RICE & rescue

Not to be thwarted (my Achilles has had an, I hope temporary, altercation with my trainers) I got the bus to the bottom of what looked like the most direct route up the mountain to Llandinam P&L & started hobbling up the lane. I was so disappointed not that the mission might be compromised (in some ways this is now a realistic assessment of the efficiency of public transport in rural areas) but that I was being cheated out of satisfying the addiction that has become walking long distance, landmark to landmark...(my perception of turbines in this context, not shared by everyone, I acknowledge)
 
Crawling up the lane I encountered & was interviewing a man in a van heading downhill when a tractor & trailer appeared & miracle of all miracles was going not only to the end of the lane but all the way up the mountain to collect lambs for fattening (my vegetarian self had no moral problem with this). Surreally, he dropped me at the nearest turbine & picked me up again as I was picking my way down the hill. (Thanks Christopher & good luck for A level results!)

Back on the road, called Maddy at Caplor for expert advice on hitching technique (it worked)... got sent to the osteopath by the lady in Llani Leisure advising me on trainers...sat on floor with the assistant in the chemists surrounded by every orthotic you could imagine to make my trainers wearable &, finally, met an articulate compost toilet installer in the wholefood shop who'd done work for CAT, which brought me back full circle

admittedly, I'm not saying much about landscape here...people seem to find it hard to articulate what it is about landscape that they love or what it is that they feel is compromised or enhanced by wind energy development... but the same arguments resurface: aesthetics, noise, inefficiency. Not sure the arguments & discussions about turbines naturally relate back to climate change & emissions stats as much as they should - turbines seem to be a talking point but not about tipping point.

If I had to conclude at this halfway point, it seems that it all boils down to fear and change and fear of change - and how we reconcile & relate these in different hierarchies: do we fear noise & aesthetic intrusion more than climate chaos & disruption? are we embracing the right kind of change with large scale wind energy? 

and yet it's impossible to grade fears unless you can directly compare them...the precipice to jump in front of you or the monster that's chasing you. 

food for thought & dreams or nightmares

all photos at: 
http://twitpic.com/photos/hedgesprite