Third Heathrow runway - maybe not

People living in the vicinity of London's Heathrow Airport have long been wondering if and when a third runway would be built, further disrupting their lives. It looks as if a "yes" or a "no" could come before too long. Last week the decision of Transport Minister Ruth Kelly to resign her post at the next reshuffle, which is thought to happen sooner rather than later, means that there will be a new person to take on the Heathrow headache - a headache because the airport is running at almost full capacity off its two existing runways.

Today has seen another item of news that could have a huge bearing on Heathrow's future. At their annual conference the Tories have declared that they would not build a third runway if they came to power, they would upgrade some of our railways instead. Of course saying something at your party conference doesn't necessarily equate with what you might do in power but the third runway thing is of such fundamental concern to environmental campaigners that it would be very difficult surely for Cameron to change tack if he got into Downing Street.

I've stated before on this blog that I'm very against taking ever more land to extend airports. Making increased use of the existing airport infrastructure at such places as Exeter and Newquay doesn't bother me so much, it's the grabbing of extra land and demolition of homes that irks me.

The importance of Heathrow for business travellers is one of the reasons I've seen advanced for expanding the airport and the thought crossed my mind "I haven't heard anything about London's City Airport for a very long time. Is it still functioning?" Well I've just looked at the wikipedia entry on that very subject and it appears to be going from strength to strength. It now has a railway connection giving rapid access to the financial heart of the capital. I think that its original short runway has been extended a little but it is still quite restricted on the size of planes that can use it.

We seem to have an insatiable appetite for travelling and it's interesting to note ever increasing use of the railways so any upgrading of the system would be welcome in principle. However what didn't come over to me was whether the Tories were looking at a totally new track between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds (I think they were the cities specifically mentioned) or whether it was a matter of just improving what was there already. Improving the railway system in this country would get my vote if the choice was between that and making Heathrow bigger.

That speech by Gordon Brown

Yesterday it was billed as the most important speech of his political career. So how did Gordon Brown perform at the Labour Conference in his address to the 'party faithful'. Well I didn't see all of it but he looked fairly comfortable throughout and every three sentences or so his morale was being maintained with sympathetic applause. What was innovative though was Brown's wife Sarah doing the warm up act before he strode on to the stage and in fact she introduced him. It's said that she is very astute regarding PR and this was a clever move particularly as so many folk reckon that Brown has problems connecting with people. Yes here was a more human Gordon Brown than perhaps we had seen before.

The speech hardly set the world on fire but I wouldn't have really expected it to. Largely self congratulatory it pressed the right buttons with the audience in the hall but I would suggest that the effect on the electorate at home would have been minimal. These annual rituals when the parties have their get-togethers shouldn't be taken too seriously as they exist primarily in their own little bubbles. For most of the population it's the constant drip drip of bad news which is hurting Labour so much; a one off speech by their leader is meat and drink for political anoraks and the party workers but for the rest probably one big yawn.

Even before his speech Brown was fairly secure in his post for the short term. The person who appeared to be most desirous of his crown, David Miliband, by common consent fluffed his chances with rather a poor speech and he is also not flavour of the month with the trade unions. As expected Brown made a few vague promises regarding goodies to come but this is all a nonsense because we know that the government is severely stretched so far as income is concerned.

The Conservatives have the advantage with their conference going last so that they can take on board what has happened at both the LibDem and Labour events. Up until now David Cameron has been able to be 'policy light' as Labour has continued to implode. The Tories might have a strong position in the polls but this is mainly down to Labour's ineffectiveness and lack of progress by the LibDems. However next week the country will be looking for some vision from 'Dave' and some answers regarding how the party should react to the present mayhem in the financial markets. Regarding the latter the Tories can't be muted for ever.

Best laid plans don't bear fruit

I had it all worked out for today ... there was a 'Community Rail Festival' taking place at Plymouth Station with my friends in 'The Rubber Band' playing there from 10.30 till 12.00 approximately. My plan had been to take the 7.42 train in from Gunnislake and then spend a couple of hours or so in the big city going to 'The Hoe' and doing a little bit of clothes shopping. Back to the station to hear the first hour of the music and then taking the 11.30 back towards home, but stopping off at Bere Ferrers at the railway heritage centre there for a couple of hours and then resuming the train trip to get home mid afternoon. That was the scheme anyway. Having made the special effort to be up earlier than usual to walk up to the station I duly arrived there to find that my train into Plymouth had been cancelled due to a signalling problem somewhere down the line (later I found out that said problem was at Keyham - for the last part of our branch line journey we have to 'mix it' with the main line trains). Must have been embarrassing for the organisers although I gather that the problem got sorted before long.

Now I must admit that one of my failings is that of not having a 'Plan B', well not in this instance anyway! The upshot was that I enjoyed the superb weather in my garden instead getting some very useful and necessary work done. A spy, well a particularly close friend who is a member of The Rubber Band, told me that their music was extremely well received and with favourable comments from the bigwigs attending it seems that a jolly good time was had by all.

Reverting to the signalling failure for a moment I have to say that it is great to have a push button information link at Gunnislake whereby a voice will give you a message as to any problem with that train service. I assume that this facility is at all unmanned stations so that you are not left completely in the dark if your train doesn't turn up when it should. Although obviously frustrating today for me I do nevertheless get the impression that reliability continues to improve. Just such a shame that this blip was today.

Where now for Gordon Brown

The pressure on Gordon Brown is mounting day by day. It is pretty evident that support for him is rapidly dissolving, we have political correspondents in the media who talk off the record to government ministers on a regular basis and phrases like "Gordon's useless" are what we are hearing. Yes the Cabinet are trying to display an outward show of unity (they can't do much else really) but some of their comments expressed publicly have been lukewarm at best. Even one of his most conspicuous cheerleaders in the left of centre press, Polly Toynbee, has now turned 180 degrees and says he has to go.

Brown must be absolutely dreading the Labour Party Conference next week. How does he inspire the troops? He isn't a person who is a great natural orator. Will he do 'humility'? It would be totally out of character. I suspect that he might talk about Labour's supposedly good record over the first eleven years and so, on that basis, he is the only one who can return the country to the sunlit uplands.

Like it or not this is a very televisual age and this makes things very tough for Brown. Whereas the likes of Major and Blair seemed to be totally at ease in a TV studio for instance it just doesn't seem that way for our present Prime Minister. Labour are really in a near impossible situation: the government is hardly functioning, the world is experiencing dire financial circumstances and there is no obvious successor to Brown were he to go.

Of course right wing bloggers who are Brown haters are revelling in his misfortune. Me, I'm mainly worried about the apparent impotence of the present government to effectively run this country and make good decisions.

Tall Ships sail from Falmouth

Sad to say that I didn't visit Falmouth last week where the town was hosting the preparations and start of the Tall Ship Race to Funchal in Madeira. It is a two stage race stopping in Portugal before crossing to Madeira. As I wasn't there to witness the spectacle it makes sense I think to put in a link here to an extensive feature about it on the BBC Cornwall website. I have to say that the Beeb normally excel on their websites - I find them very easy to navigate around and they generally have some useful links as well. Not so good from my point of view is the website of the Western Morning News, it seems to take for ever to load and when I get there I find it a bit of a miss-mash. It's partly what you are used to I suppose but the BBC sites to me are so user friendly.

Falmouth in my opinion is the perfect place for such an event. Certainly a number of nations were participating and by all accounts the town was a very happy and animated place during the course of the regatta. Estimates suggest that something like 130,000 people watched the start of the race and a good many of these were massed on the cliff at Pendennis Castle to watch the ships sail away. I think that if I had driven down there on Saturday I would have been tempted to go to the lovely Roseland Peninsula, do some walking with the aim of arriving at Zone Point or St Anthony Head to secure a vantage point. But anyway I didn't so no point in thinking about "might haves"! The fundamental thing here is that the whole event proved to be a terrific success.

Well done Falmouth!

Colin Terry moved from Afghanistan post

Last week I wrote about the quite ridiculous fuss being made regarding Chief Superintendent Colin Terry. He was "guilty" of donning a mask to look like Osama Bin Laden at his local carnival at Grampound in mid Cornwall. Apparently disguising himself in some way or another is an antic he always acts out at this happy charity event.

What I hadn't mentioned in my earlier pieces is that at the time Mr Terry was on secondment to the Foreign Office helping to train police in Afghanistan. Sorry to have omitted that information although I was well aware of it. Sadly, and inevitably, he has now lost that particular job and is returning to the Devon and Cornwall force and a slightly uncertain future. There is a threat of some sort of disciplinary action hanging over him. For heaven's sake, a quiet word is all that is needed if anything at all. Since his arrival I've been very impressed by the Constabulary's chief man, Stephen Otter, and I hope he will be sensible about this. I suspect though his hands will be tied and that he will have to be seen to be doing the 'right thing'.

I had noted before that one of the reasons for the present furore could well be the closeness of the date of the carnival the Saturday before last to the anniversary of the 9/11 attack. Yet my logical mind says that the same 'offence' would be committed on whatever date it took place.

It seems that the great majority of folk at Grampound were totally happy with what Mr Terry did. But it only takes one doesn't it to voice a forceful objection. It's all very sad.

Not nostalgic about everything

Like many of my age I can easily get nostalgic about various aspects of life of yesteryear. This is partly down to the rose-tinted spectacles thing of course but there are certain aspects that I most definitely am not nostalgic about, one of these being ... breakfast cereals! To think that I used to eat weetabix, those were the days, not! I don't always have a cooked breakfast in the morning but I really do like to get off to a good start with some decent cereal and my choice there is Jordans 'Country Crisp': "British oat & barley clusters with real strawberries" as it proclaims on the outside of the packet currently in front of me. Now I am also a fan of the 'Frusli' chewy oat cereal bars from the same manufacturer, so I was highly delighted with their recent promotion whereby I could get a voucher for 20p off a packet of Country Crisp from inside a six pack of Fruslis and also by purchasing the Country Crisp I could get 20p off my next lot of Frusli bars. Talk about a win-win situation but of course it might be a sop to an upcoming price increase of those products.

I did once write to Jordans in praise of their products who thanked me with some discount vouchers. But another reason to waffle on about cereals is because of a chance remark the other day. What happened was this: I was at the home of some folk I know who kindly offered me a cup of coffee. It turns out that Helen doesn't drink milk so has her coffee black. So "what about cereal" I queried, "what do you have on that?" The answer from Helen was simple - "fruit juice". Now I had been thinking of cutting down my intake of milk but just hadn't thought of substituting it with fruit juice. Normally I like to think of myself as someone who thinks out of the box and who doesn't follow the herd. Crazily I had been drinking fruit juice and following that immediately with cereal and a splashing of milk. Why hadn't I spotted the simple alternative pointed out by Helen? Taking her advice I now add fruit juice (currently Grape, Apple and Raspberry) to the 'Country Crisp'.

The resulting mix is absolutely delicious!

Home with helipad and dog garden for sale

Every Saturday the 'Western Morning News' has a property supplement, normally running to say forty something pages but once in a while a bumper version will come out which is much bigger. Last Saturday was one such extending to no less than 72 pages! Of course Cornwall, Devon and west Somerset covers a very large area and, credit crunch or not, there are still plenty of nice properties in the upper price ranges on estate agency books. I usually skim through this supplement to see if any of these posher residences are in locations that I particularly know.

In this particular instance I noted a house at Bantham which is a hamlet hard by the mouth of the River Avon in Devon's South Hams. What particularly caught my eye was that this property had a helipad in its grounds. I find some of the noises emanating from garden machinery irritating enough so certainly wouldn't be over pleased if living in Bantham to have a 'copter landing in the garden of the big house just up the road. Some time ago I saw an advert for a similar sort of property in again a normally tranquil location and with a helipad; in that instance it was on the north side of Cornwall's Helford River.

The Bantham house is advertised by KnightFrank and if you go to their website and put in the postcode TQ7 you can have a look at the online brochure. I was particularly intrigued to note that there was a "purpose built 'dog garden'", don't think I've come across that before!

Page 3 of the brochure uses the phrase "with undoubtedly some of the most spectacular views in the West Country". Some of these views looking down to the mouth of the river with Burgh Island lying just offshore are illustrated but I'm concerned about their use of that one word "spectacular". Yes the view is without doubt beautiful in that gentle pastoral sort of way one finds in the South Hams but "spectacular"? Not to me. Perhaps I'm too narrow in my definition of that word thinking of 'jaw dropping' and 'dramatic' as likely synonyms. But of course estate agents are allowed to be a little more expansive in their choice of vocabulary aren't they! A further point here is the fact that the line of houses cascading down the hill at Bigbury-on-Sea also features strongly in the view, not that I want to be disparaging about that settlement!

If you are interested the house and its 3 acres has a price guide of £3,750,000. Now where did I put my cheque book...

Local daily goes downmarket on story

Following my piece yesterday about the policeman posing as Osama Bin Laden I see that today's Western Morning News has decided to cover the whole of their front page, and a substantial part of page 5 as well, with this story. Time was that the WMN used to be very middle of the road with its reporting even if typically somewhat right of centre in its political outlook. Sadly of late it has elected to go toward the London tabloid way of doing things, definitely downmarket from where it once was. In many respects it is still quite a good paper but surely in the great scheme of things the Osama Bin Laden business didn't merit taking up the whole of the front page and space inside to boot. From what I can make out the locals at Grampound weren't taking offence at what he did; apparently Colin Terry lives at Grampound and always dresses up for the carnival which of course raises money for charity.

I wonder if those berating Mr Terry would have shown similar venom if the carnival date (last Saturday) had been significantly further away from the 9/11 anniversary date. To me the whole thing is a bit of a non story and I hope it soon blows over.

Not worth making a fuss about

A story making news in Cornwall at this moment concerns Chief Superintendent Colin Terry. No I hadn't heard of him either. His misdemeanour apparently was to dress up as Osama Bin Laden at the Grampound village carnival the other day. Part of the story is that he had represented Devon and Cornwall Police at a memorial service for the victims of the 9/11 atrocity and of course we are on the eve of the anniversary of that event. Apparently the matter has now been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

I really hope that the IPCC don't make a big deal about this. It's certainly not the first time that this sort of lampooning has occurred and there's no indication of the villagers having been upset. In some people's eyes it might seem like a lack of judgment but there are certainly far more important things to worry about.

Most voters don't want any party for ever

Following on from my last piece about politicians forgetting the lessons of history one of the things Labour in particular ought to realise is the fact that after 13 years in power (assuming the General Election comes in 2010 rather than next year) many people will hanker after a change whatever the circumstances of the time. Even if the economy and all else was to show an upturn in this comparatively short time then Mr or Ms floating voter would still be saying "perhaps we ought to see what the other lot can do". Remember too that as the policies of the main parties become closer the old tribal loyalties will continue to diminish and that more of the electorate will be prepared to switch votes.

It will be no good Labour harping on about what the Tories did or did not do prior to 1997, that is becoming too much like ancient history. Although Cameron will need to put some flesh on Tory policies at some stage you can see the reasoning in Conservative HQ - with a good lead in the opinion polls, Labour in dire financial straits and that party seemingly ready to implode why worry too much about broadcasting your own policies at this moment in time.

I will be interested to see how Gordon Brown addresses his upcoming party conference. He is not a natural orator whereas Tony Blair seemed to be able to get the party faithful eating out of his hand. Blair might have talked total garbage for much of the time, but this didn't matter. He understood how to work his audience (of course there are always exceptions - I remember that TV footage of the WI members slow hand clapping him!).

Here's a point to ponder: following the trauma of 'Black Wednesday' and interest rates going into the stratosphere the Tories got their act together and vacated government in 1997 with the economy in good shape. However the sleaze, the infighting over Europe and the perception that they were past their 'sell by date' did for them.

I get the feeling that many a Labour MP will now be worrying about their job prospects in a couple of years time.

Politicians don't understand history

One of the problems that seems to beset the politicians in this country is the fact that they don't seem to be capable of learning from history. Take the recent example of the stamp duty holiday whereby for the next 12 months those purchasing a property between £125,000 and £175,000 will be exempt from paying the 1% stamp duty. The Tories tried a similar idea back in the 1990's when we had the last recession and they admit that the measure had almost no effect on the property market then. So what is the reasoning over the stamp duty giveaway now?

Firstly the government with typical ineptness started hinting about a stamp duty holiday some weeks ago. For estate agents August is one of the quieter months at the best of times and they needed the uncertainty about stamp duty like a hole in the head. Having dropped heavy hints about the relaxation of stamp duty before thinking things through the government could hardly not do something about it. Now as a fundamental principle it seems wrong that the government should take money from you for the simple act of moving home (obviously though if property stamp duty were abolished tomorrow then they would have to take our money in some other way). But the basic question is - will this measure enliven the sluggish property market and encourage first time buyers? Going back to my first paragraph I would say most likely not.

Let's rewind to some 12 to 24 months ago with property prices going up. Doing something about stamp duty back then when plenty of funds were flowing into the Treasury would have seemed a good and popular thing to do. Last year when the Tories at their annual conference suggested cutting back on stamp duty then Labour asked how they, the Tories, would pay for this. The obvious question is "how can the government pay for this now?". With the stamp duty holiday having been announced will there be a rush to buy? With house prices still falling and with concerns about retaining one's job then I would have thought potential purchasers would prefer to hold on for the moment. The other factor of course is the little matter of shortage of mortgage funds and the business of now having to find a reasonable deposit - just like the old days in fact for those with long memories.

Under present market conditions therefore I don't see the stamp duty holiday being of great use; but Gordon has to be seen to be doing something of course! One of the biggest curses of our property obsessed country is the way that house prices have periodically to adjust to peoples salaries and prospects. Even without the severity of the current 'credit crunch' I think that a massive correction was due.

Some people are saying that the boss of 'The Nationwide' was being too pessimistic anticipating average house prices dropping by 25% from when the downturn started. I'm not sure that he's too far off the mark. We will see over the coming months.

Good news story on our local railways

There's been a heartening story in this past week courtesy of Neil Gallacher, our local BBC industry correspondent. Neil's piece was about the continuing increase in passenger numbers on the local railway branch lines in the south west. He reported that it was the Tarka Line between Exeter and Barnstaple which was leading the way but that the other ones were also seeing more traffic. I was surprised to hear him state that the summer service on the Looe to Liskeard branch would be maintained through the winter.

So far as I am concerned if I want to go into Plymouth then the railway would be my preferred method of travel. Like most branch lines in our area the Tamar Valley Line passes through some great scenery and even the heart of Plymouth itself is now much more civilised as it is largely given over to the pedestrian and a considerable number of trees planted.

A point well worth bearing in mind is that if several people are travelling together - I think it is three or more but I might be wrong - then fares can be obtained at a useful discount. I hope this facility is still available as I think that the railway companies are now simplifying their fare structure.

Here's hoping that our railways can now go from strength to strength.

Margaret Hodge on another planet

"Mrs Hodge, MP for Barking, East London, added: 'In the States, I saw double- decker trains and I thought those could help with overcrowding here.' " This is a quote from the MailOnline regarding Margaret Hodge's appalling comments in her interview and with particular reference to the overcrowding on London's Tube. Look at this picture Ms Hodge and start getting real. I shall now think of her as "Barking mad from Barking".

Margaret Hodge puts her foot in it

One of the lower profile ministers in this rather poor government is Margaret Hodge who, we are told, is the person charged with promoting this country's tourism. According to the main story on the front page of yesterday's 'Western Morning News' she has been interviewed in the 'Holiday Which' magazine and it would seem has been making some uncomplimentary remarks about the providers of Britain's tourism. Moreover she prefers Italy to Britain as her own holiday destination! Gordon Brown like Tony Blair before him seems to excel in finding square pegs to go in round holes!

Looking at the Italy preference first - there's nothing intrinsically wrong in being biased toward a particular country for a holiday. But wouldn't you think that the person selected for her portfolio would be someone passionate about the virtues of our own country? So once again our prime minister is guilty of very poor judgment. I think I made a blog entry some considerable time ago when I was perhaps a little harsh about Tony and Cherie Blair forever jetting off abroad for their hols when Mr Blair was PM. Perhaps I should reign in that criticism a little. My point then was that the Blairs were showing a very poor example in not cutting down on air miles but I'm absolutely sure the two of them really didn't like holidaying in this country and, with Blair's then responsibilities, it could be fairly argued perhaps that it was important for him to properly recharge his batteries during his break; if that meant disappearing to Sir Cliff Richards' island hideaway or some such place then so be it. (I do recall by the way that the Blairs spent a few days in Cornwall following the 2001 foot and mouth crisis, but that was I think just a token gesture following pressure from our tourist industry which was suffering as a result of the F & M. It was followed by their usual much longer holiday abroad, I have a feeling the Cornish experience was duty, not something they particularly enjoyed)

Back to Margaret Hodge then. Yes she might complain that English hotels are too expensive compared to those in Italy say. I would like to see a comparison between the overheads carried by similar hotels in the two countries, we know that the VAT rate here is greater than almost everywhere else in the EU. I get the feeling that more and more hotels are upping their game in the UK, there may well still be hotels and other accommodation providers who still need to do better but why has Ms Hodge decided to use this particular journal to berate them? Morale in that industry cannot be at its best what with the appalling weather and the ever increasing overheads and bureaucracy they face so why kick them in this very public way. If there are things she feels need saying surely the industry have conferences where she can make her points.

Once again we have a minister delivering very insensitive comments at the most inappropriate moments. We deserve much better than this.

What a splendid insult

If you are in the public eye, more particularly if you are a politician, then you are always likely to be on the receiving end of an insult or put down and some of these can be very amusing. A link from a blog I was reading led to a piece by Sue Cameron at FT.com regarding the woes of our government. In it she mentions the possibility of Alistair Darling losing his job to Ed Balls and Sue records this comment by a sceptical Whitehall man: "Ed? Think Gordon Brown without the charm". Ouch!!

I like that remark as much as I dislike Ed Balls and his equally embarrassing wife Yvette Cooper.

'The Pimple' has been bought

If you don't live in the Tavistock area of West Devon you might be puzzled by the title to this blog entry. Well 'The Pimple' is a very small triangular building on the edge of Whitchurch Down - effectively where Tavistock meets Dartmoor. The structure is in fact a folly and was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens no less as an access point to a now disused service reservoir. In Devon one associates Lutyens primarily with the huge Castle Drogo overlooking the Teign Valley. The Cenotaph in Whitehall was another of his works. Anyway 'The Pimple' (dates from 1914) and the 40ft x 40ft old reservoir recently came onto the market, the vendor looking for about £10,000 I believe, and I'm very pleased that an anonymous purchaser has secured the deal, someone keen to see that the folly should stay as it is. As previously there will be no internal access to the building or reservoir. This curiosity is held in great affection by the locals and this link here provides one of the many photos of it you can find on the internet.

I love these quirky buildings!

A magical walk on the Cornish coast

One of the many advantages of living in Cornwall is the ready access to some of the most special coastline imaginable. Where I live though, close to the Tamar and well inland, I have to travel further than most residents of this county to get to the seaboard but what a reward when one arrives! It's difficult to say one section of coast outshines all others but there is one quite excellent area that really does tick all the boxes.

On the south coast there is a stretch about, I think, seven miles long between Polruan to the west and the well known village of Polperro to the east which provides the most wonderful walking and scenery one could wish for. A good part of it is owned by the National Trust and it has retained an absolutely timeless appeal. So on that one warm sunny day we had recently we made the decision that it was the place we had to revisit.

Of course different people have differing expectations when going to the coast. So if the hope was to drive right down to the beach and have a lot of facilities provided then one would be very disappointed in this instance. No this was all about great scenery and quietness, it was as simple as that.

To get to the start point it was a case of heading west through Callington and Liskeard and on through Dobwalls where I was keen to see the progression of the by-pass, due to finish later this year. Shortly after Dobwalls we turned left at East Taphouse onto the Looe/Polperro road but before reaching either of those two places it was a right turn and along the narrow lane for a couple of miles or so to Llansallos.

As one comes into the hamlet there is a pleasant little car park run by the National Trust with picnic tables and with a very modest charge (no time limit) of 50p via an honesty box. Out of the car park it was past the church, one of the very few buildings visible from that part of the coastal path we were about to walk. We had been in the church on a previous visit, sadly it had been the subject of an arson attack a few years ago, by some youths I believe, but the damage wasn't too severe and the restoration is now complete. Starting just below this venerable building is what must be one of the most beautiful approaches to the coast anywhere I should think. It is a sunken path, wide enough for pack horses, with thick vegetation either side. For much of its three quarters of a mile length it is accompanied by a swiftly flowing stream which the path crosses in one or two places. This path doesn't make a bee line for the coast; because of the way it curves around one doesn't view the sea till almost the last moment which all adds to the magic of it.

This point is roughly halfway between Polperro and Polruan and it was in the direction of the latter that we headed. We had walked the section east to Polperro before but apart from the fact it has one or two really severe climbs it doesn't quite match the other part in the scenery stakes. Not that this eastern section isn't worth walking, it's just that the coast from Llansallos to Polruan is so sublime!

Immediately below us lay the little crescent shape of Llansallos Cove, a fairly steeply sloping beach of somewhat gritty sand. There was once a corn mill here which took advantage of the small waterfall where the stream dropped down off a small bluff at the back of the cove. On this occasion we didn't do the beach diversion but carried on westward on the coast path. A word of warning here, the first one or two stone stiles are really quite tricky, and if you don't concentrate it is easy to miss your footing as my companion can confirm!

Llansallos Cove is effectively the northern apex of Lantivet Bay and it was to its prominent western bastion, Pencarrow Head that we made our way. Immediately west of Pencarrow and one looks down on the smaller Lantic Bay with its gently sloping sandy beaches. To get to these one has to make a steep descent but my water loving friend hadn't brought her swimming costume. Oh dear! I imagine that with its gently shelving sand and, it seemed, not much seaweed Lantic Bay would be an excellent place for a swim. We continued our walk a little way west of the bay but decided not to trek right through to Polruan on this occasion: this walk was all about quality not quantity!

I have to say that these small bays and beaches really appeal to me, it's their intimacy I suppose. Yes the views across Whitsand Bay west of Rame Head and along Start Bay in Devon's South Hams are special but these bays are on the big size for me. I'm more of a "small is beautiful" sort of person. So this indented bit of coast we walked was just the ticket.

It was good to see a fair few butterflies on the wing - plenty of red admirals, speckled woods and gatekeepers and one or two blue butterflies. On the flower front a goodly number of centaury and white flax were seen. One could just about forgive the dire summer, the weather was so perfect! It certainly wasn't the longest walk we had done but I can't think of another that provides more enjoyment.

A final point to note is that the area has been well photographed - if one goes to 'Images' on Google and puts in Llansallos Cove or Lantic Bay for example there are plenty of pictures of this bit of coast to view but of course nothing can replace the atmosphere of being there.

New Orleans survives Hurricane Gustav

Huge sighs of relief today as New Orleans has survived the onslaught of Hurricane Gustav with it would seem relatively little damage. So was the mayor right to order the city's evacuation? I would have thought so bearing in mind what happened with 'Katrina'. Fortunately the hurricane veered slightly to the west so that New Orleans didn't get the full impact and perhaps even more fortuitously the hurricane had lost much of its energy before making landfall. I know that hurricanes and, nearer home, depressions can gain or lose energy over just an hour or two; on many an occasion our local weather forecasters have prophesied that we would get particularly bad storms only for a fairly average sort of rain and wind to occur. I think that following the 'Michael Fish hurricane' in October 1987 they have erred on the side of caution! But back to New Orleans - with the possibility (that didn't materialise) of Gustav strengthening to a category 3 or 4 then I guess that mayor Ray Nagin was right to take the action he did.

In the next year or three the work on the levees should be completed. I suppose that until then the authorities will be keeping fingers and everything else crossed that another Katrina doesn't happen because if there is another order to evacuate then I have a feeling it might be ignored by many more than the ten thousand that elected to stay put this time.

What has particularly intrigued me is the numbers bandied about by the media of people moving out of the way of the projected path of the hurricane. It's difficult to get a reliable estimate but looking at the internet one can say that the population of New Orleans is about 225,000, or in other words slightly smaller than Plymouth. Yet we were told that nearly 2 million were trying to evacuate the area. Granted that there may have been some people in other cities nearby who thought it wise to move from the coast, I still cannot see how the nearly 2 million was arrived at - logistically I don't even know whether it was possible to move that number in the available time frame. I also note that the entire population of the State of Louisiana is a little over 4 million, the figures being quoted don't make sense. How did they arrive at them anyway?

When such statistics get cited I have to take them with a very large pinch of salt!

Don't talk about an Indian Summer yet.

I think most meteorologists reckon that the first of September is the start of autumn and with the wind picking up and yet more rain coming it certainly feels as if that season has arrived! Even though Saturday was a cracking day weatherwise that was just a quick glimpse of what summer should have been like and the forecast for this week is fairly dire with maybe Thursday promising something a little better. Now I am going to get on a favourite hobby horse of mine and that is the misuse of the term 'Indian Summer'. Looking back through the blog I see that on September 24th last year I wrote about the same subject so sorry to go on about it but like many folk I have my particular irritations!

So let me explain! As soon as September comes those hosting radio programmes will start asking whoever is about to broadcast the weather "Is there any chance of an Indian Summer?" as if that might happen in a few days time. The term 'Indian Summer' refers to a short period of warm sunny and quiet weather that we sometimes get to enjoy toward the end of October and in November. It does not refer to that sort of weather in September but unfortunately many imagine it does. I know English is a living language and I'm grateful for that but it's still frustrating when such definitions get so misused that their wrong interpretation becomes normal practice.

This reminds me of another pet hate - "rather unique". To me unique refers to something of which there is only one and not something that is merely rare. Therefore that word needs no further qualification. OK that's the end of this particular rant!!