Trees In Winter

Today started with glorious sunshine. This is a good start as last year ended after days of miserable wet weather. After breakfast and starting a batch of laundry we went for a walk to the neighbouring village while it was bright and sunny.

There is a proposal to build a small wind farm on a hill one village to the west. We decided to have a walk to the site and see what could be seen from the foot paths. While I would prefer them to be community owned I am in principle in favour of their construction but I wanted to see for my self where they would be constructed and what kind of land scapeimpact they would have.

There is a lot of hot air from a local group dead opposed to the wind farm. I thought I'd have a look at the beautiful unspoilt landscape they want to protect. We drove to Whitchurch and went for a walk as close to the site as we could get. As far as I could tell almost all the landscape as far as I could see in all directions was a modern man-made commercial agricultural land, with almost all the hedges and trees removed and a bleak monoculture of neatly ordered fields. For most of the walk we couldn't hear our selves think because of the racket caused by the nearby A34, I would be surprised if you could hear anything from a wind farm over the din that the traffic on the road causes.

This New Year Blip was taken going though a short section of woodland on the ridge between the village and the proposed wind farm. The light though the tree tops was very nice and I took a few pictures - this is the best.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and I wish everyone a smashing New Year!