Obviously, it’s not Cyclone Idai, for which a great Disasters Emergency Committee fund has been set up to help the millions (millions! — millions and millions!) of people in Mozambique around the metropolitan area of Beira who have been flooded…
Category: Environment
North Pennines Observatory
I went along to the last Members’ Evening of the season at the observatory up at Allenheads, housed in the premises of Allenheads Contemporary Arts (the old school) yesterday evening, courtesy of the organiser Chris Welton representing AVEL (Allen Valleys…
Curlews, lapwings — later black grouse, and more
[Sketches derived from apparently royalty-free images on the internet] So the large curlew is back on the Sparty Lea fellside, gliding through the air, and the lapwings have been skirling in the sky for some time now. Only after we’d…
Motorhomes galore
They’re all around the village, motorhomes skulking in their owners’ drives, or tucked carefully away in unobtrusive corners, just waiting for an adventure throughout the country, over to Ireland, or east and with luck this year, anywhere on the continent….
Chitting potatoes . . . and a link to the past
We use the ‘no-dig’ protocol to grow our award-winning potatoes (High Forest Show 2017) on a southern exposure in Sparty Lea. It’s taken us some time to figure out how best to grow any vegetables at all up here, but…
The burning heather
Without taking any sides (environmental, conservational, pro- or anti-shooting) on the traditional practice of burning swathes of heather on the grouse moors around the valleys, the diary entry today notes the annual fires and smoke, and considers a few viewpoints….
Service with a smile . . .
You might have to put up with a bit of craic from the delivery man, but the Baynes Calor gas service here in the Allen Valleys is second to none in terms of efficiency, alacrity, dedication and cheerfulness. Come to…
Surveillance society
Today my little job is to create an instruction manual for a Closed Circuit Television system so that it can be interrogated handily by anyone who is responsible for the covered area. I know of at least four CCTV systems…
Walking the circuit . . .
Yesterday I alluded to ‘the circuit’ and wondered if anyone might comment on that somewhat obscure reference. Maybe it’s one of those things that everybody knows about, which often feel like the most fun sort of things to comment on…
Timber stacks at Redwell Corner
It’s a cash crop, of course, but even so the harvesting of a plantation, especially one as mature as this one, comes as something of a shock. What a wide open space there is behind the stone wall, which is…