One winter there seemed to be buzzards everywhere hereabouts at the organic eco micro-holding (small smallholding) in the UK's midland heartlands - no doubt they were pretty hungry birds, but this year it's been jays with at least one sighting a day of these elusive birds for the last two/three months. The other bird in evidence here over the winter has been a gang of woodpigeons, who've made their quarters in the high holly hedge between the veg growing area and the paddock, fortunately though not raiding the veg patch for food. They're noticeably skittish, with a mass exodus of the thirty or so birds as soon as there's any sign of human activity, a result presumably of many years of persecution by people - ?
Wood supplies are naturally dwindling, with the log stove using quite a bit, being a reasonably sized model, and home-grown supplies are too diminishing, as to be expected at this time of year, and especially after last season's relatively poor growing performance here - hoping for a better season this coming year. Now that it's the quiet time for micro-holding activities, there's more time for visits to nearby towns to get needed items and enjoy one or two treats, which then, erm, go down a treat ----
Interesting times in the 'wider world' with planet conservation priorities clashing with status quo 'vested interest' interests, the younger generations becoming more active and vocal, which seems fair enough, as future world conditions will affect them more than the older generations - ? It just seems such a 'natural' thing to do to be taking care of the planet, even if it does mean less 'conspicious consumption' for people in the longer run - ? One point of view recently put forward is that man has perhaps got a little too much into 'ego' mode which has then had a 'distortion of reality' effect - ? Country livers whilst maybe not having the same level of services that townsfolk enjoy, may though benefit by experiencing natural events such as seasonality effects more vivedly, helping then to keep then on the 'reality tracks' - ?
