Sky Grief

Humanity is slowly losing access to the night sky, and astronomers have invented a new term to describe the pain associated with this loss - Noctalgia - meaning 'sky grief.' 

Photo by John Fowler on Unsplash

It is a sad but unavoidable fact that most humans in the developed world have never seen the Milky Way in all of its glory. Admittedly, we don't get to see it quite as strikingly in theNorthern hemisphere as they do in the South but, nevertheless, light pollution means we see almost none of it. And that makes me sad. For almost the entireity of human history we've been able to look up at a cloudless night sky and wonder at the vastness of it all and the millions of stars. Now we just see the brightest points of light. And most of those are planets. 

While most light pollution comes from the ground I was surprised to read on the Space.Com website that satellites are causing it too. As it says: 'More recently, the explosive growth in satellite communication "constellations," like SpaceX's Starlink system, has put orders of magnitude more satellites into orbit than even a decade ago, with even more on the way. Those satellites don't just spoil deep-space astronomical observations when they cross a telescope's field of view; they also scatter and reflect sunlight from their solar arrays. The abundance of satellites is causing the overall brightness of the sky to increase all around the globe. Some researchers have estimated that, on average, our darkest night skies, located in the most remote regions of the world, are 10% brighter than they were a half century ago, and the problem is only getting worse.'

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash 

I have been in dark sky areas - particularly in places like the Outer Hebrides - where the beauty of a clear night sky takes your breath away. 

What a tragedy it will be if future generations never get to experience it.

More meanderings

New tree planting, tractors harrowing, spicy seeds and fun with plantain poppers.

 Plus a bonus Robin's Pincushion turning autumnal brown among the rosehips:

A sad tale from Sycamore Gap

The Sycamore Gap tree has been cut down.

The tree stands in a dramatic dip in Hadrian’s Wall in the Northumberland National Park and has become famous around the world. It is looked after by both Northumberland National Park and the National Trust and is loved by photographers who have captured stunning images of the tree under the park's dark skies. The landmark is also known as the Robin Hood Tree, after featuring in the 1991 Kevin Costner film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. 

The Sycamore Gap tree was one of the most photographed trees in the country. 

This morning park bosses confirmed that the tree is sadly no longer standing after being "deliberately felled" overnight. Northumbria Police launched an investigation and a 16-year-old male was arrested. He was now been released on bail, pending further enquiries. 

But what of the future? 

National Trust general manager Andrew Poad told BBC Breakfast the stump was “healthy” and staff might be able to coppice the tree, a technique allowing new shoots to grow from the base of a trunk. He said: “It’s a very healthy tree, we can see that now, because of the condition of the stump, it may well regrow a coppice from the stump, and if we could nurture that then that might be one of the best outcomes, and then we keep the tree.” 

Rob Ternent, head gardener at The Alnwick Garden in Northumberland, said the tree will start growing again but “won’t ever be the same shape or as good of a tree as it was”. He told the PA news agency: “It’s worth a try but I think livestock and wildlife will potentially damage it as well. It’ll be very difficult to get it back to the original tree. The growing season’s coming to an end now but by spring next year it will have some life in it. It’ll probably be about eight foot tall, but it’ll be lots of singular branches, more bushy. It was about 300 years old so it’ll take a long time to get back to that size. It’s a massive shame.” 

And, putting as postive a spin on events as he can, forester Chris Brewchorne told Facebook: "The tree isn't dead or gone and will regrow vigorously from the stump. Ironically the little toerag who chopped it may have done it a favour and extended its life. Acers (European sycamores are Acer Pseudoplanatus) react very well to cutting and respond with strong regrowth. They used to be coppiced to stumps to regrow into fresh poles harvested on a 15 year cycle. In a few weeks it'll be covered in shoots and new growth, next year it'll be a thicket of branches, and in 5 years maybe 30 feet high. It'll arise phoenix like from its ruin. Here are before and after pics of acers (sycamore and field maple) I've chopped deliberately to improve their stability and form and extend their lives. They're all thriving."

A terrible act of apparently mindless vandalism. And a tragic loss to the countryside and to local history

But maybe also a new start.

Sloe Gin (Part 1)

Part One of my video tutorial on how to make this delicious drink.

 

Storytelling masterclasses

I was very lucky to have two masterclasses in storytelling today .

After work I popped into London and headed for The Cartoon Museum in Wells Street (I've mentioned the place before here). It's a marvelous place full of original art by some of my illustration heroes. Just look at these pieces by Ralph Steadman and Ronald Searle, for example.

It's a place I've visited many times but today it was to see a new exhibition celebrating the 30th anniversary of Aardman's masterpiece of stop-motion - The Wrong Trousers - featuring, of course, Wallace and Gromit.

Steven Spielberg once described the train sequence at the end of the Oscar-winning film as the greatest four minutes in cinema history and I'm inclined to agree. The storytelling is fantastic, the visuals are technically brilliant and the script is hilarious. Sadly, many of Aardman's props and papers were destroyed in a catastrophic fire a few years ago but enough has survived to make up this little exhibition. It's wonderful. I am SO looking forward to the new Wallace and Gromit movie slated for 2024.

Then, following a brisk 10 minute walk, I arrived at BBC Broadcasting House, the preferred meeting place of another great storyteller.

Regardless of what anyone things thinks about the man himself, no one can dismiss the fact that Jeffery Archer can tell a good story. The fact that he has sold nearly 400 million books is testament to that. I can't begin to imagine how it would feel to sell that many of mine. 

The interview was for the We'd Like a Word podcast that I co-host with m'chum Paul Waters, another author. You can catch the episode in a week or so. Meanwhile all of our previous episodes - which include interviews with the likes of Graham Norton, Julia Donaldson, Michael Douglas and many more - can be heard on iTunes, Spotify and pretty much wherever good podcasts are hosted. But here's a link for you.

We talk to authors but we also talk to anyone with a toe dipped into the worlds of writings and publishing. The next episode to go out talks to a professional book cover designer and in past shows we've had conversations with agents, commessioners, editors, proofreaders, publicists, poets and small press owners.

But. on this occasion, we had Jeffery talking about his new thriller Traitors Gate. We also discussed, among other things, the short story format and Jeffery dissected a story for us that came out of a newspaper challenge to write a complete story in 100 words. It was a fascinating chat. 

So, watch out for that in the very near future.

Oh, and I asked him if he'd kindly sign my copy of Cat O'Nine Tails - one of his short story collections - which links back nicely to The Cartoon Museum as it's illustrated by Ronald Searle.

I might read it again now.

But first I'm going to rewatch The Wrong Trousers.

Oh, and this Youtube video of my day out:

Milpreve and Monsters

As promised yesterday, some footage of Saturday's Seer Green Beer Festival and my Monster Art Workshop. 

But, before that, a bit of a dog walk and a search for hagstones - known in my native Cornwall as milpreve (I wrote about them previously here and here).

And here are a few photos from Saturday (thanks to Paul Waters for supplying them).

Monsters and Beer

Yesterday (Saturday 24th) was the day of the Seer Green Beer Festival. 

Seer Green is a lovely little Buckinghamshire village not too far from me. It's known as the 'Cherry Pie Village' because, until the early part of the 20th century, it was a mainly an agricultural community known for its extensive cherry orchards. The remnants of some of these orchards remain and, in honour of this tradition, the local school holds a 'Cherry Pie Fair' every summer which usually involves a fancy dress parade and a procession through the village. 

It's quite an affluent place and among the former and current residents you'll find names like Val Doonican, Jon Anderson (of prog band Yes), weatherman Iain McCaskill and author Frederick Forsyth. In fact, I did a 'Writers for Ukraine' event with Frederick just last year.

However, yesterday was all about the beer ...  although, not so much for me. 

I was asked if I would run a monster art workshop for local kids. So that's what I did. I got them to invent their own beasties and then helped them by demonstrating how to draw various features like eyes on stalks, tentacle arms and be-fanged mouths. It was great fun and they created some fantastic monsters.

Here are a few of them (plus a little monster dressed up as a monster):   

A great fun day out (for all involved).

Watch for a video about the event on this blog in the next few days.