Here were orchids

It may not mean much in the larger scheme of things, but on this bank, on this quiet little road, near Beara, in North Devon, orchids usually bloom. You couldn't expect the contractors to know that, I suppose.

A once beautiful field

Not so long ago, you could do a beautiful walk, from the valley down below the little hamlet of Fullabrook, up a sweet path through trees, that opens onto a hill. All you would see in the way of movement would be sheep and ponies grazing. I remember a particular walk, on a spring evening. It was so peaceful. It is not quite the same now. The hills look like the site for a gigantic motorway, great heavy vehicles trundle by for twelve hours a day, six days a week.

Imagine what is it like if you love solitude, and you have chosen to live somewhere quiet, somewhere peaceful, because you love the countryside. You love the solitude: you haven't asked for much, just to be left in peace to live your life the way you want to. You do not miss the bustle of the modern world, the conveniences of city life, you do not miss having shops nearby, you do not care if you are cut off during snowfall. You love your home, your hills. You may even have said that when you die you want your ashes scattered here, on the hill that you love so much. Where can you go to now? The Isle of Lewis? The Shetlands? The Australian Barrier Ranges? The Kansas Prairie? Nowhere is safe from the Wind Power Industry.

Here is a photographic record of another walk, started at Burland Cross, where the above photograph was taken.

"Ocean-driven changes to the UK ’s weather systems threaten failure of wind power generation in winter. "

This is one of the ways you can go if you want to see the Fullabrook Wind Power Station, which is being built this winter - across these fields and up onto the hills. That is, if you have skis, or can cope with paths so slippery that they are like ice rinks.


In the context of so many articles about the North Atlantic Oscillation written recently, ( such as this one, by Fred Pearce in the Daily Mail) here is a timely reminder of this paper that was published on the Country Guardian website several years ago:

http://www.countryguardian.net/Ocean.htm
by Prof.Em. Peter Cobbold


These sentences come from the Conclusion of Prof. Cobbold's paper:

"Governments have a responsibility to ensure that the nation’s electrical power supply is robust and secure. The safety of the UK’s population - especially the elderly, the infirm, those in fuel poverty, and the poorly prepared - should not be put at risk by commercially-driven stakeholders and implicit assumptions that the weather will not change."

I live in North Devon, only two or three miles from the site of the Fullabrook Down Wind Power Station, where the turbines will be erected soon. It has been bitterly cold here in North Devon over the last few days, especially on Christmas Day. If the weather is the same next year at this time, it will not be safe to walk along ancient Burland Lane, for fear of ice throw from the turbine blades.... if they are moving at all, that is, since we have had so little wind during the freezing weather. Let us hope there will be some other form of power still, such as that that comes -whatever the weather - courtesy of Hinckley Point nuclear power station.

Christine Lovelock

Fullabrook Down Wind Power Station

I went up again today to see how work was progressing at the site of the sub-station. This is a short video that I made. It is more than six weeks since my last visit. I had hoped that the sub-station would be set back out of sight, but it does not look as if that will be the case.
Christine Lovelock