Robson Green has a big one.
We know it's a big one because he is constantly boasting about it in his new series.
Examples include: "Look at the size of that."
Then there's "Will you look at that, man." and "Oh wow, look at that."
And again: "Oh man, did you see that,"
I did see the size of it and I'm not impressed.

Robson Green has a big one.
We know it's a big one because he is constantly boasting about it in his new series.
Examples include: "Look at the size of that."
Then there's "Will you look at that, man." and "Oh wow, look at that."
And again: "Oh man, did you see that,"
I did see the size of it and I'm not impressed.

I took my bike up the wild wannies and sidewinded to the coastal plains of Northumberland,

My mate Kev a fellow geetar picker fond of JJ Cale and his mystic swamp rock, let me crash in Powburn (home of the fictitious Panther rarely spotted on the plains but frequently at the Poachers or the Queens). After an early start I headed for Embleton with the bike in the back of the estate car. Heading through Eglingham in an easterly direction to cross the A1 at South Charlton and to pass Rock.

Parking in a lay-by on the Embleton city-limits, I headed north and east towards Beadnell Bay. It was breezy, sunny and with little rain-squalls all at the same time, I found myself navigating away from the roads but using a parallel path following the contour of the coast, by-passing the links and the bird sanctuary, still heading in a northerly direction towards, Beadnell and after that Seahouses, Bamborough and Budle Bay.

A Sunday morning so full of bountiful nature it is almost beyond description, however here goes....it had warm sun and gentle to robust breeze, showers and scented air, it seemed that all of the senses were being stimulated, in a maelstrom of colour light vision and sound. The flowers were blue hare bells and yellow tansy, with the white headed meadowsweet faring well and rose bay willow an outrage of purple. The grasses were tall with flowering heads interspersed with crane's bill and vetch. On the salt marshes past Newton I spotted Samphire, which I have never seen so far north.

Hey this was here and now and did not involve Easy-jet or anyone else for that matter. Yes there were a few cars and caravans, but for the height of the season it was busy, bustling and with a sense of occasion rather than being stressed out. Seahouses of course, was much busier. I stopped for coffee, compulsory fish and chips and watched the boats leave and return for the Farne Islands, before heading north for Bamburgh and the North.

Without being too chauvinistic about the beauties of the North, this was a fantastic way to spend the day and would probably be even better towards the end of summer when the crowds die down, when the seals and eider ducks will be more in abundance.

Tired and ready for a meal or liquid refreshment I took off in pursuit of the elusive panther and Kev......singing...'they call me the breeze....I keep running down this road', JJ Cale in essence as the little legs go round, faster and faster.

As fuel prices rise and local authorities find it harder to recover more recycling, the idea of pay-as-you-throw has surfaced again.

The UK Government has been looking for a handful of local authorities to test out the pay-as-you-throw (or to put it another way recycle-and-save) idea but so far none have come forward.

It can be hard to get your head around large numbers.

So take a moment to try to visualise three BILLION plastic carrier bags being used per DAY.

That was the challenge facing the Chinese government. In January of this year they stated their intention to bring in a ban on plastic bags and this came into force on 1 June 2008.

The first blog I wrote for the Sunday Sun was on how to recycle your mobile phone, I was prompted to write it because of the launch of the first iPhone from Apple.

I thought I would return to the subject following the launch of the 3G iPhone this month.

A real zero waste community in Japan is finding out.

The town of Kamikatsu on the island of Shikoku in Japan has adopted a zero waste strategy and rather than just talking about "a commitment to zero waste" or stating "they are working towards zero waste", they are doing it for real.

I never thought that when I started at Premier Waste Management that I would be writing a film review.

But it is not every year that the summer blockbuster from Disney-Pixar is about the waste and recycling industry.

Thank you, Tim Healy, for perpetuating the image of Geordies as thickos.

That was sarcasm, by the way, I didn't really mean thank you.

Tim appeared in the 1960s Northumberland cop show George Gently as a pig farmer who was intellectually-challenged.

I think I'm developing an aversion to decision-making. It's one of the trials of modern life.

It's all about choice and everywhere you turn, there are just too many options . . . too many TV channels, too many radio stations, too many websites offering too many services.

But the choice explosion is not confined to the digital revolution . . . it has even infiltrated the humble sandwich.