Hard to Get

Confirming what we said a month ago the plans to dispose of nature reserves to wildlife charities have now exposed the true nature of these organisations. They are demanding more money from government. This is what we always knew. Wildlife Trusts do not exist solely for altrusitic purposes. In fact their main raison d'etre is furthering the interests of the people who work in them and by extension in the conservation industry. Everything that these people do is about getting grants from public bodies. Try asking them to do something that is indisputably the right thing to do and the answer that comes back is - no we can't do that because we can't get grants for that kind of thing. Yet they manage to meet all sorts of administrative and salary costs with little difficulty. They know in fine detail just what grants can be applied for and they focus their whole business approach on getting them. Principle and conviction is not part of the equation. Yet people are encouraged to support these charities believing that there is something more unselfish in them than in other institutions. In fact they are hardly different to a typical local authority bureaucracy. And the latter is at least more directly accountable.

The article in the Independent today tells us as much. The flawed 'localism' strategy favoured by the government, instead of giving more power to local people, seems designed to hive off assets to single issue charities whose motivation is their own and their members' interests plus institutional empire building, something local authorities have long ago abandoned because of centralised Westminster control. Now the charities have got together and presented government with an agreed ultimatum demanding more money. we're not taking anything over, they say without more taxpayers' money. But who is betting on more local accountability?

Quiet Thaw

Thaws are often not enjoyable. They replace a bright new coat with the old drab one. And it’s common for the rise in temperature to be accompanied by grey skies and fresh raw winds from the west, feeling worse than the cold clearness of the days before. This thaw has not been like that.
Calm air has brought an immediate sense of relief. How long the glacier along the bridleway will be with us is anyone’s guess. Fog is only fun when you can see other places enveloped in it as today. Still we have oaks covered with brown leaves. The young beech are always reluctant to drop their leaves.
Stags stand around hardly feeding ................ as if it’s enough just to stand still allowing the mildness to penetrate the thick coats.

Midwinter

One of the attractions of fresh snow is the way it covers up. All the footprints of the previous weeks are no more and we can make a fresh start. If only we could do that in our lives. Every false move, every mistake gone as if it never happened. Such are the musings of midwinter.

But practical thoughts should not be abandoned. Up on the moor when the flurries turn into faster and regular snowfall it's time to think about how to get back.

Vantage

Eyes don't usually get drawn towards the treeless pasture land, home to sheep and cows and their waste and the dismally chewed-over grass. But this morning from a distance the woolly mowers appeared to have grown tall and slim.
The stags, not so often found there, may have decided this morning's specially clear sunrise deserved an effort to climb for a good viewpoint. Ten minutes before, at 8.15, the very few who were up on Boxing Day morning were able to watch as the sun appeared - in our case just to the left of Chesterfield's crooked spire.

Wedding cake falls on Blacka Dyke.

Winnings and Losings

For those who look hard enough natural beauty can be found. And it can bring great satisfaction. But beware thetemptation to buy a camera, especially after many years of being content with just looking and enjoying the moment. Frustrations can detract from peace of mind. If only this or that. It gets harder just to let things happen and accept fate. There have been some losings over the last week. Anticipating a good sunrise when the night sky was clear only to find cloud welling up to the east; hoping to see the eclipse over Blacka but being disappointed; seeing red deer in the woods, a favourite sight, but it being too early and dark to even attempt a picture through the trees.
Yet yesterday afternoon brought a superb moonrise and this morning balanced things with a beautiful sunrise and rime on the trees.

Early Days

It's worth remembering that most of winter still lies ahead. The harshness of the extended period of bitter temperatures must affect wildlife badly. Prints of deer, fox and hare can be seen in the snow. Some of the birds that come to meet us, hoping for seeds and cheddar, are still around, though robin and chaffinch have not been seen for more than a week.

The jackdaws and rooks were returning back from Derbyshire across the full moon as the land darkened at 3.30.

In the early morning sheep on the hill were moving about in single file, something that seems to happen more when they are under stress.