Signs of Spring

Yesterday I had the need to travel down to Bishop Auckland and when I say down, that is very literal as it entails a drop in altitude. I had been expecting a sprinkling of snow as that had been forecast, but there was none. The aspect that surprised me was seeing a few lambs in the fields just outside the town. I know that the lambing season is very close to starting soon, locally around the village, therefore seeing some early lambs was a very pleasant surprise.

After I had done what I had to do, having just missed a bus, I had half an hour to wait. While there, I noticed this male blackbird that was brining food back to a female. They have built their nest just behind the bus shelter. It is nicely concealed but from where I was standing I could observe the bird dutifully coming and going. It helped the time pass very quickly.

Some days just make you feel good and yesterday was one of them.

Curlew and Lapwing

There is something very satisfying in making a prediction and it coming true. Even when I first came to see the new house, I was predicting a few of the bird spices that I could encounter. Because I already knew that about 12 miles away there were Lapwing, that was a safe bet. Equally, I guessed that I might see Buzzards about too. The one that was potentially more testing was thinking that I could see Curlew.

Then on Tuesday, while walking home from getting some milk and bread from the next village, there are no shops in my village, I heard the call of a Curlew. Its quite a plaintive almost mournful call. I was strongly tempted to report it that night here, but I wanted to be sure. I checked the guides I have for bird song (Calls), and I was very sure I had heard the bird, but I really wanted to see it first.

As yesterday and today I had to travel to Consett via a bus route that covers the high moors, I kept my ears and eyes open when going to catch that bus. But with no further sightings. However, on the relatively brief but picaresque journey yesterday, I saw a number of Lapwings clearly preparing for the breeding season. Then today, having to make the same journey, while looking out onto the fields, I saw a long beaked bird probing the mud. A Curlew. I have seen one before, but at a distance. This one was close, thirty five feet away, and undisturbed by the traffic on the road.

Therefore I have heard one bird and seen another. It makes having to put up with the wind and the cold, worthwhile.

The Arms Trade & The Arab Uprisings

To paraphrase Chekhov, the writer not the Star Trek character, all dictators exercise their authoritarian rule in unique ways. When the popular uprisings started in Tunisia, it was remarkable that it happened relatively peacefully. In Egypt, there was violence from the state, but eventually the Army, who hold the real power, capitulated and the nation could be moving towards a more democratic system. However, the next state that the media have focused on is Libya where a real despot has ruled for many decades. Here as we all know, Gaddafi has used the military to try and repress the population.

While the media are calling this the Arab Spring, each of these popular uprisings have occurred for different reasons. While there are common factors in each, the price of food, employment, in each state it is the way that their dictator represses personal freedoms.

In Egypt one of the key demands was the disbandment of the secret police, something that still has not happened. However it is the details of the way that Gaddafi has sown fear in the population of Libya that has been most shocking. In a news report that I heard yesterday on BBC radio, a few details were given. While I was tempted to repeat them here, as even thinking about them made me feel physically sick, I felt that it was not fair to inflict them upon folks here. But what is most sickening is the revelation that Britain has been supplying the equipment to enable the repression and torture of the people in North Africa and Arabia.

In Britain and in the West in general we are very good at talking democracy, but in reality we have been supporting and propping up these despots and dictators. While engagement with any state, no matter how bad it is, must be better than engaging in conflict that harms the people. Supplying them with the means of repressing its people is vile.

I feel real shame that my governments, of all flavours as it was the previous Labour one as well as the current Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition, have seen fit to allow the export of the equipment that is being used to kill, injure and torture these oppressed people. Oh it may earn Britain export income, but just as the majority of people reject the products of slavery, or the “Blood Diamonds” of African wars, this is blood money.

Democracy is not perfect, but stopping others from seeking the freedoms we enjoy while profiting from highly immoral states beyond understanding. In the run up to the second Gulf war, there was a joke doing the rounds: How do we know that Saddam has weapons of Mass Destruction? Answer: Here are the receipts!

Stopping the Arms Trade will do more to end repression and wars than any single action.

Finally Back on Line

I finally have the internet back on. As I moved on the first of November last year, I am wondering if this is a record? Over four full months is diabolical service from my previous supplier, Talk Talk. It was supposed to be a simple house move. I really did give them every chance to sort this out, but finally I just had to change supplier. On the day promised, the new supplier, British Telecommunications, activated the line and provided the broadband. It was that simple. While it now allows me to finally get online, I just hope that anyone who has bought shares in Talk Talk, should be seriously worried about their investment as the company is just going straight down the pan.

Also this week has given me full heating and finally hot water. Again it has taken four months to get this sorted out. While I had heating from the open fire, The back-boiler central heating did not work properly therefore I had no hot water either. I could have just moved, again, but a problem that the landlord had lied about would have still been there for any other tenant to suffer from.

Well finally the system has been re-piped, and a new tank fitted, and I have hot water and heating. As the property is on an exposed fell top, that's a hill to non native speakers, having adequate heating is essential, after all this is 2011 not 1911.

That has not been the only problem that I have had to get fixed and sorted out, but today I can finally sit here and write without feeling cold and worrying about my personal hygiene. Not being able to bath in your own home is not only decidedly Dickensian, it is also unlawful. It must seem odd that I did not just leave, but these problems would never have been fixed if the landlord had not been forced to.

Even though I have had many problems that I have had to sort out, I really do like where I am living. Even the house has many merits, but it really is the location that makes it a place worth fighting for. For example the other day while walking to the next village I saw a Kestrel flying along the fence line as I crested the hill. Then on the walk back I saw a Buzzard near the same point. During the time when the snow was blanketing the ground I saw paw prints that could have been a fox. Well while in the back bedroom I saw the fox sniffing around. The following day I put out some food for him and he fed happily while I watched.

Equally, I find that I seem to be getting on well with most of the folks in the village. While this first winter is not fully over yet and there will be other challenges that living here will throw at me, it has been an interesting first four months.