Quite a few things

isn’t Bruce Springsteen fantastic?! Maybe not relevant to most topics on this blog but I have spent a large part of the day with The Boss on in the background on Spotify.  I even joined in sometimes. yesterday Barry Gardiner MP (Lab Brent North) called for a parliamentary debate on whether to ban driven grouse…

I will lift up my eyes unto the hills…

‘I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my floods’ As the Moorland Association brags, 70% of the UK’s drinking water comes from the uplands – so do 70% of the UK’s floods, for water has the habit of flowing downhill.  The River Ouse flowing through York, or over York, is…

2015 – a bad year for driven grouse shooting

Few Red Grouse were shot in the UK this year, mainly because of disease and bad weather. But regardless of grouse bags, this was a very bad year for driven grouse shooting and hastened the end of this worthless hobby. The case against driven grouse shooting is that it depends on intensive management that involves…

Talks given

I’ve been talking to Yorkshire recently – has it been listening? I’ve never given exactly the same talk twice in my life – that’s partly because every talk is somewhat tailored to the audience (as best as one can – sometimes one doesn’t know that much about the audience) and they are usually of slightly…

Charming

I’ve been driving around a lot over the last week and you see things as you travel. I’ve seen moor-burning on or near Walshaw Moor, I’ve seen a rutting Red Deer stag with a harem of hinds near Otley, I’ve seen Red Kites in several places where they wouldn’t have been in the fairly recent…