With plenty of exhibitors utilising fresh water and new growth; RHS Chelsea reminds us this year of the most precious of nature’s resources. There are numerous gardens using this theme; The ‘Soft Machine Garden’ designed by Tomaz Bavdez presents a new way for water to be a clever part of garden living. Tony Smith’s ‘Green With… The Easigrass Garden’ strikingly exemplifies the trend for garden and furniture connections with the graphic use of hanging plants.

Dwelling spaces with innovative garden furniture are around every corner at Chelsea. Some have tables created as grass beds with a water oasis beneath, seating made of grasses, and benches surrounded by beds of grasses and flowers. Creating the relationship between this furniture style gardening and the living/dining space has been done in several ways by designers bringing sculptural plants to the balcony; planting vertical gardens such as Jean Nouvel’s on the Musée du quai Branly; and fruiting plants, such as lemon trees, into the lounge.

This might seem to push furniture out of centre focus but with lounge furniture from Fashion For Home the beautiful and powerful role furnishing has in design compliments the freshness of plants. With generous proportions in leather and slim elegant forms in beautifully crafted salvaged ship wood are nice options for creating a strong and delicate space. Numerous designers are exploring the potential of this, just by browsing furniture retailer sites like http://www.fashionforhome.co.uk you can get a clear indication of this shift in style.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is again delivering on strong new ideas for design. Bold graphic shapes in furniture and planting give the traditional show contemporary interest. Walking amongst the charming scent of roses the intelligent creations of the ‘Fresh’ category are an inspired breath of air. Let’s just hope the weather improves so visitors to the show can really make the most of the exhibits.

The past century of Chilean history has seen deforestation and monoculture planting that has harmed their region’s dramatic natural beauty and left the environment poorly equipped to recover from devastating forest fires. This has forced Chilean Patagonia’s native forests into a rapid decline damaging the environment, wildlife and beauty of the region.

This trend of forestry decline is hoped to be reversed though as Reforestemos Patagonia, promoted by Fundacion Imagen de Chile, are hoping to plant over half a million native trees across Chilean Patagonia through 2012. The program will hopefully reinvigorate the endemic flora of the region and restore Chile to its natural state of stunning beauty.

Although the project is being carried out by non- profit organisations, the reinvigoration of Chilean Patagonia’s environment will have benefits beyond giving llamas a nicer home. Eco- tourism is big business these days, beautiful surroundings attract tourism from across the globe.

The Patagonian regions of neighbouring Argentina have proved the value of a healthy environment as the area is globally recognised as a region of beauty, which generates huge volumes of business from companies like swoop-patagonia.co.uk who run hundreds of holidays to the region every year.

Chile’s reforestation could attract travellers and tourists to the region who are eager to enjoy the region’s dramatic landscapes featuring glaciers and mountains, as well as their exotic creatures like the Andean Condor. Not only local tours but Patagonia has proved itself a perfect stepping stone for launching Antarctica fly and cruise which are not only highly sought after by travellers but highly lucrative.

The holiday industry will promise to generate profits not just to tour providers, but bring broader profits to local business, who provide places to eat, travel and all the other services travellers will need whilst visiting. This will in turn promote the tangible benefit of a healthy environment and encourage further funding to improving conditions for Patagonia’s ecology.

Over the past century 7.5 million hectares of native Chilean forests have been lost. Old, irresponsible industrial practices have seen trees cut down for logging and monoculture planting, the practice of planting tight rows of single species to try and maximise wood production at the expense of diversity. These practices have seriously harmed the sustainability of the Patagonian environment meaning that after forest fires the environment hasn’t had enough diversity in flora to bounce back.

So with the news of reforestation to Chilean Patagonia the future will only be looking brighter for the local environment, local traders and travellers keen on finding new beautiful locations to explore and discover as more national parks open and Torres del Paine trekking tours become increasingly available.

The AA British Insurance Premium Index found that, according to an average quote, based on the five cheapest premiums, showed a 7.7% rise in the year leading up to March 31st 2012. That figure is ahead of inflation but still much better than records in 2011 that saw annual increases of an incredible 40.1%.

By the end of March this year the average cheapest costs of insurers stood at £1.452 which was a dropped of 1.1% on 2011.

This means a very real relax in premiums for British drivers, however many industry professionals are concerned that the new prices won’t last, and could indeed, lead to an even worse rise in prices than has been seen previously.

Simon Douglas, Director of AA insurance, said that, although the fall in shop around quotes was welcome news for customers in the short term, they are unfortunately unsustainable. He referred to the situation of 2009 when prices similarly plateaued a lower levels only to cause industry losses and saw prices “suddenly rocketing up following a long period of little movement.”

As well as an unstaible economic climate, a serious rise in personal injury claims, rising industry costs and recent legislation to prevent gender biased insurance premiums, are likely to drive prices back up again.

He is however hopeful that the increasing efficiency of the police to detect uninsured drivers and prevent fraudulent activities such as cash-for-cash scams and ghost broking could help bring costs under control.

The short term impact on decreasing insurance premiums could benefit the sale of optional extras like breakdown insurance for bikers as customers see they have the extra money to spare. However, the real threat of an repeated increase in car insurance premiums will likely nullify this and cause a serious decline in the demand for breakdown cover. Serious rises in premiums will make it harder for drivers to see the extra expense as better than not having breakdown cover and leave drivers seriously exposed to greater risks on the road.

So it may be important for drivers to take advantage of cheaper premiums whilst they last, remember to shop around before premiums are likely to increase again. It is worth bearing in mind however, that even when basic premiums make full cover harder to afford, temporary breakdown cover deals could be the answer to help protect drivers on the road.

Designed by world acclaimed architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, the building promises re-generation of central London. Its location shall provide avant-garde theatre in the heart of tourist London. Developing the area of Charing Cross and Oxford Street will bring out the identity and attraction of this over looked part of central London. They plan to re-develop Tottenham Court tube station and build the new complex on top of it, amalgamating the site of the now closed Astoria with commuter London. It promises a creative centre of shops, transport, inventive office space and new theatre.

The innovation within the design is extraordinary. It promises to be the most flexible theatre space in London. Theatre’s interpretation of space has been explored in many acclaimed exhibitions and contemporary theatre pieces; including ‘Play’ at the Serpentine gallery in 2010. This space offers directors an open book layout, seating 350 to 500. Able to transform from a traditional “proscenium arch” to a horseshoe-shaped stage it allows for “theatre-in-the-round” production. The potential for spectacular new productions from the heartland of the world’s theatre scene is terrific.

Nica Burns chief executive of Nimax who will run the new theatre along with their 5 other west end venues is aware of the new development’s potential, “Our new theatre won’t compete with those already in London. It will be a different – very intimate – space, in a great location, where cutting edge shows can be performed.”

From Covent Garden to the Royal Opera House the West End’s theatre offers a breadth of theatre that is the envy of the world. This is the first new space for drama in London for thirty years. The theatre reviews here are held in regard throughout the industry. From great musical productions to unique independent works the west end can be depended on for its quality. Here, for example, these reviews of london musicals show the regard for the famous ‘Theatreland‘.

The attraction of ‘Theatreland’ is continuing despite the recession. With this development London’s investment in its Theatre grows against the odds. Funding has been cut across the Arts yet the West End is making the most money in its history. £500 million was the turnover of London theatre last year.
The plans for the new theatre await final approval from Westminster City Council. English Heritage raises some objections to its impact on its location. Though the architects, and Crossrail are combining forces to provide a much needed injection of imagination into this run down part of east Oxford Street.

The new theatre is a re-enforcement of London’s affection for its theatre and the industries contribution to the city. This exciting development will only add to London’s ever growing reputation as a world leader in Theatre.

Analogue transmitters at Rowridge and Whitehawk Hill were switched off overnight, meaning that viewers in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West Sussex, Brighton and Hove, as well as parts of Dorset and Wiltshire will have to use a set-top box or freeview-ready TV to be able to watch their favourite programmes from now on.

Viewers in those areas may find that some channels they usually receive have gone missing. This is because some channels are being moved to new frequencies as a result of the switchover but a simple retune of your TV or set-top box will restore your channel list to its former glory.

With the whole country going digital, there has never been a better time to upgrade your old fashioned cathode-ray TV to a new high definition (HD) ready set. Many electronics comparison sites, like Digital Choices for example, feature an HD TV checker that can help you find a fantastic new plasma or LCD set for a reasonable price.

Digital UK’s regional manager, Bill Taylor said: “Switchover is now complete across most of the south of England. People have responded positively to the change and hundreds of thousands of viewers can now receive Freeview for the first time.”

The only counties in the south of England that are yet to be switched over from analogue to digital are Kent and East Sussex, receivers of Meridian regional services, with conversion work in these areas scheduled to be completed by June this year.

The signal freed up by the shutting down of analogue TV services is expected to be auctioned off to mobile providers at the end of the year and used to support 4G mobile broadband services. Communications industry regulator Ofcom is currently finalising the terms and conditions under which the auction will take place.

Once the Meridian area is switched over, the last remaining regions to be switched are London, Northern Ireland and the Tyne Tees area.

Roadshows are currently taking place around the country to assist the public with the more confusing aspects of the switchover, with Dorchester, Lymington, Poole, Romsey, Ryde, Southampton and Winchester all on the tour’s schedule. Stands will be erected in shopping outlets and town centres with experts on hand to impart advice and offer guidance on any digital TV issues.

Details of when these switches will be taken place can be found on the Government’s Digital UK promotional materials and website.

Thanks to the UK’s Renewable Heat Incentive that opened for applications at the end of November offering long-term support to compensate all costs, for renewable energy technologies under the Renewable Energy Directive. This means a whole range of businesses will now be able to produce greener energy without facing the larger overheads it generally when installing a new boiler as well as enjoying the dramatically reduced running costs. It is expected that firms that have been running on older types of energy like oil and liquid gas will save potentially as much as 50% of their heating bills.

This means excellent news for medium sized business owners who will enjoy such dramatically reduced expenses, as well as the Globe which will enjoy it’s environment being destroyed slightly less. Anesco themselves will profit fiscally from the offer as it is giving them an essential advantage over their larger competitors and garnering a host of new clients.

This offer however doesn’t extend to personal homes. As a precedent however, and once business workers have experienced the dramatic savings from biomass fuel, it could encourage more people to try it out in their own homes.

Biomass fuel is essentially a more efficient fireplace, it burns wood fuel to heat a boiler, the fire itself heating a single room extremely effectively and the back boiler helping to heat the rest of the house. Biomass fuel is fairly cheap to run because instead of requiring oil or gas reserves extracted from deep within the earth’s crust and then shipped thousands of miles to be pumped into your home, all it needs is logs from trees that grow all around. Even if you don’t have a forest out your back garden, suppliers of logs are still fairly inexpensive.

However, until the initiatives like the Renewable Energy Incentive and Anesco extend covering expenses for private homes the installation costs of biomass boilers can still reach into the thousands. Also as biomass boilers are constantly burning wood, it can impact your boiler insurance for homeowners because of the greater fire hazard.

So don’t personally jump for joy with free heating just yet, you will still need to save and find the best business energy prices from traditional suppliers, but Anesco’s policy will help smaller businesses and may indicate future trends for the spread of affordable renewable energy into our homes.

We hear a lot about the development in schools regarding managing troublesome kids and behaviour issues, but it seems in the process of doing so, the more timid, quite children are being forgotten. A drama workshop has picked up on this and considers drama the perfect outlet for shy children.

Adam Annand, the name behind this scheme, has worked with theatre programmes for more than 25 years. He notices that the stage could well be the best place for the more self-conscious members of the classroom, giving them the opportunity to work as part of a team of people they get along with to create something fun and entertaining. It gives them a chance to be funny and express their personality by having a song and dance.

It has been discussed that as well as the immediate benefit of helping valuable members of the class coming out of their shells, it is seen as a positive thing that the ancient art of theatre and musicals are making a much celebrated return to the classroom in a time when much concern has been raided towards the amount of time children spend playing video games and watching television. It is a reasonable argument that theatre is largely more sociable than the two aforementioned mediums, because of the crowd experience; feeling emotion together, be it laughter or sadness.

It is reassuring that Speech Bubbles is a not-for-profit organisation, and this suggests a very genuine cause for the programme and that theatre could genuinely be a great way to help children overcome certain drawbacks.

And it has been proven to be a successful programme, too; 78% of the children that took part showed an improvement in learning, speaking and listening. But the most valuable feedback of all came from a child that said “Adam, I’m going to pretend to be shy again so that they will let me come back to Speech Bubbles”.

To further expand a child’s passion for theatre, a family trip to the theatre is a great idea to commemorate an art form that Britain has enjoyed for centuries, why not check out theatre show reviews on cheaptheatreticketslondon.org.uk for relevant titles that will fuel everybody’s passion for onstage performances.