Lunch

My favourite place is on the east coast, the part of the island I love most. Its called Chez Tino, named after the owner, where you can eat wonderful fish and seafood overlooking a beautiful bay. Crab soup, grilled lobster and prawn curry are house specialities.

Another good find is Le Fangourin at LAventure du Sucre, the sugar museum in Port Louis. Start with octopus salad or giant prawns with fresh heart of palm and a confit of papaya and onion, followed by grilled sea bream, grouper or bass with curry leaves, or red snapper curry with coconut milk.

If you take a rum tour at the Chamarel distillery, have lunch at its gourmet restaurant, LAlchimiste, where the dishes include palm-heart salad, venison and wild boar. It has a good list of fine wines, many of them French.

Chez Tino (Route Royale, Trou dEau Douce, East Mauritius; 00230 480 2769; chez-tino.restaurant.mu). Three courses 20, excluding drinks

Le Fangourin (Beau Plan, Pamplemousses, North Mauritius; 243 7900; aventuredusucre.com). Three courses 16-24

LAlchimiste (Rhumerie de Chamarel, Route Royale, Chamarel, South-west Mauritius; 483 7980; rhumeriedechamarel.com). Three courses 30

Fine dining

There are no Michelin-starred restaurants on the island, but you can expect Michelin-standard food at many hotels. I went to Safran at Le Touessrok once, which was brilliant. The chef, Ramesh Bundi, does modern interpretations of Indian cuisine: marinated tandoori salmon with green herbs, mustard and pan-seared scallops; lamb cutlet encrusted with curry leaf and red onion, with rose petal and lamb jus and saffron puri (a deep-fried unleavened bread); and coconut cremeux with Granny Smith jelly, cucumber and mint ice cream.

Safran (Le Touessrok Hotel, Trou dEau Douce, East Mauritius; 402 7400; safran.restaurant.mu). Six-course tasting menu 60, with wines 104; three courses la carte 50 without drinks

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Mauritius's best restaurants, by Shelina Permalloo

As part of its motley collection of theme based green spaces in the city, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has completed work on the Japanese Garden at Jubilee Hills close to Annapurna Studios road.

The civic body which already has 15 theme based parks such as Palm Garden at Malakpet, Bamboo Garden and Bougainvillea Garden in Jubilee Hills, has set up the new lung space spread over 3,500 square yards at a cost of nearly Rs.80 lakh. The urban biodiversity wing which recently completed the work has dotted the entire facility with motifs representative of gardens in Japan and gave it a look that is different from the other city gardens.

Green spaces have been created with foliage from more than 100 different species and it gets interspersed with water plants and stone benches. The last phase of work on all round pathways laid with granite stone has been done but for a final coat of paint and setting up the board, which is also getting ready in Japanese font, all the details have been attended to, according to the staff.

It has been pointed out that the gardens in Japan usually are not elaborate but laid out in informal and trimmed fashion and the same had been replicated here. There are gazebos, 12 solar lamps, stone lanterns and a small design to be set up in typical Japanese style with chips, would be done by the time the facility gets inaugurated. A small water body and a smaller stone arched bridge add aestheticism to the garden.

The GHMC in its drive at creating green spaces in different parts of the city has a total of 49 major gardens apart from more than 520 parks at colony level. In view of the election code, the Japanese Garden would be inaugurated after the polls.

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Garden with a Japanese touch

Cliftonville Farmers Market.

A double victory is being celebrated by Thanet winners at the prestigious Taste of Kent Awards.

At the 10th countywide TOKA event last night, Cliftonville Farmers Market won as Kent Farmers Market of the Year and Little Stour Orchard, which has its office in Margate, won a main award as Kent Juice Producer of the Year, also picking up a couple of other accolades.

Cliftonville Farmers Market was established in 2001 by the Cliftonville Residents Association, is run entirely by volunteers and is self funded.

It is one of the countys longest running farmers markets and a previous winner of the Produced In Kent (PiK) award in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The Cliftonville market was also a finalist in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013.

Cliftonville Farmers Market organiser June Chadband is delighted to "win back the crown" as Kent Farmers Market of The Year in the Taste of Kent Awards 2014.

Organiser June Chadband said today: We were really thrilled to regain our crown, particularly as the other finalists were Rochester and Tonbridge markets.

It makes all the hard work worthwhile and gives something positive to Cliftonville.

A special thanks to all our producers for their attendance and to the men who put up all the gazebos, without them we could not run the market, and for everybody who voted for us.

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Cliftonville Farmers Market and Little Stour Orchard are Thanet winners at the count's 10th Taste of Kent Awards.

Cyclone Lusi is broadening her target area with most of the North Island, and the top half of the South Island now in her sights.

The north will be hit first, but a flood-fatigued Christchurch could be in for another soaking, prompting the city council to prepare for the worst.

Those planning outdoor festival events are thinking again.

"A lot of our market and vendors run out of pop-up gazebos three metres by three metres, and in high winds they can become sails and frankly dangerous," said Silo Park Festival's Simon Van Prague.

At Vidal Estate in Hastings, pickers are working 24/7 to bring in a bumper chardonnay crop in case high winds strip the vines.

"The loss of the fruit would be catastrophic, significant at least, and the disease would spread and the quality of the wine would be affected," said Vidal Estate's Hugh Crichton.

So far the only high winds visible is an unrelated miniature tornado in the Waikato.

But as the Bay of Plenty enjoyed autumn, Civil Defence was getting ready and urging others to do the same.

Clinton Naude from Bay of Plenty Civil Defence says to clear drains, gutters, and to secure outdoor objects.

"We don't want the children's trampoline on the neighbour's roof."

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Kiwis preparing for Cyclone Lusi

photo by jerry dalia

The colorful Denville String Band performs in holiday parades around the area.

The Denville String Band, North Jerseys only Mummers-style marching band, is beginning its 63rd year of entertaining people in parades and concerts. The band plays and marches in the style of the Philadelphia Mummers bands with elaborate costumes and traditional popular music from the 1920s through the 1950s with a sprinkling of newer songs. It also performs concerts at indoor venues and summer-time gazebos all over North Jersey.

"Our next public performance will be at the Morristown St. Patricks Day parade on March 15," said Band President Bernie Dennison. "It is an honor to participate in this parade which is said to be one of the largest if not the largest St. Patricks Day parade in New Jersey."

Parade day will start with Mass at 10 a.m. at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 91 Maple Ave. in Morristown. The parade will begin at noon near the corner of South Street and James Street and proceed up South Street around the Morristown Green and Ends at Atno Avenue.

Pre-parade festivities will start at the Green at 10:30 a.m. with Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones, "The National Anthem," Irish step dancing and chalking of the Shamrocks by the Special Olympics.

According to Dennison, the Denville String Band has a full slate of concerts and parades scheduled for 2014 including many around Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving.

The band is very popular, we have more requests by concert and parade organizers then we can possibly handle," he said. "Unfortunately, we have to turn down many requests."

The band is actively seeking new members. According to Membership Chairman Andrew Bulfer, the band is particularly looking for new saxophone, clarinet, banjo, guitar, accordion and drummers. Other woodwind and string instrument players are also invited. There are non-musical positions available too, so other family members can participate.

According to Bulfer, marching with the band down the street in full colorful Mummers costumes with crowds cheering at the curb is a particular thrill for their members.

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Denville String Band to start 63rd year of Mummers style at St. Patricks parade

A northwestern Ontario First Nation community has been painstakingly assembling the wood building blocks for a community revival.

Forest products will be the economic cornerstone behind the development of Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek (BNA), an Ojibway community once displaced by the Ontario government in the 1950s.

Last August, the community held a land designation vote to ratify and proceed with a sawmill proposal.

It was a long time in the making, said Jordan Hatton, BNAs lands and resources manager. Its a positive step for the people that want to see the community move ahead.

Located on the southeastern shore of Lake Nipigon, the former Sand Point First Nation is a community thats still very much in the planning stages.

There is no current infrastructure in place for housing and the communitys population of 250 off- reserve members.

Originally, there were ambitious plans calling for a large volume cedar sawmill, a wood pellet mill and a one-megawatt co-generation plant to power the community.

But the members told the leadership that was too much, too soon.

Instead of having a two-shift, 20-employee sawmill, the leadership are re-examining the business and marketing plan.

They want us to start small and if its successful we can expand. Well build it incrementally rather than go big, said Hatton.

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First Nation advances sawmill project

Lafcadio Hearn, shown with Koizumi Setsu

Coloured perspective view of the proposed Japanese garden by Mike Roberts, FRIAI

The long established seaside resort of Tramore, Co Waterford, is to get a Japanese garden commemorating writer and translator Patrick Lafcadio Hearn one of those most admired western figures to live in that culture and who is known in Japan as Koizumi Yakumo. He spent his boyhood summers in Tramore.

Announcing the project yesterday, the Japanese embassy in Dublin pledged to provide six million yen (41,860) towards the Koizumi Yakumo Memorial Garden, which is to be laid out on the 2.5-acre grounds of Tramore House.

The grant is the largest of 48 awards this year from the Japan World Expo 1970 Commemorative Fund, reflecting the importance of a project that ambassador Chihiro Atsumi said would be a valuable addition to the cultural links between Ireland and Japan.

Lafcadio Hearn was born in 1850 to an Irish father and Greek mother and brought up by his grand-aunt, Sarah Brenane, who brought him from Dublin to Tramore on holidays. He went on to live in Japan, becoming revered as its great interpreter to the rest of the world. West to east The aim is to transform the existing, steeply sloping site into a themed Japanese garden reflecting his extraordinary journey from west to east from his orphaned boyhood through many turbulent years to ultimate peace, self-realisation and fulfilment in Japan.

Inspiration for the garden came from a trip to Tramore by Koizumi Bon, Hearns great-grandson, in September 2012.

It is also being seen as one of the fruits of visits by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe to Ireland and Taoiseach Enda Kenny to Japan last year.

The concept was created by Agnes Aylward, who heads the Tramore Development Trust, with garden structures designed by architect Mike Roberts, drawing on his knowledge of gardens in Japan, and landscaping by Martin Curran of MBC, who also worked there.

The project has an overall budget of 500,000, nearly half of which has been pledged by Waterford County Council and the Japanese fund. It will include ponds, cascades, gazebos, ornamental planting and Japanese-style bridges and entrance gates, arranged in sequence.

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Tramore to get Japanese garden in memory of Lafcadio Hearn

A range of bamboo home styles-design prefabricated "bamboo houses"-custom, installed hut/gazebos
bamboocreasian.com - A range of bamboo home styles-design prefabricated bamboo houses-custom, installed hut/gazebos- build a bamboo house| Manufacture and i...

By: Creasian Bamboo

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A range of bamboo home styles-design prefabricated "bamboo houses"-custom,&installed hut/gazebos - Video

Federal regulators recently accepted more than 200 nonconforming structures at Lake of the Ozarks to be grandfathered in, which was the final step in Ameren Missouris five-plus year-long campaign to have its energy license renewed. Photo by Ceil Abbott.

LAKE OZARK, Mo. Ameren officials say they are relieved a final resolution has been reached between the utility, a government agency and the Lake of the Ozarks property owners whose structures encroached on the lake's boundaries.

We are very pleased with FERCs recent order accepting our June 5, 2012, request to permit over 200 nonconforming structures at Lake of the Ozarks, said Jeff Green, Ameren Missouri shoreline manager. Although there is much work left to do in actually issuing permits for these structures, this represents the final chapter in a year-long process involving property owners, agencies and the FERC.

Green was commenting on a request from Ameren that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allow them to grandfather in some 215 non-conforming structures as the final step in the companys five-plus years-long campaign to have its energy license renewed.

The recommendation came one year after FERCs June 2012 order to comprehensively revise the project boundary at the Lake to 662 feet above sea level and even lower in areas where private homes encroached onto its property. The order included a provision that required Ameren Missouri to inventory and recommend a plan for all remaining non-conforming decks, patios, gazebos and similar structures. For more than a year, Ameren Missouri inventoried the structures, worked with property owners and agencies before recommending its closure plan to FERC.

Although there were originally some 4,000-plus structures, including 1,500 homes, that encroached onto Amerens property, many of those structures, including all private residences, were exempted from the issue of encroachment in 2012 when Ameren redrew its boundary to a line approximately 662 feet above sea level.

In commenting on this latest decision by FERC, Green said, Our main goal from the beginning has been to work out a reasonable solution that successfully resolves issues related to the location of unauthorized lakefront decks, patios and similar structures within our project boundary. Now that FERC has approved our plan, we can now move forward with issuing permits and getting back to business as usual at the lake.

Green said it is important that lake front property owners take note that under the newly approved shoreline management plan, new decks, patios and gazebos are not allowed to encroach on that portion of the shoreline that lies below the 662-foot elevation line.

Property owners considering new construction along the shoreline should contact Green at his Lake Ozark office for information about where the 662-foot elevation line is on individual properties before starting construction.

Lake of the Ozarks is the only large privately owned body of water in Missouri built specifically for the purpose of operating a hydroelectric dam. Ameren Missouri forerunner Union Electric of St. Louis built Lake of the Ozarks in the 1930s, and today operates it under the companys license with FERC.

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Federal regulators make final ruling on Lake property

Organisers of Mudeford Arts Fest appeal for artists for this years quayside event

4:00pm Wednesday 5th March 2014 in News By Toby Wadey

Scenes from last years Mudeford Arts Festival

ORGANISERS of the annual Mudeford Quay Arts Festival are asking for artists to submit sea themed work as they prepare for this summers event.

The two-day exhibition will be held on July 26 and 27 at Mudeford Quays picnic green with the aim of celebrating sea creatures and monsters from the deep.

The Mudeford Arts Festival committee is calling for people to get involved by submitting their works of art, performing, setting up stalls or to volunteer to help in any way they can.

A spokesman said: Last years festival was a huge success and were hoping for a repeat. The green will come alive with marquees and gazebos celebrating the very best of local art and craft.

Space is also being made in the main marquee area to exhibit the work of youngsters, with submissions from anybody under the age of 14 welcomed.

Thousands of people visited the artists tents and displays in 2013, when the theme was smugglers and pirates, and the festival has grown into a much anticipated annual opportunity for artists in the area to display their work.

As well as all the art a variety of refreshments will be available all day and there will also be live entertainment from the performance pod and a host of activities for children.

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Organisers of Mudeford Arts Fest appeal for artists for this years quayside event