Pollarding is a process whereby the upper limbs of a tree are removed, either to control the size of the tree or for obtaining wood for fuel.  Compare this with coppicing where the limbs are cut at the base, creating vigorous growth due to the disproportionately large root ball. Pollarding generally extends the life of the tree as it remains smaller and lighter, and less liable to wind damage.  The Willow in question was last pollarded in 2005, and will now be done again once the paperwork has gone through (you can’t even prune a TPO’d tree, without the permission of the county council).

After we’d sorted out the Willow, I suggested we look at an old Oak I had discovered on farmland nearby – old and hollowed, and at some time set alight on the inside…

I wasn’t aware, but you can’t simply slap a TPO onto any tree, no matter how ‘valuable’  it’s deemed to be, unless it’s under threat. This one isn’t, although development is not so very far away… The Tree Officer was very taken with my find, which is an English Oak and not merely Ancient but Veteran, and had been pollarded for wood over centuries.  What things this tree had witnessed, and will witness yet… And then he was taken with the Ancient Oak a hundred yards away, and the one at the end of the field… lol

We started talking about how these trees should be ‘known about’ by parish and county councils, so that they might be protected should development come to their locale.  That then is the first new project – to identify by GPS the precise location of each major tree and file this along with a photgraph of the tree, building up a database of our local stock.  But wait, there are so many great trees here… we should make people aware too.  And there’s project number two. In the spring, I will be organising a Tree Walk around the village, along with a few experts, to show people what they already see but seldom actually notice.  And I expect we’ll end up at a pub.  So if you’re in the area around next May Day…

I was recently asked by someone on Facebook if I could recommend the Prius as a company car. So many Facebook folk had simply laughed and poured scorn on the idea, but then they had never owned on. Most had never sat in one. At least I could offer some real-world insight (oops, nod to the cmpetition from Honda). So, brief summation, good and bad.

Firstly, I didn’t get the super high mileage that was advertised – 65mpg – but then I never have got the rated economy on any car I’ve run. I fear I’m an anorak and spreadsheet my fuel use, so I can tell you with utter conviction that rather than 65mpg I’ve got over fifty miles per gallon on average since day one, and my last ten fills average 54mpg. I do a lot of motoway miles, by the way. Mostly with cruise control at 77mph. Now, folk will crow and tell you that they get fifty from their [insert your preferred wagon here], but when asked no-one can prove it beyond the awful inaccuracy of the trip computer. They are all diesels too, and this is petrol, and have you noticed the pump prices are drifting apart again right now? The new third-gen Prius is advertised as capable of 72mpg and a work colleague is getting mid-sixties.

This Prius is not gutless, but if you are any sort of a petrol-head you’d disagree. Pushed, 0-60 is the same as my old 2.0 diesel 307SW at about ten seconds. Running, even on motorways, is reasonably quiet but if you accelerate hard the engine goes straight to sewing machine mode as it chooses the most effective rpm. On the other hand, at slow speeds it is curiously silent and of course is likewise silent at the traffic lights – to the point you can listen to other cars stereos and even passenger conversations as they speak over their own engine noise! The third-gen Prius up’s the engine from 1500cc to 1.8 litre, which apparently makes motorway work more economical.

Folk whitter on about the small boot size, assuming for some reason that the boot is where the batteries are – they’re under the rear seats. The boot in fact comes in several layers – under the tonneau cover is a large enough boot for three good sized suitcases. Beneath that is a plastic boot big enough to take my three laptops with ease, as well as the toolkit, red triangle and fire extinguisher etc. And finally, under all that is the space-saver wheel. Now admittedly, this does make it hard if you get a puncture when fully loaded, but that has seldom happened to me.

Others have commented on the recent Toyota recalls, but if you look to the actual government recall lists you’ll find every manufacturer on there. Toyota was noticeable only by having so few recalls to date.

The killer is of course the company car tavable benfit, which is miserly. While the government maintains the tax advantage on low emission vehicles (89g/km… and this is a five seater able to fit adults into every seat remember) then the car is about a third cheaper to me than any other comparable vehicle (I’m not at liberty to run my own vehicle for work and have to lease a car on the three-year-or-60,000-miles system).

Finally, over the thirty months and 60,000 miles I’ve not had one failure of the car aside from punctures. It’s been wonderfully relaxing driving an automatic – if a tad boring. When it snowed earlier this year and all the BMW drivers phoned in car-sick the Prius sailed through. In fact I tried on a private road to make it go daft in the snow and it simply wouldn’t. I even did an emergency brake manouver in the snow while cornering at speed, and it just slowed to a stop in very good order. Only once did I make it beep at me!

So yes, I’m getting rid of the Prius… I’ve ordered another Prius.

We’ve got feathers now, and an intimidating stare…! Still not sure (haven’t looked) if we’re a boy chook or a girl chook, and unsure what the future holds if we decide to grow some.

Little chook is a month old now, and has survived being left to its own devices. No special treatment, no special food. For the first couple of weeks she and her foster mother (a Welsummer, not the White Sussex in the background) stayed outside on straw beneath the coop. Eventually, the chick managed to climb, leap, wobble, collapse up the ladder into the coop and it’s been overnighting in there with the rest of the girls ever since.

What is it about some places that causes one to pause and ponder, to take a picture? Whatever it is, this place has it. 2004 and 2010 versions!

Spot the difference? How many can you see? Click the pic for a larger version.

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This morning, when I went for the eggs, I found a surprise!

The ‘mum’ appears happy with her new responsibility, shielding it from the other girls – and from me! The chick is eating mash and crushed weetabix, and taking from the water drinker. Time will tell if it survives the heat, the other girls and the predators (no foxes (I think the Berkeley hunt took every one just before the ban) but sparrowhawks, magpies etc). There are two other eggs in the coop, now currently abandoned but presumably soon to be sat on again. I wonder, though, if this chook chick will make it back up the ladder into the coop tonight… guess I have a duty to perform as foster-father…

Well the snoring has got so bad now that I’m suffering hearing loss, and waking myself up (according to Miss) every few minutes. Just enough to ruin sleep but not enough for me to actually be aware of waking, so that I wake up tired, irritable and deaf!

So, with a letter of referral from my doc, and my BUPA membership certificate in hand I make an appointment at Spire Hospital Bristol, musing that in my youth the site used to home Tiffany’s Nightclub, where I did my best to go deaf, headbanging to Rock on Tuesdays (but don’t wear boots because the bouncers would stamp on your feet, checking for steel toecaps…). The letter of appointment duly arrives (very fast), and I make a newbie courtesy call to BUPA to find out how the process works…

I’m not covered. Sleep deprivation, apnoea and consequent symptoms are not covered. Now, do I feel more British as I can now queue up for treatment under the good old NHS, or do I rant about bloody useless private health insurance? Ok, it’s both, thirded with a committment to opt out of the bloody useless nonsense as soon as possible. Hey ho, bring on the ear plugs.

I keep my diary in Outlook 2007, synchronising with my iTouch. To facilitate wireless synchronising I also have them talking to a MobileMe account. All has been well for ages, but recently what has started to happen is that diary events in one application will synchronise on another one day offest – but not all of them!!! It’s doing my nugget!

If I set an all day event in Outlook for Monday, it will come up on the iTouch as Sunday! If I set a timed event it will synchronise fine. But some all day events are synchronising fine too – they appear to be historic events such as repeating birthdays…

It’s got to be something that is related to time zones and GMT/BST shifts; it only became a noticeable issue after summer time popped up. I can’t find it though. My iTouch and my Outlook are both set to London time with BST changes effected. As far as I can tell so is MobileMe. However, since MobileMe isn’t a free service, and since I don’t tend to rely in wireless synchronising, I’ve deleted this aspect of life and the problem still exists…

I’ve restored my iTouch to no avail.

I’ve used and relied upon an electronic diary since my old Palm V and I’ve never had this. I’m stumped. I can’t rely on my diary! I may have to go back to a bloody paper diary for now, and hopefully someone will come up with an idea. Hopefully soon, because I can’t read my own handwriting scrawl!!! Hmm, but I suppose I can simply use the iTouch and not read the Outlook calendar… Oh help.

Test: create an all day event on the iTouch and synchronise… Create iTouch event test1 Sunday 2 May – synch to Outlook – Outlook event is 01:00 Sunday 2 May to 01:00 Monday 3 May. Event is time shifted one hour forward.

Test: create an all day event in Outlook and synchronise… Create Outlook event test2 Sunday 25 march – synch to iTouch – iTouch event is all day Saturday 24 March. Event is time shifted one day backwards.

But if the iTouch only relies on the start time and the all-day marker then it could be that it is time shifted back one hour, which makes it more consistent with the previous test… So we’re still looking (write lokiing first time, made oi laff. it’s his kind of prank) for a GMT/BST thing.

Had a brilliant few days on Dartmoor and the weather chose to excel itself too, with bright blue skies, sunshine and soft breezes (thank you). We did as much as we could in a short time, visiting Tors, National Trust and megalith sites, and stayed in a comfortable hotel at Moretonhampstead. More pics like the one below, on the family photo site. Though the weather was brilliant, the recent snow and rain meant that the ground was absolutely soaked, even and especially where it didn’t look like it was! We ‘enjoyed’ one long squelch through the moss and heather only to find that one tor – Vixen Tor – had been walled off (with barbed wire to boot!) and we had another long squelch back again. There are quite a few comments on the interweb about the greedy landowner who wants cash for climbers…

Back to reality, and the week ahead looks… interesting. Off to Swansea every day this week to commission a new telephone exchange, but back early tomorrow night (so off to work even earlier tomorrow morning) to interview for a new Parish Clerk. I’m more used to interviews from the supplicant side of the table, so this ought to be fun. I simply thank the gods that this didn’t happen a year ago, when I was far more wet behind the ears, Chairman-wise.

Folk might know that we also got Planning Permission for the new Parish Burial Ground. However, that permission came with several conditions that create new challenges… I’m a pedant, and I’m advised by those with more experience of planning policy not to bite so quickly nor take words as written, but when a condition states (over twelve typed A4 pages) that for every occasion we disturb the ground we have to have an archaeologist present – for a burial ground – I wince.

At least the redevelopment of the toddlers play area is going well. The contract is placed, and work should commence shortly. Shortly is an undefined term but I remain hopeful. The plan is for sculpted earthworks, tunnels and bridges rather than plain old swings and climbing frames (which we have already), and I’m looking forward to something good.

Just had a lovely evening meal which included purple brocolli and a giant parsnip from our vegetable garden.and now replete with a rather decent shiraz in hand I contemplate the ironing… Busy? Nah, this is living!

Ah, the joy of giving. And I don’t even have to lay them myself!

Anyhow, having taken time to ensure it wasn’t a contagious demise (the other one seemingly still alive) I piked up a new one today – a Tiger Plec.

Time will tell if they get on, but it does seem that they’re having a good old natter… I also popped in three spotted silver dollars which are apparently voracious plant eaters. That will hopefully save me having to pull out masses of plant every couple of months. Mind you, I generally find fish I’d forgotten all about during these operations…

The accelerator thing appears to be about floormats riding up under the accelerator pedal bedding into the floormat, rather than any fly-by-wire failure. I’ve had that same thing happen to me on my old Rover 45 and my Peugeot 307 SW SE… The Prius actually has clips to hold the mat in place, so perhaps that why it’s not on the list. [update link to FAQ]

The braking issue… I’ve had that, although of course my Prius is the previous generation. It’s all about potholes, ABS and bad driving. If you hit a pothole while braking hard, the ABS releases the wheel that hit the hole – very briefly – and then reapplies the brake. The ‘skid warning’ lights on the dash to let you know. If you’re not braking like crazy that’s all there is to it. The Prius isn’t really much use if you tend to brake like crazy…

As for the rubbish mileage I’m getting right now – I think we’ve tracked it down to an ‘all four’ tyre replacement, which the Toyota garage carried out using high, or at least normal, traction Bridgestone Turanza ER300′s. Not good, not happy. I guestimate these tyres have to date cost me a conservative minimum of five miles per gallon for the last 150 gallons. In cost terms that’s about three pence per mile for the last 5000, or about £150. At least.

They gave us supermarket BOGOF discounts on bulk purchases of beer, wine and spirits. They gave us 24 hour opening. Weren’t they nice? How is it at all surprising that market forces then went on to give us loss-leader alcopops, all you can drink +10% binge parties, larger glasses and automatic doubles? I’m just waiting for the return of the Party Seven – as an individual serving… Instead, we are likely faced with an extra tax – for our own health. I am so shocked, not.

Why not simply revoke supermarket alcohol licences, bringing the return of the Offie? This would create a separate journey for folk who ‘have’ to buy in, and would be an overall demotivator for drink purchase (especially bulk purchase). Then bring back the old licencing laws that meant something; open at tea time, close at going home time! No need for extra taxes, extra employment and open shops, a massive cut in necessary police and hospital intervention and a healthier populace.

I’m off to front load my caffiene intake. This has been a public health service message. hic.

“The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.” Adolf Hitler

I don’t know what they did at the last service, but this winter has really taken it out of the Prius. There’s a predictable loss of mpg in the cold, as I use the air conditioning, the heating and the lights, but that November service (Toyota main dealer) seems to have exacerbated the effect! Overall, I’m just above the 50 mpg line, but that’s a far land away from the 65mpg Toyota claim for this baby.

What do you mean, “what kind of anorak spreadsheets his mileages” I thought everybody did it?!