The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
High hopes for a ‘fair and bricht’ 2021 with some of nature’s balance restored
Ayoung man aged four or five told me ,“I’ ve had an amazing Christmas” when Inka and I met him out walking. That’s the age to enjoy Christmas, I thought – still believing all the stories us grown-ups tell you. Sending your list of Christmas presents up the chimney and knowing that Santa will come down the chimney with his sack of presents for you. Leaving a glass of milk and a piece of Christmas cake in the hearth for Santa – my mother left him a glass of sherry which she drank at midnight – and a carrot for Santa’s reindeer.
But best of all, being too young to understand what a different Christmas this year’s – well no, last year’s – has been.
And Brexit has been successfully negotiated? Hmm, time will tell. One of the outcomes of the decision the UK took in June 2016 to leave the EU fundamentally changed the relationship we shared with Europe’s strong environmental policies for protection of biodiversity and natural habitats. We have the opportunity now to take these policies forward on our own and to make things even better for our countryside and wildlife.
Restoring a balance
Perhaps we’ll get closer to answering what for me, at least, is a thorny dilemma. Man has been managing the environment for eight thousand years, give or take a millennium. The natural landscape continually shrinks as a result of our activities. If we want a balanced wildlife should we be prepared to let it find its own level – in current parlance, to rewild?
To what extent should we be prepared to intervene and reduce predator numbers in order to sustain a prey species? A good example is where buzzards as a predator species target red squirrels as a quarry species. Should we let one species reduce the numbers of another until they fall below a sustainable level – in other words, let nature find its own level?
And what about the control of nonnative grey squirrels which are an introduction into Britain from America. They carry the squirrelpox virus which is deadly to our native red squirrels but harmless to themselves. Should we set about eliminating the foreign greys in order to ensure the sustainability of our native reds?
I don’t profess to have all the answers, BUT it can be a bit sparky getting there.
Hothead
It was brass monkeys round our way on Monday, - 3C and a bit nippy on the Doyenne’s nose and ears when she took Inka out for his morning walk. Recent mornings have been sharp and clear, flushed pink with a rosy sunrise.
There’s heat in the day provided you can manage a walk before lunchtime. After that the sun gets low in the sky, the temperature quickly drops and you’re thankful you remembered your gloves.
When I was young and feckless, I disdained to wear a cap – it was giving in to the elements, I declared, and my iron constitution would see me through. Whether I’ve acquired a modicum of wisdom at last, or it’s thinning of the hair, but at this time of year I reach for my cap whenever I go out.
Years ago I read that we lose 40% of our body heat through the top of our heads. That’s a terrible amount of heat to lose all at once.
It’s scary to think of my uncovered heid acting like a reeking lum, contributing to global warming just because I selfishly refuse to wear a bunnet. But the good news is that my cap traps all that heat, keeping my brains cosy, and I can brave the elements with fortitude. Strikes me it’s time the scientists were investigating the effect of bare heids on the atmosphere.
High hopes
My picture this week is of a sculpture created by our artist blacksmith son James from a six-inch section of mild steel. It was his response to the concern for the future we were all experiencing in the early days and weeks of lockdown. Flight of Hope he calls it, and it sits in our living room where we can see it and share our son’s hopes for a speedy and safe closure to this strange way of life which we are told is the “new normal”.
Another Hogmanay is past. Borders poet Will H Ogilvie describes what could be a classic Hogmanay in his colourful poem, A Scotch Night: “When you’re taken by the oxter and you’re couped into a chair / While someone slips a whusky in your tumbler unaware / Then the present seems less dismal and the future fair and bricht / For you’ve struck Earth’s grandest treasure in a guid Scots nicht!”
Does that not just sum up how Hogmanay should be? May all our dreams and ambitions for 2021 prove as “fair and bricht” as ever we could hope.
That’s the age to enjoy Christmas – still believing the stories