Looking for the light at the end of the tunnel

cerianwencraft

Apr 2

I have been feeling very despondent recently. I think it is because of all the goings-on in our world. There is a bit of hope though regarding the felling of the local trees as the nesting season has begun and it is illegal to fell trees during this time. It gives the action group time to find and fund a barrister to stop the felling.But the house building continues on a flood plain. That never makes sense but is done all over the UK. But more people than I think are aware of the felling of trees. An old lady, maybe a bit older than me, sat next to me on the bus. Some trees in her area had recently been pollarded. She was worried they might be felled and I tried to reassure here but you never know what councils do behind your back.

Then there is the clean water subject. It is horrifying to see how much sewage goes into the rivers and seas. How much water life does it kill? All those insect larvae can't survive in polluted water. Some years ago I used to work for the Open University at some of their summer schools. I worked on the water quality project and remember sampling the rivers and streams to see what life was there. Mayfly larvae were a sign of good clean water. We also tested the water in the lab as well. At home I use a water filter. The water here is extremely hard and when I tested it I also found it to be full of all kinds of metals and other contaminants. I have an expensive water filter which takes most of this out but many do not even use any kind of filter process. So if you drink it what does it do to your body?

This week has also been a noisy one. New fire and smoke alarms have been fitted, one in each room and two in the hall. A bit overkill it seems for such a tiny flat. The noise of drilling through concrete was horrendous and added to the traffic noise made life very unpleasant. Now at night when I want to sleep, not only do I have street lights and outside security lights but a small green light on the smoke alarm!. No wonder I don't sleep well.

But I did get out one day and looked at catkins and spring flowers. It cheered me for a short time but I need more time out in our natural world while we still have it.