Rewilding Britian - increasing biodiversity
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Ah, a swamp to us is a myre….an inundated wetland area with plants, it doesn't matter if it's fresh or brackish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp
The peat bogs are important, but we get so much rain that they aren't the only source of water, just that generally for this area at least, they are found on the high moorlands and the water from them is pretty clean, so is an ideal potable source. They're also the source of the upland burns and waters (small rivers, bigger than a burn) that are the headwaters of the major rivers, the Clyde, Avon, Forth, Tweed, etc.,
We don't need groundwater sources here now since the water is piped from the moors, though the two villages are sitting on layers of sand and sandstone and clay, and were renowned for the quality of their well water.
M
It's a good place, isn't it ?
I could make most things before I went there to study and work, but I couldn't make fire from absolute scratch. Within a day I could
When I was very little my Grandpa said that people used to live in round houses (I was asking about corners, his cottage had loads of ins and outs of them) he said that the "unco' holy" said that they were unChristian though since there were no corners and everyone knew the De'il could hide in corners, and since there were none in a round house then the folks who lived there were frighted of the De'il and left no corner for him, since good Christians knew that the De'il couldn't hurt them if they believed and were faithful, so they were Pagan (that was another discussion
) and superstitious and that wasn't respectable or sensible, so folks didn't build them anymore, even though the circle's the strongest shape ……aye, Scottish Presbyterian thinking written large there. They fairly made youngsters think though I wondered about the doo'cots.I always wanted to know what it would be like to live in a round house. Now I know
M
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It's a good place, isn't it ?
I could make most things before I went there to study and work, but I couldn't make fire from absolute scratch. Within a day I could
When I was very little my Grandpa said that people used to live in round houses (I was asking about corners, his cottage had loads of ins and outs of them) he said that the "unco' holy" said that they were unChristian though since there were no corners and everyone knew the De'il could hide in corners, and since there were none in a round house then the folks who lived there were frighted of the De'il and left no corner for him, since good Christians knew that the De'il couldn't hurt them if they believed and were faithful, so they were Pagan (that was another discussion
I always wanted to know what it would be like to live in a round house. Now I know
M
Aye Toddy you have to watch out for those pagan pigeons in their uncouth doo'cots.
The crannog up at St. Fillans had a bloody history. Used to be the abode of a bunch of brigands. The Laird of the next glen over had sent for supplies for a big festive feast and the brigands waylaid it on the cart road and retreated to the island crannog; feeling safe as they had the only boats on the loch.
Incensed the chief on hearing the news ordered his men to manhandle their boats up over the summits and down into the next glen. Stealthily they rowed to the island and crept ashore. Hearing the revels inside the structure the chief banged on the door. All went silent inside as the brigands wondered who'd breached their defenses. "Who is it?" the leader asked.
"Who'd ye least like it to be!?" the chief is said to have answered before him and his men slaughtered everyone on the island, leaving the water surrounding it red with blood for days.
Sorry folks but I always liked the tale as a bairn, especially when the "Who'd ye least like it to be!" bit was over emphasised with a candle held below the tellers face.
The crannog at Loch Tay is a great place and some of the courses and events they run are grand. Still kick myself that I couldn't get the the off of work to help my two mates build the log canoe with bronze age tools a few years back. And the staff there are great folk.
Pretty unique structures though, think only Ireland & Scotland are the places that they can be found.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
fair enough. However I'm still confused about wiki calling a bayou a swamp? Bayous aren't even "swamphttp://pics4.city-data.com/cpicc/cfiles22418.jpgy." They're open water. (miniature bays as it were that, in turn, empty into bigger bays) Bayous may, or may not, have such a swampy area (a mangrove) along one of it's shores. One of the best water-skiing areas locally is Tom's Bayou; enough open water for several ski boats to ply it without interfering with each other or the fishing skiffs or the shrimp trawlers that anchor there, yet protected from the surf of the Gulf or the bigger Choctawhatchee Bay that it empties into.
Here's a photo of the bridge over Tom's Bayou http://media4.trover.com/T/5379017026c48d4f8500015f/fixedw_large_4x.jpg
One from one of the commercial campgrounds on the shore of the bayou http://pics4.city-data.com/cpicc/cfiles22418.jpg
Docks along the bayou http://pics4.city-data.com/cpicc/cfiles83845.jpg
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Aye Toddy you have to watch out for those pagan pigeons in their uncouth doo'cots.
That's got to be the reasoning of another Grandpa taught child
It always confused me how the round was such a sound shape yet we mostly built square; well, except for doo'cots, and castles, and turrety bits on roofs.
The crannogs are mostly Scottish, some in Ireland, a couple in the north of England and a few in Wales.
I think it's the no midgies bit myself that influenced their building, that and that they were clean and right there on the waterways.
I love that tale
that could be really spooky round a fire or inside a roundhouse in the dark M
I suppose you've also got that mostly other round Scottish building the broch. As a bairn ( and admittedly I still do) I wanted to live in one. I've posted up links before to modern and rebuilt ones that you can buy or rent.
Though defensive in nature they seem to be an organic part of the environment.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
Though defensive in nature they seem to be an organic part of the environment.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
They are, aren't they ? I think they could be very snug and comfortable places to spend the night, out of the weather and safely tucked away behind stone walls.
I know a fellow who wants to build a tall one, and he has the skills and experience to do so, just he can't get permission
and no one's up for insuring the site or his work either he says.
I've remembered another round tower though; the cooling towers at Ravenscraig. They used to light up the night sky like some entrance to hell itself when they poured the steel. Kind of like how I imagined volcanoes would look glowing against the clouds.
M
I think they could be very snug and comfortable places to spend the night, out of the weather and safely tucked away behind stone walls.I know a fellow who wants to build a tall one, and he has the skills and experience to do so, just he can't get permission
and no one's up for insuring the site or his work either he says.I've remembered another round tower though; the cooling towers at Ravenscraig. They used to light up the night sky like some entrance to hell itself when they poured the steel. Kind of like how I imagined volcanoes would look glowing against the clouds.
M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago
I anyone wants there house raising up I am free on tuesdays and thursday afternoons!
I anyone wants there house raising up I am free on tuesdays and thursday afternoons!
Fascinating stuff, that; I have vague memories of my maternal grandfather talking about his father and uncles, who were Irish brickies and chippies, working in Boston when all this was going on. Sadly I was too young to take it in in all it's detail and he died shortly thereafter; another bit of family history gone unrecorded....................
Here's a nice wee thoughtful piece on rewilding
http://www.scottishreview.net/CDavidson189.html
Crannogs are indeed fascinating, there are several sites of old crannogs near me. One on Loch Achaidh na h'Inich (ach-na-hee-neech, loch of the sharp-points/nails(Watson 1926: CPNOS): the marshalling point of the Mathesons' back in the old clan warfare days) and reputedly one on a small lochan known locally as Loch Iain Og, young Ian's loch.
We also have several brochs, at Totaig opposite Dornie and the more famous more complete Glen Beg brochs (three in total) over in Glenelg, although the Totaig broch is my favourite. The description in the link makes it sound miles but it's an easy 1k walk from the Totaig road end on a good path. It's easier to find now that the trees are gone, but you have to keep your eyes peeled, basically after around a 1k you have to cross a burn on big stepping stones, at that point the broch is just up above on the left, very close yet not obvious.
As well as brochs the area is awash with old Dun (Doon) sites, but little remains other than fill stone screes as the building stone has long since been robbed out to build parish churches and walls, building of walls was popular during the potato famine and clearance era when the destitute traded labour for food with the estates, the walls themselves were seen as "improvements".
Round houses, were quite popular up to the early clearances amongst cotters and the poor, known as "creel houses" they were made of interwoven hazel birch or ash hurdles, walled in turf and thatched with whatever was at hand, bracken bent-dockens heather lee turf etc. Life in those must have been quite grim.
Wealthier folks had the all important family roof timbers, passed down generation to generation, their houses tended to be rectangular, but walled in turf and later stone. Of these old turf houses there's nothing surviving other than the odd raised bank and faint marks on the ground, best seen from the air in spring.
I've a pal who's rethatching a cottage locally, the roof timbers are thought to be 200+ years old and the timbers themselves are thought to have predated the build and likely to have been brought to the site with the family when they were cleared. Living archaeology, you can still see the black soot and tar from the pre chimney days, and of course the timbers were selected for their shape as it's only the ends and joints that show signs of being worked.
http://www.scottishreview.net/CDavidson189.html
Crannogs are indeed fascinating, there are several sites of old crannogs near me. One on Loch Achaidh na h'Inich (ach-na-hee-neech, loch of the sharp-points/nails(Watson 1926: CPNOS): the marshalling point of the Mathesons' back in the old clan warfare days) and reputedly one on a small lochan known locally as Loch Iain Og, young Ian's loch.
We also have several brochs, at Totaig opposite Dornie and the more famous more complete Glen Beg brochs (three in total) over in Glenelg, although the Totaig broch is my favourite. The description in the link makes it sound miles but it's an easy 1k walk from the Totaig road end on a good path. It's easier to find now that the trees are gone, but you have to keep your eyes peeled, basically after around a 1k you have to cross a burn on big stepping stones, at that point the broch is just up above on the left, very close yet not obvious.
As well as brochs the area is awash with old Dun (Doon) sites, but little remains other than fill stone screes as the building stone has long since been robbed out to build parish churches and walls, building of walls was popular during the potato famine and clearance era when the destitute traded labour for food with the estates, the walls themselves were seen as "improvements".
Round houses, were quite popular up to the early clearances amongst cotters and the poor, known as "creel houses" they were made of interwoven hazel birch or ash hurdles, walled in turf and thatched with whatever was at hand, bracken bent-dockens heather lee turf etc. Life in those must have been quite grim.
Wealthier folks had the all important family roof timbers, passed down generation to generation, their houses tended to be rectangular, but walled in turf and later stone. Of these old turf houses there's nothing surviving other than the odd raised bank and faint marks on the ground, best seen from the air in spring.
I've a pal who's rethatching a cottage locally, the roof timbers are thought to be 200+ years old and the timbers themselves are thought to have predated the build and likely to have been brought to the site with the family when they were cleared. Living archaeology, you can still see the black soot and tar from the pre chimney days, and of course the timbers were selected for their shape as it's only the ends and joints that show signs of being worked.
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Yep. All that needs to be said regarding rewilding. I was once on the rewilding bandwagon, but the more you look into it you realise that people like Monbiot are wishy-washy idealists. As many here have said, Vera's Britain is long gone (depending on your view of the wood-pasture hypothesis). We live on a tiny island full of people and infrastructure. This is the anthropocene, people! Sorry, but we'll never have wolves, bears or even lynx and as time goes on this will become even more of a futile pipe-dream. Sure, as a student of ecology I would love to see the wildwood, but I'm not studying ecology because I hope to reinstate it.
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I think we're in agreement that we can't re-instate it. I do firmly believe though that we can greatly enrich what we have. It doesn't need much less pollution to allow things to recover….our rivers and canals are already showing that, and the no longer constant depredation of timber for firewood (not quite sure how I view the sudden fashion for all these wood fired stoves; I mind folks felling every tree they could for fuel when every house had open fires, besides the soot, etc., goes straight into the air, unlike power stations which have to have filters, screens and catalytic purifiers for their exhausts) means that everywhere I look, where we're not building more houses there are pioneer species woodlands growing
Lot of folks covering over gardens with paving and decking though, but there are a heck of a lot interested in growing their own food too, even if it's just herbs and soft fruits and the occasional pot of spuds, and even more are aware of the need to see the natural world thrive.
I am quietly hopeful
M
there are pioneer species woodlands growing Lot of folks covering over gardens with paving and decking though, but there are a heck of a lot interested in growing their own food too, even if it's just herbs and soft fruits and the occasional pot of spuds, and even more are aware of the need to see the natural world thrive.
I am quietly hopeful
M
Wolves & coyotes, cougars, lynx and bobocats, black bears and grizzly bears, mountain goats and mountain sheep, moose, elk, white-tail deer, mule deer (& hybrids), mink & marten & fisher & beaver & muskrat, herons, cranes, geese, ducks, ravens and others. Everything on the list within 30-40 minutes of my house, some as close as my front door step in the night.
THOaken sounds realistic = you have what you have. Now. You can't go back. I assure you that it all still exists.
THOaken sounds realistic = you have what you have. Now. You can't go back. I assure you that it all still exists.
I'm not sure how old you are Mary, but UK woodland cover has doubled in the last 100 years. In fact we now have the same amount of woodland as in the 1750s.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ear...-to-highest-level-in-more-than-250-years.html
As for wood burning stoves they are vastly more enviromentally friendly than any fossil fuel based power station. Any carbon they release was recently captured from the atmosphere. Any power station, whatever filters it has, contributes CO2 to the atmosphere (and many other nasties too). That does apply to hydro electric, wind and nuclear btw.
Heating with renewable resources is a great thing to do for the environment - zero contributions to environmental damage. That is not true of any power station.
Respose to BR…..says a man with a huge woodpile and living in an area where he has access to more without constantly taking every stick around, and who actively promotes self sufficiency.
Seriously, I live in the 'leafy' suburbs, the small towns and villages of the central belt, and I always have. The tree growth around us in my lifetime is astonishing and it's everywhere. Only the folks with woodburning stoves now collect 'sticks'.
You can always tell who has those stoves round here though; we can smell them, and their walls where the flue's come out are dirty.
I mind having to re-wash washing if it got rained upon, because all the soot in the air made it filthy. I don't remember smog as such, I do remember yellowish fog and folks bemoaning the mess it left on clothes though. That's gone so has dirty rain for the most part.
For a population of the size we have, and most of it urbanised, I do not believe that stoves and open fires are a good thing.
Power station technology improvements, and the development of the renewal energy generation, are much more likely to help reduce pollution.
Scotland is now producing 50% of it's energy requirements from renewables……why isn't the rest of the country doing likewise ?
M
and living in an area where he has access to more without constantly taking every stick around, and who actively promotes self sufficiency.Seriously, I live in the 'leafy' suburbs, the small towns and villages of the central belt, and I always have. The tree growth around us in my lifetime is astonishing
and it's everywhere. Only the folks with woodburning stoves now collect 'sticks'.You can always tell who has those stoves round here though; we can smell them, and their walls where the flue's come out are dirty.
I mind having to re-wash washing if it got rained upon, because all the soot in the air made it filthy. I don't remember smog as such, I do remember yellowish fog and folks bemoaning the mess it left on clothes though. That's gone
so has dirty rain for the most part. For a population of the size we have, and most of it urbanised, I do not believe that stoves and open fires are a good thing.
Power station technology improvements, and the development of the renewal energy generation, are much more likely to help reduce pollution.
Scotland is now producing 50% of it's energy requirements from renewables
……why isn't the rest of the country doing likewise ?M
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