STACK NEWS ISSUE EIGHT December 2004
Welcome to the eighth edition of Stack News!
If you've missed any previous editions, or just can't sleep at night, why not catch up with all the other seven at www.dingdong.me.uk.
Christmas 2003 came a little early for us with a short stay at Jayne's mum before she went into hospital on December 22nd. Ensuing events resulted in her not returning home for many months. We're off up to London again this year - but hopefully at a happier time.
Back 'down west' as this part of Cornwall is often known, Jayne continues her website management role at Cornwall Wildlife Trust, as well as running several other sites. Major office moves at CWT meant she had no desk there for several months - so working at home increased and this now forms the major part of her job.
Jayne's second major interest continues to be moths. So far she has recorded 288 species at Ding Dong with in excess of 21,000 moths caught, identified and released. Our book library now boasts quite an extensive moth section to aid identification of individuals from the 2,500+ possible species of moths found in the UK. Cornwall Moth Group events attended range from informal 'gatherings' at members' homes, field trips to various locations, a private viewing of Truro Museum's extensive moth collection (not normally on public display), identification workshops, and putting up an exhibition in Truro Cathedral.
Roger continues his involvement with West Cornwall Badger Group - the latest 'happening' in St Ives causing him to question the actions of DEFRA directly with their boss, government minister Ben Bradshaw.
Turning to 'domestic animals', sadly 'Misty' the hamster died of old age, shortly to be joined by 'Benty' the degu who succumbed to a twisted gut - apparently a common cause of death in these animals. This left 'Half-Tail' without a companion, but unfortunately attempts to introduce him to a new friend, 'Shaggy' resulted only in pawycuffs. Fortunately our friend Alison, whose small furries have a reciprocal holiday home arrangement with ours, has adopted 'Shaggy' and his custom-made (by Roger) degu condominium shares her living room with ratties (caged) and moggies. Apparently, 'Shaggy' provides much better entertainment than the TV - for Alison & moggy!
Back at The Stack, our one small furry is completely ignored by our large one - 'Blue' the greyhound. He's not fazed by many things but, since a close by firework exploded at new year, he doesn't much like loud bangs. 'Blue' even had a day out at Perranporth with Emma from CWT - including a trip to the pub. Meanwhile we had a day at the Royal Cornwall (agricultural) Show!
Other entertainment this year has included excellent performances by Richard Digance, The Amazing Mr Smith, and Wizz Jones - all performers known to us from our days in 'The Smoke' (London). We also attended 'The Cornwall Lecture' given this year by the chairman of English Heritage - interesting to a degree, but no comparison to the former three. Perhaps the best 'show' was not only free, but is put on regularly every evening in the winter - you don't even have to get out of your car to watch! This of course is the Marazion dusk formation flying display by the thousands of starlings coming to their nightly roosting place in the midst of the reeds at this marshland RSPB reserve (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds).
Similarly to last year, walks, talks and training courses continued. Jayne attended several Internet & computer related courses, as well as one on 'time management' - although she has yet to succeed in slowing the passing of time sufficiently to fit everything in! One or both of us have also attended various courses/events/seminars related to different aspects of natural history from shield bugs to whales - we are both now CWT Marine Strandings Network volunteers. Roger has just completed a Penwith Pre-History course, and naturally talks and walks with the Carn Brea Mining Society, the Trevithick Society, Cornwall Butterfly Conservation, and Cornwall Earth Mysteries Group continue as well.
Apart from several trips to London, our 'out of county' experiences this time only took us as far as a shopping trip to Plymouth. Blue's friend Xena did persuade her people, Les & Carol, to bring her down to visit Blue. John also ventured down from Ealing - although we don't think Xena had anything to do with his trip!
With the simpler and more visible big jobs largely completed, Roger's work on the house seems to get ever slower, and consequently the actual Stack News! section ever shorter! We can however report that the inner hallway now has a ceiling! The biggest job this year has been the completion of our elevated deck area on the roof of our link building. Who knows one day we might get around to putting up some pictures on our website - then all this might mean something to those of you who've not been to visit!
Yes, we're (almost) getting quite hi-tech down here in the wilds of Cornwall. This year, not only have we got digital television (despite the provider assuring us that this was not technically possible), but broadband internet access has also arrived - after a struggle.
Wow! We can surf and phone at the same time!
So there we have it - run out of space again!
So that’s about it for now!
Best wishes for the festive season from:
Roger and Jayne
