Global Warming: No, really, it's a thing.

While shoveling gravel on Sunday, I came across a bright green caterpillar and noticed a lot of spring growth on trees, shrubs and vines... What month is this again?

The issue of Global Warming is a hugely popular subject of discussion in England; there is a constant buzz on the radio and television, in news papers and among the general public about it. It is an upsetting issue for people here, where Global Warming is significantly more noticeable than it is in places like Florida, and it's not something to be taken lightly; after all, it is detrimental to the world as we know it, not to mention the survival of the human race.

The Guardian did a Special Report on Global Warming on Sunday. The article is nothing short of disturbing, as this UK climate expert points out:

"'The really chilling thing about the IPCC report is that it is the work of several thousand climate experts who have widely differing views about how greenhouse gases will have their effect. Some think they will have a major impact, others a lesser role. Each paragraph of this report was therefore argued over and scrutinised intensely. Only points that were considered indisputable survived this process. This is a very conservative document - that's what makes it so scary,' said one senior UK climate expert."

Global Warming has caused longer, warmer summers and shorter, milder winters, show cased nicely by the presence of butterflies, bees and lambs in an English December/January and the confusion on the parts of bears in Russia and Spain.

There was a news report on the television the other day about Global Warming in which the reporter pointed out that the US is the #1 carbon contributor with China as a close second. The reporter then went on to discuss why these countries are so bad for the environment, pointing out the utter lack of concern on the part of the US and the horrible manner of China's sudden success; the report on China was longer and more detailed.
The US, of course, deserves all of the bad press it gets concerning the general attitude toward the environment, but as far as China's role goes, if history tells me correctly, they're simply doing exactly as the US and UK did when they hit their economic boom, rocketing them through the industrial revolution and, eventually, to more environmentally friendly methods of supplying power.

But I digress...

The push for a more "Carbon Neutral" approach toward life is a very big deal in the UK; it's something that everyone on TV, on the Radio and in everyday life talks about and, at least in theory, supports. One of their huge stores over here, Marks and Spencer, which supplies food, clothes, cosmetics, furniture, plants, etc., has recently pledged to become carbon neutral, or at least as close to neutral as possible, within the next five years. It is an ambitious and admirable goal, something that hopefully will set an example, perhaps a standard, for other super stores around the world.
Of course M&S is a quality conscious store that has something like morals and a desire to produce not only high quality products and service, but also a great working and shopping environment as well; so we probably shouldn't hold our collective breath waiting for the likes of Wal-Mart to make any remotely similar pledges.

Es wurde kalt (endlich)

It's finally cold!!

Finally...

And by cold, I mean -4 or -5 degrees Celsius overnight ( so 24.8 to 23 degrees Fahrenheit), causing things to be frozen even in the mid day sunshine... that's right, sunshine; it is damn beautiful outside today! Blue skies and white puffy clouds as far as the eye can see! It's still not colder than the cold spells I grew up with in Homosassa, but things stay frozen longer because it doesn't warm up as much during the day here as it does in Florida. Right now it's about 1 to 1.5 degrees C outside (33.8 to 34.7 degrees F), and the little pond out back of the kitchen is still frozen, as are a good deal of puddles around the yard and around town.

And yesterday it sleeted (is that a word?)! We were driving along and it was raining lightly, and some of the rain was falling in the strangest patterns, but it was a raindrop when it hit the windshield. "That's funny rain," I said, wondering if it could possibly be sleet, although it didn't feel cold enough outside. "That's because it's snow," was the response I received. It became more snowy and less sleety at some point in an area where it was half a degree cooler, and the twirling snow drops were much more clearly snow and not funny rain.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be even colder and snow!

I find this all rather exciting, possibly because I had expected it to be colder here than winters were in my childhood/teenage years in Florida, more frozen and bright like it is now, or possibly just because it's something different that I haven't experienced for prolonged periods of time before now.

Regardless of my interest in snow and frozen landscape, however, I do hope that the weather forecast is clear and NOT snowy / icy in Germany at the end of this week / beginning of next week, because you're not allowed to drive in Germany when it's frozen unless you have snow tires (tyres ..... snow tires are studded and they do not need these in England because it just doesn't get cold enough). I'm excited about going to Germany and really don't want this frozen medium to decide that I cannot go (did I mention yet that I'm going to France early Friday morning and stopping in Holland on Sunday on the way to Germany?).

I suppose that France and Holland will be fine, though, if Germany is out of the question.

Random Flickr Fact

The photo with the highest number of views on my Flickr page is the one labeled "Police" in the "London in July" folder at 57 views.
The second most viewed photo is the picture I use for my profile at 19 views, and thrid is the picture of me leaning against a wall at Tintern Abby at 13 views.

The Police, it seems, are quite popular.

Short Way to Go, Long Way to Drive

One of the things I enjoy most about my daily life in England is flying through the single lane roads, meant to accomodate two way traffic, flanked by tall hedges and full of curves, bends and abrupt junctions.

Cornwall is an especially good place to find little roads like this, although all of England is full of them, and I very much enjoy the trips to Cornwall -- not only because it is beautiful, but also for the sake of zipping between fields on these narrow paths at the national speed limit (the national speed limit is 60mph, signified by a white circular sign with a black slash running diagonally through the center, usually posted on both sides of these one lane roads at the entrances).

During my most recent visit to Cornwall I remembered to bring my camera, unfortunately forgotten last time when a gleaming blanket of frost was shattered over the earth and trees, dusting everything with a mixture of soft white and diamonds; the effect was similar to a childhood story book come to life -- too quaint and lovely to actually exist.
I took a succession of pictures in hopes that I could create a visual image that would assist the imagination in creating its own version of one of these drives. In this story, we start in Seaton on a two lane road, wind through the paths snaking between fields, come out to another two lane road, and end up in the passage way to Looe.

This is Seaton:



A simple village with lovely scenery on the South coast. Mostly, it is a nice area to stop and take a picture, stretch your legs and perhaps have a drink in the pub, featured in this photo, along the way to wherever you may be headed.

This road goes on for, well, I don't really know how far it goes, because that road does not take us to where we are currently headed. However, I do know that about seven minutes after going through Seaton along this road, TomTom, the navigational device that is all the rave in England, mostly because it's difficult to get lost with TomTom as your companion, announces to the vehicle passangers, ever so politely, "In 200 yards, turn right." And always assuming that TomTom knows where we're going better than we do, we turn.

That right hand turn starts off looking like this:



A nice single lane road flanked by walls grown over with ivy. Lovely!

But after just a few short mintues we find ourselves in the narrow spaces between fields, carved out of even portions of the farmer's lands years ago, trying to give to everyone without taking too much from anyone.
In the picture below, you can see a junction coming off of another road like the one we're on. The dashes are an indication to give way to the traffic on our road. If you don't see anything coming when there is a dashed line like this one, though, you don't have to stop. Of course, that rule is more applicable when you can see if there are other vehicles nearby.



These roads can go on for a very long time, twisting round and round the edges of fields, sometimes seeming to go back on it self as much as it has gone forward.



Keep in mind that as we're travelling through these winding roads that unless we pass a gate, at rather high speeds, mind you, we are surrounded by tall hedges and banks of earth thrusting grass and small shrubs skyward, so all we can really see is sky and whatever is before the next bend. Sometimes, though, there will be a sudden 90 degree or steeper turn and a great panoramic view where whoever is in charge of boxing cars into these lanes decided to leave out the hedges, probably for safety reasons.



Always refreshing!

As we continue on our journey, it is possible that we will come across another vehicle, or sometimes a gigantic tractor. If we're're lucky, though, it won't be anything bigger than a car, otherwise there is sure to be a lot of backing up until one of the two can find an area large enough to let the other through. When this situation arises between two cars, one of the parties must pull as far over as they can into one of the strategically placed indents in the hedge so that the other car can scrape by.
We are the stopped car.



It is even possible that we might come across a couple of other cars in our tiny road travels... sometimes in the same area...



And then sometimes there are ...... traffic jams? WTF?


Maybe everyone got confused by the fact that the government was informing them that they were entering No Man's Land and stopped to make sure they were reading the sign correctly... Or maybe they were more concerned about the sign on top informing motorists that the road was about to become even smaller.



Or perhaps that blue van stopped in the middle of the road for no particular reason... oh, wait...



Anyway, so on with our journey. At least the cars in front are keeping a good speed, so we should OH MY GOD THE ROAD ENDS! GIVE WAY! GIVE WAY!

But what a nice view! All the better that this junction sprang from the mind of the narrator just as we were approaching, right? Right.
Who do you suppose that sign is for?



Our busy little lane has led us to another two lane road where we can go fast and see what's coming. Rejoice!

TomTom will allow us to go along a two lane road like this for about five to seven minutes at a stretch...



...until he brings us back to a road where we are more comfortable driving... all nice and snug.




Yes, it is meant for two way traffic, and yes, that man is taking up half the road.




Once we get down into the town there are shops and people everywhere... well, shops anyway... All of which we get the pleasure of seeing very closely.


I suppose since we came in the way we did that we have already met the requirements of fitting through here without causing serious physical harm to anyone or anything...



At some point all of these claustrophobia inducing roads dump out into a town or village, and sometimes at the end of a rainbow (the end of the rainbow is my favorite place to end up).



What a beautiful town! It was really nice to walk around for a while... even while it was raining.



Sometimes an additional splash of surprise is added upon rounding a corner of one of the seemingly desolate one lane roads and discovering that there is a village in the middle of all these fields, the tiny roads the veins connecting this part with the rest of England.

In any case, extra surprises or not, these little paved trenches always make for a fun, high speed and occasionally heart stopping journey through the internal organs of England.

But if the need for extra adventure just won't let you go, if you really want to spice it up and add a kick to your travels, try turning off TomTom.

American Car Bombs

In England, they frown upon anything being called an Irish Car Bomb, and as far as anyone I know knows, there isn't another name for the drink. Thus, it has simply been renamed American Car Bomb for the duration of my stay.

Interactive Radio and Television

The radio and television stations in the UK are quite different from the radio and television stations in the US. It's not just the structure that's different, though. It is, to a large extent, the relationships between radio, television and the public.

England has national radio and television stations, called Radio1 thru Radio5, and ITV1 and ITV2. There are stations with other names as well, but the most widely listened to radio stations are Radio1 and Radio2 and the most widely watched television stations are ITV1 and ITV2.

The radio stations, not just the national radio stations but also the local city stations, discuss a huge range of topics, from national debates and news to ASDA/Wal-Mart's recent $19 men's suit to things that happen in shows on television, especially ITV1; and ITV1 and ITV2 cover an equally broad range, throwing a couple of soaps and reality TV shows into the mix as well.

The biggest difference I noticed in both radio and TV when I first got here is that they are both very interactive with the public.
Radio DJs, all mixed up with the news and music, are continuously urging viewers and listeners to text, call in or e-mail, asking for the public's opinions, experiences and ideas regarding news items, what happened on particular television shows the night before, national policies up for debate and so on.
The television networks create shows specifically designed for viewer participation, shows that require a public vote to secure a winner, weather that winner is a person, a charity, or an organization, etc.

Whether or not you watch television doesn't necessarily matter, though, because you're going to know about popular shows weather you want to or not if you listen to the radio or read the papers; these mediums are knit together with the people, creating this mesh of general information flowing through the nation, inundating the public with both useful and utterly useless information. In any case, news spreads fast.
But most things never make it past the first day; they get talked about on the radio until everyone and their dogs are aware of the situation, then die and shrivel into almost nothing, like a sudden panic attack that everyone just wants to forget about. There are some things that are talked about consistently, though, some things that are on everyone's minds, things that bug them, like global warming and Iraq.

My favorite radio stations over here are Radio 2 and the Classical station, I think it's Radio5 or something. I haven't really listened to Radio3 or 4, but I have listened to 1, 2 and 5, assuming 5 is indeed the Classical station.
Radio1 is a very youth oriented, dance/pop type station that seems to be to be rather disjointed and confused with nothing much to say.
Radio2 is something that young people, people that want to be considered cool, don't want to admit they listen to... it's a station for "the old man," not for the old man's kid. The music on that station is a mixture of classic rock, 80's and music like that of Snow Patrol, Interpol, Michael Bauble and Scissor Sisters. It is, I think, a good mixture of music with radio shows and DJs that tend to be interesting as well as funny, plus they give regular traffic updates, which are quite handy.
The Classical station is, in my opinion, amazing. The music they play is a fantastic mixture of soothing, heart wrenching and uplifting pieces that usually go very well with the English countryside. It's not like NPR's classical music in South Florida at all .... I have a hard time listening to the classical music they play on that station. The Classical station they have here is, as I said before, amazing ... I wish I could take it with me wherever I go.

Miles From Where You Are

Since before Christmas it has been raining, cold, gray and windy. On Wednesday, however, the clouds broke, the sun shined, and the grass was greener than I ever recall seeing it before.

On Wednesday, around 12:00pm UK time, the sky was blue indeed.

It was a magical sight not only because the sun had been hidden for so long, but also, if not mostly because, everything was so damned beautiful when Nature finally let the sun shine though.

It wasn't just a bright blue sky... it was a bright blue sky, like the brightest blue sky you've ever seen, with purple, dull blue, bright gray and dull pink clouds ... and then clouds (clouds that the sun took cover behind) that were Autumn colors with shimmering gold linings and that had sun-beams bursting out from behind them.
The fields weren't just green, either .... don't let green fool you; I know green is green and all, but the fields were a magnificent green that just doesn't exist in Florida landscape. I mean, I know it rains and all, but it doesn't rain this much without a certain amount of destruction, and nothing is ever this green after a tropical storm or hurricane.... There was flooding, yes, but the fields just reflected the magnificent sky all the better, and the green was simply greener than any green you've ever seen in grass before, and the whole scene was breath taking....

If I'd known that the sun would finally come out and show the landscape in all it's beauty, wonder and magnificence on Wednesday, I would have been eager to take a camera... but since every day since a few days before Christmas have been dreary, drab and depressing, I haven’t bothered to take a camera anywhere...
From now on I will count this as a serious mistake on my part and carry a camera on me always, for I am sorry not only to myself, but to anyone who loves beauty, the color green, or the sky in it's most unpredictable and beautiful states.

England is, despite all of it's nasty turns, a beautiful, beautiful country, and I am very happy -- perhaps even blessed -- to get to see so much of it so closely.

Snake Bite: That's a Wrap

It's been a couple of weeks, I know, and I'm sorry, but please understand that it's not that I haven't thought about my poor, neglected travel blog every day, it's not that I haven't felt a sort of guilt for cheating myself out of a well documented life in a foreign country, and it's not that new, different and interesting experiences haven't been occuring, it's just that I haven't been inspired.

Why? Well, I'm not sure, really. Perhaps it's the mostly gray days that start late and end early, the constant drizzle with no pretty light show or soothing thunder, or the lack of friends, family and individual socalization .... or maybe I just miss the palm trees. In any case, inspiration has slept through the dreary days while I have just longed to.

The Christmas season here is just as commercialized and early springing as it is in the US. On the other hand, it is a lot more concentrated, in your face, talked about constantly by every radio station and TV program in the country and more heavily celebrated here in the UK than I ever recall it being in the US. There also seems to be much less celebration of religious holidays outside of the Christan Christmas (I actually do not recall seeing any celebration symbols or hearing anything on the television/radio about any other religious celebrations at all, not even in ethnic areas I've been in, but I may have just not been paying attention).
It is a traditional, expected practice to go out on Christmas Eve around 4:00pm or so, get very drunk, be somewhat hung over the next morning, and then drink yourself silly with friends and family for the rest of the day on Christmas.
The day after Christmas is called Boxing Day, and is celebrated in much the same way except with Christmas Day's left overs and fewer/different friends and family present.

For the week between Christmas and New Year, almost everything goes into a sort of shut down mode where small shops simply don't open, large stores go onto special, considerably shorter hours, and most people seem to either not be working or working much less.

On New Year's Eve in the UK, as is the tradition in many countries, people old and young alike drink until their vision is blurred, their speech is slurred, and they can barely stand up; WKD Blue, Fat Frogs and Snake Bites along with beer and shots of random liquors all across England hoist the youth onto a platform of invincibility and then drive them into the ground, leaving them to suffer in their uncertainty and pain. Less daring mixtures of alcohol leave the not as young wallowing in their pain with a slightly clearer memory.
The following day is simply New Year's day and not exactly celebrated, although many, many people are not required to work.
I somehow managed to drink gin and tonic and then Fosters from about 6:30pm till 1:30am and not get so much as a buzz. I'm not sure if it's because I only had about seven drinks for the duration of the night, because I alternated/accompanied every alcoholic beverage with water, or if it was a combination of the two, but in any case I was not envious of the individuals bounding about in a drunken stupor, nor was I disappointed when I recieved the surprise reaction from the people I came across the following day of, "My, you look fresh!"

The holiday season is over now, and the radio and television stations have switched from constant Christmas talk to constant New Year's Resolution chatter. I have a lot to say about the radio and television stations over here, but I'll save that for another post.