Poaching

Posted on 23rd Nov 2012 by essiep

10C, light rain.
Pulled in on Cannock Chase on the way up north. Rosie needs a run and I rather like walking in forests in the dark. While getting my stuff ready with my head-torch on, a black car pulled up and the police got out. They wanted my details and checked my car. View stood there in all their gear and phone one of those large torches into the car. They soon softened though. View were on an operation to catch poachers, it’s quite s problem this time of year- deer poaching. Credit to Rosie, they shone the torch into the boot and saw a poodle wearing a fleece jumper. Presumably poachers don’t use poodles.
Finally the officers have me a phone number to use if I see poachers. How exciting!

But, what do I look for? I didn’t think to ask at the time.

Dark road.

Posted on 22nd Nov 2012 by essiep

10°C, mild and SW getting stronger.
Drive today, much to my frustration. The Met-office have issued a rain warning for this afternoon. I dread riding on the dark, wet A-roads in poor visibility. Every winter hosts these pent up frustrations. The coming storm is no monster, but its timing is poor tonight.
I just don’t feel safe, but I’m always resentful when I have to drive a car.

Dawn

So I set off for work feeling a bit put out. Nearing work, I followed an old Ford Fiesta. The brake light clusters were half full of water which sloped one way then the other as the car drove round corners. Each time the car stopped, the water would rock back & forth, damping away. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a floating object in there that looks like a fish.

Help! I need a mathematician.

Posted on 20th Nov 2012 by essiep

11°C, S wind. Light rain.
Finally I got the photo; was worth the slight risk of a late arrival at work.

Rushall homes.

So here is a way to save thousands of nothings. Bargain.

Crime minister.

Posted on 16th Nov 2012 by essiep

6°C, no wind.
No I didn’t vote yesterday either. I stayed away from the polling booth along with 88.4% of the electorate. One polling station ( in Devon I believe) didn’t receive a single vote. In that time, questions floated in my mind; what is crime commissioner? What do they do? And are we really supposed to make our decision based on the leaflet dropped through the door? There was nothing in it but party political nonsense. Why does the job have to be a political one?

One leaflet promised “more visible policing”- not the old “bobbies on the beat” cliché again is it? We know from previous experience that it looks great but makes little difference to crime prevention (it’s brilliant for crime re-location though). All I want these days from politicians is evidence based policy, giving sway to vested interests and pressure groups gives unsatisfactory results.

A very mysterious event.

We don’t want to elect Police and Crime Commissioners. We just want the people we already elect to do their jobs – Telegraph Blogs (oyiabrown.com)

Leaves.

Posted on 15th Nov 2012 by essiep

9°C, still & foggy start.
Drove in today. Fog has descended.
Drove home in clear air but my view was obscured by a boot full of leaves. Our caretaker let me take 6 big bags of swept leaves, mainly from London Plane (?) trees. There are loads of those in the borough- they cope with pollution well.

Eleventh hour.

Posted on 11th Nov 2012 by essiep

9°C, NE light, sunny. CK:48.8 miles.
Rode along the coast to Southport. Before I got there I came upon a memorial ceremony at just before 11am. So, I pulled over and stood there. And watched. I removed my helmet for the duration.

On the drive home this evening, we stopped on Cannock Chase for a night-time walk in the forest. We’ve done this a few times now. Autumn has it’s own sensations that can not be experienced at any other time of year. I look forward to the onset of deep winter under the same circumstance. Night walks away from street lights is a vivid experience in snow. Could this mean I an finally finding ways to enjoy the season. Will my annual loathing of Christmas start to recede?

Leaf mold.

Posted on 8th Nov 2012 by essiep

10°C, dry, SW.
Got my energy back, so rode home quickly and raked 8 bags of cherry tree leaves. Making leaf mold is such a good way to use up all those clothes bags that come through the door each week. I get 2 or 3 each week, and there is no way of knowing which ones come from fake charity collectors. So rather than add to the re-cycling bin, they make a good way to store the piles of leaves. The bags even have ready-made breather holes.

Grumpy

Posted on 8th Nov 2012 by essiep

10°C, dry.
Oh dear, that was a grumpy post yesterday. Today feeling better, recovering from a strange virus, Let’s blame that then.
I fear that grumbling can become habit.
Interesting prog on TV last night, old drivers are a little safer than 20 somethings. They are just as annoying too, but it seems that view are often aware of their growing limitations such as judging speed of other drivers. So what they do is to compensate with caution. Perhaps little understanding is required. As for boy racers who react to tricky situations by stamping on the throttle…

Is it all over?

Posted on 7th Nov 2012 by essiep

6°C, clear and starry (including Venus)
Is this trial over yet? Woke up to hear that US voding is complete. There were only two cannidates, they got the same number of votes but somehow Wilhard lost by a wide margin. The map is coloured by each state. Red for the right-wing and blue for the even-more-right-wing, or is that left wing in their currency? The news features centre around a small number do canndidates, and a large number of voders.
Their president, in practice has limited power, so at least when they elect a half-wit nazi (Bush), or an insane war mongerer (Reagan) they can’t do as much harm as they’d like. I don’t argue with Americans’ right to vote, nor that the outcome has an effect on us non-Americans, but that it would have been better to limit election news stories to once a month until this week. It doesn’t seen to matter who they get, whoever wins will still exert economic power (protectionism), world power (mainly by bombing people), environmental (by polluting us all) and general bullying.
British TV has bored and annoyed us with this story since Easter, and will drag it out some more I fear.
Morning news will remain un-watchable for some time.

Silver woods

Posted on 3rd Nov 2012 by essiep

9°C, clear.
Restful: took a restful day. Body said I had to, so dutifully…
Took Rosie to a wood new to us. On a low hilltop near a tall TV transmitter. Initially there is a coniferous wood. But further in Silver birches formed a metallic wall, like bound barbed wire. The trees were all about the same age though the ground is mature, deep, soft and black. This has all the signs of managed woodland. The bedrock is bunta pebble bed, so the quite deep puddles should drain better than these do. Credit to the thick humus for that. I’d like to get know this wood more, something that can takes.

later I watched Kill Bill 1 which is a rather silly film.

Micycle

Mike thinks b/hikes

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