Forum dedicated to increasing awareness of green living through beneficial dialogue.

Deltic, I hadn't even thought of that. We've got birds, cats, raccoons, all kinds of animals I don't want trying to eat tinsel (or whatever they might do!) What would you think about this: the little aluminum pot pies and pie plates, too big to eat, strung up with knitting yarn? I've got hundreds of those little foil things, I bet, just waiting for a good use.

the problem with pie plates though is that the magpies will steal them for their nests... they like shiny...

why not try old CDs? scratched ones or the kind you get in the mail all the time inviting you to try some new IP or another... they sparkle, are hard wearing and generally a little too heavy for a magpie to carry off... plus the added bonus of scaring off most other birds from your fruit trees in the summer!..

Brilliant! My husband has so many old CDs for music and the computer! It's hard for him to give up any of his hoarded shiny things (much like our friend the magpie!), but for the sake of a greener Christmas, he just may give up a stack.... .

That sounds good, I doub any animals would attempt to eat a CD! You are so lucky to have racoons, I would love to see one. We just have foxes, hedgehogs and rabbits visiting the garden.

We have a mother raccoon with three babies! Well, they're not so much babies now, they've gotten so big. The mama will rattle at the door late at night and then they'll retreat into the yard. My husband will take them out a pan of food and put it in the driveway, and they'll eat very politely and leave. Their favourite is cat food, although they'll eat leftovers as well.

I would love to see racoons, they always look so cute when I see pictures. My daughter saw a bager the other day in the university grounds. She said it was daylight and the badger was very close and it just stood and looked at her for ages. I wish I had seen that.

I hope you have all had a happy Christmas. How did you all get on with trying to be greener this year?