be erecting a cornucopia of peanuts, seeds and fat balls for our visiting birds. There probably isn't much we can do about the dining room carpet, except not wince too much every time we see it. The dogs had a very good sniff of everything - it will be interesting to see how they adjust to the move.

Got home to read the Echo, which led on the front page with a story about food waste collections in Cardiff, and how the waste is being transported 150 miles to be composted. To add insult to injury the hapless spokesman had tried to defend this as good environmental practice, as it was portrayed as a means of filling potentially empty lorries. At this point in the story, I could feel my brain straining. Using this logic, I would never take the train or the bus anywhere, since I'm helping to fill seats in my car......... hmmmmmm. It's very rare for me to agree wholeheartedly with Friends of the Earth but on this occasion, their scorn is fully justified. Of course, this is the same Council (the same Directorate, which is even worse) that is trying to promote green transport - way to go, guys! And of course it coincides with the Cylch Conference in Cardiff (community recycling sector in Wales) - what a great way to showcase our capital city as a model of sustainability. More worrying about this story are two facts - firstly, the council should have been on the ball when the contract was let - I can't believe nobody could have predicted there would be an outcry when this mad story broke. Care should have been taken to pre-empt a firestorm with a sustained briefing for Councillors and local media to explain the reasons, likely duration and costs saved. And somebody who really understands environmental issues should have been involved with drafting the press release. The fact that this seems to have broken in this way indicates very poor leadership within the council and of course will now adversely affect participation.

Secondly, the Council is quoted in the story as saying that it could only reach its 2010 recycling targets if it introduced the food waste collection early, before its own IVC is built and comes on line in either 2009 or 2010. This is actually most concerning, since it implies that a city with four Civic Amenity Sites (some brand new or refurbished) and universal kerbside cannot hit its 40% target. Someone wants a good slap. Powys has achieved its impressively high recycling rate by doing well at CA sites - on a cost per tonne basis, this is the easiest and fastest way of gaining percentage points on recycling rates. Cardiff now has full kerbside for dry recyclables - why can't we reach these targets? Either the expensive white elephant MRF isn't performing up to scratch and giving the diversion it should or we are not getting the participation rates we should be. And I'll bet hard cash, that participation rates are not being monitored. If our own experience is any guide, getting replacement green bags for recycling is a tortuous affair. Generally you have to call three or four times before they are delivered. To do that you have to be keen. We are, but how many householders are? Cardinal rule of successful kerbside is to make the service reliable and easy to use for the householder. Instead, the Council is wasting its time on feelgood vanity projects like real nappies and segregated bins for recycling street litter. Interestingly, when this was first mooted seriously, I enquired about the tonnage already generated by the award winning Thanks Banks in the city centre, and mysteriously none could be found. Hmmmm. Anyway, rant over for now, but it is frustrating to see millions of pounds of public money being used in a way that could be charitably described as sloppy.