Last week’s blog didn’t happen due to my daughter’s 21st
birthday. It was a very busy but jolly affair starting off with Sophie being
collected from the local station, joined later that evening by her two medical
student friends. Supper soon ensued with
lots of lively chat which went on late into the evening. Saturday was spent
with Sophie showing them some local attractions, one being Sudeley Castle at
Winchcombe which was greatly admired by her two friends.
My wife Jackie had purchased a Maison Blanc birthday cake
which always seems to fit the birthday occasion exceedingly well. That evening Sophie opened all of her
presents and cards. We all then sat
around the dining table where we were presented with a sumptuous meal cooked by
Jackie. We raised several glasses of champagne in celebration of my daughter’s
21st and congratulating her on her forthcoming 3rd year
at Medical School. Also, celebrating my
son’s passing of his driving test and his imminent start at the Royal Agricultural
University, Cirencester. Sunday was a
little more sedate with all of the girls going off on a long walk and then just
relaxing in the garden before we said a goodbye to Sophie’s two friends and
taking Sophie back to the station. It
was a most successful and enjoyable weekend.
The week previous had seen a lot of comings and goings
over the Cotswold airways. American
fighter jets and British jets going through their manoeuvres. Practicing the protocol of protecting the
most powerful man on earth, President Obama, on his arrival on Air Force One at
Royal Air Force Base Fairford the evening ahead of the NATO summit which was being
held at the Celtic Manor, Newport, Wales.
World disturbance is on a monumental scale. NATO seems to have its hands full like never
before. Crisis in Ukraine where cease
fires barely last for hours, let alone days.
Isis running amok, threatening the whole stability throughout the Middle
East. Ebola epidemic in Africa that
could create losses of biblical proportions.
In amongst all this world turmoil this government still seems to be
pressing on with the 2014 Badger Cull.
Last Sunday morning, President Obama stopped off at
Stonehenge for a walk round our own world heritage site. There he posed with a local family. A magical
moment for this family and a very down to earth glimpse of a President who
seems to be most humanitarian. And to think Badgers were roaming this island
long before these stones were put into place.
The news and media has been full of the forthcoming
referendum of Scotland’s independence. A
decision once taken that cannot readily be reversed. A coming together of two Nations that has
lasted for over three hundred years. A
coming together of two Nations to form free trade, the first truly international
free trade the world had ever known, when Britannia ruled the waves. This small
island sending Sail Ships out to all the continents of the world. An achievement never equalled in
history.
The Canadian President this week reported that they think
they have found one of Franklin’s two ships, either the HMS Erebus or HMS Terror,
the ill-fated expedition which left British shores in 1845 searching for the fabled
North West Passage.
The Union with Scotland Act was passed in 1706 and the
United Kingdom was formed in January 1707.The Scots joined from a very weak
economic base. Scotland however then prospered in all the new found trade
routes and the Scotland we know and love today was founded on the back of this
partnership. A partnership built on
trust, fairness and above all trade. When
I stand back and look at today’s kaleidoscope of diverse, technological and
ever changing trade I cannot help but come to the conclusion that if Scotland
does go independent, it will without doubt be the worse decision it has made in
over three hundred years.
The Coopers have been practicing their Badger cage trick
up at my Badger sett. The plans put in
place last year to evacuate the sett if needs must were once again sanctioned
this week by my friends in Hereford. The
proposed Badger cull is unjust and is an attack on the innocence of wildlife
and with everything else going on worldwide that needs the attention of our
best minds, the futile continuation of this hair-brained scheme to rid our
cattle herds of TB to me is madness beyond belief.
Once again, this part of The Cotswolds Badger population
is on red alert. Operation Mozart’s
Magic Flute is on standby, Who Dares Wins.
Please watch my short film of a group of Badgers
contemplating the end of summer as the curtain slowly raises for the onset of
autumn.
Badgers contemplating the end of summer.
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