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31 Dec 2006 Carried more poles down from the wood to the woodyard for sawing into 4 feet 6 inch lengths of cordwood and stacking into a cord for 2 year's seasoning. These will be ready for my woodburner in the winter of 2008/9. 30 Dec 2006 Another inch of rain fell since yesterday, bring this month's rainfall total up from 1½ to 2½ inches. A couple of Roe Deer trotted off across the field above the wood this morning. Later in the day the male Sparrowhawk chased the small birds round and round the feeding station, before perching on the peanut feeder to rest, recover and reconsider his unsuccessful hunting strategy. A Nuthatch and 7 Long Tailed Tit visited, once all the excitement had died down again. I checked and cleared all the drains in anticipation of the next intense low pressure system expected to cross the NE of England. More rain and more gales, so I removed the horizontal limb from a lopsided 25 year old Oak near the top of the wood. Hopefully, it will now be less likely to topple over in the storm. 29 Dec 2006 It rained last night, as forecast, and the bonfire had burned away to nothing and gone out. Gale force winds then began and the rain and wind continued all day. Apart from a little tidying-up, this was a good day to curl up by my wood burning stove and read one of the many good books received for Christmas. Especially 'The Woodland House' by Ben Law, as featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs. Excellent! While preparing lunch I noticed that the gale had moved the big slab of slate in the yard outside. This slab, which had once been the side panel of the old bath in Groves Dyke, and is destined to become the top of my new south patio table, had been leaning against the back wall of the house. It is about 6 feet long, 2 feet wide and an inch thick, so it must weigh over a hundredweight (sorry, I have no idea what that is in litres), but still a super strong gust of wind had lifted it from the wall, swivelled it around slightly and deposited it partly across the kitchen window! Luckily, neither slab nor window was damaged. 28 Dec 2006 Not only did the weather permit, but it positively invited a full day's hedge laying! A mild day, dry, calm and sunny was just what was required for hedging with lots of help from SA. We spent the morning clearing several yards of gappy hedge, removing any dead or dying Hawthorn stems and any unsuitable species like Brambles, Elder, Sycamore, Ivy, etc. By lunchtime we had prepared several yards of hedge and created a huge heap nearby for burning. We were joined after lunch by AR, who struggled manfully to light the bonfire and eventually managed to do it very successfully (with the help of a sack of kindling and a Stihl leaf blower set to Gale Force 8! The actual hedge-laying began under the big Ash trees a little further along where the trees and their roots made normal staking impossible, so we just used the living tree trunks as stakes and cut, split, leaned and wove the Hawthorn and Hazel pleachers in and out between them. You won't find this technique in any textbook, but as SA said 'You always have to work with whatever is available'. Shall we call this type of hedging 'Sleights Style', perhaps? 27 Dec 2006 This seems to have been a CRAFT Christmas. CRAFT? Can't Remember A Flipping Thing! But it was good. The dull, grey, fairly mild and dry weather gave way to a bit of sunshine this afternoon and I swept up yet more leaves, cleared heaps of rotting apples from the drains, carried and sawed a few more logs, prepared the empty cord frame for this winter's felling and thinning, replaced the bow saw blades and bought a new lightweight hand axe in anticipation of tomorrow's proposed hedge laying at the back of Groves Dyke orchard (weather permitting). Every morning for the past week a Blackbird has provided an hour's worth of dawn chorus from a Hawthorn behind the pole barn, while other Blackies were feasting frantically on the berries. Is the singer a resident bird and the others are migrants from further North, I wonder? 22 Dec 2006 Email, broadband and linked mobile phone now working properly, at last! Lots of dashing about, wrapping things, posting things, etc, etc, while the whole country (apparently) has been covered in cold, dense fog. Well, that's certainly one way to slow down climate change by reducing excess flights from Heathrow and lots of other airports - The Planet Strikes Back! And while the whole of the UK was under this still, stagnant and sub-zero high pressure system, I bet not one single wind turbine managed to produce a single megawatt of electricity. If only the government would see sense and spend all those almost pointless wind power subsidies on simply insulating every property in the UK, then we could save c20% of our energy needs, instead of building more production which we then waste 20% of - and ruin the landscape into the bargain. 15 Dec 2006 Still calm but now raining. This has already been confirmed by the Met Office at the warmest year ever in the UK over the past 350 years, the warmest month ever in July 2006, the warmest autumn ever in 2006, and the 10 warmest years ever recorded in the UK have all been within the last 12 years. Methinks the trend is still upwards because I had to kill a Wasp which was flying around the kitchen this afternoon. In mid-December! 13 Dec 2006 The wind has stopped! For the first time in what seems like ages, a clam day. I took the old codger for a walk on the beach at Sandsend and yes, Flag came too. We pottered sedately along the beach in the sunshine and admired the waves from afar. Neither of us galloped for miles and neither of us felt inclined to lie in the shallows. In fact, for the first time ever, we both returned to the car completely dry. A couple of dozen Oystercatchers loafed on the golf course as we drove past. Web access & email have gone funny again and BT are still promising to send the missing bit of kit... 12 Dec 2006 The dry, mild-ish (7° C) and very windy weather continues. Plastic patio chairs were retrieved from around the garden. Again. Two Roe Deer fled before the Flaghound at the top of the wood, but he returned soon after. Carrying branches down from the wood is getting more exciting, as the ground becomes wetter and more slippery. Groves Dyke Holiday Cottage was inspected for the Yorkshire Tourist Board this afternoon, as arranged. Hopefully the 'new' kitchen and Utility Room (completed almost a year ago) will get a few extra Brownie Points, not to mention the even newer terrace at the entrance, the half-doors on the sitting room, the extra banister on the staircase, etc... And then a cold call from a new Everest employee this afternoon: "I'm just checking that everything is OK with the products you bought from us a few years ago..." he said, before I interrupted his spiel and brought him up to speed on just who is still Everest's most annoyed customer. He dropped his sales pitch and eventually even his loyal defence as I piled on the evidence. Poor man, but then I didn't ask him to phone me, did I? 10 Dec 2006 Wild and windy again. The rain gauge says just over 1 inch so far this month and we did have a good hard frost a few nights ago - but I have forgotten which! All this windy weather means that my wood burning stove is eating logs like there is no tomorrow, no matter how much I try to reduce the burning rate. At least the weather is mainly dry and not too cold. 7 Dec 2006 A trip to Seal Sands National Nature Reserve on the North Tees with T & C, spoilt only by an accident and resulting traffic chaos on the A19, an unwanted 1 hour tour of Billingham as all the diverted traffic tried to find its way back to the A19, nowhere for lunch except the big shed and apartment complex which is now Hartlepool Marina (is this really what Scarborough Borough Council plans for Whitby harbour? May the Ombudsman help us prevent it!), failing light and a high tide. Never mind, we did see more bird species today than T & C saw in 2 weeks in China: c36 compared to 15. What have they done to all the birds in China? Eaten them? Poisoned them with industrial pollution? Eradicated them to reduce the risk of Bird Flu? 5 Dec 2006 The sun shone and the wind blew but we still enjoyed a lovely walk along the old railway line from Larpool Viaduct to Stainsacre and back, just part of the new National Cycle Network around the British Isles. This stretch is spoilt only by the new housing development which some idiots at Scarborough Borough Council have given Planning Permission for and which is now looming up alongside this 120 foot high, 6 million brick, Grade 2 Listed Building Victorian Viaduct. Brilliant! 2 Dec 2006 Gale Force 8 winds, gusting to Severe Gale Force 9, are forecast for this evening and tonight. Offshore there have even been warnings to shipping of Storm Force 10 and even Violent Storm Force 11 winds. Wow, that's just one stage less than Hurricane Force 12! 30 Nov 2006 Just returned from a quick dash to the Lake District for a few days, memorable as being one of the mildest late November breaks in over 25 years. B, J & E have been house-sitting and dog-minding while I was away, so all is well. Still nothing from BT, so I have just unplugged all the BT Broadband bits and returned to the good old fashioned dial-up and pay as you go connection - while also paying for the super new, high tech and completely non-working BT Broadband. 23 Nov 2006 No sign of the missing bit of kit from BT and now my email and web access is starting to misbehave. Watch this space... 21 Nov 2006 I've lost track of the last few days, what with concentrating on preparing the hedge for laying (removing loads of rusty barbed wire, wrapping it around rotten fence posts & carrying it down to the road for proper disposal), boarding up the back of the pole barn with 'hit and miss' vertical slats (which will let half the wind blow through and which will look better from the outside), tidying-up around the pole barn (re-arranging the contents to get the overflow undercover) while the dry, sunny weather holds and installing Broadband (ha!) when it doesn't. In the wet and windy bits my local whizkid, an IT professional, spent 3 hours trying to get my new BT Broadband set up (almost) and link my BT mobile phone to it, so that I can get a signal even in a house at the bottom of the dale. Not yet. It seems a bit of the kit is missing & BT will send it in a few days... A very wet and windy night on the 19th removed most of the leaves from the more exposed trees. Apart from the evergreens, the Hazel leaves are still mostly green and intact, the Beech leaves are all brown and intact, the Oak leaves are all brown and half gone, the Ash trees are festooned with bunches of keys and no leaves, and everything else is bare poled - unless it is very well sheltered. 16 Nov 2006 A nice trip up the coast to a possible new wild bird feeding station for the general public, near Staithes, based on the idea of the long established one in the Birdwatchers' Car Park at Forge Valley, Scarborough. Just a few minor formalities to check out first, like ownership, access, permission, funding, etc, etc... It was such a nice day I took Flag to the Spindrift cafe by Staithes harbour for lunch. Of the 4 outside tables, 2 were already occupied and (with fleeces zipped) we all enjoyed some homemade soup and the wonderful view. Not bad for mid-November! An afternoon drive along Eskdaleside from Sleights to Grosmont provided good views of the woodland below in all its magnificent autumn colour. This has only just reached its peak in the last few days, with many trees still largely green. Very odd, so late in the year. Especially when only last week the Yucca at Sneaton Castle in Whitby were already in full flower with next year's blooms. Weird. 14 Nov 2006 And still the wonderful weather continues! We spent a good 5 hours in Bank Orchard, digging holes, chasing apples down the slope and digging more holes. One of us also finished dismantling the fallen Apple tree, clearing a bramble clump onto a suitable bonfire site and felling 8 fair sized Sycamore saplings. And it wasn't Flag. Now that the Rabbit numbers are increasing in this area, the horrible man-made myxomatosis has reappeared and I have to interrupt my walks occasionally to put some poor suffering bunny out of its misery. Just what I wanted. Isn't germ warfare wonderful? Thanks a bunch, Australia. 12 Nov 2006 Another day of near perfect weather for working in the wood. Flag wriggled his way into the very centre of a large and brambly habitat pile, while I removed a small, self-sown and misshapen Gean, as well as the Rose Hip which had protected it from the Roe Deer. A couple of other branches were also removed to create a clearing just big enough to fell a 25 year old Ash tree into. Once that is down and tidied away, I'll be able to drop a second Ash and then the four young Oaks on the edge of the clearing will finally have some space to grow and some sunlight to do it with. A Green Woodpecker yaffled from the other side of the wood for much of the day. 10 Nov 2006 Now that I have finished sawing up the wood stored across the far end of the pole barn, I removed the now redundant upright from the middle and added some boarding across the end. This will not only screen that end but will also keep the work and storage area dryer. 8 Nov 2006 After a morning of sawing logs, I went to Dunsley Hall Country House Hotel near Whitby, to top up their Unique Walking Sticks from Whitby display and I was tempted to have lunch on their patio. The sky was clear, sun was shining brightly and there was a sheltered corner of the lawn - but even so it was a mite too chilly to be sitting out. Pity. It would have been nice to say that early November was so mild that eating out of doors was not only possible but also downright pleasant. Never mind, their homemade Apple and Celery soup was delicious! It might not be quite warm enough for sitting out, but Flag and I enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon dismantling the fallen Apple tree in Bank Orchard 7 Nov 2006 Wasted most of this morning trying to find out from NEDL why there was no electricity in Goathland, Egton, Glaisdale nor parts of Whitby, and when it would be working again. Someone in Goathland had phoned me to see if the electric was ok in Sleights (it was) and if I could find out when it would be back on again. Because when the leccy goes off, there is no power (as you would expect), nor heat (if you have electric controls on your gas central heating), nor cordless phones (the base set stops working), nor mobile phones (the mobile phone mast stops working and, this being a hilly area, no other masts are within range), nor email, nor broadband, nor web access (the black box in the village telephone exchanges stop working). And it hasn't even started snowing yet! The only thing that does still work is an old fashioned, £9.99p, no frills, just plug it into the phone socket telephone. Except very few people have them anymore, as cordless and mobiles are 'far better'. Not. 'It was all caused by a Yellow Phase Jumper on top of a pole' she explained. Good God, I thought they were an endangered species! Apparently not, it's just a mechanical thingy that 'jumps' and cuts out the power on the yellow phase wire. Oh good, that's all right then. Power was eventually restored around lunchtime, people could get warm again, get in touch again, and businesses in Whitby and district could start using their email, broadband and credit card terminals again. Well done Sir Alfred! I finished strimming the big orchard, all except for the far (wasps' nest) corner, which can jolly well wait for a good hard frost. 6 Nov 2006 Off to Whitby this morning to attend a meeting about Scarborough Borough Council's 'Core Strategy Plan' for the next 15 years. Their proposed policies include 'complete duelling of the A64 to Scarborough' and also 'protecting the environment by reducing CO2 emissions'... sorry, mate, it just doesn't work like that. If you improve the roads then you will get more traffic, which will produce even more CO2. Why not push for improving the railway which runs alongside the A64, instead? That way more people can get to Scarborough by an alternative mode of transport which produces less CO2 per passenger than an equivalent number of cars. Anything we want to happen in and around Whitby, plus anything we do NOT want to happen, has to be written into this plan. If it isn't in, then it just won't happen until after 2021. Don't worry, we have until 5pm this Friday to get our 'consultation' in... Continued strimming after lunch, making the most of all this mild, dry sunny weather. The big generator is back again at the bottom of the drive for another week, while NEDL (Northern Electric Distribution Ltd) sub-contract the renewal of all the high voltage electric string along the valley to Sir Alfred McAlpine plc, who have sub-sub-contracted the numerous bits of the work to lots and lots and lots of smaller firms, whose left hand doesn't know what their other left hand is doing. Or when. Or where. One local farmer is so sick, sore and tired of endless 'electricity' people (he reckons well over 50 different individuals, on well over 50 different occasions, in well over 50 different vehicles so far in the past 6 months), wanting to drive across his fields to 'just check something' that he has refused to allowed another single vehicle onto his now-sodden fields. 'I told them my farm was all permanent grassland and that all the work would have to be done in the summer when the ground was dry - but they didn't even start work until late September!' So this is supposed to be better than the old and 'inefficient' regional electricity boards which used to be responsible for everything electrical? I think not. Well done, Maggie - another good theory which just doesn't work in practice. 5 Nov 2006 Oh good. It's Bonfire Night again. With lots of other people's fireworks. One family proudly showed me what looked like a round metal biscuit tin. Good idea, I thought. Very safe. Keep all your little fireworks inside a metal box so they don't light accidentally with a stray spark. Just like I used to do when I was young. But no! This 'biscuit tin' was in fact just one firework, with a big fuse sticking out the top. I didn't read the instructions, but I guess they probably said something like 'Light blue touch paper and run like hell. If you make it, enjoy the shock and awe'. What fun. Flag my gun shy gundog will just love that... He didn't. He had kittens all evening. Anybody want a kitten? 3 Nov 2006 There were 3º F of frost last night, with some white and crispy grass this morning, which Corrie so loved to roll on. This is the first frost of the winter here, so thoughts turn to hedge laying. SA, who helped me with the hedge laying last year, came for a look at this winter's little project: laying the hedge alongside the newly dug out ditch. There is too much to lay at the lower and wider end and nothing at all to lay at the upper end, so first a bit of 'siding-up' will be required to narrow it down to a single hedge line, and then quite a lot of planting with 'quicks' (ie Hawthorn cuttings) which will take a few more years to be layable. Quickthorn is the old name for Hawthorn, as it roots so easily (we'll soon see!) and grows into a decent hedge so quickly. A Red Admiral butterfly fluttered happily through the orchard looking for a safe place to hibernate, while the feckless Wasps just kept on binge drinking on the rotting apples without a thought for the impending (if seasonal) climate change about to overtake them. Ha! Don't say you weren't warned... By midday it was warm enough for me to enjoy my lunch in the sun on my spatio. In a t-shirt! As if that wasn't unusual enough, I then cut the grass on the dog lawn, just to make it less shaggy looking (we don't want a shaggy dog lawn, do we?). Then a short strimming session in the orchard, followed by a very relaxing dismantling of the poor old Apple tree which snapped off and rolled down the slope several weeks ago. It was the sheer weight of apples what done it, with a shower of rain just to add to the weight and then a little bit of a breeze and the 8 inch diameter trunk just snapped at head height. I'll trim off the jagged bit at the top of the trunk and hopefully the tree will pollard and continue to crop for years to come. What an unusual day, with the first frost AND Red Admiral butterflies in flight AND bad tempered Wasps AND mowing the lawn AND thinking about hedge laying - and all on the same day. 2 Nov 2006 Bright, calm, dry sunny weather as an anticyclone settles over the whole country. 'Warm in t' sun but cauld in t' wind', as they would say in these parts (Warm in the sun but cold in the wind). A Red Admiral butterfly landed on a late flower by my pond and fed briefly. 1 Nov 2006 Woopee! Today is the end of the CJS business year, which makes it 'Retire Absolute' day! Just another 6 months now to try to sort out the taxman and then I can really relax... Wintry showers today, with the temperature a full 10ºC colder than a couple of days ago! This morning in the yard I could hear the sea crashing on the shore 3 miles away, after a couple of very windy days. Made full use of my pole barn to saw logs in the dry, while throwing a tennis ball out into the rain for Flag. 30 Oct 06 The find, dry, mild and sunny weather continues and another good sized chunk of the Groves Bank orchard was strimmed. The Ash trees have lost most of their leaves now, without ever changing colour, but the trees are still look brown thanks to the huge bunches of keys (seeds) still hanging from the branches. The Oaks are only just turning brown, while the Sycamores are most autumnal of all. The government's Stern Report was published today, confirming Climate Change as a real and present danger. No ranting conservationist this time, Stern was head of the World Bank for many years and is now a senior government economist. His conclusions? Better to try and do something to reduce the problem now, rather than delay meaningful action until the situation is catastrophic. OK, then - how much do you really care about your grandchildren? Enough to reduce your present standard of living by 1%, as Stern recommends? Or just let the grandkids suffer the catastrophic economic depression of a 20% cut in another 20 year's time, with 200 million climatic refugees worldwide and most food producing coastal lowlands covered by ever rising sea levels? One person interviewed at an airport reckoned it was her human right to fly off on holiday to the sun for less than £20, while another insisted that his particular suburban 4 wheel drive car was perfectly acceptable... Sorry grandkids, they just don't love you as much as their cheap flights and their motorised status symbols! Tough. 29 Oct 06 The dinky digger has arrived! We spent the day cleaning out the ditch down the side of Groves Dyke orchard, then digging a new ditch across the bottom of my neighbour's field. The soil is not soil at all, but 'slutch' or clay and each and every bucketful the digger lifted out had to be attacked with a spade before it would drop out of the bucket and fall to the ground with a splat. Phew. 27 Oct 06 Put the chairs back on the patio again this morning. At least it has been dry and the wind has now dropped. Just after 1030 am a skein of c60 grey geese flew south over the dale. Off to Runswick Bay with Flag, to help with some A-Level geology fieldwork. He was even less help than I was. Even though it was supposed to be low tide, big waves were crashing into the bay and lots of surfers were taking full advantage. 26 Oct 06 Stand-up comedian Barry Cryer (aged 71) and ex-rocker Ronnie Golden were very good at the Whitby Theatre last night, both lamenting their old age. 'My short term memory isn't very good now... and another thing: My short term memory isn't very good now... and another thing...' Oh dear, it's only funny 'cos it's true! Heavy rain got even heavier last night and the winds rose to gale force. By this morning my plastic patio chairs were scattered across the lawn, another ½ inch of rain had fallen and the strong wind continued - but it is still mild! Very odd. Sawed a few more logs in the pole barn and went to Whitby shopping. There do seem to be lots of people about in Whitby and quite a few of them are Goths. Is it Halloween already? 25 Oct 06 Rain is forecast for this afternoon, but a bit of grey cloud will let me make a start on strimming the Groves Bank orchard. First strim the path along the top of the bank to the big Holly tree, then from the half-way point, strim down the steep, slippery slope to the wall at the bottom, then back along the wall to the Stickery and back up the steep hillside to the top path. Phew! Having outlined a block, refuelled the strimmer and the operator, tied the dog to a tree at a safe distance so that he can dig more holes in the next block, start the machine again and stagger across the slope cutting parallel swathes with each pass. I think this could be the basis for a new Reality TV show: just strap a petrol driven machine to a person so that it flings a continuous stream of high speed mud and rotten fruit at them, then send them up, down and across a precipitous slope on a layer of small round Crab Apples to cut the grass, brambles, etc. Add an occasional, overgrown hole to twist ankles and break legs at the most critical balancing moments and continue, with occasional refuelling, until the person shouts 'I'm an idiot, get me out of here!' By early afternoon I had had enough. Then I remembered that every couple of hours of strimming always requires another hour of sweeping-up the debris from the drive below. Only another ⅔ of the orchard left to do... A Weasel, my first sighting for many a month, wove its way through the dry stone wall behind my pond, following the trail of the daily Bank Vole, but I don't think they met. 24 Oct 06 It must have been windy last night, as this morning in the back yard I could hear the waves crashing on the shore some 3 miles away. The high, thin cloud soon burned away to give another lovely dry, mild and sunny day. A Wasp buzzed about in the conservatory and eventually found its way out. Perfect strimming weather! Collecting the kit together, I disturbed a Red Admiral butterfly which had been sunning itself on a sandstone wall. By mid afternoon I had strimmed the path around the wood, strimmed the landscaped area around the Stickery, then strimmed the Groves Dyke orchard and also the line of the ditch behind the pole barn. All the flowering plants will have set seed by now, so strimming in October is the best time to scatter that seed and so produce a good crop of wildflowers for next year. The disadvantage of strimming just once a year is that the Brambles have had a whole summer to really thicken-up and create major entanglements - but strimming in June as well, when the spring-flowering plants have set their seed, is the height of the hay fever season and I much prefer brambles to pollen. 23 Oct 06 Pleasant sunny weather again yesterday and today. Strimmed all of my front lawns but never quite got around to the path around the wood. Once that is done, then I only have the annual strimming of the orchards, which is always a bit of a marathon. Maybe tomorrow... 21 Oct 06 Back to fine, dry, mild and sunny weather again. My car says it is 16º C - very odd for late October... do you think something strange is going on? Had a lovely late afternoon dog walk by the river at Grosmont, followed by coffee and sticky bun at the Hazelbush Cafe and then a nice browse at the Grosmont Gallery and Jazz Cafe. Driving up Fair Head onto Sleights Moor I was intrigued by all the Rooks flying alongside the car and then flapping low over the heather and off out of sight. Pulling in, I could see with binoculars that each bird was carrying an acorn in its beak and probably, judging by their laboured uphill flight, lots more acorns in their crops. Bird after bird, they toiled up the field, skimmed over the moor wall and toiled across the moor. Ten birds. Twenty. Thirty. An endless procession. Driving further along the moor road, I could see the laden birds landing amongst the heather and, out of sight, presumably squirreling-away their winter store in the peat, before taking to the air much lighter and joining a return stream flying higher over the moor, back over the moor wall and back down into the Oak woods on Eskdaleside. So that is how the occasional Oak tree suddenly appears in the middle of the moor! Not that they last very long, once the sheep realise there is anything more tasty than their staple diet of heather! 20 Oct 06 Wet! Almost ¾ of an inch of rain fell last night and this morning, brightening up by mid afternoon. Sawed a few more logs under cover in the pole barn, while throwing the tennis ball out into the great outdoors for the daft dog to fetch. That way, we both got some exercise. 18 Oct 06 Like a summer's day today, with no wind, mild weather (16ºC my car says), clear skies and warm sunshine. Strimmed the dog lawn, half the woodyard, both sides of the drive and along the front verge. Then sawed more of the Poplar stack and built the resulting firelogs into another wall of the pole barn. A pair of Jays flew silently back and forth just beyond the woodyard. The UK Met Office says this is the mildest October on record (since c1650 AD) and that this year we had the hottest July and the warmest summer on record. Climate change? No, never! It's just a minor fluctuation. Or is that just another spoiling story funded by the big oil companies? 17 Oct 06 The auction went well and everything was sold (click here for details). Strimmed some lawn by the beck and sawed some firewood from the pole barn. This is the load of bought-in Poplar which has been stacked inside my pole barn all summer and the sooner I get it cut into firelogs and stacked into another pole barn wall, the sooner it will be much safer to park my car under cover! A Green Woodpecker yaffled from up in the wood and a Buzzard has been reported flying over the next village at Aislaby. Here birdie, birdie! Here birdie, birdie... 16 Oct 06 A viewing at the saleroom in Whitby before tomorrow's auction of Tom Whittaker the Gnomeman carved figures, then off to a local food fair near Scarborough before returning to strim all the lawns while the dry weather continues. This all went according to plan, except the strimming, as the strimmer just refused to start. The local repairman is now dealing with it and it should be ready to start work tomorrow afternoon. If it hasn't started raining by then... 15 Oct 06 The mild, grey weather continues so we pottered in the woods before I got ready for a very special retirement Sunday lunch with all the CJS team at The Horseshoe pub, Egton Bridge. They produced a wide range of excellent food which was enjoyed by all of us with our wide range of assorted food allergies. 14 Oct 06 A leisurely pottering around day. With Groves Dyke empty for the first time in months, a chance to catch up with minor jobs like freeing the utility room door a little, adding another handrail on the other side of the stairs, etc, etc. 13 Oct 06 Just back from a conference in Sherwood Forest (see RuralNet.org) where various important people said numerous things of interest to a rural audience of c250 from the far flung rural corners of England. If it all comes true, then everything in the countryside will soon be wonderful: new government agencies will soon be active in the countryside, the most deprived wards (all of them rural and hidden, not urban and obvious) will soon be revitalised, Voluntary and Social Organisations (VSOs) of all shapes and sizes will be re-energised, affordable rural housing will soon be available for all the homeless young families, scattered communities will be empowered, local produce will be cheaper than big supermarket loss leaders, everyone will have access to proper transport, education, employment and healthcare, all of us will be connected by broadband and everything, yes everything, will be wonderful. Oh good. My father used to say 'Live old horse and you will get hay.' Among the many points which caught my attention were: a). Never mind subsidising under-used rural bus services, why not just give everybody Taxi Vouchers? Nice one! And, even better: b). Why not just change the vehicle licensing laws so that every single car in the UK will be licensed to carry fare-paying passengers? Brilliant! That would solve the rural and the urban transport / traffic problems at a stroke. Daft ideas? No, not when they come from the Chief Executives of two of the UK's biggest and most successful organisations dealing with rural issues. It's just a matter of time, really... As is: c). Remote communities which now rely almost completely on Tourism will be the hardest hit when the public transport system has been allowed to decline (as it now is) and then the price of road fuel quadruples (as it will), because no tourists will be able to afford to travel there by car and there will be no alternative mode of transport still in existence. Whitby? 8 Oct 06 On the way up the wood this morning I noticed the Roe Deer slip silently aside as Flag rampaged about without success. On the way back down again, however, he finally encountered the deer (it should have slipped aside the other way!) and chased it up the path towards me. Seeing me, it panicked and doubled back towards Flag and panicked even more, decided I was by far the lesser of two evils and rushed past me within a couple of feet. Both deer and dog disappeared, the latter reappearing 10 minutes later, panting hard and too tired to eat this breakfast without first having a rest. Several trips up and down the wood, collecting all of last year's crop of walking sticks and bring them down to the house. They have been hanging on the Whitebeam tree near the Third Hazel Coup since last winter and are now well seasoned and ready to start working on - just as soon as I have finished the last of the previous year's crop. A Nuthatch visited the feeding station for Sunflower hearts and a Goldfinch, the first for many a month, ate from the Niger seed feeder. Just after lunch a big skein of c180 grey geese called as they flew southwards high across the dale. Only the Beech trees are showing any sign of autumn colour so far... 7 Oct 06 Another nice day, clouding over and almost raining (but not quite) in the afternoon. More firelogs sawn. Will there be enough wood left in the old cord to completely fill the final section of the woodshed? Or will it run out and leave the shed almost but not quite full? Exciting, innit? 5 Oct 06 Sunny and showery again, with just over ½ an inch of rain in the gauge so far this month. I added a new bungee strap and screw-in eyes to the sawhorse (to hold the work piece steady) and sawed a few more bits of cordwood. The woodshed is now over 5/6 ths full, with what looks like just enough left in the old cord to fill the remaining 1/6 th. I worked until the batteries in my reciprocating saw ran out. A Green Woodpecker yaffled up in the wood as I ran out of energy. Then a restful session dragging out excess pondweed and marginal plants from my pond, as Flag rediscovered his favourite game of dropping his tennis ball into the water and then barking excitedly until somebody (guess who?) scoops it out again. Etc, etc, etc. 4 Oct 06 A fine, bright, dry and sunny morning at last, so I strimmed all of my front lawns for the first time since the spatio began. Wow - that 50 square yards less to strim certainly makes a noticeable difference. Finished in time to saw a few more fire logs from the 2 year old cord and now the woodshed is almost 5/6 ths full. More geese flew over just after lunch but I didn't get out to see them in time. Probably Pink Foot Geese, but my ear is not good enough to identify them by call alone. 3 Oct 06 The final ton of gravel was dumped in the yard and by lunchtime I had it all barrowed around to the spatio and evenly spread. C'est fini! Perhaps, after last night, I should add a little bit of something cosmic? Or perhaps even some Fung Shui? (From the Ancient Chinese Shui meaning 'sense' and Fung meaning 'more money than...'). Perhaps not. And Zen again, I might just rake the gravel into aesthetically pleasing patterns... Flag growled at the Gabriel Hounds as another skein of 100 Geese flew high across the dale, followed a few minutes later by a small V of a dozen tail end Charlies. Talking of growling at something intangible: British Gas Homecare has now had 10 working days since I last contacted them and since their delayed job was (eventually) completed. I had asked them for an official Complaint Form and a letter of explanation / apology, not to mention suggesting that they might like to send a nice bunch of flowers to the elderly couple staying in Groves Dyke the week they left them without proper heat - and they had promised to see if that was possible. Since then? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not a sausage. So I got onto the British Gas www.house.co.uk website, tracked down their 'Feedback and Complaints' section and used it to email them a summary of their failures, including the fact that their HomeCare call centre is fairly useless. I wonder if their website is any less useless? My unique Complaint Reference Number is 0002343925. Does that really mean that my complaint is the 2,343,925 th one they have received via their website? Somehow, I am not really surprised! 2 Oct 06 C & K finished pointing the spatio and tidying-up. Just a bit more gravel required... Off to York for the afternoon, arriving just too late to look inside the medieval Merchant Adventurers Hall, but in good time for tea at Betty's. Discovered the cracked mirror downstairs, signed by hundreds of servicemen during the Second World War when Betty's was the 'unofficial Ops Room' for many of them and especially the Canadian Air Force stationed around the city. Then off to an evening lecture at York Museum, given by Charles Jencks the architect, garden designer and Gulbenkian Prize Winner for the wonderful 'Landform' (which can be seen in the garden of the Edinburgh Museum of Modern Art). His subject was 'The Garden of Cosmic Speculation', a private garden he created near Dumfries. All 200 of us were spellbound as he explained the scientific inspiration behind his fractile-ed patio slabs, the waves of his 3-dimentional water features, his DNA garden and his Black Hole patio which draws the admirer in and then discharges them into a parallel (but unknown) universe. Fascinating stuff, but I found myself wishing that I had worn my tee shirt with the immortal slogan: 'Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light'... 1 Oct 06 This morning I noticed that another heavily laden branch had snapped off the poor old Apple tree in Bank orchard. I tidied up the stump with a bow saw and moved the jagged remnant aside as very fragrant firewood for the winter of 2008/9. Flag's elbows must be feeling better, too, as he spent the time digging nearby! A Grey Wagtail made a leisurely investigation of my pond and a Jay shuttled silently back and forth from the acorn laden Major Oak in the wood. 30 Sept 06 I enjoyed an outdoor salad lunch at the River Gardens in Sleights, basking in the sun and enjoying the last of the summer quiche. Tomorrow is their final open day this year and it is unlikely to be suitable weather for outdoor lunches soon. Still, if it is, I now have a South Patio to enjoy it on. 29 Sept 06 Gabriel's Hounds were calling just after lunch, as 2 skeins of unidentified Geese flew southwards high across the dale. No wonder local tradition associated their migrating calls with an impending death, something which was always a certainty when we still had proper winters. This afternoon I joined several other local enthusiasts to coppice an area of short rotation Willow near Pickering. Planted some 5 years ago as part of a community power station project to burn locally grown biomass to produce electricity to sell to the national grid, this excellent scheme would have used low lying fallow set aside land to grow the trees (thus locking-up more atmospheric carbon), improved flood prevention, created new wildlife habitat, created local employment, reduced fuel miles and reduced fossil fuel consumption used by the electricity generating industry by replacing it with sustainable current carbon. A win, win, win, win, win, win, win situation - except it depended on so many different multi-funding sources and agencies that the whole scheme disintegrated when just one of them failed to pay up what they had promised. So an extra 4,000 acres of Willow were planted (and subsidised) in Ryedale, which now are just locking-up carbon, creating wildlife habitats and reducing flood risk - but no one now wants to buy it, work it or burn it or produce electricity with it. What a waste. Still, I got some useful experience in bundling the cut stems and tying them with the traditional Willow Knot (my hands still ache - now I know why we invented string!) while the others got some useful material to complete a reconstructed Iron Age round house near Bedale and to weave a traditional field fence near Robin Hood's Bay. Several cars and a trailer had driven across the field to the copse, but after a couple of heavy showers the only way to get the bundles of freshly cut Willow home was first to push the 'towing' car a couple of hundred yards to the nearest tarmac and then to man handle the heavily laden trailer the same way. Occasionally, there are times when a 4 x 4 vehicle could actually be useful, but it was interesting to note that not a single one of us woodlanders owned an Off Road vehicle. There are already far too many people who spend money they don't really have, to buy things they don't really need, to impress people they don't really like. (Sorry, but no. That was said by somebody far more articulate than me). I also discovered that one of my fellow coppicers was the person who had taken my Unique Walking Stick to Glastonbury Festival and was seen dancing with it in the field knows as 'Lost Vagueness'. Wonderful! 27 Sept 06 More hedges to trim and cuttings to burn, but at least it is all looking a bit more respectable now. The spatio is almost complete and looks great, especially the section of modern 'Monks' Trod' which forms one edge. 26 Sept 06 I lit the bonfire piled high with the bit of uprooted Box hedge from the spatio, before trimming the other hedges. No point in creating yet more cuttings to be disposed of before I have got rid of the existing ones. (I realise that this principle has never occurred to the nuclear industry, which is why they just keep on creating more and more toxic waste even though they still haven't found a safe way of disposing of all the other toxic waste they have already created over the past 50 years...). C & K continued with the spatio. 25 Sept 06 The temporary generator installed by Sir Alfred McAlpine plc was switched on this morning, supplying the 4 houses at this end of the drive for the next week while the high voltage electricity wires near the top of the wood are replaced. OK, so it's not the noisiest genny in the world - but nor is it the quietest, so I am absolutely delighted that I point blank refused to have it parked immediately behind Groves Dyke. 24 Sept 06 Rain this morning, easing off by mid-day. Explored the almost impenetrable South eastern corner of the wood, crawling under the Blackthorn scrub occasionally, and found another half-dozen plastic tree tubes littered about. These have been there since we planted and protected the young trees with them in 1985/6, even though they were supposed to biodegrade within 5 years. Ha! 23 Sept 06 Pleasantly warm, dry and bright again this morning, but without the strong winds. Nice change. My rain gauge now reads 1¾ inches so far this month, which means we had almost an inch of rain since yesterday afternoon. 22 Sept 2006 The week of hot, dry winds ended last night with a proper gale, leaving a Hawthorn tree snapped off about 10 feet up and the top half lying across the path around the wood. C & K carried on with the spatio, while I dealt with the fallen tree. By mid-afternoon 16 big flagstones had been laid and then the rain arrived - and continued for the rest of the day. 21 Sept 2006 A male Sparrowhawk swooped at the feeders, missed all the birds and then perched on the cross bar for a good swear. Excellent - in the past week I have had superb views of Merlin, Peregrine Falcon and Sparrowhawk, all within 10 miles of home! This retirement thingy is quite promising, really... By mid-morning the mobile generator was manoeuvred into position on the main drive some 50 yards below the house. For 4 days and nights next week this will provide all the power for the 4 different households within 100 yards. They had expected to park it just behind Groves Dyke and were a bit put out when I refused, on the grounds of probable noise nuisance. 'Which would you rather have', he asked, 'Peace and quiet or electricity?' Both, I replied. Especially if another bunch of contractors are going to do it all again next year... The hot Spanish wind continue to blow half a gale, with lots of broken twigs littering the ground. Not to mention apples, each of which Flag thinks is yet another tennis ball falling from the heavens and rolling down the drive just for his delight. Ah, Flag's idea of heaven! Work on my new South Patio (hereinafter referred to as the Spatio) continues in the hot sun and my car sez it's 24ºC! 20 Sept 2006 Gaffer and I met on site to discuss the situation. He assured me that the fence would be kept stockproof in future and he explained that the ground anchor was only temporary and would be dug up again once the new pole was in place. I insisted that it would be far better to leave it (and the remains of my poor old Bernese Mountain Dog) where they were, and just cut the cables off at ground level when the job was done. He agreed. So 'Sorry' to all shareholders in Alfred McAlpine plc, but your annual dividend next year will be reduced by the cost of one ground anchor, which will now be left in peace to rot away over many, many years... which is a damn sight more that poor old Corrie was. C & K cut a neat square near the bottom of the drive, ready for 'the boys from the black stuff' to lay a new patch of tarmac over the now whacker-ed 3 tons of hardcore. This is due to happen tomorrow or Friday... 19 Sept 2006 On my pre-breakfast walk around the wood this morning, I discovered that Sir Alfred McAlpine (or, at least, his employees) had felled a big branch onto the top fence, knocked over another 15 yards of fence to get their heavy digger into the wood to plant a huge ground anchor within 8 feet of Anthea's memorial stone, disturbing poor old Corrie's grave in the process. I had known that they were going to replace the electricity wires and any rotten poles, and I had arranged with their Wayleave Officer that they would be especially careful of the memorial stone which marks where Anthea's ashes were scattered, but there had been no mention of any major excavations as well. I rang him and he was on the ball straight away. The fence was made stockproof again before any cattle, horses or sheep had wandered into the wood and arrangements were made to meet their gaffer on site at 9 am tomorrow. NB: Local rumour has it that whichever QUANGO or business now owns the electricity distribution network, it is planning to replace all the currently-being-replaced poles with yet another set of poles next year, but that will be a different contract with a different set of contractors getting paid to do it all over again, and a different set of fat cats getting their annual bonus. Still, anything for a more efficient UK energy system and a more buoyant national economy! Then Flag and I set off for a nice, wild and windy lunchtime walk on the moor near Ravenscar Beacon, before visiting the National Trust coastal centre to see their new exhibition on Peak Alum Works. My car said it was an amazing 20ºC! Suitable hungry, we went into the garden at the Raven Hall Hotel (built originally for poor mad King George III, to keep him well away from London when required) and ordered one of their superb afternoon teas. Sheltering in a slightly less windy corner I admired the big, beefy 'Kestrel' which was hanging in the up draught 100 feet above the garden wall. What a fine, healthy looking Kessy that is, I thought, as it slid sideways across the wind... until it was almost overhead and I realised it was actually a Peregrine Falcon! Wow! It slid further inland, 'rowed' powerfully over the fields, then side-slipped the other way and gained more and more height until it was high over the coast again and then tipped into a power dive and vanished, wings partly folded, somewhere below and far beyond the garden wall. I just hope it enjoyed its Rock Dove as much as I enjoyed the triple-decker plate of finger sandwiches, freshly baked scone with strawberries and cream, slice of strawberry cheesecake, home made shortbread biscuits and fruit cake. Good thing I skipped lunch, but even so, I think another brisk walk is called for... 18 Sept 2006 Flag chased a Heron which was loafing on the ground near the top of the wood. Then as I was having breakfast in the conservatory it landed on top of the woodshed and eyed the newly cleaned out pond - but Flag chased it away again. C & K returned to pour the third concrete step from my new patio and a couple of Jays screeched blue, bloody murder up in the wood. Talking of which, British Gas rang just after 9 am to check that their engineer was on site and solving the problem. He wasn't. I suggested that they ring me again just after 10am to check that the job was complete, as they had promised it would be. They did. It hadn't even been started. I asked them to ring me again just after 11 am... They did. He had arrived! He was actually doing it!! Seems he knew nothing was amiss and had assumed that someone else had been assigned to complete the job he started and abandoned last Tuesday... Anyway, it's only taken 6 days to do a 'next day' job. By 11.30 am the job was done, both fires were working perfectly again, the central heating had been reset to come on and off as normal, the engineer had gone and I am now waiting for the Head of Complaints at British Gas to write me a nice letter. Let me predict what the bog standard 'Woops!' letter is likely to say: 'Dear Mr Carson, I was disappointed to learn that our recent HomeCareless Service to you was below our normally high standards. Here at British Gas we deal with millions of phone calls and thousands of engineer visits every day and 99.99% of these are resolved without any difficulty. It is most unusual when something does go wrong, as seems to have happened in your case, and we are carrying out an in depth investigation to ensure that nothing similar can never happen again. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused and rest assured that absolutely everything will be completely perfect in future. Yours insincerely, F. Bloggs (Senior Apologist for BG).' Now let's just wait and see how that compares... Sawed a few more logs and strimmed the remaining Groves Dyke lawn and the lower part of the path around the wood, before finally relaxing in the late afternoon sun on my incomplete new patio, with a nice glass of wine. 17 Sept 2006 Having identified the best young Oak trees in the wood, as well as the competing Ash or Gean trees, this morning I tagged all the Oaks with red plastic strips. That was the easy bit. Then I worked out which of the competing trees had to go, in which direction and in which order, to minimise the loss and any resulting damage. Two rather too healthy young Ash trees near the Second Hazel Coup will be the first to go this winter, which should ensure the survival of the 4 neighbouring young Oaks, one of which really is a prize specimen. 16 Sept 2006 Knowing that 'British Gas HomeCare means that if there is a crisis, you have the reassurance that you can call on us to take care of it' - even if it is a crisis which they created - I waited patiently for 'the very latest technology' at British Gas (ie their computer) to instruct one of their '6,000 expert engineers to provide complete peace of mind' between 10 and 12 noon today. And I waited... At 11.15 I rang the British Gas super efficient call centre to check that someone was actually on their way, only to be told that 'The computers are down, so we are having to do it all manual' and then 'I can't find any Groves Dyke Holiday Cottage. Can you give me the postcode? No... there's nothing under that either...' Supervisors were also a bit hard to find this morning, but another nice man, who gave the impression that he really knew what he was doing there, gave me his direct dial phone number before he rang off to go and walk across to the Maintenance Department to see if he could find me on their computer. He could. I do exist! 'Yes, the parts were delivered to the collection point this morning for the engineer to collect - but the computer crash [not just a 'glitch', then?] meant that the engineer was never notified.' Never mind, British Gas can still save the day! An engineer will be sent to put the broken coals back on top of the fire and remove the 'Do Not Use' stickers, before 3pm today, so that the elderly couple will get the proper warm welcome they expect! Good ole British Gas, I knew I could rely on them! The tenants arrived and I apologised for the lack of heat, explained the extra electric radiators I had just put in to take the chill off such a dull and overcast day and just as I was was telling them exactly how impressed I was with British Blooming Gas and their HomeCareless 400 Agreement, the heroic British Gas engineer arrived hot wheeled from York! Fear not! The cavalry have arrived just in the nick of time! I explained to the newly arrived engineer how the nice man at British Gas that morning had arranged for him to put the broken coals back on and remove the official stickers. 'I can't do that' he said. 'They're broken.' No, no , I explained patiently, the nice man at British Gas had authorised it, so it would be alright. 'He is not an engineer, he said, 'He can't make arrangements like that.' Its ok, I said, he gave me his direct dial phone number, you can speak to him yourself and get it all sorted out... 'You have reached the voice mail of...' So I rang the nice British Gas HomeCareless call centre again and asked to speak to the owner of the voice mail. 'I don't recognise that name' she said, 'We have 5 call centres, so he might not work in this one...' His direct dial phone number did help, but he had already finished his shift and left. Smart man. Another supervisor was found, but he wasn't at all hopeful. This furious customer quoted bits of the British Gas HomeCareless Agreement at him, but to no avail. 'We meet all of the requirements of our Terms and Conditions' he said. Somehow, I just hadn't got round to finding a magnifying glass to cope with the 4 pages of very small print - as a newly retired Editor, I would estimate about 6 point - which start on page 16 of their nice cuddly brochure... The engineer talked to his boss on his phone, I shouted at the poor man on my phone, the elderly guests, (one recently discharged from hospital) tried to settle in and relax, while I insisted that the recording of our phone call be sent to the Head of Customer [WeDon'tActually] Care at British Blooming Gas HQ, while a proper British Blooming Gas Complaint Form be posted to me asap. Good, innit? So, the upshot is: The poor engineer reset the gas central heating to be constantly on (I am sure British Blooming Gas will offer to pay for it, and the electricity for the extra radiators); the poor guests put the kettle on and sat down to begin their week's holiday, the new artificial coals promised for Wednesday afternoon, then Saturday morning, will now be fitted on Monday morning (honest), etc, etc, and there will also be lots of complaint forms for me to complete. Still, I can start my retirement knowing that, in the autumn of my years, I now have all the pointless comfort of a British Blooming Gas HomeCareless 400 Agreement so that 'if there is a crisis, you have the reassurance that you can call on us to take care of it.' Or not. Depending on whether its a weekend. Or not. AND I get to pay just £343 / year for such a wonderful service! So, please ask Al Quaeda not to do anything silly anywhere near a gas pipe anytime between 5pm on Fridays and 8am on Mondays. And certainly not on a Bank Holiday weekend... Come back Victor Meldrew, you were right all along! 15 Sept 2006 I checked with the tenants that all was well, only to discover that the gas man had never returned and the gas fires were still unusable. I rang my British Gas Homecare number for Breakdowns / Servicing and spoke to a nice lady who assured me that British Gas had cancelled my HomeCare Agreement. When asked why, she explained that the engineer had found a fault and so the Agreement was now cancelled. I asked what, then, was the point of having an Agreement if it was going to be cancelled as soon as an engineer found that any work was required, but she was adamant. 'Can I speak to your supervisor?' I asked, but she assured me that no supervisor was available in her team. 'Could I speak to another teams' supervisor?' I asked, but she assured me that there weren't any available. I asked her to confirm that the entire British Gas call centre was operating without anyone in charge, and she put me on hold and played musak at me. Eventually she found a nice man who appeared to know what he was doing. 'I do apologise for the engineer not returning to complete the job as promised' he said. 'I do apologise for you being told that your HomeCare agreement had been cancelled. I can assure you that your agreement has NOT been cancelled. I will ring you back within 20 minutes to tell you what is happening.' And he did. 'Owing to an unforeseeable computer glitch we are having a few problems. The new parts will be sent ready for the engineer to collect them on Saturday morning and he will be at Groves Dyke between 10 and 12 noon on Saturday to fit them and complete the job.' Ok, so the current tenants will have been without the 2 gas fires for just over 3 days but, by sheer good luck, it has been pleasantly warm for mid September. Anyway, everything will be ready for the the elderly couple due to arrive at 3pm on Saturday... So I went off to my last day as Editor of the Countryside Jobs Service before retiring (www.countryside-jobs.com), drank a glass of champagne and wished them all every success. On the way home a beautiful male Merlin flashed across the road just ahead of me as I topped Siller Howe moor. Now that really does make a perfect send-off absolutely complete! And so well organised, too! 14 Sept 2006 The Loss Adjustor arrived just after 8 am to look into the hole at the bottom of the drive (now filled in again). Then an AGM to attend in Whitby and then several tons of hardcore was delivered and needed barrowing around to my new patio. 13 Sept 2006 The gasman cameth yesterday, as planned, and found that the artificial coals were cracked on both living flame gas fires. 'I'll order the replacement artificial coals and they will arrive tomorrow, then I will fit them between 2 and 4', he said, as he stuck a British Gas 'Do Not Use' sticker to each fire and left. Luckily, I had upgraded my British Gas Homecare 200 agreement just last week to Homecare 400, which now includes inspection and maintenance of the gas back boiler and controls, all the central heating, all the plumbing, all the drains (except the septic tank) and all the electrics. Now, if anything ever goes wrong with anything, I can just make a simple call to British Gas, 24/7, and they will sort it all out for me. Isn't that great? And all for just a bit less than £1 / day! It's almost too good to be true, isn't it? They even give you a nice little booklet 'Homecare Guide - all the answers at your fingertips' which explains how they will 'provide you with the best possible service', 'giving you peace of mind', 'using the very latest technology and techniques', 'keep our promises to you', 'making your life easier' and 'we will always help vulnerable and elderly people we are made aware of, whether or not they are a British Gas customer'. In fact, 'British Gas Homecare means that if there is a crisis, you have the reassurance that you can call on us to take care of it.' And I have quoted all of that from just the first 2 pages of their Homecare Guide. What a pity that when it comes down to it, none of it actually happens. I waited in all afternoon but he never appeared, nor phoned to explain why not, so I ended up wasting the entire afternoon... 12 Sept 06 Cut all the Groves Bank lawns today, except the 50 square yards of incomplete South Patio, which helped. Also half the woodyard. Then spent half the afternoon waiting for the gasman to cometh and doeth the annual service in Groves Dyke. I think this calls for an early evening stroll on the beach at Sandsend... 11 Sept 2006 C & K were back to build the shuttering for my new concrete steps down from the South Patio. The reclaimed flagstones themselves were delivered late morning and look lovely - far, far better than any non-Yorkshire alternative. They came originally from Wakefield Prison, apparently, so they may feel much better now that they have been released into the wide open spaces of the moors - the 'Land of Wild Freedom' as the BBC titled their wildlife documentary about the North York Moors many years ago. On the way back from Whitby this afternoon my car tells me that the temperature is 27ºC, which is a bit hot. Especially for September. A large red / brown Dragonfly oviposited in and around the pond. Flag returned from the back of the pole barn with a freshly killed adult Rabbit in his mouth, which must have surprised both of them! He was a bit upset when I disposed of it, and even more upset when the fine weather broke with showers and distant thunder and lightening. It's a dog's life, innit? 10 Sept 06 Still hot, dry & sunny. 15-minutes birding from my conservatory gave: Chaffinch 5, Blue Tit 3, Bank Vole 2, Great Tit 2, Wood Pigeon 2, Blackbird 1, Dunnock 1, Nuthatch 1 (silent) and Robin 1. (1005-1020 hours, ⅛ cloud cover and morning mist burning off as the sun rose, Force 2 Westerly). Later, a Coal Tit, a Large Green Dragonfly, a Red Admiral and a Small Copper butterfly sunned themselves by the pond. Having identified just how few 'good' young Oaks are left in the wood, I looked at how they could be encouraged by removing any other young trees which shade them or encroach on their canopy or root circle. The most successful species of those we planted are the Ash and the Cherry, which seem to have survival rates of over 75% (unlike the 25% or less for the Oaks). I would still like to remove the minimum of encroaching trees, so now for a bit of juggling to find just which Ash or Cherry would, if removed, benefit 2 or even 3 young Oaks... I am sure there will be an algebraic formula or a bit of 'simple' geometry to identify the individual, but luckily I have forgotten all of that rubbish a long time ago. 8 Sept 06 Hot, dry, sunny weather has returned so a nice shady walk by the River Esk near Grosmont was required. I scanned the river for the once common Dipper, expecting to see nothing, as usual - but that white blob, just there, very still, on a rock, too still for a Dipper, maybe plastic, but just the right size, still not moving, Yes! It dipped! A Dipper! The first time this year! It froze again, as did I, and we just watched each other, waiting for one of us to blink. It was so still and could so easily have been missed. It was just here, ten years ago, that we sat and watched a whole family of Dippers having lessons from mum and dad on how to dip, how to submerge, how to walk underwater, how to catch insects underwater, how to surface again, how to freeze, how to merge so perfectly with the running water. Now, just one bird - and it blinked first, waded, swam and then submerged before walking back up onto another rock with an insect in its beak. Wonderful. The next time it submerged, we stole silently back into the wood and left it to surface to an empty riverbank. 7 Sept 06 Took Flag for a lovely drive across the moors to Hartoft, to see a man about another 15 square yards of Yorkshire flagstones for my new South Patio. Everyone says I should buy the nice, cheap flagstones from India. Even though they have come half way around the world, they are still just half the price of traditional reclaimed Yorkshire flags. I have heard of 'food miles', but this is ridiculous! They look almost the same, are a bit too pale, almost limestone and they are very brittle and can't ever be driven over. Basically, they're just not proper Yorkshire - so I paid the full £36 / sq yd for the real thing and delivery will be early next week. The clouds cleared, the air was mild, the sun was warm and lunch was taken in the garden of The Milburn Arms in nearby Rosedale Abbey, before driving up the dale, past Bell End Farm and up onto the moortop again towards Fat Betty, the ancient stone cross at the head of the dale. Then off along the back road to Little Fryup Dale via the end of Trough House track, past Danby Castle and Duck Bridge with a nice walk across the footbridge to the Moors Centre - just in time for afternoon tea in the garden. Flag now associates the car with nice trips to interesting places and, provided there are enough short walks en route, seems to have got over his car sickness. That means I can be far more mobile than before, thank goodness. 6 Sept 06 Block work was laid this morning to extend the path from my 'front' door onto the new South Patio. This now measures some 6 yards by 8, with the Cotoneaster and Red Hot Pokers remaining in a corner shrubbery. The next stage is to pave the side nearest my house with Yorkshire flagstones, surround the rest of the area with a border of flags and then fill in the centre with gravel laid over a porous, weed-suppressing membrane. Once completed, I will have a shady patio for summer evenings and 50 square yards less of grass to cut every week. Thinks: 50 square yards of soil removed to a depth of about 9 inches must be about 12 cubic yards in total. At 1 ton per cubic yard, that equals 12 tons of spoil dug and barrowed by hand by 3 people in 2 days. So who needs a dinky digger and a mechanised barrow, anyway? The septic tank was also emptied and unblocked this morning, all in less than an hour. The contractor is now required to transport it to Yorkshire Water's sewage works near Whitby and pay them for its disposal. Does that mean that I can deduct from my water rates their costs from the c£300 which the contractor charges me? Does it heck as like! How's that for encouraging rural households to be green and have their own individual and self contained septic tanks, instead of digging thousands of miles of extra sewage pipes? Strimmed the Groves Dyke lawn and my dog lawn. 5 Sept 06 We continued all day, filled in (and seeded) the hollow, then widened the path above the wildflower bank before finally (and only in desperation), barrowing the final dozen loads all the way up the hill to the woodyard to fill in some of its archaeological Flag holes. Several yards of Box hedge have been also transplanted and several more yards barrowed up the hill to the bonfire. As we worked a female Sparrowhawk swooped on a Wood Pigeon which was hoovering up the newly sown grass seed. The well fed Woodie took off in a panic, just cleared the hedge and promptly killed itself by flying into the sitting room window in Groves Dyke. The noise was impressive and the corpse fell onto the patio table, where it proved too tempting for the poor hungry Sprawk, which picked it up off the table and only just carried it across the garden and down to the corner of the lawn by the front gate. Several times it tried to pick it off the ground and fly over the woven fence, but failed. It sat on the gatepost and had a little think, as we all stood at the top of the drive and watched. Eventually, it realised it could drag it under the fence, onto open ground in the middle of the drive and then take off with the big fat Wood Pigeon in its talons. Stickability, or what? 4 Sept 06 C & K started work on my new 'South Patio' by stripping the turf and topsoil off my top front lawn and barrowing it on the level to a dip at the far end. I helped, as did Flag, who could have done a bit of the digging but decided instead that he would rather present his tennis ball for throwing every 5 minutes, instead. 3 Sept 06 Warm, dry and very pleasant again. I walked around the wood to do a 'stock taking' of the Oak trees we planted some 20 years ago. Almost half, as I suspected, have been completely killed by Grey Squirrels (tree rats!) stripping the bark off the branches. Only 22 of the original 40 planted in the early 1980s survive at all and most of those are misshapen, having have been badly damaged by Grey Squirrels (tree rats!), with the 'leader' shoot missing completely and only a few side branches twisting outwards and upwards. Triage management dictates that: The only 2 'perfect' specimens of young Oak in the wood will be marked as Standards and encouraged to grow even bigger and even better by removing any and all competing species nearby, no matter how healthy the neighbouring trees may be. A few of the remaining Oak survivors are not much longer for this life and certainly not worth killing their much healthier neighbours for. The remaining 'damaged but still vigorous' young Oaks will be encouraged - but not at the expense of all their neighbours as they may not survive in the long term. I do wish the Grey Squirrels (tree rats!) hadn't been so successful in fooling most people into thinking 'It's nice to see the wildlife so tame and healthy', when in fact the vermin and imported tree rats are being encouraged at the expense of both our native Red Squirrels (now almost gone from the UK) and our native woodland. 2 Sept 2006 Wet. Flag spent this morning running down the drive after the ripe plums which drop off the trees. Once he had retrieved each plum and carried it back up to the yard he would 'kill' it and eat it. Lots of them. Lots and lots of them. I think he is going to be a plummer... 1 September 2006 Two Collared Doves at the feeding station this morning and CD is looking a lot less seedy! 31 August 2006 A Collared Dove (known as CD to his friends) appeared at the feeding station, looking a bit seedy - in other words, a visit from CD the seedy Collared Dove. Boom, boom! (Sorry). This is the first sighting for many months. Two Nuthatches grabbed sunflower hearts silently, while a single Greenfinch concentrated on the Niger seed feeder. A dozen red Admirals, a couple of Peacocks, a Speckled Wood and a Small Copper fed around the big white Buddleia which is now in full flower, while a large brown dragonfly flew around my pond dipping its ovipositor here and there as it 'posited its ovis in lots of suitable places.
30 August 2006 I ordered 2 tons of hardcore and 1 ton of gravel and by lunchtime the hole was filled in, with only ¼ ton of gravel left over. Everything is safe and secure again and will be tarmac-ed over once it has had a week or two to settle. Traffic along the drive and to Groves Dyke was not and is not affected. I strimmed all Groves Dyke lawns and all of my back lawns. Also part of the Groves Dyke orchard to let the septic tank emptying vehicle get within working distance. This is a job which needs doing about once every 5 years - or more frequently if someone blocks it up by flushing a supposedly 'disposable' nappy down the toilet! Total cost? About £300. Ah, the joys of being green and self sufficient in today's effluent society... 29 August 2006 C & K arrived this morning to investigate the new hollow near the bottom of the drive. Once through the tarmac they soon found a void where ground water had washed out all the clay, leaving only the stone. Shovelling out the very loose material left an even bigger void running along the underside of the 6 inch diameter cast iron water main. In other words, groundwater had found a way along the trench in which the water main had been laid decades earlier, and had created the void. Unsure just what to do, I rang the water company's emergency helpline to inform them and to ask if it was safe for us to just backfill the hole with hardcore, or would additional work be required to support the couple of feet of pipe now suspended in mid air. When I eventually got through she said an engineer would come to check within 12 hours... Then we remembered that the gas main runs parallel to the water main and, although it was not visible, it might be close enough to also be affected by this erosion. So I rang the gas emergency number as well to inform them of the potential problem. They were really on the ball, answered quickly and promised a visit within 4 hours. By the time they arrived C & K had fixed the window in the Stickery, removed a stone as an overflow for the Stickery drain and had gone away. I had to go to Whitby, but apparently the gas man came and said 'that's not a gas pipe, it's only a water pipe' and went away, while the water man said ' it's not our fault, we haven't done any digging anywhere near here' and went away as well. Good, innit? So we just covered the hole with a big sheet of plywood and marked it off with traffic cones for the night. All I need now is a midnight drunk to steal the plywood and kick the cones into the hole, and then an early morning drunk to fall in, break a leg and sue me for millions... 28 August 2006 A Green Woodpecker called as it flew high over the garden, where I de-brambled the Juniper now that its super early blackberries are over. Elsewhere in the wood the main crop of brambles is just beginning, the Grey Squirrels (tree rats!) are busy stripping the Hazelnuts and the paths are muddy again after another ½ inch of rain last night. The rain gauge now stands at 3½ inches so far this month and the thunder is rumbling ominously in the distance. The newly weeded drive looks much smarter now, without its ragged green edging. Sawed a few more logs with my new-ish rechargeable reciprocating saw and now the cord of Sycamore is down to half size, while the woodshed is now up to ⅔ full. Very satisfying! 27 August 2006 15 minutes birding from my conservatory this morning gave 4 Blue Tit, 3 Great Tit, 2 Chaffinch, 2 Coal Tit, 2 Robin, 1 Dunnock, 1 Marsh Tit and 1 Wood Pigeon, not to mention 2 Bank Vole (1 a juvenile) and 3 young Rabbits (10.30 - 10.45, ⅛ cloud cover, warm, dry, sunny, Force 2 Westerly). Later a Nuthatch came to feed and later still a female Sparrowhawk swooped across the back lawn, past the feeding station and away. A stroll through Bank orchard revealed a bumper crop of apples and crab apples, as well as 20+ Medlars. The crown of one apple tree, in fact, has snapped off under the weight and tumbled down the steep hillside and is now lodged against the tree below with its heavy but unripe apples still in place! The Victoria Plum tree in Dyke orchard is cropping well, but not as well nor as ripe as the golden plum beside it, where whole handfuls of ripe plums are there for the taking. 26 August 2006 We rounded off the purple week with an excellent meal at Prudom House in Goathland. The purple moorland views from the purple painted restaurant complemented some of the best beef we have ever tasted in our lives, and the chef should also be praised for the spectacular desserts. This is one place that can certainly go on the list for another visit! 25 August 2006 We went up the coast to the headland at Kettleness and walked a little bit of the cliff top Cleveland Way. Flag, now so well behaved, was off the lead and scouting around for Rabbits when he suddenly disappeared. A bit of increasingly frantic whistling and shouting and he was soon located part way down a very steep bit of scrubby cliff. It was clear that he was trying to come back, but unable to get through the impenetrable gorse - even though he had managed to get himself into the middle of it in the first place! By manoeuvring myself around the outside of the gorse patch I was able to coax him back through the scrub to the outside world again. He was looking very worried and then greatly relieved to be rescued, so I didn't tell him that Corrie (our previous Bernese Mountain Dog) never had any trouble running up, down and across lots of near vertical cliff faces! Then across the moor to Scaling Dam and up to Danby Beacon for the very best purple view in this area, before heading back to Whitby. 24 August 2006 Groves Dyke lawns cut this morning, as well as half of the woodyard, before a coastal day driving south to the beacon above Ravenscar and walking Flag out onto the sheep-less moor. He behaved himself and we were able to see how well the heather restoration work had come on since the massive wildfire here 2 or 3 years ago. Gosh, what a reformed dog Flag is! Afternoon tea at the Raven Hall Hotel could have been the full, triple-decker with fancy cakes, sandwiches and cream scones - but we just settled for the latter. Taken on the hotel terrace in full sun, with all of Robin Hood's Bay (the best view in the whole National Park) laid out before us, this is one event that can certainly go on the list for future occasions. 23 August 2006 The weather improved on cue as I, D and I set off to the moortop on our annual Purple Picnic. First collect the Glaisdale pork pies (the best in the world, sez I) from Ford's Butchers in Glaisdale village, then the real Wensleydale cheese, etc from the village shop and then onwards and upwards to the moor road across the head of the dale. The food was good, the scenery was superb and the company was excellent. Then along the Hamer moor road to Rosedale Abbey, up the dale to the Millennium Stone and turn right towards Little Fryup Dale. We strolled across the magnificent moor to Trough House, before heading down to Duck Bridge and the Moors Centre for afternoon tea. Unbeatable! 22 August 2006 The electricity company's forestry manager visited me this morning to see about cutting any self-sown trees growing too near their wires in the wood. He had trained with the state forestry department for 5 years before leaving Poland to work and train again in Scotland, specialising in 'Utility Forestry' (ie how not to electrocute yourself when cutting trees very close to power lines). Now that is what I call 'getting on yer bike!' Got most of my lawns cut, plus a bit of the wild flower bank, a fifth of the beck and the path around the wood. A superb drive over the purple moors with D & I to visit the House of the Mouse near Helmsley, including an excellent, very fresh and very locally grown salad at Helmsley Walled Garden. The whole garden has come on in leaps and bounds since my last visit several years ago, the Vinery has been almost completely rebuilt and now houses an excellent cafe (BBC Local Food Hero entrant) as well as the newly planted vines. Highly recommended! Mousey Thompson's saleroom is filled with the most impressive items of handmade Oak furniture, as ever, and their new cafe / visitor centre / gift shop and gardens were very pleasant. Popped into the National Park's Sutton Bank Visitor Centre before returning to Whitby via Hutton-le-Hole and Blakey Rigg. We all purred with pleasure as we drive through a sea of sunny purple moorland, past the Lion Inn and down into Castleton. Purrfect! 21 August 2006 A suitable day for giving the Twigwam a good haircut, long overdue. Some of the heavier Willow rods are now added to the woven fence, some are stored in the orchard and a few have been given to a local Willow weaver who makes wonderful animals as garden ornaments - including a dog recently delivered to Prince Charles' garden at High Grove. No, I'm afraid it does not include any of my Willows, but keep your fingers crossed for any future orders... 20 August 2006 What an odd week! Where did it go? The weather is improving but my secret supply of super early Blackberries are now over and looking very mouldy, even though the 'main crop' in the wood are not nearly ripe yet. 14 August 2006 The weather is improving again, thank goodness, and I got all of Groves Dyke and half of the Groves Bank grass cut this morning. It is remarkable just how quickly the patchy, green / brown areas have returned to lush green lawns again. A young Kestrel perched on top of the electricity pole at the back of the house and swooped down from there to catch a small mammal in the woodyard. I think, technically, that that is probably cheating but maybe his feathers were still too soggy to hover properly. Is a drug test called for, d'you think? 13 August 2006 G & C were staying with me for the weekend and we were all determined to have a barbecue. Postponed from Thursday evening (too soon), then from Friday evening (too wet), it just had to be on Saturday evening. We all sat in my conservatory with the heater on and the barbecue just a couple of yards outside the door, while the poor chef, in full cagoule and hood up, dashed out occasionally to flip the burgers. We did consider tying the burger flipper to a pole and doing it all from under cover, but dismissed this option as a silly idea! Despite, or possibly even because of, the pouring rain it turned out to be a very enjoyable (and probably even more memorable) occasion! A cool, cloudy, wet and miserable weekend for both moors and coast. On the moors the 'Glorious Twelfth' is the start of the Grouse shooting season - that nice dilemma for the conservationist which is now the only thing that makes all the moorland management worthwhile, now that hill farming is practically pointless. On the coast, this weekend is 'Whitby Regatta' - the traditional festival and now the biggest tourist event in Whitby's calendar. Except the strong Northerly winds kicked up such rough seas that the local rowing clubs' race to Sandsend and back had to be cancelled, the grand parade was almost washed out, the vast crowds never really materialised. The RAF Red Arrows display team performed as planned on Sturday, which was quite an achievement considering the weather. As for the grand fireworks this evening, it may not be even possible to see them from my usual grand strand in the the moortop car park above Blue Bank, Sleights. What a shame that so much work by so many dedicated volunteers has had such poor weather, especially this year when even Whitby Regatta had to produce a (3-inch thick!) Risk Assessment for the first time. 'Sand castle competition? Oh dear me, that sounds very risky! What precautions will you have in place to prevent the competitors getting sunburnt if the sun is shining?' And, as if that wasn't daft enough and as if the parents aren't the ones really responsible for their own children: 'What precautions will you have in place to prevent the sand castle competitors getting hyperthermia, if the sun isn't shining?? That just reminds me of the public swimming pool I went to for the first time, with a big sign at one end saying 'Danger, deep water!'. So I went to the other end, where there was another big sign saying 'Danger - shallow water!' So what the hell are you supposed to do - just stay in the middle?? What a great pity it is that Common Sense became extinct 'way back in the early 1990s... My rain gauge is now reading 2¾ inches of rain so far this month, the lawns are all green again and now the grass needs cutting. Oh good. 11 August 2006 Two Roe Deer stood by the far edge of the paddock and watched us walk by on the drive. I wonder if they were the ones responsible for injuring Flag's tail by enticing him through a barbed wire fence at top speed? Anyway, his wound is healing nicely, thank-you. 10 August 2006 Flag is recovering from a self-inflicted gash on his tail, most probably caused when clambering through a barbed wire fence in hot pursuit of a deer. Yes, I know. Again. At least this time it is not nearly as serious as last time! He can still trot about fairly happily either with very close supervision and just a bandage half-way down his tail, or else with no bandage and just a plastic 'lamp shade' around his neck, to stop him nibbling at the scab. Poor daft dog, he does look a bit odd with part of his magnificent 'flag' clipped short. Not to mention the lamp shade! A Greenfinch sucked its teeth from the crossbar of the feeding station this morning, while a Grey Squirrel swayed its way to the nuts on the very tips of the Hazel tree branches and a Green Woodpecker yaffled from somewhere deep in the wood. 8 August 2006 Popped into the Integrated Transport Centre at Whitby railway station to collect a timetable for the Endeavour steam train service from Grosmont to Whitby, which now seems to be running daily and in addition to the normal 4 diesels per day from Middlesbrough to Whitby. "I'll put it up in the holiday cottage near Sleights station" I said, only to be told that "We don't stop there, only at Glaisdale, Grosmont and Whitby"! It seems that Network Rail, who own all the railway lines in the UK, charge the steam train charity £1000 per day to use the track between Grosmont and Whitby plus another £600 per day for every station stopped at! Which means that anyone in Egton Bridge, Sleights or Ruswarp can't use the extra trains that now pass through several times per day. Now let me see if I have got this right: The commercial Northern Rail which runs the heavily government subsidised 4 diesels / day (very fuel efficient) on the Esk Valley Line connecting Whitby and Middlesbrough have no interest in adding any extra coaches or running any additional trains (not required by their contract, so we won't bother) on the government track on which the government agency called Network Rail have just spent an extra few million pounds to strengthen the last 2 miles of into Whitby so that it can take the heavier steam trains, while the charitable local steam railway preservation society are very keen to run extra trains and extra carriages (very fuel efficient) from Grosmont to Whitby now that the track has been strengthened, but the government agency called Network Rail charges them so much that they can only afford to stop at less than half the stations en route, while, of course, the North Yorkshire County Council (75% paid for by central government) subsidises the rural bus service (in direct competition with all the trains) so that the people from all these villages can get to Whitby, while the new and very enthusiastic Esk Valley Community Rail Partnership charitable trust (part funded by the government's Countryside Agency and the European Regional Fund via the government funded Rural Development Agency called Yorkshire Forward) is desperately keen to be given a 'micro-franchise' to run the whole of the Esk Valley line actually and for the very first time ever for the benefit of all the local community but hasn't yet been allowed to, while at the same time the government is spending millions of pounds appealing for us all to 'use public transport' instead of taking the car and the government Highways Agency and the North Yorkshire County Council try Highways Department (75% government funded) struggle to maintain the road surface in the face of ever increasing temperatures (climate change due to excessive fossil fuel use) and the ever increasing vehicle numbers (very fossil fuel inefficient)! Yes, I think I've got that straight. Good, innit? Almost forgot: North Yorkshire County Council is about to spend £2m on Whitby's first Park and Ride Scheme, with a big car park on the wrong side of the Guisborough road, a couple of miles out of town, with no loos and no shelter and shuttle buses which won't be able to shuttle because they will get stuck in the same traffic jam in Bagdale that everybody else gets stuck in - while the heavily subsidised, very expensive and almost empty diesel trains sail in and out of Whitby 4 times a day! May I suggest a Park and Ride by Train scheme instead, costing a quarter of the £2m earmarked for the Park and Ride by Bus? This £500,000 should be spent on creating small station car parks in farmers' fields in most of the Esk Valley villages, with a half-hourly shuttle by train (preferably steam) from Grosmont to Whitby. This would disperse the car parking, distribute some of the money to several local farmers, revitalise the village economies, get visitors out of their cars sooner, reduce car miles and deliver large numbers of visitors into Whitby town centre without using the approach roads at all... Sadly, this would involve several government departments working together and is thus almost impossible. 7 August 2006 Rain overnight, but still the month's total is under 2 inches. Warm, dry and sunny again, with the temperature in the low 70sºF, so I sawed more logs from the Sycamore cord and stacked the resulting firelogs in the woodshed. Flag assisted by chewing any off cuts and rolling on his back in the sun. All in all, a very pleasant morning and the woodshed is now just over half full. 6 August 2006 Warm, dry and sunny today, so back to check off the cherry orchard - or at least to pick another container of wild cherries (Gean). This year is the best crop since they were planted in the early 1980s and the birds are getting wise to the 'new' food. Two magnificent Peacock Butterflies basked and fed in the meadow next to Flag's Folly (which is still being ravaged by the Roe Deer, so only 10 of the 12 Willow saplings have survived). Just after lunch I had an unexpected phone call from a nice man at Everest Double Glazing, '...just a courtesy call to make sure that there haven't been any problems with your Everest windows, because sometimes people are a bit reluctant to say...' I asked if this was a kind of Customer Care phone call and he agreed. I pointed out that this must be a new policy, because they showed remarkably little interest in caring for their customer when I was desperately trying to get them to take some notice when the windows were being fitted so badly that all 7 had to be repaired and 2 had to be taken out and scrapped and then 2 new ones made from scratch - or when one of the windows shattered - or when the mortar fell out from around the new frames. I think he got the impression quite quickly that I still wasn't very impressed by Neverest and that there was absolutely no chance of me giving them any further business! If, by any chance, you don't know about my Everest window saga, just click here... 5 August 2006 Back to fine, warm, dry and sunny weather again, with several thousand feathers still drifting around my patio and lawns. I am not going to pick them up by hand, nor try to brush them into a heap, nor would it do the hoover any good, nor is the wind strong enough to scatter them thinly enough - so the answer was to use my Weed Wand mini-flame thrower device to singe them one by one and bunch by bunch until they shrivelled up to almost nothing and disappeared. Brilliant! 4 August 2006 Some daft young Wood Pigeon flew into my conservatory early this morning and then, dead or dying, was taken by a passing Fox or cat, leaving nothing but a few guts on my patio and ten thousand feathers all over the garden! 3 August 2006 By mid-morning, still overcast, cool and damp with a Northerly breeze, the temperature at Groves Dyke was a mere 56ºF, a full 20ºF cooler than it had been just 7 days ago! Driving over the moors towards Guisborough the very first signs of purple are just beginning to show as the Ling, the commonest species of Heather, comes into flower. All this rain may have done the trick! Over the next few weeks the whole 192 square miles of the North York Moors will glow purple as the largest area of heather moorland left anywhere in England and Wales comes into magnificent flower. This is one of the great wildlife sights of the UK and we need to remember that the UK contains over half of all the heather moorland in the world. Who needs 1 million Wildebeest migrating across the Serengeti, when we have the North York Moors in full bloom? The weather brightened during the day and ended up dry, warm and sunny. 2 Aug 2006 Rain last night but dry again by breakfast time for a pleasantly damp stroll around the wood, where the rescued Rowan trees are now bearing several orangey berries. Then a 15 minute bird count from my conservatory overlooking the feeding station produced: Blue Tit 3*, Great Tit 3*, Chaffinch 2*, Wood Pigeon 2, Coal Tit 1, Dunnock 1, Robin 1* and Bank Vole 1*. (8/8 cloud cover, calm, cool, showery). The species asterisked (above) include juveniles, with the Robin now an almost red breast - but still with a rather short tail. Later I watched as a small mammal, most probably a Bank Vole, crossed the lawn from the woodyard towards my beck. It was completely above ground and looked rather disorientated, until a young Magpie swooped down beside it, pecked it a couple of times and then flew off with it in its beak. All this rain has reduced the fire risk enough for me to light the bonfire for the first time in a couple of months or more. Once the woodshed was cleared out I was able to move the saw horse under cover and saw a few more lengths of Sycamore cordwood into fire logs, keeping an eye on the bonfire (and on Flag) at the same time. The rain got heavier and heavier until we retreated to the house as the bonfire smouldered away to nothing. By mid-afternoon there had already been as much rain in the first 36 hours of August as there was in all 31 days of July! And still raining... 1 Aug 2006 A fine sunny morning, with temperatures in the mid 60s F and just right for a bit more fire log sawing and even a bit of hedge cutting - until the thunder and lightening started about lunchtime and the rain poured down again. By evening everything was cold and wet, so I even resorted to lighting the woodburner - another First for the 1st of August! 31 July 2006 Oh a normal day at last! Cool enough and pleasant enough to do a normal day's work, for the first time this month. Some pond weed cleaning out, some fire log sawing and stacking, some digging holes (for some of us!) and some clearing out the pole barn (long overdue). Then it rained all evening, adding the last ¼ inch to the month's total. 30 July 2006 It must have rained again last night, with almost the odd puddle on the patio this morning. Anyway, it now feels much fresher and much more pleasant than it has done for weeks, thank goodness. Ragwort pulling in and around the wood today, a job which in the 1980s would have taken both of us a good half day and filled several sacks. Today, there were just 2 plants in Bank orchard, 2 in the wood (at the top of Dyke side) and another half dozen in the wildflower slope next to the Stickery. It is odd that this plant, poisonous to farm animals (especially horses), notifiable by law to Defra (Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and generally not a good idea, is most commonly found on the roadsides where the county councils are responsible for producing much of the national crop of this Noxious Weed! 28 July 2006 One of the joys of summer is to drive over the moor roads with the windows wide open, enjoying the slightly cooler wind. One of the disadvantages of doing this is that, very occasionally, a passing Honey Bee is swept into the car by the slipstream! This can be quite exciting, as I discovered this afternoon, especially since I was wearing shorts and the poor insect disappeared (very annoyed) somewhere in my foot well! One emergency stop and some frantic door opening solved the problem without injury. To me, that is! 27 July 2006 My chair under the raftings was wet this morning so it must have rained last night - some time after I finally managed to get to sleep, presumably. Still, it was not enough to bother the rain gauge, so it probably doesn't count. At 3pm this afternoon the temperature in the shade at the back of Groves Dyke was 30º C, which is a whole 86º F in real money, and still not as hot as the 92ºF I recorded there at the very beginning of this month! Cooler weather is forecast in a couple of days (thank goodness!) and then as high again in August. Last week's media debate about all the 'too hot school classrooms' has luckily been resolved by the start of the school holidays, but the allied debate about 'too hot hospital wards' continues. Open the windows properly for ventilation or keep them almost closed to stop anyone falling out accidentally? (Increased infection risks if you don't or Health and Safely hazard if you do)? Buy extra fans or ban their use completely? (Transfer any infections across several beds or just stifle patients and staff instead)? It's not much of a choice when you realise that every extra fan or additional air conditioning unit requires yet more electricity (mostly from fossil fuels), which just creates yet more greenhouse gases and yet more global warming for next year. And still we go on building new schools and hospitals and office blocks with huge areas of south-facing glass, so that we will need more fans and more air conditioning, which needs more electricity, which creates more global warming.... and then we give the bloody architect an award for the dammed thing! I wonder has anyone in government ever thought of designing buildings differently - a bit like the Centre for Alternative Technology has been doing in mid-Wales since the 1960s, perhaps? See www.cat.org.uk for information on both add-on features and fundamental designs to reduce the problem. Anyway, why not create a few more greenhouse gases for the grandchildren to cope with? It'll keep them on their toes! Or their knees... 26 July 2006 Slightly cooler this morning and the lawns are looking a bit too tufty again, so a bit of strimming is required. It took me one hour, a pint of petrol and a gallon of sweat to complete the dog lawn, a bit of the beck, half of the wildflower bank and all of Groves Dyke lawns. Those poor lawns are cracking open even more than before, with some cracks so wide that you could lose a golf ball down there! Any hotter for any longer and Flag may be searching for tennis balls! Then time for a cool bath, a bit of a collapse and back to processing more words in the nice, cool indoors. Putting the strimmer away later I was able to help myself to the first ripe Blackberries of the year. Very tasty and juicy! Aislaby at 5pm today and my car says it is 29ºC. Time I was back indoors! 7pm and it is almost bearable again. The tide was high and Sandsend beach was busy with people, kids and dogs, so Flag was in his element - in every sense. A single Sandwich Tern plunge-dived just offshore and 3 tired Sanderlings tried to roost on the tideline between Raithwaite Beck and Upgang. Without much success, thanks to all those hot people walking their hot dogs! 24 July 2006 By 7pm the great outdoors was almost cool enough to leave the house and head for Sandsend. Flag ran and lay in the sea, while I just strolled and paddled. A single, but constantly changing, wisp of mist hung over Sandsend Ness as the clear sea air rose and condensed over the headland, before evaporating again as it moved further inland. Very pretty! Back home again about 8pm, when the temperature was still an uncomfortable 76ºF. 23 July 2006 As well as the usual bramble snipping on the path around the wood this morning, I also managed to pick a good potful of Wild Cherries from the Gean trees we planted in the early 1980s. One tree in particular (upper Bankside near the beck) has a bumper crop which weighs down the branches, but the birds do tend to get the ripest ones before I do. My home ripening answer is to pick the ripest available and then put a ripe banana into the pot with the cherries for a day or two. 22 July 2006 Thunderstorms materialised at lunch time (short and sharp) and again at tea time (longer but less rain), with almost another ¼ inch of rain falling today. This brings the rain gauge up to just under 1 inch for the whole month so far. Ideal weather for processing words, interrupted only by Flag barking frantically from the yard. Assuming he had chucked his ball out through the gate again, I let him out and he set off down the drive even faster than a lost ball would usual call for. The family on the Groves Dyke deck explained that a Roe Deer had just run out of the wood, past the deck and off down the drive - and now I had just let Flag out to follow it! Damn! He reappeared about 5 minutes later, very hot and bothered, but without any venison. 21 July 2006 Hot again. TBH, if not worse. A couple of Green Woodpeckers flew up from the path at the top of the wood as we walked around this morning. Judging by the way one of them bumbled about as it flew off nosily, it must have been a youngster. It was still 84ºF in the shade at 7pm this evening, so I retreated indoors to compute. How anyone in the Deep South of England is managing this hot weather, I have no idea. And the NHS Direct website at www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk (which the TV weather presenters keep mentioning for 'further advice' about coping with the severe heat wave) isn't very helpful, either. Basically: How to Stay Cool: Beat the Heat! 1. If possible, avoid going out of doors at all between 11am and 3pm (when the sun is hottest); 2. If you do have to go out, then wear a hat and use a high factor UVa and UVb sun cream (smeared on thick, NOT rubbed in like vanishing cream); 3. Drink lots of water in small quantities, throughout the day; 4. Splash cold water (from the fridge?) on your hands, arms and face to cool you down; 5. Almost close the blinds or curtains of any windows which let the sun in (to keep the sun's rays out of the house) and pull them back again when the sun is not shining in; 6. Keep windows almost closed when the house is cooler inside than outside (daytime) and keep windows open for maximum ventilation (suitably secured, of course, or use 1st floor windows if safer) when the house is warmer than outside (night time); 7. Use convection to create a breeze at night by having one downstairs window slightly open (and secured) and one upstairs window open (the hot air indoors will rise and escape via the upper window, drawing in cooler night air via the lower window); 8. Open one window on each side of the house at night, to allow a through current of air; 9. If you have less than 6 inches deep of loft insulation, or no cavity wall insulation, then contact your local Energy Advice Centre (and gas / electricity supplier) to ask about grants. Not only will good insulation keep your house warmer in the winter (and cost you less in gas / electricity bills and fossil fuels) but it will also keep you cooler in the summer. 10. Do not take cheap holiday flights to the sun to top up your skin cancer (nor even to increase your liver damage), like most people do! 11. If you do have to use cheap flights (the fastest growing source of the greenhouse gases which cause climate change), then make them less frequently (which will let you stay a bit longer at each destination). 12. Write to your Member of Parliament, Prime Minister or President of the United States to express your concern about climate change, what it is already doing to us and our environment and how it will adversely affect your grandchildren. (NB: The appropriate form of address now appears to be: 'Yo Blair', etc, as appropriate)! 20 July 2006 Sea fret this morning! Or maybe it's low cloud, but either way it blankets the moors and dales in a caressingly cool and deliciously damp mist, a welcome mist which condenses on everything and everyone, and brings new life and vigour to what has been a parched and oppressive landscape for several weeks. Half a dozen little Froglets set off to leave my pond. One got trapped in the corner between the house and the conservatory and had to be redirected. Another became entangled in dew-soaked cobwebs, which had to be teased gently away before it could be freed in the beck. The others, which seemed to know what they were supposed to do, set off in the right direction without assistance. See you in a couple of years, guys! By mid-afternoon the sun had burned off the mist and was as hot and as oppressive as ever, even if the grass was now a couple of shades greener than before. 19 July 2006 Yesterday was Too Damned Hot (TDH). Today it is TBH - and you know what that might make tomorrow... An evening walk on the beach at Sandsend was very pleasant and almost cool. There was no sign of any Sand Martins but 3 Sandwich Terns 'kerrick-ed' as they dived just offshore. A mile further out was a lovely bank of sea mist, just tantalisingly out of reach of us poor land based species... 18 July 2006 It was already 72ºF at 9 o'clock this morning and well into the mid-80s by the time I got back from Whitby just after lunch. The Met Office and the National Health Service have issued another Severe Heat Wave Warning, but it's far too hot to do anything out of doors. So I didn't. Apart from playing the hose on the hot dog. There are still 8 Smooth Newts in my pond this evening. 17 July 2006 Before it got too TDH, I strimmed any bits of any lawns anywhere that had managed to grow an inch or two (and there weren't many!), 20% (I can't find a symbol for 1/5th!) of the beck, ½ of the woodyard and the shady path around the wood. All done by just after 11am, so lots of time for a long, cool bath before lunch. A great big North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service tanker lorry was filling up from the River Esk at Ruswarp, running a shuttle service up onto the moortop at Sneaton where over 100 acres of heather were still burning. The North York Moors National Park Authority has closed the Access Areas (good ole Right to Roam and Drop My Fag End Anywhere I Damn Well Choose Bill, eh?) on the moors, but the public footpaths and bridleways across the moors are still open. Just a touch of 'closing the moor gate after the sheep have roasted', I think... 16 July 2006 TDH again. A still wet and very large yellow with black stripes Dragonfly, only just emerged from my pond, walked slowly across my patio. Flag was keen to go and investigate, but I wouldn't let him. Slowly, slowly it rested in the sunlight and quivered its wings, pumping them up and letting them dry in the sun, before walking another few steps. It eventually reached the corner post of the raftings and started climbing up this mega 'reed stem'. This was too much for the poor dog, who dived forwards and managed to bat it with a big hairy paw before I could stop him. Knocked to the ground, the poor insect struggled to its feet (all 6 of them) on a fossiliferous pebble from Sandsend (perhaps even a distant relation?) and paused to get its bearings. Picking up the whole pebble and its passenger, I placed it carefully on the side of the pond where it could continue to dry off its wings in safety and by the time The Archers was over, it had flown off. Even hotter by then, so just a gentle bit of Bramble snipping and Hazel layering up in the shade of the wood. 15 July 2006 Hot, hot, hot! Slightly cooler at the River Gardens in Sleights for lunch. I have now extended my 'Dates, Prices and Availability' page to Christmas 2007 and, I am delighted to say, at least one week in June 2007 has already been booked! This task was constantly interrupted by barking from outside and on investigation I found that Flag had good reason: yesterday I had accidentally parked one wheel of the car on top of his tennis ball and the poor dog had just noticed and couldn't rescue it! Then off to Sandsend in the late afternoon for a cooling stroll by the water's edge. Yes, we had a little paddle and the North Sea was very cool! 14 July 2006 This morning in full, full sunlight a tiny, tiny Froglet hopped in tiny, tiny hoplets across the patio until it finally, finally reached the safe, safe shade of a damp, damp, dark, dark gap in the dry stone wall. I'm sure the beef steak doesn't really work quite as quickly as that, so this must have been a super Froglet that was already due to leave my pond. A quick check of the bits of string still dangling in the pond revealed nothing but two empty clove hitches and no steak at all. This evening the Sunflower hearts scattered on the coping stones around my pond attracted a Bank Vole, while a Wood Mouse bounced back and forth across the patio to pick up the seeds fallen on the ground. Later, a very dark and pointy Shrew popped up from the pond wall, grabbed a seed from the top and dashed back into the stonework again. This is the first Shrew I have seen for months and the first time ever that I have seen all 3 small mammals together. 12 July 2006 St George seems to have fallen from favour recently, or perhaps the Department of Transport have just abandoned that particular road safety campaign... Either way, today is the Glorious Twelfth in Northern Ireland, so if you really want to see just where 80 years of excessive flag waving (not to mention faith schools) is going to get you, just take a look 'across the water'. Still hot, dry and downright pleasant. The Jays have got noisy again, dashing about in the wood while the Rabbits scrabble through the parched grass to eat the more succulent roots. 10 July 2006 A silent Yaffle (Green Woodpecker) flew across the woodyard and disappeared into the wood. The casserole steak in the pond is also disappearing rapidly as the voracious tadpoles chomp away - not quite as quickly as the proverbial horse and piranhas, but still pretty impressive! The recent rain hasn't set the grass off again, so I trimmed a few more hedges, dragged some pondweed out of the pond (leaving it on the edge so that all the creepy crawly pond life can crawl back in again) and then used my nice new cordless reciprocating saw to cut some cordwood into firelogs. Wonderful! I must make a new resolution about sawing some wood every day... Talking of a New Resolution and being disappointed by the National Lottery (Lotto), have you come across the new alternative called 'Monday - the charities lottery'? This is backed by c70 charities, who get more of every pound you spend AND they get the money almost instantly, to do with as they wish AND there are more winners because if nobody picks the 'right' numbers, then the jackpot is given to the person with the next nearest numbers AND you can still get cash prizes for 3, 4 or 5 correct numbers AND every set of numbers is entered for not 1 but 2 lotteries every Monday evening. So ya boo shucks to you, Camelot! Monday can only be played online ( www.playMonday.com ) where you can find out all the details. Good Luck! 9 July 2006 Some rain last night, but not enough to bother the rain gauge. Overcast and windy at first, then bright and calmer later in the day. I am almost at a loss, now that the last of the Sycamore has been carried down to the woodyard, so I layered a few Hazels instead. A long branch from one Hazel stool is bent down and pegged into the bare ground about 6 feet away, so that it will take root and develop as a free-standing tree. This can then be severed from the original and eventually coppiced just like all the others. This is the traditional way of extending (or repairing) a coppice, as Hazel are very reluctant to grow from cuttings. A Nuthatch visited the feeders again today, after a long absence. The call is a rapid, loud and insistent 'Bleep-bleep! Bleep-bleep-bleep-bleep!' (but without the swearwords)! 8 July 2006 A late lunch at the River Gardens in Sleights, just an easy stroll away. Homemade quiche, chocolate milkshake, sticky bun (ie all the essentials!) with a hot dog (under the table) on the riverbank, watching the House Martins hawking just above the water - and wondering which ones were from Groves Dyke. 6 July 2006 Wow! That was spectacular! Almost an inch of rain (⅝ of an inch = 22 mms) fell in less than 2 hours this afternoon as a series of thunderstorms rolled past. The day began with a check of the max and min thermometer, which shows that some time in the last 6 days the maximum has been up to 92ºF (30ºC) and the actual temperature at 0930 hours this morning was 78ºF! Then a male Sparrowhawk missed his breakfast at my feeding station and landed briefly on the lawn to contemplate the significance of Life, The Universe and Everything. Having sorted that out, he flew off to have another go elsewhere. Having noticed the very small number of Froglets leaving my pond (2) and the large number of Tadpoles still in my pond with long tails and no sign of any legs, I invested in 2 small pieces of casserole steak from Radfords Butchers in the village. "Just two pieces?" he asked in surprise, imagining a VERY small casserole. So I explained what I wanted them for. Nothing but the very best for MY Tadpoles! Anyway, the customer is always right, so when I got them home I tied each to a piece of string and dangled them into my pond. Within an hour I could pull up the string to find 20 or more voracious tadpoles chomping away on each morsel, finding whatever nutritional trigger was missing this year to start the normal transformation from tadpole to Frog... Flag told me by his behaviour that all was not well and that a thunderstorm was approaching (but I had already worked it out for myself. Honest). Just before 3pm the lightening and thunder came within 3 miles (15 seconds between flash and bang), the heavens opened, the poor terrified dog cowered against my chair and the chair vibrated for the next hour as the storm rolled down the dale. It approached within 1 mile (5 seconds between flash and bang), then came even closer (½ a mile or 2.5 seconds) before passing right overhead and rumbling off across the North Sea. Normality was gradually restored and great signs of relief were heaved by all. You wanted rain? OK, now you got rain. So what's the problem? Recovering in the conservatory with a relaxed (if emotionally exhausted) dog, a stationary chair and my traditional sundowner, a male Kestrel flew up from the recently strimmed woodyard with some unlucky small mammal in his talons. So why should the Tadpoles have all the fun? 5 July 2006 Another lovely cool, misty morning so I took Flag onto the beach at Sandsend - where he promptly ran off into the mist and disappeared for 10 minutes! Then the people and dogs he had joined walked out of the mist and we were reunited again. Thank goodness they were walking towards me and not towards Whitby, otherwise we might never have been reunited. The mist cleared mid-morning and Groves Dyke grass was cut, for the first time in two weeks. Not that it really needed it! The lawns are dry and cracked, with brown patches amongst the green. Never mind, there is a nice bit of thunder forecast for this evening. Flag won't like it, but the grass will appreciate any rain it brings. Within reason. 4 July 2006 A single Roe Deer stood stock still in the long grass, just uphill from the viewpoint at the top of the wood. We watched each other for several minutes before I gave in and walked away. It feels odd NOT to be carrying any firewood down the hill on my regular morning constitutional! Still cool and misty this morning, so I started cutting the Groves Bank grass before the sun burned the mist away. More than half was done before the sun broke through, so I just kept on going until it was all cut. After lunch I tidied up a hedge or two and then took my nice new toy into the woodyard. Yes! It works! Much less painful to cut logs to length with a rechargeable reciprocating saw than an arm powered bow saw - and sorry about the extra fossil fuel now required to produce the leccy to trickle charge the battery to saw the home grown wood for my self-sufficient current-carbon wood burner to heat my super insulated house - but at least I tried. 3 July 2006 Off to sunny Tees-side today to, amongst other things, buy a rechargeable reciprocating saw (£50) from Big Shed Avenue. If it does what I want it to do, it will save my poor elbows from any more bow saw work! Lots of Special Offers in the Big Shed on air conditioning units - anything from £100 to £250 and upwards, depending on just how much fossil fuel you want to burn and just how much more fossil carbon you want to add in order to produce the electricity required to reduce the temperature in your particular little bit of a warmer globe. You might as well try to cool your kitchen by leaving the door of the fridge open - forgetting that the heat exchanger on the back of the fridge will have to get hotter and hotter to try to keep the fridge cooler, which it can't do, 'cos the kitchen just got even hotter as a result, etc, etc. We're all right, Jack! Aren't there such a lot of disaster appeals for the innocent victims of droughts and famines and floods and hurricanes nowadays? I suppose we just never heard about them before. Glad we're not involved in any way! Anyone for football? It was so hot and sunny today that my forearms (no, not four arms!) got a bit sunburnt just driving the 40 miles there and the 40 miles back. Looking down on Whitby and Sandsend from the road over the top of Skelder I could see the sea roke lying all along the coast. The Bell Heather (Erica tetralix) on Sleights Moor is just coming into flower alongside the Fair Head road from Grosmont. It is always the first of the heathers to bloom, but is only found on the driest (!) areas of the moors. After tea I drove into Whitby and was surprised just how pleasantly cool it was. By mid-evening the mist had penetrated as far inland as Sleights and all was cool, damp and very pleasant after a horribly hot day. 2 July 2006 Today really is a momentous day because today I carried down the last 4 loads of firewood from the big Sycamore felled by the January 2005 storm. Apart from the logs I burnt during this year's late spring, I still have a whole cord (8 x 4 x 4 feet = 128 cubic feet) plus half a woodshed full plus assorted longer lengths still to be cut into firelogs. That should be enough for one winter! The first ever Met Office / Department of Health Severe Heat Wave Warning was issued today, in an attempt to avoid the 20,000 deaths (mainly of elderly people) from heat exhaustion and dehydration which France experienced a couple of years ago. 1 July 2006 Very hot. It was already 21º C (70º F) by 0930 this morning, and still climbing steadily. In mid afternoon a Kestrel hovered above the house and it was high time for a nice cool stroll on the beach. The roads were nearly empty on the way and the beach itself was almost deserted. Is something important happening somewhere? So hot and dry that Raithwaite Beck and Upgang Back just trickle onto the beach and promptly disappear into the sand. Last year's Sand Martin cliff was eroded away last winter, so now there are just a couple of small sandy patches in the boulder clay cliff, one with 26 holes but a very deserted look about it and only a single bird in evidence. The other patch has just 14 holes but again just a single Sand Martin in the area. Let's hope that the next winter gales will expose a new and more suitable patch of sand - and that enough adult birds survive another year to nest there in 2007. The roads were even more deserted on the way home. Has something momentous happened? Have all the religious leaders settled their differences and just announced world peace for evermore? Have all the political leaders just agreed on how to stop and reverse climate change? Has the United Nations found a way to stop ⅓ of the world 's human population (a mere 2,000,000,000 men, women and - mostly - children) being hungry every single day and every single night of their short and miserable lives? Apparently not. It's something far more important than any of these minor distractions: it's lots and lots of poor mugs paying to watch 22 spoilt brats kicking a wee ball up and down a field while the multinational fat cats who organise the game, own the media and own the breweries get even richer than before on the proceeds. OK. So it's only me. Complaining about 'bread or circuses'. Really, it's a good thing there is nothing to worry about, 'cos we've got lots and lots and lots of very spectacular circuses. And anyway, it's TDH. |
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