After a very busy morning I took Monty to Hardwick for a romp. I haven't been over there in ages because the farmer has had the beautiful old hedge razed to the ground. I contemplated posting before and after photos but it's just too depressing - there was almost no bird song.
Three GT:
1. The farmer has run out of money or otherwise been stopped in his tracks because the destruction suddenly ends three quarters of the way down.
2. We turned back before this cloud got us.
3. The Indian fire bowl for the garden that I ordered in a bored moment on Bank Holiday Sunday has arrived already and it's lovely - just need a reasonable evening now and I will be out there with the Plymouth Gin that I found on special offer :0)
I love this. Fav.
Ellen is visiting Cambridge University open days in July and has to decide which colleges to look at. Do you have any advice on which are better or which to avoid?
@dh Well if she does it through the Natural Sciences route all the colleges will be good at least for the first two years. If she does it through the Behavioural sciences route she might want to check which fellows are in the colleges she's interested in as they will organise the supervisions. She should look at a range - there are the big ones on the river - King's, Trinity, Trinity Hall St. John's, Magdelene, Clare etc (I was at St John's and so I think that's best!). They will have fellows to cover most subjects and they have plenty of money hence good accommodation, travel bursaries etc. But they are very competitive and some are big. Then there are the smaller colleges in town, Christ's, Sidney Sussex, Emmanuel, Corpus Christi, Peterhouse, Pembroke etc etc. Very nice, smaller and very communal - also competitive to get in to (they all are!) but may be not QUITE so bad. Then there are the colleges slightly further out - Churchill very popular for sciences, Fitzwilliam, Homerton and Girton. Girton is quite a cycle ride out so a bit less popular for that reason. Homerton I personally think is a slightly odd college in that it has a strong emphasis on teacher training. There are also Newnham and Murray Edwards (I was a fellow there) which are still all female and again slightly less competitive esp ME. Of the two Newnham is the older, more famous one and has a very pretty central site whereas Murray Edwards is out near Fitzwilliam and has modern but very comfortable accommodation. I wouldn't rule those out - I don't think they make you keep the door open and have a foot on the floor any more! If you have limited time you could look at King's/Clare (next door to each other), St John's and perhaps Corpus Christie or Sidney Sussex as they are fairly close by but it depends what she's looking for - and again, you need a good director of studies for your subject so it's worth trying to find that out. And it depends how confident she is - very confident think about the biggies like Trinity, St John's - want a back up think about all women or further out - they are all good places, all Cambridge colleges and all the lectures take place in the departments. I suspect that these days there are websites that give you the inside story on where's good for your subject. In the old days (1980's!) there were colleges that had a strong political bias - Peterhouse v right wing, King's left wing etc but I think they are all fairly even now.
Indian Fire bowl & Plymouth Gin = a really good night I reckon!
A fave for me Judith, love the little trees on the horizon.
I always think your hedges are sacrificed for the cereals the Cambridgeshire & surrounding counties grow....bigger fields mean more efficient cropping. Not our choice in Lancashire.....a dairy area we need to keep our stock in the field so we need good hedges thank goodness!
I liked reading your information on all the colleges in Cambridge ........it's a mine field if you are clever enough to go .......I think if @dh daughter gets in she will have an amazing time just for all the history...good luck Ellen.
@happypat Well these hedges are either side of a stream so no excuse for it. Wind blowing across now - apparently the gov has switched set aside money for 'hedge management' money so he's put his crops right up to the edge of the path (they use GPS in their tractors apparently) and ripped up the hedges. They were teeming with wildlife last year - I think hill farmers are much more sympathetic to their environment.
@judithg the Environmental Agency have across Compliance Policy which farmers have to follow to get the first stage of the Single Farm Payment. These include leaving a gap of three metres up to a hedge when ploughing, also only cutting hedges every other year to encourage wild birds ....there are lots more to numerous to go into here but this covers just the basic payment so your farmer is flouting all the rules if he is collecting a grant. They watch you from a satellite too! Forms to be filled in every year as to what you are planting etc & woe betide you if you flout the rules! Good farming practice I say.
@happypat well I do wonder if somebody has put in a complaint because he hasn't finished his slash and burn - it suddenly stops. Pretty sure the gap is less than 3m - though he's removed the hedge so maybe it doesn't apply to streams!
@judithg perhaps not, not sure & of course if he isn't in the scheme he can pretty much do as he likes.......it does so spoil the whole landscape though.....money, money ,money!
Oh Judith, how sad. We sit on the opposite side of the fence to most farmers. We had kangaroos lazing beside the house, drinking with the cattle frm the troughs, you get the picture, and the neighboring farm changed hands 2 years ago. We heard boom Boom Boom every afternoon. Now we never see a kangaroo until two weeks ago when three came back. That afternoon, boom Boom... no kangaroos in the bull paddock again. Very sad...but farmers here call themselves conservationists. They are for their land!!!
Oh I love this. Fav. Sad about the hedge destruction but gin and a fire bowl will go some way to making it better. Our friends who do the little festival-party thing every year have one and its awesome.
Fantastic atmospheric shot - love the composition with all that sky. Very sad to hear about the hedge - they're cutting their own throats in the long run.
Ellen is visiting Cambridge University open days in July and has to decide which colleges to look at. Do you have any advice on which are better or which to avoid?
A fave for me Judith, love the little trees on the horizon.
I always think your hedges are sacrificed for the cereals the Cambridgeshire & surrounding counties grow....bigger fields mean more efficient cropping. Not our choice in Lancashire.....a dairy area we need to keep our stock in the field so we need good hedges thank goodness!
Hoping to catch up properly soon.