EXTINCT IS FOREVER

I've just been reading Mark Avery's blog http://networkedblogs.com/mjtX3 titled 'Gone and forgotten' in which he comments on the recent headline 'Farmland birds in Europe fall to lowest levels'. He says "We should be raging that things have got so bad" - and so we should - we should be ROAAAAARING!

But why has the news about farmland birds falling to their lowest levels not been splashed all over our national newspapers? Why is the steep and alarming decline of our once rich and diverse wildlife not being reported in ernest by every single journalist and reporter, in every single newspaper, and on every single radio program and TV channel? Is it, as Mark suggests, because it's not really 'news'? Have we perhaps become so human centric and disconnected, that the extinction of the odd thousand or so species of flora and fauna doesn't register with us other than as a passing thought of "Oh, that's a shame.....I'll miss seeing that plant/flower/bird/insect around......it was rather beautiful and I used to enjoy watching it/listening to it sing when I was little.  Ah well.....life goes on I suppose......"

Yes, life goes on, but it becomes more fragile and more uncertain year by year, day by day, and hour by hour. The amazing, beautiful creatures and plants that we share this planet with are inextricably linked to our own survival. Everything on this planet is joined together, in mutually beneficial ways, in one giant interconnected web. We ignore the demise of other beings - whether they be plants, birds, mammals, invertebrates, fungi or micro-organisms in the soil - at our peril.

Silent Spring

It seems we have learned very little from the warnings given to us by Rachel Carson over forty years ago when she wrote her book 'Silent Spring'. Biodiversity loss is, as she forecast, now spiralling out of control; but still the human race manages to block out the implications of the destruction we wreak upon the planet and its other inhabitants.

It's not as though the damage is intangible; it is clear for all to see. However, although we bestow rights galore upon other human beings to help protect the weak and vulnerable - and have laws and legislation up the yin yang to protect ancient monuments and historic buildings, it amazes me that one has ever though to 'list' the planet or it's non-human inhabitants. The roof on a four hundred year farmhouse in Cornwall enjoys more protection (and has more people working on its behalf to save it from - heaven forbid - being repaired with recycled materials) than most of our endangered wildlife has from their habitat being bulldozed over to make way for more trunk roads and urban sprawl!

I know, I'm having a bit of a rant but seriously....the way we behave beggars belief. If we carry on destroying and degrading what little healthy habitat there is left, we will loose not only our farmland birds, but along with them our pollinators, soil fertility, trees and fresh water. If this happens we'll all die anyway. What use will our human-centric laws and legislation be to us then?

We are, quite rightly, shocked when acts of human genocide are reported in the news, but the damage we are wreaking on non-human life on earth is also a crime. It is, in fact, nothing short of 'ecocide'.

Biodiversity 'Price tags'

A small minority of creatures have made bigger headlines than others. These tend to be creatures to which we can attach a 'price tag' in terms of how important they are to our economy.  Thankfully, for bees and other pollinators, someone has come up with a figure that says they're worth £££billion to the economy, so urgent steps are being taken to investigate their decline. Tens of millions of pounds are being paid to scientific establishments to conduct research to try and discover what's causing the decline in the bee population. The irony however, is that these £££millions could have been spent on creating desperately needed habitat. Given the fact that habitat loss (along with pesticide use) is without doubt the main reasons for declining bee numbers, this would have made far more sense.

The Cause

This is not rocket science; the answer to the problem is staring us in the face. It's us. The human race. We are responsible for the decline in pollinators and for most other species loss and the sooner we accept this responsibility on both an individual and collective level, the better.

We all love blaming someone else for the problems. It's always the fault of the government, intensive farming practices, supermarkets, multinationals, local councils etc..... but at the end of the day it is our choices that can and will make the difference. We are 'the consumer' and 'the consumer' is all powerful!

I know there is no, one, single solution - but if people took a little time out (no excuses about 'not having the time'.....this is really important!) and increased their awareness about what goes on in the food industry I believe they might be shocked into action. Knowledge is enormously empowering....and once you know what is happening out there, not only to our wildlife but also to our small farmers and producers, you would insist on clearer labelling, demand to know more about the provenance of the food you buy and refuse to be a part of the ongoing problem.

Where do we start?

There are many ways to make a difference and they don't have to cost us more.  If we stopped buying processed food, cooked more with fresh ingredients, switched to organic, grew our own fruit & veg (or a few herbs on the window sill) and/or set up food co-operatives to ordered bulk staples from whole food suppliers we would make an enormous difference. All it takes is shifting a little from an "I can't" attitude to an "I can"

There is loads information out there on the internet (I'll pop a few links at the end of this blog) but one of the best places to start getting a grasp of the problems with our food industry is by reading a wonderful book called 'Not on the Label' by Felicity Lawrence. It's a real eye opener.

So, come on world....instead of being responsible for Earth's sixth mass extinction, let's turn things around. There is a bright shining light at the end of the tunnel; we just need to get our act together....get informed....and rediscover our power.

Some useful links


Food Inc film - http://www.sbs.com.au/films/movie/4897/Food-Inc.
Dirt! The Movie - http://dotsub.com/view/964efb4b-c3d2-4901-bb22-5e8dcf9d1e63 
The Soil Association - http://www.soilassociation.org/ 
'Eradicating Ecocide' - http://www.thisisecocide.com/  

ROADSIDE VERGES - WILDLIFE HAVENS OR DESERTS?

I wrote a few months ago about how frustrated I get whenever I see beautiful, wildlife rich habitats being strimmed indiscriminately by local councils  http://bit.ly/pBP1nU  and I've been doing a little research since then to see what I can find out about strimming & mowing policies for roadside verges, parks, open spaces etc.

I fully understand that certain roadside verges on major trunk roads need to be kept short(ish) for traffic safety reasons. Elsewhere however, and especially in areas where the reasons for cutting them are purely 'aesthetic' (often because members of the public have complained about an area looking 'untidy'),  I feel I must speak out against what I believe results in a short sighted and unnecessary loss of biodiversity.  

However, there's absolutely no point in me banging on about "how awful it is that our beautiful native wildflowers are being chopped down before they've had a chance to set seed" - or stamping my feet in frustration about "the knock on effect that this is having on our already endangered pollinators" - if I'm just ranting in an internet blog rather than speaking to the people who can actually effect change (i.e. the policy makers) and making an effort to understand where they're coming from.

But who exactly are the policy makers???

When I first started looking into this I naively thought there might be a single person or department responsible for all the verges and open spaces in any one county. I hoped there might be a 'policy' somewhere which, in light of all the evidence pointing to loss of habitat being a major factor in the decline in bee numbers, could be rewritten.  This, of course, is not the case. In fact the issue is far more complicated than I ever imagined.

'Who' is responsible for 'what'?


After a little digging and delving on the internet and a few fruitless telephone calls to various council 'hubs' - "Sorry madam, we can't give out the work numbers of council employees because members of the public might try to contact them"!!! - I finally managed to speak with a lovely 'Biodiversity Action Plan Manager' who helped me understand a little more about the way the system works. So, I feel I'm a little closer now to understanding 'who' is responsible for 'what' when it comes to the UKs verges - and other open spaces.  Please don't take my word on what I have written below though, because it all seems to vary so much from county to county and what I've learned is only based upon a very limited amount of research.

I'll start with the major motorway and trunk roads because they seem fairly straight forward. These are the responsibility The Highways Agency whose maintenance policies are set out here - http://bit.ly/q1coI8   . The 'management' of these roads is sometimes contracted out to the County Councils whose counties they run through.

Once you move away from the major trunk roads, to the 'A' roads, the responsibility for maintenance falls to the County, City or Local Authority in which that road is located. Here's a random example of how this works which explains the system far better than I can  http://bit.ly/p6jm8a  

Unfortunately this is where it starts to get complicated because the verges alongside any given roadside, or pavement, are often partly the responsibility the local authority and partly the responsibility of the County Council... and sometimes the joint responsibility of both!  In Warndon Parish Council in the city of Worcester, for instance, the city council's responsibility is to cut the grass within one-and-a-half metres of the footpath - but the rest is Worcestershire County Council's responsibility.


As well as roadside verges there are also 'parks and open spaces'. The authorities responsible for these areas (which include spaces as diverse as sports pitches, ponds, parks, cemeteries and play areas - to the hanging baskets and floral displays you see in town and city centres) could be either District Councils, Parish Councils or Housing Associations.

Here's an example of 'who' is responsible for 'what' in Tower Hamlets (I found it useful to read examples of how different authorities operate at different levels so hope you will too) - http://bit.ly/p661y3  

Hope I haven't lost you yet! Please hang on in there.....


As you can see, it's already quite difficult to get to the bottom of whose responsibility it actually is to decide on the grass cutting policies for any given space; but it gets even more challenging now.  Once the policy has been decided (i.e. how often/ how short etc)  the job of actually 'managing' the grass (or hedge) cutting is then contracted out to local farmers, garden centres, landscape gardeners or any other body or individual who possesses the equipment (truck, tractor, strimmer, mower, scythe (?!) .....) to do the job.

These contracts are agreed/renewed every 3 - 5 years so you can imagine how difficult it is at any given moment in time to find out exactly 'who' is cutting 'what', 'when' and 'where'. The logistics of introducing and implementing new policies don't bear thinking about!

Anyway, enough of the 'who' does 'what' for now and on to the 'whys' and 'wherefores'....

'Where have all the flowers gone?


I have wonderful childhood memories of my father taking me and my brothers for walks on Sunday afternoons in the '60s. We moved house quite often, so our walks covered many different areas of the UK, but the one that sticks out in my mind most visually is the one that ended with us walking back along a bit of the main road from Oxford to Swindon, where we stopped to pick wild flowers for my mother just before we turned back into the road where we lived.

I don't think wild flowers were protected by law back in the early 60's and it certainly didn't occur to me as a child that I was picking anything rare or endangered. There was an absolute abundance of flowers and grasses; nowhere more so than on roadside verges. We would return home from our walks with bunches of flowers and grasses in every imaginable colour for my mother to put in little vases or empty jam jars.

That was nearly fifty years ago and our landscape has since changed quite drastically. The majority of our roadside verges are now wildlife deserts; devoid of flora and fauna. Our once abundant native flora, which overed large areas of countryside and proved ample habitat and foraging for wildlife, is hanging on by a thread.

Since the end of the second world war the UK has lost 97% of our wildflowers and grasslands, 40% of our heathland, 50% of our ancient woodland, 65% of our hedgerows, 75% of our actively coppiced woodland and 90% of our wetlands. The knock on effect on our invertebrates, small mammals and birds has, of course, been devastating.

So how has this happened in such a short time and where has it all gone?

The answer is that our once healthy and species rich landscape has been altered beyond recognition by the effects of industrialised agriculture. With its vast monoculture crops and deadly cocktails of pesticides, intensive farming is bringing us closer and closer to the scenario predicted by Rachel Carson over 50 years ago in her book 'Silent Spring'.  As if this is not enough, vast areas of what was once open countryside has been encroached upon by urban sprawl, motorways, industrial estates and out-of-town shopping centres.

So, what's left needs all the help it can get...NOW!

What can we do?


If we are to effect change we must work alongside local authorities and housing associations; communication and cooperation are vital.

I know what I'd like to see happen, but unless we can demonstrate to councils that introducing new management plans for roadside verges and other open spaces will save money, gain public support and increase biodiversity then it's simply not going to happen.

Unfortunately, if councils were simply to 'stop' strimming/mowing the verges, all that would happen is that most of them would revert to docks, couch grass, brambles, nettles and thistles. From my perspective this would be a vast improvement on the short grass verges that don't even offer safe havens in the form of wildlife corridors -but it would attract far too many negative comments from the general public.

Like it or not, council policies are often driven, or at least affected by a need for positive PR. If too many people complain about 'messy' verges, then the council are less likely to implement new policies in favour of increased biodiversity. Worcester City Council recently adopted a policy of leaving verges unmowed to save money and this was the unfortunate result.... http://bit.ly/oI6rCE 


So, the way forward is to find evidence and examples of towns, cities and counties in the UK who have implemented new wildlife friendly policies that have proved popular with local people and which have saved local authorities money! This information needs to be shared with key people within our own local authorities; preferably those who are already sympathetic to the idea of roadside verges being full of wildflowers.  I'm going to put my energies over the next few weeks and months into finding these examples..... and then.... maybe.... I might just have a fighting chance of persuading my own local town and county councils to review their existing policies.

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION......    http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1002   to get the management of amenity grassland in the UK changed to reverse the massive decline in wild flowers. We need 100,000 by August 10th, so if you live anywhere in the UK. PLEASE SIGN UP!!!  




A little glimmer of hope


I just want to end this blog, which is already far too long, with something positive......

When I spoke to our local Biodiversity Action Plan manager last week, I discovered that there is a scheme in place to address the problem of loss of biodiversity on roadside verges. It is called the 'Protected Road Verges Project'.

In this project, county councils are working together with wildlife trusts and other conservation groups to protect and manage certain roadside verges. This is how it's working in Worcestershire - http://bit.ly/nAzMNN 


I know it's not much... but its a beginning :)



Useful links -

Wonderful Buzz About Bees website - http://www.buzzaboutbees.net/planting-wildflowers-helps-bees.html

Wildflower society -  http://www.thewildflowersociety.com/wfs_new_pages/1f_code_of_conduct.htm

More information about 'Protected Verge Project' - http://www.bsbi.org.uk/road_verges.html

NATURE KNOWS BEST!

It's funny how sometimes you don't make connections between one thing and another; then the penny drops and all of a sudden obstacles disperse before your very eyes and everything flows more freely.

I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts that I had been 'missing a trick' when it came to feeding myself on my Off-Grid Sundays.

Having sorted out ways to boil water and heat up food without using electricity or gas, the next thing I wanted to address was the actual food itself. It seemed a bit silly to be making such an effort trying to wean myself off the 'system' whilst still relying on that same system (shopping) for most of what I eat.

I am able to grow small amounts of fruit and vegetables in my tiny garden and on my shared allotment, but most of what I eat still comes from a shop. Ok, so it's a small, local, independent organic shop.... but it still involves food miles, a trip into Malvern, small amounts of packaging and of course 'money'!

WILD FOOD
For as long as I can remember I have been interested in using plants for medicine and to supplement my diet but I've never really thought of it as anything more than an 'interest'.  If I want a green salad, for instance, I grow as much as space permits, purchase what I can't grow myself from a local organic producer and then add the odd leaf of sorrel, chickweed or dandelion picked from the hill behind my house. But I have never made a concerted effort to try and feed myself on as much wild food as possible.

How on earth did I not put two and two together months ago and add 'foraged food' to the list of precepts I follow on Sundays?! Too focussed on the disparate elements of what I was trying to achieve instead of good old fashioned joined up thinking perhaps...

Anyway, since the penny finally dropped I have made every effort to gather as much food as possible from the wild and have especially enjoyed the enormous variety of leaves available within walking distance from my house. So far, I've eaten wild sorrel, wood sorrel, hairy bittercress, hawthorn, beech, lime, comfrey, rosebay willow, chickweed, dandelion, ramsons, stinging nettles and pennywort.... all freshly harvested, absolutely delicious and, of course, free.

UNEXPECTED BONUS
I haven't tried any fungi yet (apart from jews ears) and it's been too early for nuts and berries, so I'm nowhere near relying on wild food for my Off-grid Sundays, but there's been an unexpected bonus.... as well as enjoying all these new foraged greens, I'm learning more each day about all the incredible plants growing on the hills and woods around Malvern and I'm loving it!

The thing about foraging is that it makes you notice, and want to identify, every single little plant you come across - on the off chance that some part of it might be edible or useful in some way or another. This has opened the door into a whole new world for me; a world full of surprises that fill me every day with absolute wonder. I just love the fact that I can now recognise (and identify) so many plants I would previously have walked straight past without even registering. Not only this, but I have started to notice and understand some of the symbiotic relationships between certain trees and fungi which I never even knew existed before (the trees, the fungi AND the symbiotic relationships that is!)

It's all so fascinating that I wish I could spend every waking moment learning more about our amazing flora and fauna; I really can't believe how lucky I am to have discovered this whole new world on the other side of the little gate which leads from my patio onto the Malvern Hills.

DISCONNECTION AND RECONNECTION
I know I must sound like a long playing record that's got stuck, but I really do believe that most of the problems we are experiencing today are directly linked to our disconnection from the natural world. Since I started going off-grid on Sundays I've become so much more aware of my natural surroundings and my relationship with those surroundings, that I couldn't possibly knowingly cause any harm or damage to that which I now know I am a part of.

Does that make sense? It's quite difficult to explain in a blog, but what I'm trying to say is that everything we do to nature we do to ourselves. We and nature are one. We cannot continue to control, dominate, exploit and destroy that which nurtures and sustains us without destroying ourselves too.  The symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi, or flowers and bees is a perfect example of nature in balance. However, we humans have become so far removed from the natural world that we no longer understand 'balance'. We don't even notice the destruction we are causing. We walk (or drive) around in our own little bubbles and are oblivious to what is going on around us on both micro and macro levels.

The solution? Reconnection with nature.

Why? Because when we remember that we are 'a part of' nature instead of 'apart from' her we will want to heal that which we have hurt and the destruction will stop.

How? Get outside and spend quality time with nature! Take your shoes off, feel the earth beneath your feet, the wind in your hair, the rain on your skin and the sun on your back. Breath in the fresh air, smell some wild honeysuckle, chew some sorrel, hug a tree (and I mean really hug it!). Lie in the grass with your eyes closed and listen to the birds, the bees, the leaves, the wind.... and reconnect!

If you take the time to get back in touch with Mother Earth she will respond and your life will never be the same again :)

Love and hugs from me to whoever reads this blog xxxx


P.S....Huge thanks to a very special lady.....my friend Carol.... for all your inspiration and for sharing everything you know with me and anyone else who has an interest in learning about wild food.


Useful links....

Natural Bushcraft; great site and lovely friendly forum - http://www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk/

Super forager and friend Fergus Drennan - http://www.wildmanwildfood.com/

Everything about nettles - http://www.nettlesoup.info/index.htm

Time to ROAR FOR THE EARTH!!!

I didn’t sleep much last night. The plight of the indigenous people of Brazil whose lives will be turned upside down by the building of the Belo Monte Dam is breaking my heart - and I’m finding it difficult to know how to digest and process the knowledge that whilst I’m living my safe and comfortable existence on the Malvern Hills, preparing a talk about bees for a local garden festival this weekend, these people (and others around the world) are fighting for their home, their land, their culture, their future....

Everything in me wants to travel to Brazil so that I can stand in solidarity with the people of the Amazonian rainforest whose land (an area the size of Wales) will be flooded to facilitate the monstrous and insatiable greed of those who already have ‘enough’.  My soul is crying out to join with the souls of my fellow human beings to help make their voices heard so that this terrible thing will not happen - and I would gladly exchange my comfortable little home and all my material belongings tomorrow for news that the dam is not going to be built after all.

Petition to stop Belo Monte Dam - http://amazonwatch.org/take-action/stop-the-belo-monte-monster-dam?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4dec37b40ee918aa%2C0

This is not the only issue I feel strongly about. There are so many ‘wrongs’ we need to put ‘right’ that I find it difficult sometimes to know which way to turn and which campaign to put my energies into. I am deeply concerned about the oceans, trees, food poverty & GM crops, climate change, bees and loss of biodiversity to name but a few – and I want to help everything and everyone who is suffering. But I can’t.

So how do I reconcile these thoughts and get out of bed in the morning? What can I do? Are my efforts making any difference or is it all a complete waste of time?

The answer I keep coming back to is that I am not alone and that together we can make a difference.  It’s ok to feel the pain, the fear, the desperation and the horror. It’s ok to acknowledge our weaknesses, our limitations, our fragility and our humanity - in fact these feelings are all part of the process that brings about real, lasting change. 

Having accepted and acknowledged that this is where we are, it is easier to begin the journey forward. It’s not going to be an easy journey, but it’s our journey. It must surely be no accident that we have been born into one of the most challenging times in human history; a time where great changes are needed to bring us back into kilt with Mother Earth; a time where each and every one of us has a role to play – no matter how small and insignificant that role may seem. 

So, it’s time for us to look within and search for that spark of light that we all have but which some of us have not yet discovered or are afraid to tap into. What is your passion? What makes you feel most alive and energises you? What turns your light on.......?

The most important thing for us to accept is that we cannot/must not attach ourselves to the ‘outcome’ or the ‘destination’.  This is very difficult for us human beings because we usually like to plan our journeys around a destination, but what we’re facing now is far beyond any journey we have ever undertaken before. This is humanity’s collective journey and maybe 'life-as-we-know-it' needs to break down completely before we can build a new paradigm. It’s time for the great turning, so choose your cause (or causes) replace fear, anger and frustration with love, joy and optimism - and do whatever you can to help because together we can and will make a difference.

As my inspirational friend Hen says.....it's time for us to ROAR FOR THE EARTH!!!!

Some beautiful and inspiring words from the Hopi Elders - http://www.spiritofmaat.com/messages/oct28/hopi.htm

I will be a humming bird - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw

The Great Turning; Joanna Macy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwlXTAT8rLk

Challenges, Solutions and Reduced Utility Bills

Five months on.....
I'm into my 5th month of spending Sundays 'off-grid' now, and as it gets easier I’ve noticed it’s having a knock on effect in how I do things for the rest of the week. I’ve always taken as much care as possible to keep my energy use to a minimum but it’s very easy to rest on your laurels. You can always reduce further if you want to; it’s just down to making new choices and changing a few old habits.

Over winter, my main challenge was keeping warm. This wasn't too difficult as I’m fortunate enough to have a wood burner. Upstairs is a bit chilly sometimes, but it’s nothing you can't sort out with a hot water bottle or two - and so much healthier than gas central heating! In fact, since I’ve become more used to using the wood burner as my primary heat source, my habits have changed and my overall gas consumption has been massively reduced; I still use gas central heating occasionally, but nowhere near as much as I used to.

My electricity usage has reduced too... so much so that when I got my recent bill from 'Good Energy', it turned out that the £7 direct debit I’ve been paying for the last year has left me in credit... I have overpaid so much that my monthly direct debit has been adjusted this year to just £1 a month!!!

Reducing my utility bills is great, but the thing I’ve enjoyed most over winter has been learning how to cook on/in the wood burner. Although mine's only a small burner there's still enough space to boil a kettle, cook soup/casseroles and bake a few potatoes. It’s involved a bit of 'trial and error' to get the potatoes just right, but it was worth persevering as they knock spots off anything baked in a conventional oven. I seem to get the best results when I wrap them in a double layer of silver foil (reuse same piece each time), pop them around the edge of the logs amongst the embers, and turn them frequently. They come out with crispy jackets and lovely fluffy insides....

Cooking and boiling water on the wood burner when it’s already lit really is a ‘no-brainer’ and I can’t believe, in retrospect, that I used to use the oven or electric kettle when I had a free source of heat just crying out to be multi-tasked. I occasionally forget and boil water in the kettle whilst the wood burner is lit, but not often.

Ooh! I should also point out, before I forget, that I struggled at first with lots of burned casseroles and soups. My saucepans were designed for use on gas or electric hobs and are far too thin-bottomed to cope with heat that can’t be turned down to ‘simmer’ at the flick of a switch. I can’t afford to invest in new heavy based pans especially for my wood burner, so have solved the problem with a ‘heat diffuser’. It cost me around £6 and stops whatever I’m cooking from getting burned. Link at bottom of blog

Warmer weather challenges

More recently the weather has been far too warm for me to need any space heating in the house and this has presented some new challenges; namely how to cook or make a cup of tea when I can't justify lighting the wood burner! I know, I could just go without tea, but I’m a firm believer in the adage 'where there's a will there's a way'....

So, given the fact that I hadn’t had a cuppa on a Sunday for over 4 weeks, you can imagine how excited I was when my son, James, gave me a 'Kelly Kettle' for my birthday. The Kelly Kettle is an amazing invention - and is exactly what I need to boil water for tea and to wash dishes (and myself) during the warmer months. Instead of trying to explain what it is or how it works in this blog, I've made a little video about it here...... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWIAXHIVcIA 

What next? 

Having sorted out a way to boil water, the next thing I want to address is the food I eat on my off-grid days. It seems a bit silly to be making such an effort trying to wean myself off the 'system' whilst still relying on that same system (shopping) for most of what I eat.

I have a tiny garden and a shared allotment so already grow as much as space permits - then buy whatever else I need from small, organic food shops in Malvern and Ledbury.  

But I've been missing a trick.....

Back soon! 


Here's a link to the Kelly Kettle people http://www.kellykettle.com/

And a link to heat diffuser http://www.lakeland.co.uk/10426/Large-Heat-Diffuser 

Frustrated with local council

I'm feeling a bit frustrated with local government policies and bureaucracy in general at the moment.

Last week, I went for a lovely walk along the banks of the River Severn just outside Worcester. It was a beautiful sunny day and I felt blessed to have such a habitat rich environment on my doorstep. It supports such an amazing range of flora and fauna and I notice something new every single time I walk there.

On this particular day I saw at least 5 different species of bumblebee, numerous different solitary mining bees and more honey bees than I ever see on the nearby Malvern Hills. So...definitely an important habitat for bees!


There were dozens of wild flowers coming into bloom; including Comfrey, Jacob's Ladder, Lady's Smock and White Campion - and the Willows (too many different varieties to list here) were alive with the sound of bird song. As well as the Woodpeckers, Robins, Blackbirds and Great Tits I usually see or hear when I'm walking this path, I also heard Black Caps, White Throats, Chiff Chaffs and Willow Warblers. But the icing on the cake was spotting this stunning butterfly (above) who kept perfectly still for at least ten minutes whilst I photographed her from every possible angle. I had no idea at the time what species she was, but was absolutely enchanted by her. I discovered later that she was a female Orange Tip and that the Cuckoo Flower  she was sitting on (sometimes known as Lady's Smock) is one of her favourite sources of food.

I came home brimming over with the joys of nature and spent a few happy hours thumbing through my bird/butterfly/wild flower books trying to identify everything I'd seen and heard.

The very next day I heard that the council had come along and strimmed the verges alongside the river path and that the little patch of Lady's Smock where the Orange Tip had been feeding, along with many of the other wild flowers I'd seen, had been completely wiped out.

Ok, so the council have a duty to maintain this public footpath for human access, but where's the balance? Why no moderation? Do the council not recognise the ecological importance of this particular habitat? Perhaps I'm missing something, but it seems to me that the majority of the area they strimmed was set well back from the footpath and was causing absolutely no problems whatsoever to human walkers. It's not as if this was an area overgrown with brambles and nettles; it was a beautiful wildlife rich verge - and now it is no more.

The grasses and wild flowers will of course grow back, but as soon as they do they will be strimmed again. In the mean time, food will be more scarce for local fauna.

We have lost 97% of our grassland and wild flower meadows since the 1940s so surely we should be protecting what little remains rather than strimming it to within an inch of it's existence...

I'm going to contact Worcsestershire Council to see if I can find out more about their 'strimming' policy, but in the mean time here are a few useful links for anyone who wants to know more about our ever diminishing grasslands, wildflowers and butterflies ....

The Grassland Trust - http://www.grasslands-trust.org/

Buglife - http://www.buglife.org.uk/


Butterfly identification - http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/index.php

Challenging times...time to wake up!

We live in extremely challenging times, and many of those who put all their energies and efforts into trying to turn things around are beginning to feel exhausted. There are so many sad and horrific things happening in the world that it's hard sometimes to know how to deal with it all - let alone stay positive.

I was chatting with a friend yesterday about this. We were discussing a blog we had both read, written by Mark Boyle - who puts his whole heart and soul into 'walking his talk'. Mark was writing about the difficulties he's been experiencing recently trying to make sense of what he sees going on around him in the English countryside. Wherever he looks, instead of seeing nature in all it's beauty, he sees the damage and destruction caused by mankind as we encroach more and more upon the natural world in our efforts to "kill everything that we think wants a piece of the human pie".

I can completely identify with Mark's sentiments. There are times when I sit on the hills, or in the woods, surrounded by so much natural beauty that my heart could burst with joy, only to be jolted back to reality when I remember in a flash that it is all under threat. I struggle so much so understand why the majority of people living on this planet are oblivious to the fact that they/we are destroying the very things that sustain and nurture us. How can we be so blind???!!!

Instead of competing with the incredible and diverse flora and fauna we are lucky enough to share the earth with, we should be putting our efforts into living alongside nature; co-operating with her; compromising; and establishing symbiotic relationships. Surely that's what co-habiting is all about? But the human race, for all it's so called intelligence, doesn't seem to have understood these very basic and natural laws of survival. Rather than live in harmony alongside nature, we prefer to 'control', to 'use', to 'harness', to 'rule', to 'own'. So, as masters of all we survey, we plunder and pollute the earth's resources as though they were put there entirely for our own use and as if they were in limitless supply. Now, even though the consequences of our actions are staring us in the face, we completely ignore the warning signs. Bizzare and dangerous behaviour.

It's exhausting just thinking about the amount of problems in the world. It's not only the environmental and ecological issues that we need to face and deal with, but also the unprecedented scale of social injustice. I read yesterday that of the 6 billion people living on this planet, over 1 billion are hungry. That's one in six.... and that's just the hunger issue ....never mind all the atrocities that less fortunate beings than ourselves are forced to deal with. How on earth do you decide where to start when there is so much to do? Maybe it's not such a surprise that the majority of us more 'fortunate' beings are still in denial. It takes courage to face up to what's happening in the world and it's much easier to switch off and carry on with 'business as normal'.

Unfortunately, nothing will change if we keep burying our heads in the sand. Facing up to what's going on is imperative if we are to effect change. It's not going to be an easy ride, but I truly believe the universe will support us if we wake up and have the courage to say "enough".  It's time to stand up and be counted, to face the music, to go cold turkey, or whatever it takes to be part of the change.

You don't need to take it all in at once... just open your eyes a little more each day and start looking around to see where you could begin to make changes. Get out some time this week for a walk in nature and allow yourself to be filled with awe by her abundance. Also, allow yourself to feel sad about what we've done to the planet, because out of this sadness will come the will to change. It's ok to be sad....to cry or to weep even. There's a movement known as 'Deep Ecology' that is all about feeling the pain of the earth and coming through the other side.  I'll put a link about it below....

This is a great and wonderful time to be alive! We would not have been put on this planet at this time if we were not able to deal with what life is throwing at us. This is the time of 'The Great Turning' and we all have a part to play .... no matter how small that part might be.

Wishing you a day full of wonderment and positive energy.

B xxx

Here's a beautiful message from the Hopi Elders to inspire you;
'We are the ones we have been waiting for' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrPDQeNo52M&feature=related


Mark's blog - http://www.justfortheloveofit.org/blog

Deep Ecology - http://www.joannamacy.net/deepecology/deep-ecology-links.html

Today I woke up - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XzKDou7FCU