Thursday, May 19, 2011

Accessorised

I'm flickin' and clickin' around the internets.  A bit of this and bit of that; some news here, some politicking there. Gardening, cooking, crafts, families...lives and their minutiae. Folks I've got to know - others I would like to - slender threads I don't want to let go of yet...and this is, of course, the best record keeping I've managed yet. However, on the home front things have slipped a bit...

Give or take a day or two it's a month since fingers hit keys and made a post. (Hmm...has anyone noticed.) I do like a good image so visualise the past 30 days as a mountain of missed bloggo-tunities.

In brief we've had:

6 weeks without rain. Then rain. Beetroot seed have taken 6 weeks to germinate. Weeds? Hah. Little stops them does it? Ergo there has been much weeding. There has been much gardening done in general. Planting, sowing, mowing, lifting and shifting. My hands are a mess, my back aches but the urge to tease this plot into shape does not go away.

Baby birds hatching - yes, that little nest was finally filled to bursting with muscular fledglings. The next day they were gone.
Another ex-swallow found - showing evidence of serious sucking - dead, in Chester's bed. I like to think, as suggested previously that he found it in the garden - in fact it may well have met its end crashing into a window - and he merely retrieved it and gave it a good lick en route. He just looked at me with his toffee coloured eyes as if to say 'And?' If only they could talk.

We've had visitors, many of them. Yep. Definitely like visitors. They come, bringing news and views from elsewhere - wine, flowers and plants too. We do much talking, freshen up our views and most importantly go out and show off this wonderful place we live in.

Which brings me neatly to the local campaign to keep our borderlands just so; an unspoiled stretch of countryside. The National Grid's proposal to connect planned mid Wales windfarms via a high voltage cable to an existing line between Oswestry and Shrewsbury has caused a furore hereabouts. There are 10 proposed 'corridors' in mid Wales and Shropshire - any one of which would be blighted if the cable were carried on 50m high pylons through it. The campaign has moved on from the initial 'not in our valley' to 'not anywhere'. No. No. No. No to pylons. No to windfarms. Rethink the flawed TAN8.

On Tuesday 24th May the people of Montgomeryshire and Shropshire will take their campaign to Cardiff to make their voices heard outside the Welsh Assembly building.

Maureen and I will take our banner down off Ed's gate, lash it to a couple of broomsticks and raise it high. The perfect accessory for a protest march. I've not done this sort of thing before but feel a determined streak coming on.
Power to the people then. But not on pylons.

15 comments:

Bluestocking Mum said...

Absolutely, power to the people! I shall be watching the news on the 24th May and wishing everyone well with the campaign.

Great newsy post - good to see you blogging.

But that tinker Chester. Grrr. Bad dog.
xx

rachel said...

Of course we noticed you were slacking - sorry, not blogging. We just thought you were wandering about in the garden, glass of wine in hand, thinking fine thoughts and languidly surveying the fecundity of Nature.....

Pondside said...

You were missed - and if I'd been closer I'd have come knocking to see what was going on.
Good luck with the 'no pylons' effort!

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

Well I had noticed! My hands and back and gardening will sounding much like yours. All power to your pylons protest. It makes my blood boil, and I am not a natural rager.

Frances said...

Yes, I have missed your posts, while at the same time wondering when I was going to find time to do a post of my own.

Time can surely slip past in a blink.

Best wishes to you and others for May 24 as you all make your well-considered views clear. Do you think there is a chance that the pylons will be prevented?

xo

Cro Magnon said...

I really wish you well with your campaign. We should all be trying to preserve the beauty of our surroundings; not destroying it. Or haven't your council folk heard about that yet!

Annie said...

You sound to have been very busy and, as I have'nt seen you lately, obviously not buying new trousers :-)
A x

Fred said...

Good luck with the pylon battle, we're having a similar problem with a surfeit of wind farms.

The garden sounds wonderful,...mine is suffering a severe case of neglect......

Twiglet said...

Good luck with your protest. Yes we had missed your blogs but its that time of year when there always seems so many other worthy things to do.

Kirsty.A said...

Yes, we had noticed. Glad to hear you've been busy doing nice things.

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

We seem to have ground to a halt temporarily,too . But it's lovely to hear from you again . And your whirl of activity puts me to shame .... you grow your own beetroot ? Crumbs ! I really should be more adventurous .
As for defunct , spitcovered swallows .... is Chester trying the kiss of life ?

Nikki - Notes of Life said...

I'd wondered where you'd gotten to!

Kitty said...

Hope the campaigning goes well.
Much the same here as there - we have had no rain followed by just a little rain. Although the sky blackens the rain passes by, just a few spits and spots.
I've become tired of watering in the greenhouse so have planted everything out, risking the end of May watershed for the frost risk. We'll see. Like you, hands are wrecked. Split fingers and snagged nails (what there is of them - summer is not the time for manicures). Nice to pop by and see what you're up to. I still think this summer should be when we meet again, I can feel a trip to Wales coming on x

mountainear said...

Do hope so Kitty - re meet up. Feel I speak for the Shropshire / Wales lot as well. Name a day?

snailbeachshepherdess said...

Eating, sleeping dratted Pylons here. Wished I could have been on the trip south - how did it go?