A slow start today. Some days feel like that - thank goodness!
I suppose I should relish feeling a bit blue now and then. A natural reaction, methinks, to the unending host of jobs on my ongoing list of ‘Things that need doing today.’And also the never ending feeling of being a small part of the apparent enormity of needing to shift humankind on to a gentler more relaxed future pathway.
I often ponder over what will be the trigger that activates this shift. "Only a major catastrophe will really make people change the way they live," is the ongoing mantra. I am weary of waiting for the said catastrophe when we’re right in the thick of it now! There is masses of well-established, conventional stuff that people are asked to take on board, like recycling, increase use of public transport, cycling and walking instead of private car etc etc. Good stuff, like this, needs to be done but I fear is tokenism and just tinkering at the edges of ‘the Big One.’

I ponder over what function these ‘Down to Earth’ blog thoughts should promote. To stimulate response and reaction is my number one. I’d just love the phone to ring (01539 725168) with a voice at the other end saying "I’m really interested in your comments and would appreciate having a chat with you and maybe even an organised presentation, one evening." Yes, that would be great!

I don’t want to hog our beautiful retreat at Sprint Mill by becoming a quiet, disconnected, rural hermit out here. The place is a resource, to stimulate, I hope, dialogue and thus activate new ideas that are in sympathy, rather than in opposition, to the planet.

It is staggering just how much of our every day needs arise from our 15 acres. I feel quite proud of the way the holding has developed over 30 plus years since original acquisition. I walked around the field (seven acres) yesterday - just checking out how it was. I witnessed our well-laid tradition hedge.An A1 habitat for nesting birds - noticed indigenous trees, bursting into life, that we’ve planted from locally gathered seed over many years in fenced off corners of the field - willow warbler and chiff chaff, singing forth their territorial rights - photographed the blossoms on our newly planted orchard - checked the dead-hedging protection (Alder branches), put up to protect newly coppiced hazel from a roving deer.
I also had a chat with a couple of Dales Way walkers. The path passes through the field. I could see them pausing and looking about, so went up saying "Hello there!" We soon got talking and they said our field looked kind of different. "Oh, thank you; it is!" I said and outlined what we’ve done over the years. "We started with a single green field," I explained, "and have fenced it off into smaller sections, and so far have now four main paddocks for sheep goats and heifers and six much smaller areas for plantings of home-grown indigenous trees and a space for biomass and basket willow. Last week we sold 100 willow stakes to a couple who are building a yurt. I like to feel that the landscape should be managed so that the well-being of all of Earth’s creatures that need to thrive in this locality, including ourselves, are catered for, as equal partners."

A new word for this approach could be ‘guardening.’ My dream, post the oil age, is that huge numbers of people will rediscover the countryside for what it really offers and get on with low-tec 'guardening' on a grand scale, living on site, in low-impact development, so as to help safeguard the needs of all of us and all creatures great and small! I feel that humankind (human unkind?!) has exploited the landscape for too long and should now take a serious lead in putting back so much of what has been removed over recent years.

(Pause whilst I write, so as to feed a couple of pet lambs, with two bottles of fresh goat’s milk. The lambs are bleating loudly for their lunch!)

I’d like to invent more new words as part of the green crusade. One word that is missing in the dictionary is a cross between ‘work’ and ‘play.’
We do so much of this within the so-called ‘good-life’ at Sprint Mill. It’s a lovely combination and I feel would be an ideal for many to persue who are seeking a more grounded way of life, relieved of the pressures of our modern material culture.
I find a growing delight of just slowing down and listening to the sounds of our living planet - being lead, absorbed, and inspired by all that abounds! In this context, my eldest son, Thomas, gave me an extraordinary CD by Chris Watson. This comprises beautiful yet disturbing recordings of remote parts of the world.
The emphasis is on the natural sound of wilderness areas in Africa, Scotland and Iceland. Hardly a sound of human life, from which I found a surging relief, listening to the raw sound of a people-free environment. An abundance/outpouring of the sounds of nature. Both humbling and educational!
The most disturbing recording is the sound of a glacier- the microphone has picked up the rhythm, the groaning, the creaking, the tension, the pauses, the relentless ‘breathing’ of the glacier, under the force of gravity. ‘Disturbing’ for we are all contributors to the more frequent groans of the glacier via warmer conditions.
I am filled with wonder, awe, fear and excitement by the sounds. I feel this is all part of listening, taking stock, and responding to the messages - taking us towards that elusive creature - a renewed planet Earth, stewarded not by consumers but an evolved breed of people called conservers!

DO respond to this stuff. Share it! Knock it! Love it! Whatever! As my birthday card from my wife, Romola, said, "It takes two to tango!"