Need a weekend away? Nottinghamshire, known worldwide as the legendary haunt of Robin Hood, combines a great mix of city life and country relaxation. Here are ten top treats to enjoy in Robin Hood Country.

With a population of over 270,000, Nottingham is one of England's big cities, a long-time manufacturing centre for bikes, cigarettes, pharmaceuticals and lace. It is, however, more famous for Nottingham Forest football team (or rather, for its mercurial ex-manager, Brian Clough), for the Trent Bridge cricket ground and for its association with Robin Hood , the legendary thirteenth-century outlaw. Unfortunately, the fortress-lair of Hood's bitter enemy, the Sheriff of Nottingham, is long gone, and today the city is at its most diverting in the Lace Market, whose cramped streets are crowded with the mansion-like warehouses of the Victorian lacemakers.

Destination Guides > Europe & Russia > Europe > England > East Midlands > Nottinghamshire

The county town is flanked to the south by the commuter villages of the Nottinghamshire Wolds and to the north by the gritty towns and villages of what was, until Thatcher and her cronies decimated it, the Nottinghamshire coalfield. Both are unremarkable, but encrusted within the old northern Nottinghamshire coalfield are the thin remains of Sherwood Forest , the bulk of which is contained within The Dukeries, named after the five dukes who owned most of this area and preserved at least part of the ancient broad-leaved forest. Three of the four remaining estates - Worksop, Welbeck and Thoresby - are still in private hands, though Thoresby Hall has recently been turned into a Warner resort hotel, whilst Clumber Park is now owned by the National Trust and offers charming woodland walks. Also within the confines of the former coalfield are two fascinating country houses, Newstead Abbey , one-time home of Byron, and, even better, the wonderful Elizabethan extravagance of Hardwick Hall . Moving on, eastern Nottinghamshire is agricultural and its most important town is Newark , an agreeable, low-key kind of place straddling the River Trent. Newark has a castle, but the main attraction hereabouts is the fine Norman church at nearby Southwell .

Jonathan Brown, a scribbler from the British Independent Newspaper has published an amusing article:

http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article3084311.ece

WMD claims revive talk of feud at 'The Guardian'

[quote]

Veteran investigative journalist Nick Davies's forthcoming book, Flat Earth News, is billed as an insider's view on a "profession corrupted to the core" where journalists are content to peddle myths "from the millennium bug to the WMD in Iraq" – dressed up as genuine stories.

[end quote]

Can New Cocoa Varieties Answer Women's Cravings and Other Things

(NAPSI)-When the need for a pick-me-up is brewing, most women turn to chocolate and caffeine. At least that's the finding of a recent survey.

When it comes to quick pick-me-ups, it seems there are still few things that can compete with chocolate and caffeine-especially during the colder months.

The survey by Swiss Miss found that nearly 70 percent of women ages 25 to 44 said chocolate was their favorite sweet treat, especially when they're stressed, in need of a pick-me-up or experiencing PMS. And almost seven in 10 women consume caffeine at least once a day, often turning to caffeine for those mid-morning and mid-afternoon lulls.

But many women are also looking for a nutritional boost to get them through the day. More than half (54 percent) of women asked said they don't think they're getting enough nutrients from their daily diet. They look to fortified foods to help bridge the gap and to give them the energy boost they need.

Now women can help satisfy their chocolate cravings and get more of what they want-namely, a pick-me-up to get them through the day and nutrients from the foods they indulge in-from a warm and inviting cup of hot cocoa.

What Women Want

For instance, Swiss Miss Pick-Me-Up™ Cocoa boasts a smooth and creamy chocolate taste with as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, plus as much calcium and vitamin D as a glass of milk. Additionally, the company's Great Start Cocoa begins with smooth and creamy imported cocoa and then adds 15 essential vitamins and minerals. Both varieties are a natural source of antioxidants.

Better for You

And there's more good news in these new cocoas: both contain just 110 calories and two grams of fat per cup. Women can enjoy their craving for something sweet and indulgent but without all the fat and calories typically found in ice cream, cookies, candy and sweetened coffee drinks made with cream and sugar. Plus, the company's hot cocoa mix is made from fresh milk that's dried and blended with premium imported cocoas.

Thanks to a series of tax concessions, the purchase of property overseas as a second home or investment is increasingly popular, and no longer the prerogative of the rich. Before deciding to make a purchase overseas there are many issues to take into consideration. While the tax implications may not be at the forefront of the decision-making process, failure to give a few important issues some consideration could cast a gloomy shadow over the pleasures of owning a place in the sun.

Protecting Your Cat's Health

Cat owners may sometimes mistake the symptoms of their pet's poor bladder health as behavioral issues.

Cats often seem mysterious, but a new national survey polling more than 1,000 cat owners reveals that our feline friends may be more misunderstood then we think-and that misunderstanding could affect their health.

According to the new Cat Behavior Survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 75 percent of cat owners are not familiar with important bladder health issues that may affect their companions.

This lack of knowledge can often leave cat owners mistaking warning signs of the disease as "behavior problems," which can ultimately lead to serious consequences for the cat if not properly addressed.

A Common Problem

Cat bladder health issues, such as inappropriate elimination, are actually reported as the No. 1 behavioral reason owners relinquish their cats to animal shelters.

Additionally, a 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) reported that animal shelters took in nearly 20 percent more cats and had to euthanize almost 14 percent more cats than previously reported from 1996 to 2004.

Healthier Cats

Cat owners can help keep their cats healthy by familiarizing themselves with the warning signs of bladder conditions and speaking with their veterinarian about therapeutic pet foods formulated for bladder health issues, such as the new Hill's Prescription Diet c/d Multicare Feline pet food.

Additionally, owners can help manage bladder conditions by implementing the following changes:

1 Have one more litter box in the home than the number of cats.

2 Scoop litter after each use.

3 Clean litter box with warm water and mild detergent every two weeks.

King John may have altered the course of English history by indicating his agreement to sign the Magna Carta at an impromptu meeting of parliamentarians at the Old Parliament Oak located near his hunting lodge "King John's Palace".

Magna Carta required the King to renounce certain rights, respect certain legal procedures and accept that his will could be bound by the law. It explicitly protected certain rights of the king's subjects, whether free or fettered — most notably the right of Habeas Corpus, meaning that they had rights against unlawful imprisonment.

I've tried to come to terms with the present and past UK government's policy in the "War Against Terror".

Maybe King John is chuckling in his grave?

Internment

Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial.

NOTE: Magna Carta - "most notably the right of Habeas Corpus, meaning that they had rights against unlawful imprisonment".

Concentration

No government or organization has used concentration camp to describe its own facilities, using instead terms such as internment camp, resettlement camp, detention facility, etc, regardless of the actual circumstances of the camp, which can vary a great deal.

How many people have been hanged/confined when there "rights against unlawful imprisonment" have been ignored?

Seems to me: A charter made law in 1215 should still be relevant.

The value of being "free" can only be really appreciated by a person in shackles.

Just how long can I be locked up for something I didn't do?

The Article JackC directory experiment has got off to a good start (link on the left).

These are the visitor statistics for the first three months:

Total Articles: 12445
Total Authors: 924
Total Downloads: 23425

Most of the articles are submitted by the ArticleMarketer.com an article distribution web site.

In recent weeks, the flow of new articles has been quite slow. However, during the last few days over one hundred new content articles have been submitted.

The Careers in Photography article caught my eye and I thought to highlight the quality of research and attention to detail that the author clearly took time to get right.

Marrakech or Marrakesh, known as the "Red City" or "Al Hamra," lies in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains and is the second largest city in Morocco after Casablanca. It’s not a place of great monuments. Its beauty and attraction lie in the general atmosphere and spectacular location - with the magnificent peaks of the Atlas rising right up behind the city, hazy in the heat of summer and shimmering white with the winter snow. Like many North African and Middle Eastern cities, it comprises both an old fortified city (the médina, which although substantially in ruins at the beginning of the twentieth century, was rebuilt and expanded during the years of French rule) and an adjacent modern city (called Gueliz). It has the largest traditional souk in Morocco and the bustling Place Djemaâ el Fna is the biggest square in the African continent. It has always been a popular destination with foreigners – either to visit or to settle in – and today has a very large international community, mainly of Europeans.

Is Wee Gordie telling the truth or is he a liar, liar with his Brown pants definitely on fire...

During his speech to the Labour Party (now that's an oxymoron) the wee one mentioned the words Britain or British no less than 84 times. Clearly, wee gordan is running scared. How can a Scottish person be left in charge of the UK if Scotland votes to be independent and break away from the United Kingdom? The Fishy one north or the border will no doubt really start to stir things up over the next year and up-to the next general election.

Probably the most transparent and insincere part of his speech was the sickening exploitation of a minor. Wee Gordie trotted out a tale about his overwhelming joy when hearing a young boy read a story to him during a PR visit to a primary school. Crocodile tears almost burst forth from the reptile eyes.

Once a liar, always a liar.

Don't watch his lips or even listen to his words... clock the reptile eyes. WEE gordie is probably THE most dangerous man "on-the-loose" in England right now.

Some History and a Few Great Free Potato recipes

In celebration of the "humble potato".

Potatoes probably originated in the area of modern day Peru and then spread from South America to Europe and Britain and from there to the rest of the world in the late 1400s and early 1500s by sailors using them as a staple of their onboard diet.

Legend has it, that after the wreck of the Spanish Armada ships on the west coast of Ireland in 1588, Irish coastal villagers rescued potatoes and planted them. Unfortunately the local population had come to rely heavily on the potato.

This "sowed the seeds" for a series of famines and a resentment towards Britain and Queen Victoria. In 1845, a fungal disease, spread rapidly through the poorer communities of western Ireland, resulting in the Great Irish Famine.

The potato still forms a major part of western people's diets and many recipes have been devised to combat the rather bland taste.

Common dishes are: mashed potatoes, which are first boiled (usually peeled), and then mashed with milk and butter; whole baked potatoes; boiled or steamed potatoes; French-fried potatoes or chips; cut into cubes and roasted; scalloped, diced, or sliced and fried (home fries); grated into small thin strips and fried (hash browns); grated and formed into dumplings, Rösti or potato pancakes. [source: wikipedia.com]

Read on to discover some great ideas to enrich the taste of the humble potato!