Run for the hills: Sky larks!

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Sky larks!

Yay! The sky larks are here - tweetering away madly - such a lovely sound such a fantastic herald - spring approaches!

Meanwhile googlemail is down. This appears to be a world-wide event and illustrates the dangers of cloud systems. Here's hoping they get back soon, that they haven't lost anything in the process - and that all those millions out there who depend on gmail to run their businesses are managing to stay calm this Monday morning.

So while I'm waiting for gmail here are some more piccies from Lulu.

Kite buggy anyone?

We live 'ere. The cottage at the top, although from here we are completely unaware of the houses below us - except that one of them keeps cockerels and another seems to host alcoholic parties.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Ocht, damn it, AYE ! But I've not been out on the kite buggy for months.
Pine, pine.

Mike T B; 25 February 2009 at 16:57
The Speaking Goat said...: Geesh - I dunno - you wait weeks for an MTB - and then three come along at once!
You turning into a goat? - They love pine too.; 26 February 2009 at 08:55
Anonymous said...: You know I strongly favour Caley Pine, so good luck to your stolen & replanted seedlings. Don't let the goats near 'em.
Wonderous trees. Wish they grew a bit quicker, though. Hoping to get across to Glen Affric in Easter (from Alness) to drop in and see progress on 8,000 that I helped plant in 1995.
Woohoo.
MTB

P.S. I love the 'word verification' stuff that you have to type when you post into Google Blogger. Today's randomly generated verifier is 'dizesti'. I believe this may be defined as: 'the remains of citrus fruit peel'. I'm going to cryptically copy the word verification onto the end of all my posts from now on. %-); 26 February 2009 at 16:12
The Speaking Goat said...: Not stolen! We were helping to tidy up.

I don't get the word verification thing cos I'm a real virtual person cloud.

Couldn't find me some native northern hazel could ya?; 26 February 2009 at 16:17

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Where I"m coming from - !CAUTION! a bit of a polemic

Firstly, there is nothing more important than me and my family. The most precious thing I can give them (including me) is time. In my job, with all it's pressures, I singularly failed to do this. So we run for the hills and try to redress the balance.

Secondly, climate change is happening. It's a cataclysm, the scope of which is beyond our comprehension. This is why we are doing so little to stop it - we just cant imagine the scale of the upheavals to come, and we can't imagine how we, as individuals, can stop it.

Everything is stacked against effective action. Our economy is driven by consumerism and it is consumerism that is driving climate change. Our political leaders are paralysed - to curb consumerism would cripple the economic engine. We increasingly define ourselves by our economic position and the things we buy. We are what we buy. What politician dare restrict our ability to buy, our ability to define ourselves? It would attack our very self and would be political suicide.

And anyway, the real power lies with money - and the people with money want us to consume and they spend millions every second of the day persuading us to consume more. What hope do we have against such power? And everything we buy pumps a little more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Thirdly, I am no saint. I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to change my life for the benefit of myself, and, I hope, the planet. Ultimately my reasons for doing this are selfish, and although I'll do what I can to keep my carbon footprint low, I'll make many choices that are not so good for the planet. Like anyone, I can only voluntarily make changes to my life at the speed I can. I don't intend to beat myself up over this - I do intend to change faster than most.

Fourthly, there is hope. Our lust to consume is a very recent phenomena. Not so long ago we principally defined ourselves by our relationships with friends and family and place and we defined ourselves by our usefulness to society. I believe that climate change will force us out of consumerism, and in its place we will find those core values, and rediscover a sense of wellbeing that is so missing from our current fractured existence.

There are lots of examples where this is starting to happen. The transition town movement is one - people getting together and learning to appreciate the things and people around them. I played a small part in helping Sustaining Dunbar get off the ground. (http://edubuzz.org/blogs/sustainingdunbar/about-us) What I found there were people striving to build a positive and resilient future and there are transition towns popping up all over the place - a really positive movement. (find out more about transition towns)

Fifthly, At the end of the day it's all bollocks. So let's all go off and have some fun - it's the most important thing we can do - but let's just try to do it without killing the planet in the process.

Things I"m going to miss

Run for the hills

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Sky larks!

4 comments:

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