Archive for the ‘Wildlife’ Category
The Ultimate Scary Spider Story – And It’s All True!
This is an amazing photograph. I’m not claiming any great skill, it was just a smartphone point-and-click but the story behind it is extraordinary.
It looks like a cold winter’s day with frost glistening across the fields, doesn’t it? In fact, it was muggy and warm and what looks like frost is actually reflections from a heavy dew lying on spider webs at the head of every dead thistle and nettle. Look closely and you can see there are spider webs all over the grass as well. That’s all across this 15 acre field – and the next one and the one to the west, the east, north and south. If I turn around I can see right across the Dorset plain up towards Yeovil and there are spider webs covering every square inch of every field and every hedgerow.
If we could work out the rate at which spiders weave their webs, so many inches per hour, we could probably calculate how many spiders there are per acre and how many spiders per square mile.
How many spiders are there in the world? The only remaining question is would that number be more or less than a gazillion?
Paradise Valley
The early summer has made the valley explode into life. Read the latest instalment here.
Paradise Valley
Two hours here with the dogs every morning.
It’s the only thing that keeps me sane.
See here for the latest episode.
Paradise Valley
Dorset is experiencing its worst winter for 30 years but in Paradise Valley it just makes the views more beautiful and the adventures more exciting.
See here for the latest instalment.
The Severn Scandal Of Huhne
Artist's Impression
If there is idiocy in the coalition this is it.
Chris Huhne, the so-called progressive LibDem Energy Minister has called off the Severn barrage, the biggest tidal energy project ever in Britain. See here.
What more sustainable, reliable, self-evidently ideal source of energy is there than the tide? Until the earth spins off its axis or the moon melts into green cheese, the tides will continue to work. The Severn estuary has the second highest tidal reach in the world. The power inherent in its cycle is unimaginable. When we find a way to harness it efficiently we will have achieved something every bit as revolutionary as cold fusion.
Blind
Yet our short sighted Energy Minister has cancelled the project and says that investment in such new energy sources should come from the private sector. Then he says that private sector investment is unrealistic. There is something seriously wrong with this man’s thinking. This is not the sort of project that you judge on the basis of some nit picking consultant’s report. This is akin to the invention of flight or the microprocessor. This requires vision. This is a project that stretches across centuries and dwarfs Chris Huhne and his shameful decision.
This is exactly, precisely and properly the sort of project that government should be investing in heavily. Only government can promote this sort of essential, long term development. As for the pathetic whinging of the RSPB et al, this reveals how many small minded fools there are in the green movement. The birds will find somewhere else soon enough.
A disastrous and terrible decision that will define and should destroy Chris Huhne’s career.
Paradise Valley
The latest instalment in the extraordinary story of the most beautiful place on the planet is available here. Don’t miss it!
Heaven On Earth
Peter Reynolds 