As this month’s edition of the Parish Magazine ‘hits the streets’ I hope to be in Cornwall on our annual holiday. The county is quieter by September making it possible to amble around the lanes in relative peace and quiet. Nowadays, a holiday for us means breakfast in a rented cottage, reading the paper, doing a word puzzle and then driving a few miles in search of a ‘nice’ restaurant for a late lunch. Sometimes the meal is in a town or village or even a remote location, but everything depends whether the menu contains fresh sea-food.
On Sunday we visit the local church to augment the singing and to remember that we are grateful to God for our lives. Whilst there I also take in the architecture and ambience. It is surprising how much history is reflected in our churches. Family names artifacts and events remind us of the extent to which architecture is part and parcel of our own personal identity . This prompts the thought that despite what some may say; A case can be made for the idea that church buildings can have a longer lasting-significance for our culture than many of the people who enter them.
However before the annual holiday, lambs and cull ewes will have gone. Hovis the Tup will be on his special diet. The hay will be in the barn, the honey will have been taken off the hives and a date fixed to collect the young poults to be grown-on for Christmas. Mind you, there is still a need to watch out for fly strike which, although hitting sheep the most can also be a problem for horses as a friend recently discovered during a visit from the Farrier. A quick squirt of Crovect cleared up an infestation of maggots.
The blue-bottle fly Calliphora vomitoria is the culprit. Its eggs can become maggots in a day and begin eating the flesh of the poor animal. (On one occasion I shot a rabbit as bait and it was down to skin & bones in less than fours days.) ‘Control’, by which I mean killing flies can be a problem for all livestock owners (even hens), and so thank goodness we do not yet a Society for the Protection of Blue Bottles. There is however a growing lobby of people wanting to re-introduce, wolves, lynx and bears back into Britain, and if the following quotation from a supporter’s website is anything to go by, some campaigners want to go much further. “I want all wildlife, here and abroad kept safe and re-introduction of once native species that have only been eradicated by humans should be brought back.”
I do however expect countryfolk to have some sympathy for the same posters final thought. “It is” he writes, “high time the human population realised we share the planet not own it”.
Talking about owning land however reminds me that some people may not realise that the detail and value of their homes is now on-line at Zoopla.co.uk, but that if the data is incorrect there could be problems at the next Property Rates Review. Given tight local authority budgets, I expect that any increase in the nominal value of residential properties would warm bureaucratic hearts in Coleford.
Mention of Zoopla shows how developments on the internet has changed life for both better and worse. I think one of the bad things is that anyone in the world can now obtain your address details and make contact for their own purposes. Such people can get their information from a special electoral list and if any reader has not already ‘opted out’ of the list, but wants to do so, they will need to contact the Council offices in Coleford.
Opting Out of some things can be useful but may not always be without cost. And this is clearly shown by the following small-ad from the Thomasville News, Thomasville. Alabama.
WEDDING DRESS FOR SALE!
Worn once by mistake
Call Stephanie on 334. 782 …. ….
View from the Pew 