Creating the perfect outdoor space for your home or business requires a careful combination of hardwork and artistic design. There is a whole range of different features that you could add to your outdoor space to improve it, including things like outdoor dining areas, barbecues and flagpoles.
Although many people wouldn’t even think about adding one to their back – or front – yard, flagpoles can actually make a great addition to your landscaping design. They offer a huge range of benefits, and can really compliment other features of your yard. Think about the following 4 reasons why you should consider adding a flagpole to your yard:
If you want to draw people’s eyes to a certain part of your yard – or indeed, away from a certain area – then the best thing to do is place something large and commanding in their line of sight. Flagpoles are tall, imposing and are great for drawing people’s eyes to certain parts of your garden.
For example, if you’ve got a special garden bed or some sort of feature that you want to make the centerpiece of your garden, then you should consider adding a flagpole nearby so that people naturally look in that direction.
Most people use their flagpole to display their favourite flag. Many people choose to display the flag of their country of origin. If you’re a particularly patriotic person or are simply proud of your heritage, then consider adding a flagpole to your yard so that you can show the world.
If you own or run a small business, then you might choose to use your flagpole as an advertising medium. A lot of people will hang their national flag or the flag of some organisation at the top of their flagpole, followed by a flag advertising their business underneath. However, you don’t necessarily have to do this, and some businesses use their flagpole for the sole purpose of advertising their services.
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Getting your pool ready for summer early is a good idea as there are often some hot days in early spring when everyone would enjoy a cool dip. If you have one of the automatic pool cleaners that are available these days, preparing your pool for the swimming season will be much easier. It will also help if you’ve winterised your pool with a cover to keep out debris.
Here are some tips to getting your pool ready for the fun and games of summer
When you work as a sole trader, you can be anywhere that is comfortable. Creating an outdoor space and taking a backlit laptop or notebook outside to work allows you to experience the fresh air and sunshine instead of being cooped up in the house or office all day. These days there are many different styles of outdoor furniture that are comfortable and convenient. Your outside office chair can be made of wicker, rattan or boat wood from Indonesia or Bali.
Many people start their own small business from their homes – sometimes even using a corner of the dining room table for their office until they get the business going. Often they are happy to stay small, but in other the business increases beyond their wildest dreams and before they know it they’ve had to employ staff and move to a larger office.
However, there are many benefits to remaining a sole trader who doesn’t employ staff. It suits some people to continue to work alone from their home and use the internet as a way of contacting their clients. A big benefit is that you can organise your work schedule around your life and can be at home to care for children, or for when the children come home from school.
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An “invisible” Mercedes-Benz B-Class (the F-Cell) is being used in an ad campaign to show off the zero-emissions features of their new fuel-cell powered vehicle. The Mercedes-Benz B-class F-Cell will be available in 2014 with a 386km (240 miles) range.
Sheets of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) laid onA one side of the Mercedes-Benz F-Cell car are then fed by a camera image from the other side, so that the live feed makes the car appear invisible to people looking at it from the LED side. It looks pretty amazing in the Youtube video.
The advertising campaign is designed to raise awareness of this zero emissions technology being available to the public but also to help increase the number of hydrogen refuelling stations that countries are willing to build. These hydrogen stations are critical to the success of hydrogen-fueled cars of course.
The B-class F-Cell stores hydrogen in its polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. A fuel cell then converts high-pressure hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2, from the air) into electrical energy and water (H2O). The electrical energy is used to drive a 134hp electric motor and power the car, and the only ‘pollutant’ out of the exhaust is pure water. The entire process can be almost emissions free if the hydrogen is obtained from renewable clean energy.
At startup, the F-Cell uses power from a 1.4-kWh lithium-ion battery array and then the fuel cell motor comes on at 7mph (11.2km/h). It is not the fastest B-class Mercedes Benz, taking around 17seconds to get to 60mph (96km/hr) but it is the cleanest.
Only 70 F-Cells will come to the US, mostly in California and a few in Washington, D.C., and the lease cost is around $800-1000 (€602-753), at least until there are more hydrogen refueling stations available and more F-Cells are manufactured, dropping their price for the public to buy.
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