Planning my forestry acquisitions and management plans and pleased that PITCOM is debating my IT strategy paper on a day when The Great Ouse is frozen solid and the forecast is for colder weather still as several people die today falling through the ice and drowning and Clive Ponting resigns
Late to bed and so reluctant to wake this morning to my cup of tea. The night bitterly cold again and there has been unbroken frost for a couple of weeks now, freezing the Great Ouse opposite more completely than we have seen in all the 10 or more years we have seen whilst living here. The river downstream still has a patch of water on the band where the ground water seeping keeps it warmer, but it gets smaller day by day. Breakfast as usual and then back to bed to finish todays FT and the Economist, which arrived in today’s post. Up, quickly washed, and out to the ducks. From the 8/9 housed last night, only a single egg. Then the doves, strangely reluctant to fly down to the table to feed. The sun is warmer today and melts the snow gradually, icicles forming on the roof eaves in the process. All to St Neots and we take Deborah to the last ballet lesson before next week’s exam – and she seems quite proficient as I watch her for the first time. Then alone, off to the fish shop for herrings and shrimps and to the post office to post my dinner application for the PITCOM evening (I received PITCOM papers today and was pleased to see my IT Strategy paper on the agenda for that day’s Council Meeting, and copies of it circulated to the Council today).
Then to Readwells to meet Daniel as the girls make their way back to the car. Off all together to Sandy and The Happy Eater for lunch and then on to Cambridge for some shopping by popular request. It was busy today in this country town and I was lucky to find a meter parking place, but only for 1 hour (30 pence inserted). A bracing walk to town and we all indulged ourselves with purchases of £12-18/head. Diana to buy a number of baby toys, Daniel a floppy disk version of Elite, and me a number of maps and books on forestry and tree spotting, which has become a recent interest. Together back within the hour and onwards to home. I then light the fire and try to put the ducks away, but Marilyn has obviously been feeding them again because they would not come. No further luck in bringing down the doves either and so in to start reading my books in front of the fire. Tea of shrimps, brown bread and butter, with a little Cheshire cheese to follow and then back to my fire and books. A paper from the Nature Conservancy Council rails on against modern forestry methods and the government grant system that encourages foresters to clear fell ancient broad-leaved woodlands and plant with conifers. It seems that in the last 20/25 years more than half of the ancient woods have been lost to modern methods and the homogeneity of the plantations discourage wild life. The tree books teach me a lot about the identification of the species and the use of the resulting wood products. I identify the saplings on our riverside plots as Ash and Sycamore and, of course, we have a medium life Oak and many mature Hawthorns already. I will cultivate Oak and Ash in any local woods I buy and the plans for Thormaid are for mixed Sitka Spruce and Lodgepole Pine with perhaps a few Japanese Larch for appearances. The Spruce grows well in the rainy highlands as a good all-purpose timber and the Lodgepole Pine grows faster than the Scots Pine for poles, props and straight building timbers. News tonight of even colder weather forecast for the next couple of days, with stronger eastern winds in the process. Clive Ponting has offered his resignation so as to discuss terms for leaving the MOD now that his security rating has been cancelled. After the latest breakdown, contact between the NCB and NUM has been renewed. Several people die today falling through ice in canals and lakes. To bed a little earlier than of late.