caroline spelman

the environment secretary was on the news again tonight trying in vain to bullshit her way out of the governments decision to sell off the 18% of public owned forests left in england. she is now claiming that it has nothing to do with cost cutting (because it has been shown that it will probably cost the government more) and to do with some other shit which gives those that want a hand in governing the future of england's forests a chance to do so; even though those that want to do so don't want the government to sell them off, or would need financial support from the government to do the job properly. She went on to say access a lot as if those who care about forests and the crucial environment they provide for non-human systems, only want to preserve them so that they can ride a mountain bike in them at the weekends.

I only hope that the campaign fights on and that this consultation concludes that we (caroline spelman) didn't think it through and have decided to keep the forests. And nobody will care a jot caroline if you tell us (the public) that this is what you were planning to do any way and that the media gave us the wrong impression.

low brow view

the buddleja is sometimes called the butterfly bush, it is also much maligned and widely regarded as a weed. it's ability to seed in the shallowest of soils means that if you see something growing on top of a building or out of a drain pipe it is usually a buddleja. the one growing in our garden is beyond bush and more tree. as a garden ornament they have a similar aesthetic reputation to the rotary washing line. above is the view from our bathroom window.

a year to the day

walked the walk i walked on this day last year along an overgrown by-way in the Doynton Parish. not much has changed, except one large ivy covered oak had split and half the tree had fallen across the path. it is almost completely hollow but still alive. i saw one gold crest, one long-tailed tit, two deer, two buzzards, one sparrowhawk, one grey squirrel, one human with bike, a large flock of redwings (and the usual suspects: gulls, crows, tits and pigeons). i found a clump of badger fur, the badger set, the plucked feathers of a kill on a fallen tree trunk, an old rusty bucket with a spout and a bird's nest (which I took back to c's studio).

mantle wood

a selection of wooden objects, some homemade some made elsewhere, arranged on the mantlepiece.



Thomas Hardy - The Woodlanders