"Ignorance is Strength"

This is an example of why there is so much opposition to SWT.

Where to start? They clutter up the site with their laminated notices. The notices themselves are really stuff more likely to be seen in an office but they haven’t the imagination to see that. The content of the notices also appals. What has the smiling child got to do with the invitation to come along and wantonly destroy trees? Is this part of the same mindset that recruits a marketing manager? These are people who care nothing for the site and its natural beauty only for their jobs in offices 7 miles away.

“Come along” they say “and help protect internationally rare heathland.... etc”. This is nonsense and they know it. Does anyone with half a brain left fall for this? How do you protect something by destruction of natural beauty? Without vigorous protests these vandals will continue to encourage people to think that ‘scrub bashing’ is actually a good thing! In such a way dictators tell their peoples that ‘War is Peace’ and ‘Ignorance is Strength’.

The Same Again?

The building being erected behind Fairthorn as seen from Blacka is looking to be a substantial structure. I have no great hope that it will fit in better than Fairthorn itself. I have been corresponding with the Planning Department about that mistake since earlier this year. Their latest answer to my questions states that Fairthorn is not absolved from being cited as a 'surrounding' building therefore its errors can be repeated in nearby developments.

It also claims that similar two and three storey buildings are in the vicinity which themselves justified Fairthorn. This is nonsense. The statement made in the letter which is obviously accurate is that each development will be 'considered on its merits'. This means that officers will make their own minds up without being tied to previously agreed policies.

Plunge

This is where the water plunges down dramatically to Blacka Dyke after a heavy downpour. A long spell of dry weather reduces it to a mere trickle as it is today. Some would not try to cross the top when the torrents are flowing but show more bravery at quieter times.

The oak stem here growing near the fall has been chewed or scraped in recent weeks and I would normally be in no doubt this is the work of deer. Another of the annoyances of the presence of cattle is that it is harder to be sure of what is attributable to them and what to deer.
Before the cattle arrived it was easy to see the deer tracks through the bracken - they make their own and usually prefer them to man made paths; now the cattle do the opposite, preferring tracks ready made by man or deer. This means everything becomes a cattle track. It would take a better observer than I am to separate the effect of deer and cattle on the vegetation.

October

October is almost at the end of its first week already and as if to prove it a ground frost on the grass and the dead bracken this morning.

SWT said their cattle would be present on the moor from April to September. I think those people who don't like cattle have been patient enough. One character this morning was more than usually truculent and refusing to give way on a narrow path, even after a brief conversation with Bert.

Seasonal Competition

Autumn versus Spring is the annual battle for best season. Once again my allegiance has changed. It starts near dawn on a Sunday morning seen from the top of Thistle Hill in the pasture land.

Birch is a native tree that knows how to milk the appeal of the autumn season, making up for the absence of birdsong by striking an alliance with the early morning sunlight.

But wildlife plays its part. We might regret that this young stag is not a mature beast with full head of antler but he is wild and unmanaged unlike the decorative animals I've recently seen in the grounds of stately homes.

Snapping

SWT, as I've said before, is an interesting example of a certain type of a modern institution. My impression is that their managers get into work in the morning and sit down at a desk trying to work out how they can justify their own existence and push the 'image' of the outfit as a whole. It's now common knowledge that I in common with other regular users of Blacka think they should actually be out every day on Blacka rather than stuck in their HQ seven miles away. We find out what they've been dreaming up when a laminated A4 notice is stapled to a post in the car park.

The latest thing is an 'event', scheduled for today, in which people with cameras can learn from an expert photographer some tips on how to take better pictures. They may be very lucky today as five deer were on Blacka Hill, the first day for months that so many have been seen by me. One young stag was present (not in picture). These were hinds or calves, the one on the right almost certainly the one seen ealier and born this year on Blacka.

One or two very kind people have been generous enough to say some of my own pictures were not bad considering they were taken by a half blind senile incompetent who had yet to read the camera's instruction manual. So I'll mention some tips of my own:

1 Use a digital camera. It does everything for you.

2 Spend about 50 years just looking at things before buying a camera. An 'educated eye' helps.

3 Choose one subject and get to know it well in all conditions and seasons and at different times of day especially those times when other people are not around.

4 Break all the rules and see what happens.

Tamed

Bracken is an essential part of the visual appeal of the hills in autumn. While there’s no denying it’s a pain in high summer when at its most unyielding, once the crisis is over the rusty colouring of the fronds reveals it to be a tame beast after all. Often the remaining greenery contrasts effectively with its brown lower fronds and in dry weather there’s no problem finding a route through. And some of the views in the middle distance would be much poorer without the depth of colour bracken gives.

Not so easily tamed by a few cooler nights, birds of prey, probably buzzards were distantly wheeling about over Wimble Holme Hill attracting the notice of smaller birds.