Expedition to the Bere Peninsula

Last weekend it occurred to me that I'd never really explored the Bere peninsula, which is an odd slab of land that lies between the big River Tamar and the little River Tavy.  Because both rivers are wiggly, the area is only joined to the rest of Devon by one fairly narrow strip of land.

( The three-way romance of Tamar, Tavy and Torridge )

( Views, dogs, birds... all the usual.  )

Changing times

I considered photographing the trees I keep seeing cut down at the moment for firewood, but decided it would be a bit depressing. I may be making assumptions, of course, but there does seem to be a lot of clearance going on.  Today I noticed that some of the large trees that line the road a little North of Tavistock were being felled. 

 At the moment, people seem to be felling large trees containing good quality wood: the good wood ends up in piles of split firewood and the bark and sticks are left to rot. As oil and gas prices go up and up, presumably people will start burning smaller bits.  It's an economic oddity that there are people cutting and burning beech and oak wood to heat houses that are presumably mostly furnished with pine and chipboard.   

I wish I knew more about making furniture!   I didn't do a greenwood woodworking course last year, but maybe I should make an effort to go to the next one...  I like making websites, but it never really feels like you have made anything solid or lasting.  When it comes down to it it's just shovelling 0's and 1's about innit?  Whereas a table is a table is a table...

One of our neighbours has had his mortgage foreclosed on.  I would be inclined to see this as evidence of economic doom, if it were not that this particular neighbour is... one of those people for whom things often seem to go wrong, and there are always reasons why none of it is in any way his fault, none of them convincing.   Though no doubt those are always the people who are first against the wall in times of economic difficulty.