Around this, however, is a lurking problem. In the past years farmers have been encouraged to create "set asides". Areas of land left to just grow as nature desired. Some went weedy, some turned into reasonable meadows. All were a haven for butterflies and bees.
This year? Rip it all down. Plough it all under. Chuck down corn (as in maize). It seems like every spare bit of land is being laid to corn, even when it is nonsense. A low-lying field nearby has been laid to corn. The farmer rough ploughed and tossed the corn in. Sounds a bit naff? Well, we know corn won't grow there. He knows corn won't grow there (his brother tried a few times, years ago, failed...). Some bloke has said "put some corn in here", without paying any attention to the fact that the field is always damp and spends a good part of the winter holding giant puddles, puddles in fact that are almost baby lakes. So some suit with an "agricultural degree" thinks they'll get a decent head of corn out of that field? Make us laugh...
What is it? Is Europe trying to bail out the problems and corn shortages in South America or something?
The wild areas now are the road verges, however this area is known for sudden strong downpours. Accordingly the roadside ditches are often around 50-80cm (3-4 feet) deep. So right in flowering time, the area between the road and the ditch was mowed to within an inch of it's life. The wildflowers now live in various uncultivated parcels of land, and whatever space they can eke out between the roadside ditches and the fields.
This is shocking - to try to encourage wildlife, and then change policy like that to remove many places where wildlife used to live? Has nobody thought that this maize, colza, wheat, barley, oats... it is all in the seeds. And the seeds are what? Try this: the result of a pollinated flower. And what will be doing the pollination? Exactly.
Today. The solstice - I think? Whatever, summer starts now. Bees? A couple. Flies? Loads, but they're small. Sparrows? A couple. Maybe six. Barn swallows? Not a single one. Wagtails? Wrens? If they're around, they are hiding well. This change, whatever it was, came about roughly a week ago. It takes one a while to notice, but now it is very obvious.
There is one bird out there as I write this. Looks like a chaffinch the size of a small pigeon (any suggestions?). It is quite melodious. If it stopped singing, there would be silence. Total complete ubiquitous silence.
What has happened?!?
We like our trees. We like our weeds. We like our birds. But we can't do this alone. HELP!
When I was about 10, at my junior school in Yateley, I was smacked in the face with a high-speed cricket ball coming off of the bat. I was like 33rd outfield because I was absolutely crap at cricket. Didn't want to be there. We had no protective clothing to wear. The teacher wasn't too sympathetic about it. Well, you can see my nose is slightly out of line. Perhaps the only thing that saved me from brain damage was a lack of brain to begin with? :-) Was the school negligent? I guess you could argue. But then again, a ball was thrown to another 10 year old (who had a pretty powerful swing) and the ball was wallopped up the field... directly into my face. Planned? Of course not! It was just bad luck. It might have been Nicola-with-a-C or Nikola-with-a-K or Noodles (and that's all I remember of that class, sorry!) but it wasn't. It was me. Shit happens.
Which brings us back to the council panic. You'd have thought a council would have hired a bouncy castle along with some sort of supervisor (either from the bouncy castle company, a teacher, or maybe some PTA person?) to look after it. Which is a whole degree better supervision than a harrassed parent trying to manage a kid's birthday party (how do I know the unfortunate parent was harrassed? ever been to a kid's birthday party? it's enough to put you off wanting children). The problem to my mind isn't whether or not kids will have a bouncy castle. I rather hated them myself - but then I was the kind of wimpy little pratt that tended to get picked up and thrown around... The problem is will this be sufficient? After all, kids could do themselves a bad injury on a roundabout (we always used to make it go as fast as possible). They could do themselves a bad injury on the swings (I had a friend who tried to swing right around, ended up with a very broken arm and equally shattered ego). I bet dogs poop in the sand pit. Rip it out! Rip it all out! Arrest young children wearing hoodies on sight. Slap an ASBO on any teenager with spikey hair. Don't risk it, just do it!
<sigh!>