The family came visiting to Ranger Towers today, and in keeping with tradition, adults and children alike are obliged to take the air after lunch for the new year sandblasting walk by the beach. It certainly beats facial scrubs - I can recommend walking into the wind at Ryde over nightingale-poo facepacks any day.

But, what's this?

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By Ruth D'Alessandro, The Wildlife Gardener

The Wildlife Garden is looking rather forlorn. The Wildlife Gardener is also feeling forlorn: it’s too cold to plant early broad beans in the greenhouse and any attempt to rake up fallen leaves and debris disturbs tiny hibernating froglets fast asleep under their humus duvets:

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Standing in the office wearing his coat, The Ranger was just about to set off for the staff Christmas dinner. As ever I was the last to leave having left all sorts of things to the final moment. The office as empty - snowflakes cut out by my colleagues from the pages of the staff magazine were twisting in the breeze, but otherwise all was still: computers off, heaters silent, the car park outside looking oddly depleted of vans.

Just then the phone rang. A moment of indecision: should I just walk off - after all, in theory, I was on leave. But, as ever, I couldn't resist. On the other end of the line was laughing-boy from the call centre - "Ooo, I've got a right one for you here Ranger..." he chuckled, wisely not waiting for any reply before putting the call through.

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The Isle of Wight is known for its downs and cliffs, but inland, especially on the north of the Island, there are quiet woods and fields where few people go. You don't have to go very far to be away from it all. Walking through Ashey one crisp winter day, the Ranger found himself strolling down an unmade track which was distinguished by the unlikely name of Station Road. Sure enough, at the end was a station - the house now private. An adjacent halt is still used by the steam railway that passes by.

Behind the station-house is a little wood, and leading into it an old wooden field-gate.

I always enjoy a good gate - yes, I do. This one drew my eye particularly. The shape of the rails showed that it was made of cleft wood, probably chestnut, split from a round log and fitted into slots at each end. This is a very old style of gate-making, and is done when the wood is young and green, often in the coppice where it is cut. Once the wood has dried out you can't split it like this.

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By Princess Tightwad, the parsimonious eco-warrior

Princess Tightwad has now abandoned the hushed, designer aisles of the Marks and Spencer food hall for something easier on the purse. As the foreign discount stores Lidl and Aldi are about the only shops showing profit, I thought I would pay a visit and see if good food really could cost less.

In the previous recession, the Lidl car park in Locksbottom was the inspiration for one of Mr Tightwad's best jokes: as a shiny new green BMW drew up alongside our 10-year-old Vauxhall Nova, he noted ‘Look she’s saved enough money shopping at Lidl to buy a BMW’. Now, if you have a BMW you have to shop at Lidl just to keep the darn thing on the road.

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