Finally the proof was in my hands yes a wood mouse plucked alive if only just, plucked from under the nose of my cat. A new wildlife record for the house and its garden. The cat was wondering where it had gone mind but the mouse survived to tell the tale of getting played with by a cat and then this great big pink thing with five tentacles plucked it from under the cats nose.
And onto men, there I was at this media training day and I got talking to this chap, where do you live I said , Colne he said, blimey I says my Mum used to pick fruit there for so and so, oh yes he said whats you name so I tells him, he looks then says I knew a Busby years ago used to work for the chemist in Somersham he put our cat down he did it in the bath. My turn to look stunned. That was my grandad putting down dogs and cats was something he did to earn money for the chemist, he also charmed warts and repaired dentures and spectacles.
Monday, 27 February 2012
whether lovely init
Do we know what season it is, do we, blimey does the world.
It was only a couple of weeks ago we had the snow and the cold weather, had a lovely morning of freezing fog and went for a walk, everywhere so quiet all senses heightened, you could smell the creosote coming from a newly installed telegraph pole and hear the wing beats from pigeons as they flew above.
It was good to see it didnt stop the guide bus running, and what can you say about the service track beside it its great a surfaced path for walking and cycling kept almost completely clear for miles great for walking.
It was only a couple of weeks ago we had the snow and the cold weather, had a lovely morning of freezing fog and went for a walk, everywhere so quiet all senses heightened, you could smell the creosote coming from a newly installed telegraph pole and hear the wing beats from pigeons as they flew above.
It was good to see it didnt stop the guide bus running, and what can you say about the service track beside it its great a surfaced path for walking and cycling kept almost completely clear for miles great for walking.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
the memories that come back to you
During the snowy weather I couldnt do any gardening really and to stop myself sitting and eating I went a wandering hither and thither around the village.
Found myself on the safety track beside the guided busway which was great, snow and ice free for the most part. I was looking at a nice flock of goldfinches when I first heard the unmistakable sound of reversing forklifts at Chivers. Yes the jamworks, well jam and all sorts really.
Anyway there was one forklift and then another and then another and as I was in bord mode I started to have these daft thoughts, was I listening to a pair of forklifts a breeding pair perhaps, having got that far a memory came flooding back.
I worked for the UK arm of a german company that made specialist vehicles once upon a time, in the UK it was streetsweepers. A senior manager left and set up his own company making yes youve guessed it streetsweepers. Well the banter started and before you knew it a cartoon was circulating, it showed one of our sweepers mounting one of there's with the wording "******* always on top" shame I darnt use the company name think its lost something but you get the drift hopefully.
Aarrgghh memories..........
Found myself on the safety track beside the guided busway which was great, snow and ice free for the most part. I was looking at a nice flock of goldfinches when I first heard the unmistakable sound of reversing forklifts at Chivers. Yes the jamworks, well jam and all sorts really.
Anyway there was one forklift and then another and then another and as I was in bord mode I started to have these daft thoughts, was I listening to a pair of forklifts a breeding pair perhaps, having got that far a memory came flooding back.
I worked for the UK arm of a german company that made specialist vehicles once upon a time, in the UK it was streetsweepers. A senior manager left and set up his own company making yes youve guessed it streetsweepers. Well the banter started and before you knew it a cartoon was circulating, it showed one of our sweepers mounting one of there's with the wording "******* always on top" shame I darnt use the company name think its lost something but you get the drift hopefully.
Aarrgghh memories..........
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
dabchick avenue
Now who wrote that song?
I mentioned the other day that I had a stroll down the river just before the snow, not enough work to do strolling around I dont know.
Anyway apart from the cormorants in the trees and a couple of kingfishers it ws great to see and hear Little Grebes or Dabchicks as we used to call them and some still do.
As I walked the stretch from Fen Road Milton to Clayhithe bridge there was over a dozen, a couple near the start which was nice they are lovely little birds all squat and you wonder how they can dive then they do it. Further on by the willows in the picture there were 8 more and these were great, as I got closer they moved closer to the bank where the willows grew but kept on diving and coming back up and when on the surface keeping an eye on me. With all 8 bobbing up and down there were always a couple on the surface and it was like watching mice popping up and down. Moving on past this group I came to the last group a little gang of 4 again all bobbing up and down this time using a thin strip of reeds to peep at me from. On the way back after passing them again there came the quietish braying laugh that is there call which again made me smile.
So that stretch of river will live in my mind for today at least as Dabchick Avenue, sad git eh.
I mentioned the other day that I had a stroll down the river just before the snow, not enough work to do strolling around I dont know.
Anyway apart from the cormorants in the trees and a couple of kingfishers it ws great to see and hear Little Grebes or Dabchicks as we used to call them and some still do.
As I walked the stretch from Fen Road Milton to Clayhithe bridge there was over a dozen, a couple near the start which was nice they are lovely little birds all squat and you wonder how they can dive then they do it. Further on by the willows in the picture there were 8 more and these were great, as I got closer they moved closer to the bank where the willows grew but kept on diving and coming back up and when on the surface keeping an eye on me. With all 8 bobbing up and down there were always a couple on the surface and it was like watching mice popping up and down. Moving on past this group I came to the last group a little gang of 4 again all bobbing up and down this time using a thin strip of reeds to peep at me from. On the way back after passing them again there came the quietish braying laugh that is there call which again made me smile.
So that stretch of river will live in my mind for today at least as Dabchick Avenue, sad git eh.
Monday, 6 February 2012
wicken vision and wider countryside
These days I can openly write letters to the local paper and put things on Blogger about topics that interest me.
One of those topics is the Wicken Vision, a long term National Trust landscape scale project similar to many others across the country being developed by a range of organisations such as the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and even the Environment Agency. The need for them has come about after a realisation that smaller reserve areas for wildlife do not offer enough scope or space for wildlife. Why not, well it has become obvious that wildlife in all its forms needs more space to exist and cope with things such as climate change and the loss of habitats outside smaller reserve areas. Larger areas will offer space for wildlife to live and people to visit causing less disturbance.
The Wicken Vision scheme has been underway since the late 90's and almost as soon as the project was launched a campaign against it also sprung up. At one time I wondered if the campaign against the Wicken Vision was just a difference of opinion or a reaction against change, now in this case I am not so sure.
I know that there are voices against some of the other schemes as you might expect and I can understand why. Lets face it for such schemes to take place land needs to be bought and often its use changed from say arable farmland to nature reserve. So people might resent that change, they might lose livlihoods or see any reversion as a waste of hard work and food production space. In this case the campaign appears to be led by one man supported by a number of others who regularly write letters to the local paper.
After the campaigns latest letter in my local paper the Cambridge News in early January, in which the sacking of staff was openly called for and there actions queried yet again I decided finally to write a letter in defence of the project. There has since been an exchange of letters with a recent admission that those against the Wicken Vision are engaged in a "demolition job" against it.
To see such an admission shows comittment to a cause which in its own way is admirable I know but you have to ask, why has it come to this level of bitterness and hostility. I know that the National Trust carried out a lot of consultation from the start and has tried to listen to peoples concerns. Surely though there is a bigger picture here. The countryside in all its forms is valuable, it is also for the most part by farmers and farmed to produce food for which we are all grateful. At the same time it is also used by many other different groups of other people; walkers, countryside sportsmen, naturalists and the general public as a whole. All use it, all enjoy and value it there has to be beter communication and cooperation between the groups and an end to constant bickering and name calling, the countryside as a whole will be a winner and surely that is what we should all be after.
One of those topics is the Wicken Vision, a long term National Trust landscape scale project similar to many others across the country being developed by a range of organisations such as the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and even the Environment Agency. The need for them has come about after a realisation that smaller reserve areas for wildlife do not offer enough scope or space for wildlife. Why not, well it has become obvious that wildlife in all its forms needs more space to exist and cope with things such as climate change and the loss of habitats outside smaller reserve areas. Larger areas will offer space for wildlife to live and people to visit causing less disturbance.
The Wicken Vision scheme has been underway since the late 90's and almost as soon as the project was launched a campaign against it also sprung up. At one time I wondered if the campaign against the Wicken Vision was just a difference of opinion or a reaction against change, now in this case I am not so sure.
I know that there are voices against some of the other schemes as you might expect and I can understand why. Lets face it for such schemes to take place land needs to be bought and often its use changed from say arable farmland to nature reserve. So people might resent that change, they might lose livlihoods or see any reversion as a waste of hard work and food production space. In this case the campaign appears to be led by one man supported by a number of others who regularly write letters to the local paper.
After the campaigns latest letter in my local paper the Cambridge News in early January, in which the sacking of staff was openly called for and there actions queried yet again I decided finally to write a letter in defence of the project. There has since been an exchange of letters with a recent admission that those against the Wicken Vision are engaged in a "demolition job" against it.
To see such an admission shows comittment to a cause which in its own way is admirable I know but you have to ask, why has it come to this level of bitterness and hostility. I know that the National Trust carried out a lot of consultation from the start and has tried to listen to peoples concerns. Surely though there is a bigger picture here. The countryside in all its forms is valuable, it is also for the most part by farmers and farmed to produce food for which we are all grateful. At the same time it is also used by many other different groups of other people; walkers, countryside sportsmen, naturalists and the general public as a whole. All use it, all enjoy and value it there has to be beter communication and cooperation between the groups and an end to constant bickering and name calling, the countryside as a whole will be a winner and surely that is what we should all be after.
Sunday, 5 February 2012
some winter at last
Well I reckon most of us in jolly old england got some snow last night and about time too this winter. Dont know what its doing elsewhere but here in Cambridge its gone a bit mushy around the bottom and thats just the snow.
Glad I got a walk down the river in the other day but perhaps I should have read the omens differently.
Theres an old saying " when the fenland vultures perch on a dead tree dont stand underneath it cos you might get snowed on".
Glad I got a walk down the river in the other day but perhaps I should have read the omens differently.
Theres an old saying " when the fenland vultures perch on a dead tree dont stand underneath it cos you might get snowed on".
Friday, 3 February 2012
words and memories
Well its been a slow week workwise but plenty of time to think and come across memories and words.
Listening to the radio the other day and up comes the overture to the Theiving Magpie by Rossini. Many years ago and I mean many I worked in a family general engineering company as a machinist. I started there from secondary school and was one of many trainees, I say many because what we used to get up to was disastrous at times especially on a friday afternoon after a liquid lunch. Moving machinery and a group of lads full of ales, not a good mix. Anyway the shop foreman as such was almost as bad as we were and had this old reel to reel tape deck in the shop all open gathering oil and dust with the one tape, which was the full Rossini opera score. If he ever felt really fed up on it would go and off we would go.
While meandering about in my youth I came across a small tin in someones utility room that I have to share, its one for the childish, well blokes perhaps. Its the words that are used that get me, have a look and a read.
They were made by Boots as something for speakers with sore throats, now where me Meloids.
Listening to the radio the other day and up comes the overture to the Theiving Magpie by Rossini. Many years ago and I mean many I worked in a family general engineering company as a machinist. I started there from secondary school and was one of many trainees, I say many because what we used to get up to was disastrous at times especially on a friday afternoon after a liquid lunch. Moving machinery and a group of lads full of ales, not a good mix. Anyway the shop foreman as such was almost as bad as we were and had this old reel to reel tape deck in the shop all open gathering oil and dust with the one tape, which was the full Rossini opera score. If he ever felt really fed up on it would go and off we would go.
While meandering about in my youth I came across a small tin in someones utility room that I have to share, its one for the childish, well blokes perhaps. Its the words that are used that get me, have a look and a read.
They were made by Boots as something for speakers with sore throats, now where me Meloids.
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