Saturday, March 14, 2009

13th March,2009.

Well, the girls have survived my cooking for a whole week and I'm much more conversant with a wide selection of walks locally in what is quintessential Scotland. Woodlands, farmland, snow capped hills as a background and the Beauly Firth just in the valley below us! A week that has gone by all too quickly in many respects! The routines of school buses, dancing classes, guitar practice,quilting club, hockey matches, all an amalgam of confusion at the begining,, have now fallen into place leaving more time to explore around. Well, that's when the weather's fine, that is!! There's a gradual atmosphere of improvement with birdsong in full swing but litte, other than gorse, in flower. Doubtless the next week will see a huge difference.
Friends in southern England report the arrival of Wheatear and Sand Martins so we can expect records to begin arising up here quite soon. Comparisons with years previous show these arrival dates to be amazingly close and so begins the spectacle of spring which emerges each year. Having said all that, data is begining to show that ,in some respests, certain natural and annual phenomena are begining to happen earlier as each year goes by. A consequence of global warming and a subject area that we must all necessarily address at a personal level. In some respects the urgency of the situation appears not to have registered with some people. Whilst I have grave reservations about the location of some windfarms, I was amazed to hear on the radio yesterday that a significant proportion of windfarms had been turned down on appeal based on the opposition of local groups etc. My own opposition stems from the siting of such developments where the our natural heritage would be grossly affected, the proposals on Lewis were an example of this. Not all proposals are as damaging ,except visually perhaps? This is where "personal aesthetics" enters the stage and not a little "not in my back yard" reaction too! Whilst I can empathise with the latter, such a reality begs we perhaps need to have an even better consultation and site selection process to begin with, rather than waste resources arguing over proposals that are finalised and submitted to the planning process. There may also come a time when we all might need to accomodate our personal best preferences within the cause for the common good!!!

It does always make me smile to see the grand old windmills of yesteryear operating as tourist facilities. I ponder the question of whether the current visitors would have objected to the presence of these numerous structures in times past had they lived in their vicinity? Perhaps we ought to consider "past quaint" and "current
elegant" as selection criteria........,

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