Greening

Even after all these years the greening of the landscape, after the more drab winter months, comes as a shock. But each year we should bless our luck to have Bole Hill clothed with woods even though it is so far only partial. It's a sobering thought that 'proper management' - what some people believe to be that - would have contrived to keep it totally bare.

One modern trend that grates for me is the clash of the yellow rape field on the horizon just as the rest of the landscape gets to be seen at its fresh best.

It's a reminder that what we call 'the countryside', i.e. farmland, changes in response to the economy. Farmers are in no sense the guardians of the landscape as they would like us to believe. They will follow the money. If it is profitable to do so the farming industry will embrace purple fields with blue and  red spots, just as they will wind turbines just as they already have old tyres, plastic feed tubs, plastic bags, quad bikes everywhere etc. There is no place in an industry for sensitivity about the look of the place or the wildife. Fields have long ago stopped being places that routinely support wildlife as they did in the past.