For farmers

On Saturday I woke before the alarm and that was early!  It wasn’t because I had gone to sleep before knowing the result of the London Mayoral election and the fate of the several hundred pound bet I had on Boris (that result was never seriously in question) but because I was going out to…

10 ways to make a difference – and some are free

It’s a tough time for NGOs – here are some ideas for worthy causes to help.   Good to see that the RSPB has the chance to buy a fantastic site on Loch Lomond.  It came up once before and I was sorry that it didn’t work out then. And I haven’t noticed much land…

Wet Wales? I hope not

The Wales Coast Path opens officially today – 870 miles from Chester to Chepstow (and a very similar distance from Chepstow to Chester).  That’s quite a stretch isn’t it? And since you can walk Offa’s Dyke too, you could do a 1000+ mile walk around Wales if you really wanted – you could call it…

The same and different

A year ago, yesterday, I flew to the USA for a 6 week trip of a lifetime. Yesterday, I drove to Cambridge.   A year ago, yesterday, the sun shone. Yesterday it rained a  lot.   A year ago, yesterday, I saw lots of starlings in Washington DC. Yesterday a single starling flew across the…

Wuthering Moors 14

My Freedom of Information requests which were posted on this blog on 2 April (for example, this one) should have been answered this week since they were electronically transmitted to Natural England and Defra on that day.  I followed up by posting letters to Defra and Natural England. Yesterday, at 1637, I received an email…