STACK NEWS ISSUE NINE December 2005
Welcome to the ninth edition of Stack News!
After three consecutive years starring in our cover picture, Blue our greyhound is taking a rest – something he is very good at! The numerous ‘makeover’ shows on TV provided our inspiration for this year’s picture that shows ‘The Nine Maidens’ a local prehistoric stone circle (erected around 2500 BC) after ‘restoration’ by the Cornwall County Council Historic Environment Service. They re-erected several stones and made ‘improvements’ to the land drainage to improve accessibility. The area is now completely underwater in wet weather! Also known as the Boskednan circle, it is mostly in ruins, although its isolation on desolate moorland does make it very attractive. There were probably twenty-two stones making up the original circle, but only six are still erect, For more info and pictures see http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=559)
We are hoping for an uneventful run-up to Christmas this year as on December 22nd 2004 the brakes failed on Jayne’s car! Fortunately she was able to stop safely and repairs were made in time for our drive to London two days later to spend ‘the big day’ with Jayne’s mum.
2005 did not get off to a good start as Jayne’s favourite uncle – George - passed away in January. Jayne did get to meet lots of family members that she hadn’t seen for ages at the funeral before returning to the Stack for a busy springtime.
But first it snowed!
Unusual for this area and a (brief) photo opportunity.
It snowed again in December – global cooling?
Meanwhile we had posh new flooring and granite worktops installed in our kitchen. Along with various other minor improvements the house is now so close to being completely finished that we’re planning the next phase – a conservatory perhaps?
Blue’s friend from Rickmansworth – Xena the lurcher – brought her people, Les and Carol, down to stay for a few days, and we collected Jayne’s mum from Croydon for a weeks visit. John, from Ealing, completed our trio of temporary residents this year. Sadly the permanent residents are now only three (Jayne, Roger, Blue) as ‘Half-Tail’ the degu died in November. His holiday home, that Roger had made for when he stayed with our friend Alison when we were away, has now been ‘recycled’ to the evident delight of Alison’s ratties.
Jayne continues with managing several websites including that of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust (CWT) where this year’s big event has been the launch of a full e-commerce system. So if you’ve got any spare dosh why not surf along with your credit card to www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk. You can buy lots of ‘goodies’, make a donation, or even make some free downloads including locations of all 54 wildlife reserves managed by the trust as a ‘Google Earth’ placemark set (see the ‘Reserves’ section of the CWT website for how to do this, but be warned – many find this software quite addictive and you may spend many hours ‘flying’ around the world).
Many of our activities are linked in some way to CWT but we do sometimes do something totally unrelated! For instance we went to two good concerts staged as part of the St Ives ‘September Festival’ - “Show of hands” and “Jez Lowe & the Bad Pennies”. We even saw the “Red Arrows” aerobatic team in action– if only because the display just happened to take place when we were having our fish & chips overlooking Mounts Bay. Roger ventured all the way to Penzance (about 4 miles) to watch the ‘Zapcat’ powerboat racing. He also went on a day trip to London! This was organised by CWT for Marine Strandings volunteers to see the Natural History Museum’s main mammal collection which is held in a normally off-limits storage facility in Wandsworth.
Jayne also had a London trip staying at her mum’s, as well as with Les & Carol, and visiting the Discover Dogs show plus doing some Xmas shopping. Back home Jayne has done several more specialist computer related courses (including PHP, Photoshop, Pinnacle, Flash), and one or both of us has attended various events/seminars/talks/outings organised by the various clubs and societies that we are some way involved with.
Blue even came to an all day seminar organised by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Federation of Biological Recorders (hey – snappy title – CISFBR for short – just rolls off the tongue). The subject was ‘Cornish Hedges’ – well he does do his bit with helping to keep them well watered. This was his first event of this type and we sat at the front to give him plenty of room to lie down (yes of course he took his bean bag). Perhaps we should have warned him about the applause after each speaker? He jumped up and looked round in apparent amazement at all the fuss. No sooner had he nodded off again – more applause! The third time he didn’t bother to get up and can now sleep through any talk almost as well as Jayne!
There is certainly plenty going on to keep us amused, although we have to admit that the temptation to ‘stay at home to look after the dog’ is increasingly overpowering - especially when it cold and wet outside!
So there we have it – another year!!
If you've missed any previous editions, or just can't sleep at night, why not catch up with the other eight editions of Stack News at www.dingdong.me.uk.
Watch out for the tenth anniversary special edition which should be coming to your letterbox in only 12 months time!
Best wishes for the festive season from:
Roger and Jayne
