Roses, Badgers and Life’s Expectations.

Another week in which the combines have continued on their phonetic devouring of the Cotswold’s cereals.  The fields of gold now much diminished from their harvest colour resembling now an autumn look of a sombre brown left from the plough and discs.

My wife has had her last week of her summer holiday in which she was blessed with a visit from her sister and niece, a happy reminiscence was had by all. The next day Jackie was surprised with a delivery of a beautiful bouquet of white roses gifted from her sister and niece. A most thoughtful and generous act.  Like so many things in life, the totally unexpected can create the most joy. 

My daughter has brought a doctor friend down from London for the weekend, and as we sat around the dining table having supper last night listening to the light hearted conversations, my son Sam talking of his imminent admission into the Royal Agriculture University Cirencester, Sophie referring back to some of her experiences at her Medical School, Kings College London and her young doctor friend who has just graduated telling us of his experiences of his first week as an F1 doctor at his hospital, I couldn’t help but wonder just how their young experiences differed so very much from my own.  A life full of opportunity and expectation where efforts of work and study are rewarded with lives of fulfilment, usefulness and satisfaction.  All these things come with the hope of a better tomorrow and when you see so much of the world with daggers drawn it has got to be so much more difficult even impossible for the young of these regions, Gaza, Iraq, Libya, Syria and even the Ukraine to seriously contemplate any meaningful future.

A telephone call last week from a couple of my game keeping friends informing me that once again poachers are out and about in this part of The Cotswolds.  Now with a lot of the harvest in there is an openness across The Cotswolds that creates very little cover for the Roe Deer, Fallow Deer, Muntjac, Hares and of course my dear Badgers.  Last week I watched old Daddy Cool gathering straw for Mrs Badger to bed down the sett on a rainy night from a recently harvested field above his woodland.  Along with him in the same field I saw seven Roe Deer and a couple of Muntjacs.  They all looked so exposed out there in the open.  For the people who wished them harm, it really would not be that difficult, so I was thrilled to see last Monday, Daddy Cool bring his whole family back from the now vulnerable Northern boundary to deep inside the woodland, Daddy Cool’s stronghold normally reserved for the winter months. 

Please watch my short film of Daddy Cool’s return to his stronghold deep inside the woodland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkI172cP9ig&feature=youtube_gdata

A Badger’s Iron Curtain

This last few days has seen the harvest almost grind to a halt.  Rain has lashed parts of The Cotswolds and the phonetic activity of a week ago of combines being chased by corn trailers in turn being chased by bailers in turn being chased by discs and ploughs has now left just the discs charging over The Cotswold brash, turning the soil leaving it more acceptable to the autumn’s drilling.  The countryside now, much of the flamboyant colour of the spring, summer months has now been replaced to somewhat an autumn scene.

One evening, mid-week I was startled with some urgent knocking on the front door and it was some friends that thought we might be able to help with a severely injured Kestrel.  On closer examination of the bird, its injuries had left it almost lifeless.  The following day the Kestrel quietly passed away.  Always exceptionally sad to see a bird of such beauty come to such an undignified end.

However, the good news of the week was, my daughter Sophie tore herself away from London and had a nice quiet week here in The Cotswolds, where she shopped in Cheltenham town with her mother, and baked various goodies with an enthusiasm akin to Mary Berry.

Other news this week I found quite amazing how in the aftermath of the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner MH317 in amongst international indignation, the Russians decided to retaliate with the banning of all EU, American and Australian dairy products.  This tit for tat behaviour almost cheapens the lives of all those souls that were lost on that particular aircraft.  An act of such a monstrous nature and brutality has been counter balanced by the injustice of the impoverishment of the Russian people and to the detriment of worldwide agriculture also resulting once again in the fall of the Iron Curtain coming down between Russia and the rest of Europe.  Very sad days ahead I fear.

All the hoo ha and hullabaloo of BTB and the Badger cull of last year 2013, almost pales into insignificance by such a potential devastating act to bring world trade into the arena of annexation is simply politics of a school boy yard mentality.  Little wonder that the world seems more chaotic now than it has done in the last forty years.

To see the devastation and destruction of the biggest open air prison in the world, Gaza, it is starting to resemble the ghettos of Warsaw under Nazi occupation.  The ghettos that the world turned their backs on, including our own Winston Churchill, although, in his case you could argue that he already had enough on his plate.  Disproportionate bombing beyond belief, and the behaviour is in response to the three thousand seven hundred missiles plus that have been launched into Israel from the Palestinian side.  When you see the pathetic retaliation by Hamas to end the blockade that has been going on for years, to try and stop the ever encroaching settlements you cannot help but think, when this is all done and dusted, Hamas could start up a thriving export business an outdoor firework regalia, because the rockets you see being fired from them I’m sure that we have all seen something similar on any outdoor firework extravaganza, especially our own Guy Fawkes on November 5^th. 

The ever increasing march of Isis causing mayhem throughout Iraq.  The mayhem in Libya, even Egypt, the brokers between the Israelis and the Palestinians.  Them themselves, swept into power on a Coup displacing the legitimate elected Muslim brotherhood.  The whole thing doesn’t actually fill one with any confidence on any meaningful lasting peace in the region.

President Obama has at last decided to take the bull by the horns and try and stop this march of the fanatics albeit six months too late.  But any move to try and save and stop the genocide of one of the oldest peoples, The Yazidiz, in the region has got to be welcomed and applauded. 

It seems to me the whole business of these regime changes, i.e. Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Colonel Gadhafi of Libya, Mubarak of Egypt and Assad of Syria has caused more devastation, more loss of life and has totally succeeded in destabilising and creating vacuums for power which otherwise would not have existed.

The tough leaders of the Middle East who seemed to keep some kind of order and quality of life for the masses has now gone and there has barely been a day of normality since. 

On a lighter note, my Badger sett is doing extremely well.  The cubs now are almost the size of their parents.  The iron curtain that came down around them with the deployment of Mozart’s Magic Flute has served them well.  Long may it continue.

Please watch my short film of Mrs Badger bedding down her sett in the pouring rain with the straw Daddy Cool has hauled in from the harvested field.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcgWyrJrC1w&feature=youtube_gdata

Mother Badger starting to bed down her sett with freshly hauled barley straw,

Commonwealth Games, A Reminder To Humanity

The harvest is in full swing right across the whole of The Cotswolds.  I watch from a distance within the woodland the Badgers, as they in turn watch the combines rip through the fields of gold.  The cereal fields that have given cover to nature’s bounty of new life are now laid bare once again after the passing of these gigantic, noisy machines. 

Always fascinating to me how nature’s timing of the harvest coincides quite beautifully with the growth and strength of all those beings that took protection by it.  The Leverettes are now as big as their parents and can run as fast as the quickest of their relatives.  The Roe Deer fawns and the Fallow Deer fawns, the Muntjacs are now big enough and strong enough to easily outrun their predators, but always so pleasing to see them take cover in the woodlands as the combines relentlessly churn through the cereal fields acre upon acre.

The excitement of seeing these monstrous machines excites me as much now as when I was a child.  The busyness, the toing and froing of the tractors pulling the trailers full of grain.  The augers as they swing out from the side of the combines in a robotic, precise manner.  Not seeming to spill a grain as they load the moving trailers. 

The tolerances of todays’ technology never ceases to amaze and the whole theatrical experience when observed almost resembles Thunderbirds on speed. 

The Badgers are still doing exceptionally well.  The Coopers still delight in their part of the Badgers protection programme. 

Liz Truss, our Environmental Secretary, has announced that she doesn’t intend to roll out a gassing programme in any forthcoming Badger cull proposals, saying that she favours shooting.  A small step in the right direction I feel.  Although, any movement in the slaying of Badgers is a step backwards in our whole eco system.  Especially after hearing the news this week of a BTB outbreak in Cumbria that can be directly linked to cattle movements as my blog stated on Sunday June 9^th 2013 titled, “George Would Have Told Them to Keep Dodging the Lead.”

As the commemorations go on across the length and breadth of the land on the anniversary of the start of the 1914 1918 war, the Great War supposedly to end all wars, the excitement of the Commonwealth Games really brings home to me just how great the Great War was.  Nearly half the globe in conflict leaving a world in its wake consigning the mis-treatment of women and the underclass workforce in the annals of history.  Never before has the human race seen such vast change in such a minute window of time. 

A 50^th birthday party and 20 years wedding anniversary brought a very satisfying afternoon’s hospitality.  A chance to see people from the same village and to catch up on bits and pieces of gossip and to generally be enlightened by other people’s lives.  So diverse, so different to the conversations to be had in the villages forty years previous. 

Changes are constant, progress is forever in evolution, but I feel the real progress and change in evolution is always in the eye of the beholder, because so often the benefits to a minority are at extreme discord with the majority. 

The fundamental issues that were surely learnt from the 1914 1918 war and were shortly mirrored in the 1940 1945 war tells us that peace and harmony can only emulate from humanity and equality, two ingredients that are so conspicuous by their absence in the Middle East today. 

Please watch my amusing short film of my Badgers who epitomise equality and humanity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwSIKKR5ZXE

Dr. Kissinger, a Badger and Nelson Mandela.

The last week has seen the sun bake this part of The Cotswolds.  Long, hot sunny days.  The type of days that remind me of my own childhood. Summer holidays filled with fun, excitement and adventure accompanied with sunshine and the truest of blue skies.  It is funny  how you remember the hot, balmy sunny days and all the lovely adventures, but I feel sure, if one is honest there were wet miserable days and some totally lack lustre days just as much then as there are today.

Disappointing news for me this week, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) will support a second year of pilot Badger culls in England.  You would think the amount of evidence around now on the true transmittance of Bovine TB to even contemplate another years’ Badger cull would be totally out of the question.  Like so many things in life the right course of action always seems to be the most difficult for our Politicians to follow.  They seem to have a total unwillingness to comprehend the futility of a lot of their actions. 

News yesterday that a 1,000 lives have now been lost on the Gaza Strip.  The Israeli land offensive has caused mayhem beyond belief.  Hospitals bombed, schools bombed and while these atrocities were being played out for the whole world to judge for themselves, our own Middle East Peace Envoy, Tony Blair was back for a party in London. 

This particular Middle East problem has been going on for 47 years.  I remember as a child listening to the great American Nobel Peace Prize winner, the 56^th Secretary of State sworn in on September 22^nd 1973, the great Dr.Henry Kissinger, when greatness was marked by achievement and intelligence and an ability to grasp both sides of an argument and do your damndest to get an equilibrium respected by all parties across the Middle East. 

The problems he faced then have manifested themselves many times since but his initial ideas of trying to forge a peace across the Middle East is probably on hind sight the best chance the people of the region have had in the last 47 years.  Until the Palestinians are treated as equals, peace and harmony will never reside there. 

Hamas has been democratically elected and should be sat down with and talked to in a matter of state fashion.  To continually brand them as ‘Terrorists’ and the ‘Bad Guys’ in all of this, I fear, will no longer wash. 

With a 1,000 Palestinians dead, the propaganda war is being won on an hour by hour basis. 

The Israeli existence has obviously got to be recognized and respected by all Arabs but this sledge hammer to crack a nut approach is quite simply wrong. 

Nelson Mandela was a terrorist to some and a freedom fighter to others, but apartheid was just plainly wrong. 

The comparisons from this I bring back to my own small natural world.  The nature I see on a day on day basis, people not wanting to look at the facts to go that extra mile to get it right.  The easy option is so very often the wrong option.  Complex issues need the best diplomatic, political minds.  Minds that look outside of petty argument, minds of candour, progress, integrity and above all fairness.  And my advice to the Middle East Peace Envoy, Tony Blair and the rest of his shower looking over this apocalypse known as the Middle East should take a few leaves out of the book of the great Dr.Henry Kissinger and one of the icons of the 20^th Century, the great Nelson Mandela.  And let us just hope our Secretary of the Environment, Liz Truss has got just a few of these qualities and will see the light before rolling out another futile, mindless, barbaric, savage onslaught on our own British icon, the Badger.

My Badgers in this part of The Cotswolds have had a very hot week and have had to go further afield for their diet of slugs and snails.  The hotter and drier the ground gets, the more ground they have to cover to fill their stomachs.  The way they have chosen to keep cool is to dig in fresh setts along old windy 300 year old Cotswold stone walls. The tenacity and ingenious way they set about combatting the things in life that can cause them discomfort is a lesson to us all.  The Badger is a doer, go out and getter who asks nothing a part from its own health and strength to do whatever he has to, to keep his family safe and as comfortable as possible. The Diplomat Statesman Lord Protector of the woodlands. 

Please watch my short film of a Squirrel, a Badger and a Mouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6VATtMQWmQ&feature=youtube_gdata

Guitar Riff and Badgers Mix.

The weather across The Cotswolds this past week has been hot, close, humid and pretty uncomfortable for a lot of nature’s life.

The Coopers watch over the Badgers religiously.  Operation Mozart’s Magic Flute, the Badger protection programme is still very much in force ready for evasive action at a minutes notice.  The Coopers’ enthusiasm and downright professionalism never ceases to amaze me from ones who appear to be quite frail and old but then, looks can be so very deceiving. 

The awful news of the passenger jet being shot down over the Ukraine this week. Total innocents, men, women and children being snuffed out in an instant, as they were on their way to their own individual destinations.  One has to ask, “How on earth can such sophisticated hardware be in the hands of people who are capable of such an act, accident or otherwise in this day and age?”  In a so called, technology full proof age, atrocities of such magnitude should never happen. 

Many years ago, my small claim to fame, I managed to beat the Palestinian’s Women’s Table Tennis Champion. Something I have dined out on every year since.  It happened in the mid -eighties, she was a very pretty girl and extremely intelligent.  She talked about her childhood growing up in the Gaza Strip.  As she talked I was captivated and mesmerised by the accuracy of detail down to the humiliating distribution of the water supply and the day to day hardships of average people trying to go about their business and eke out some kind of meaning and purpose in the wretchedness of life of all Palestinians on the Gaza Strip.  That was then, and now as we turn on our television sets and we see the Israelis tanks rolling into Gaza on the start of their ground offensive, I have to ask just how far our world’s top diplomacy teams have got?  And the answer put quite simply doesn’t appear to be anywhere at all.  Lives are still being wasted in the same fashion now as they were forty years ago. 

Our own Owen Paterson has lost his job as the Minister of the Environment.  Quite pleasing to see a woman, Liz Truss take charge of what has always been a delicate and matter of fact post.  Pleasing in as much as you would think a touch of femininity in to all environmental affairs can only be advantageous in knocking off a few rough edges of policy in a maternal fashion rather than an arrogant, scattergun approach to our ecological day to day encounters.  I thought instantly of our particular Badger problem.  Will the Badger cull roll out be halted? How could a woman give the order to shoot and gas animals of such breath taking beauty?

The facts of their innocence scientifically and otherwise are there for all to see.  A pity her predecessor did not take on board a little more of the scientific facts.  And as we lean more of Liz Truss her background in oil exploration does not bode well I fear for British Nature in general. 

Our own Dr. Brian May has called for a meeting as soon as possible with Liz Truss to discuss concerns over the proposed Badger cull. 

My advice to Dr. May is to take his guitar and a Badger along to this meeting with a riff of Brian May’s choice to set the perfect ambience and the visual of the ‘eye candy’ Badger to set the type of mood, that anyone harming in anyway shape or form our British Icon would automatically receive a Jail term handed down by our all new shiny Secretary of State for the Environment.

Just a thought Brian. See what you can do.

Please watch my short film of Badgers in a heatwave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT5oQv85TTc&feature=youtube_gdata

Badgers and Pub Teams

As I watch the hedgehogs out across my lawn, the summer nights have become very hot and sultry.  Their walk looks almost laborious as they mooch about looking for slugs and snails.  In contrast, the bats overhead look so cool as they glide, twisting and turning effortlessly through the summer nights picking off a myriad of moths and insects in these sultry summer nights. 

The Badgers appear from their sett looking tired and relaxed, almost sleepy.  And when you see the British Badger in his natural habitat, so at home in his surroundings, there can be few animals on earth that look more cute, cuddly and just downright adorable.  

The Badger cull will, I fear, soon be upon us once again despite overwhelming scientific evidence which states time and time again that the Badger cull is futile and totally pointless and does not realise any of the objectives in stemming BTB in our cattle herds, which makes the destruction of these animals criminally insane.

As we get to the finale of the 2014 World Cup Final you’ve seen billions of pounds poured in to a tiny part of Brazil leaving the Brazilian government 11 billion in debt to show case to the world the most expensive pub team on record for their performance was mediocrity on every level.  But to be fair, so were many of the other teams that were present.  None more so than our own England. A working class sport light years out of the reach for affordability of the dirt poor, working class people that represent 98% of the country which hosted it.  A world cup full of Vidal Sassoon hair styles and bodies covered in tattoos.  The cost of the hair styles and tattoos, the hair lacquers and gels would go a long way to alleviating the problems of six and a half million homeless people on the streets of Brazil. It would go some way to ending the sniffing of glue from plastic coca cola bottles from kids as young as five and six years of age. 

The pundits on all media fronts spouting nonsense of the 'best world cup ever.'  What football games have they been watching?  What pieces of heart stopping skill have they witnessed?  I have watched the same games and so have my friends and the conclusion from the people I have spoken to is of cataclysmic disappointment. 

We seem to live in a world where the irreplaceable wonders and beauty of nature are merely played lip service to.  The deprivation and destruction of it goes on hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month and year on year.  Depletion of world species and wild habitats find it harder and harder to gain favour with the world media.  May be our beautiful game should go the the same way so we wouldn't have to endure all of this false hype and nonsense along with  these vain, egotistical, moderately talented young men.

The great names of the past that defied description, Pele, Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradonna, Alfredo Di Stefano and our own Gordon Banks who seemed to play for the pride of their shirts and you could not help but feel sure they would have played for their respective countries for free, for the honour of representing them.  Something has fundamentally changed within our beautiful game.  The Premiership full of overseas players, our big clubs in overseas ownership and the absurd roles played out by the sponsors.  Little wonder our National team on a good day would struggle beating Cheltenham Town. 

And my advice to all the pundits who watch this average play week on week and feel that they have to dramatise and scale up to the eighth degree each action of this mediocrity,  to justify their gravy train existence is to surely commentate accurately and honestly on what we all see rather than the sheepish nature of what you want to see.

As I got to the end of my football rant, I received a phone call from Tony Francis who used to present some years ago a favourite programme of mine, Heart of the Country.  This was obviously the cue to bring my football rant to an end..

Please watch my short film of the Badgers up at their sett getting ready for the final, Argentina versus Germany.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqeOk7Eowew

Close Encounter of the Little Owl Kind.

About three weeks ago a Little Owl was brought to us from a lady in the village. It was a very young owl that had got separated from its parents and was struggling with life generally.  The Little Owl was dropped off in a most fetching round little wicker cage and altogether the package was of total cuteness.  After giving the Little Owl a couple of hours in the woodland at the bottom of the garden to get used to the breeze blowing gently through the trees and the sounds of all the other birds that were now his neighbours, the time was right we thought to get the little mite something to eat. 

In the shed at the bottom of the garden we keep a freezer and inside the freezer there is always a box of day old chicks that we buy from the falconry centre.  Just the thing for such an occasion as this.  We had taken a couple of chicks from the freezer on the arrival of the Little Owl and on these warm summer nights a couple of hours is all that is needed to thaw them out. 

Jackie and I were soon at the bottom of the garden in the woodland peering into the basket where two wide eyes were peering back at us. 

I took one of the chicks from the bowl and broke its yolk sac, the last thing the Little Owl needed was a splattering of that, gamming up its very young, downy feathers.  The Little Owl didn’t appear to be more than two to three weeks old. 

As I pulled the chick into mouth size pieces it was becoming ever clearer that this Little Owl’s bright yellow eyes had seen enough of this world and would soon be shutting them for the next. 

I put my hand into the wicker basket and picked him up, a frightened and thin chested owlet.  As I tried to open his beak my wife Jackie stood ready with the leg of the day old chick.  After a few minutes the beak was opened and Jackie’s first morsel was quickly popped inside the hooked beak.  To our delight the beak clamped onto his first helping. There he sat with the phalanx protruding from the side of his beak. As Jackie stood there she seemed to think the state in which the owl was in was quite unacceptable.  She put out her fingers and slightly tugged at the phalanx as if she wanted it back.  The owlet thought otherwise and with one gulp much to our surprise and amusement the whole leg was soon devoured. Jackie put forward more bite sized treats which the owlet was finding more and more to its liking.  After fifteen minutes or so the whole chick had been consumed with relish.  The owl was now looking extremely satisfied and Jackie’s behaviour, like on all these occasions was more and more excitable.  The Little Owl now stood a chance and the following morning, just like a kid on Christmas morning Jackie was the first at the bottom of the garden beneath the Beech and Cherry trees shouting back at the house that the Little Owl’s progress was most satisfactory.

In the days that followed the owlet got stronger and his little wicker basket was no longer conducive to the wellbeing of the owlet.  He was more confident and brash and the visits being paid to the basket by the Barn Owls and Tawny Owls were encouraging him to act in an ever owl like fashion. 

The homing of choice was the large dog kennel with two inch steel mesh sides and a nice pitched wooden roof with a 6 x 4 wooden house on the end of it.  We placed in the dog kennel four perches along with a bow perch and his little wicker basket we placed in the wooden house with the door open so he could come out and flex those precious little wings.  Jackie quickly pointed out that the 2 x 2 inch mesh would not contain him. This is the whole idea of owl and wildlife revival in general.  They stay for as long or as little as they care to.  Freedom is paramount. 

We continued to feed the Little Owl in his open door basket within the kennel.  He was soon flying the length and width of the kennel from one perch to another showing his new found aerial skills which, like always were breathtakingly impressive. 

When you study so much of wildlife closely, things that have evolved at a snail’s pace across tens of thousands of years always strike you and never ceases to enlighten you on the master piece which is nature that in my humble opinion is never equalled. 

As the days and nights rolled on the Little Owl was getting ever more inquisitive until last Monday morning 30^th June, when we went down to see him he had flown the kennel.  The call of the wild had proved to greater magnet for the Little Owl and the joy on such occasions is immeasurable.

That night as we lay in bed there is a round window in the gable of our bedroom which on these hot, balmy nights is always open and as we lay in bed we look out of the round window onto a large Christmas tree that had been planted in the garden reminiscing a fantastic Christmas of bygone years.  Nearing the top thirty foot from the ground, Jackie had noticed a small silhouette of a bird behaving quite peculiarly.

“What on earth is that?” she asked peering through the window, nudging me in the ribs as if to say get up and have a closer look.  I was soon up at the round window looking out across the lawn into the tree.  It was a Little Owl bobbing his head up and down to gain focus.  We like to think his nightly visits to the Christmas tree outside our bedroom window is his way of saying “Thank you” for his care and our hospitality. 

But like every close encounter and experience one has with nature it is you as a person that is left more fulfilled and more thankful for having the opportunity of being so close to it.

The Little Owl in his cute little wicker basket.

PS.  Daddy Cool and his family of badgers go from strength to strength.  Their summer time wrestling antics fill my summer nights with delight and amusement.  Please watch my short film of a wrestling match in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLOAq7p97nU&feature=youtube_gdata