Simple Pleasure........

.....took Del for a walk on the fields this evening.....the horse population is corralled in another field, so there are a couple of fields available to saunter in. The horses are quite friendly but Del is a sheepdog......her mission in life is to round up everything that moves, so I try to keep them apart. After a good chase around I sat underneath an old oak tree and just enjoyed the stillness, whilst she who had been doing the chasing around, sulked.

It was a glorious evening and although I do not live in the back of beyond it was a glorious rural experience - no noise intrusion, no traffic...no people. One of these days, when my ship comes in, I'm off home, I think, halfway up a mountain in mid-Wales.

Is it because I'm getting older that I feel that there are more negative developments in the world than positive ones - why does the population of Britain need an additional 150,000 4 X 4 vehicles during the last year.....why do we need an additional motorway between Manchester and Birmingham....why do we need 4 more houses in the village - the plots sold for between £75k and £100k - when there are already houses and bungalows for sale. The hidden cost of this particular development is the felling of some 12 mature oak trees.

I accept that progress is inevitable and people's aspirations have to be met. As a species, humanity has an innate drive to better itself, but why must this be at such cost to the environment and other species which cohabit this earth with us? Is it because we can? Some day we shall have a rude awakening......unless before that time somebody does something.

Perhaps, in these days of globalisation what is required is a global revolution, which will bring those national governments and those companies which ignore the plight of the world to their knees...in which position they might see the light. I am not suggesting a 'bloody' global war but rather a war that uses the technologies that facilitate the "bandit" nations and companies of this new century.

I've gone off on one again, haven't I.......sorry.