Eastern boundary of my land
I'm not generally one to compare myself with fairy tale characters but last weekend I was Cinderella, temporarily freed from an eternity of (admittedly self-imposed) solitary domestic labour to go to the ball, or in this case the barbecue. My senses whirled as I was thrust into the midst of the chattering throng of unfamiliar faces, laughing, singing, munching nut burgers. All the young eco-conscious of Machynlleth were here, most of whom had cycled across four miles and seven hills to reach the party. I had to remember how to socialise, and quick.
Thankfully my powers of speech still appeared to be in working order, and I began to meet people. Many there had some connection with the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), either working or volunteering there or having done so in the past and stuck around. A guy in his twenties, Brian*, will soon finish volunteering at CAT as an organic gardener and is interested in coming to help me for a bit whilst camping on my land. I met the chap responsible for the next Zero Carbon Britain report that CAT will publish soon, showing how it is possible for the UK to wean itself off fossil fuels entirely (sneek preview: it's all about storing excess offshore wind energy in the form of electrically-generated methane, somewhat ironically). Another guy works for Dulas, a local renewable engineering company that was originally a spin-off from CAT, who was able to give me some names of local consultants who specialise in micro-hydro. And on top of all this tiring networking I managed to enjoy myself too.
The only reason I was there at all was due to a chance conversation with Kit at Lammas who then invited me to meet his friend Cynthia and her partner Colin when he came up to visit this weekend. This barbecue was on their itinerary so I tagged along too. Cynthia very helpfully drew me in, introducing me to people, letting me know when and where social events tend to happen, and even offering me her spare room if I need a place to crash. These are a very friendly bunch of people. Everyone seemed fascinated that I was living on my land nearby.
I left at the stroke of midnight, making sure my feet were both still clad to ensure no Prince Charming comes knocking on my caravan door, and unlike Cinderella was back the following day at a birthday picnic in the park where I met more people including Julie who runs a local veg-growing operation on rented land, selling it at the market and to cafes, who had a lot of useful advice.
Back to the removal of bracken roots. They pile higher and higher in grotesque blackened twists like the dried intestines of a huge disembowled alien creature. I have to admit to some satisfaction as I rip more out of the soil each day. On Thursday afternoon however I was interrupted by the arrival of an ecologist and his young acolyte, who I have paid handsomely to conduct something called a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal. Yes I'm afraid it has got to the stage that I'm paying people to visit me. He really did seem to know a thing or two about nature, pausing every few minutes before identifying yet another burst of birdsong, pointing out all species of trees, and hunting for evidence of dormice and otters, both protected species (he drew a blank).
His report will be a prerequisite for any planning application I may submit for change of use to residential, but will also be fascinating to me simply as a baseline document for what lives here right now. If I'm to encourage biodiversity here the first step is to know how biodiverse it already is.
* Names have been changed as per usual.
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