Wednesday 29 March 2017

Three Weeks


A lot can change during 3 weeks away, especially if one leaves during a thunderstorm, wrapped up in wind-sheeter and polar necked jumper and arrives back to Spring sunshine, wild flowers and wide awake tortoises. The one above can move almost a quickly as Jake.


Before I left, I was beginning to wonder if my wisteria had died as it was showing no shoots at all, but it made up for its late start with a heady display.



Some changes are not so welcome. Driving to the village, I was surprised to see additions to the road; some of the corners had been bypassed to straighten the route. This made my heart sink as the only reason for this is to accommodate extremely long lorries.



And a couple of kilometres along, there they were. Wind turbines ready to go.  Locals have not been consulted in the siting of these leviathans and their installation threatens the eco-system of the forest. Pine trees need a certain amount of humidity to thrive, turbines reduce the humidity. Bees in the area rely on pine pollen to make honey so honey production - one of the original backbones of the Mumcular economy - suffers.  The last time I looked, there were 28 applications for wind turbine installations in our region - that's a lot of honey to lose.

14 comments:

  1. Progress eh? We took a quick ride out to our favourite spot at Barbaros beach, where the giant Agaoglu totem stands. We were shocked to see the whole car park are now proclaiming private property and had been completely fenced off. Some people had managed to get on to it by way of a dodgy track down the side. 😢

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    1. He bought the land ages ago so this development was not unexpected. There is now access by foot to the seafront which is 'public property!'

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  2. . . the days of local consultation are long gone. All bribes, applications and licenses are now dealt with in Ankara.

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    1. ... and of course ... it depends on who the applications come from ... =(

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    2. I tried to put a positive point here for Alan and Jane but I haven't found one yet)

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  3. We're surrounded by them here in Mid-Wales, but at least we know about the proposals well in advance and can register our views.

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    1. Are your views taken into consideration?

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    2. They have been at times, especially over the route for the new power line. I think we've probably reached peak turbine by now. The oldest turbines are being replaced by bigger, but far less numerous ones.

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  4. Fabulous wisteria, you must be thrilled with it.

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  5. B to B, Our sincere sympathies are with you. And post-referendum? We work hard to keep our spirits up.

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  6. Gorgeous wisteria. Not so gorgeous wind turbines.

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