Air Ambulance base opens at Eaglescott

On Monday i had some kind words to say about Radio Devon when I put up a video of singer/songwriter Jenna Witts from North Devon. Today I'm also going to praise RD - I must be mellowing I think! They have singled out a particular local organisation as their charity for 2010: it is the Devon Air Ambulance that they want listeners to support, in fact I believe that they are hoping to raise £600,000 towards the cost of a new helicopter! It kicked off when presenter Judi Spiers opened the 'Steve Ford Airbase' situated at Eaglescott Airfield, Umberleigh in North Devon on the 21st of January.

I need to elaborate a bit here: This is a new facility erected in double quick time enabling one of the two helicopters to be located in a good position to get to much of north Devon in very short order. Although described as being at Umberleigh it would be more accurate to say that Eaglescott lies in that quiet countryside between Roborough and Burrington (For the avoidance of doubt I should say that Roborough here is a tiny village east of Great Torrington, not the better known place on Plymouth's periphery!). The airfield caters for a flying club, micro-lights and gliders and I think that the Air Ambulance people have acquired a long lease for the bit that they are using.

Why the title 'Steve Ford Airbase'? Steve was born in Exeter and had a good career in the army including being a bomb disposal expert. He had a love of flying, enough to lure him to a job piloting an air ambulance. Sadly he died in a motorbike accident. Evidently an all round good guy and a great idea to name the air ambulance base after him.

At this point it's worth remembering that the air ambulance idea in this country started in Cornwall. Yep little Cornwall was the location for the very first air ambulance and it has never received any money from the government coffers. I was once quite cross about this, that it was dependant on charitable donations to keep flying. However my feelings have changed and I now feel that we sort of have ownership of it and I'm proud of that. I and thousands of others pay £1 for a lottery ticket each week with the chance of a number of fairly modest prizes up for grabs - needless to say I have yet to win anything! Off the top of my head I don't know to what extent this lottery helps to keep the helicopter flying but it is regular repeat income coming in.

Back to Devon now. It is of course a very large county and both wide and deep in shape and so really does need two choppers to cover it. Although the appeal by Radio Devon is commendable there is a small downside that (slightly) bothers me. There are hundreds of worthy causes any of which are deserving of charitable donations. The problem is that many miss out because so much money is going to those organisations that gain a huge profile. An example that crosses my mind is two charities that I mentioned when I wrote about Haiti the other day: 'Shelterbox' and 'Rapid-UK'. Shelterbox has really caught the public imagination and it is a favourite charity of mine - it ticks so many boxes and is very well supported. But what about Rapid UK who not only go out to countries that have suffered natural disasters to do what they can to rescue trapped people but they also share their expertise with those unfortunate peoples who don't have the knowledge. It might be thought that 'Rapid UK' was some sort of state funded group but no they are a charity and so have to self fund. As I understand it they do have quite a job making ends meet. The huge variation in the amounts of money different charities receive is a problem and I don't really know the answer.

Jenna Witts sings "Bring me News"

In my last entry I was quite scathing about the present programme strategy of 'Radio Devon'. I don't take back any of the criticism I made but I should point out that it's not all bad with this broadcaster. They do have the occasional programme, particularly at weekends it seems, where you get what you hope for and one example is a folk music show on Sundays and although I didn't listen to it they had advertised that a young singer/songwriter, Jenna Pitts from Woolacombe in North Devon, would be featured yesterday. Jenna has a sweet voice in my opinion and I thought it an idea to post this video of her singing her song "Bring me News".

I hope that her music brings her success.

Radio Devon gets it wrong

Although living in Cornwall (just) I seem to have much more trouble receiving BBC Radio Cornwall than its Devon counterpart. Perhaps I should try listening on line. I don't listen to the radio continuously, in fact I enjoy the contrast of having no man made sounds around me on occasion although some people seem to be scared of silence. At various moments of my day I am likely to tune into Radio Devon but these times are disappearing rapidly. Why? Well Radio Devon have had a bit of a shakeout dropping some of their presenters. Those remaining it would seem are being asked to do longer stints. Researching today's 'Western Morning News' I see that there are just six shows between 6 in the morning and 1 am: Five of these are single handed and 3 hours each whilst the other one of 4 hours duration has co-presenters.

Now if you are going to have one person doing a three hour programme it needs some music to give the presenter a breather now and then - of course some of these programmes are primarily there to play music anyway. Why my annoyance then? I'm particularly bothered by 'The Interactive Lunch' which runs from midday till 3 pm. Previously there had been a 2 hour phone in programme at lunchtime in which the public could sound off about various issues, in fact I've expressed an opinion on it on one or two occasions. It was hosted by Justin Leigh and he did a very professional job it has to be said, he couldn't be faulted. He was followed by Michael Chequer who I also found to be a good presenter. This programme was totally devoted to the expression of opinions, yes it had the occasional expert being quizzed by the presenter about a subject but this was part and parcel of the broadcast. You understood exactly what the programme was there for.

Move on to the here and now and we have 'The Interactive Lunch' hosted by David Fitzgerald who likes to be called 'Fitz'. Fitz is a genial sort of chap, very much reminding me of Harry Secombe but TIL is such a mish-mash you're not quite sure what it's trying to do. Like its predecessor it has people phoning in and specialists in the studio but every so often it is interrupted by music or should I say "so called music". There is a good deal of pop music that I'm OK with but on his show most of it is so dire I have to hit the off switch! You get the impression that a producer is randomly pulling them from the rack but the bulk is instantly forgettable. I can see that Radio Devon have a bit of a problem because just one person doing a phone in for more than two hours is too much in my opinion. The station has gone from having a very well defined and interesting programme to one that is very bland with occasional assaults on my eardrums. The worst aspect for me is when a presenter starts talking about something else over the top of a song before the last strains thankfully disappear - this isn't Radio1 for heaven's sake (not to cast aspersions on that channel but it is a case of "horses for courses")

It seems that others are getting fed up with what is going on judging by a letter in the paper from Tony Elliott of Kingsteignton. He is less concerned about music peppering the day's programmes but notes how the selection of this music has changed. He reasonably points out that a good number of the daytime listeners are retired folk who are not into the latest pop music. He suggest writing to Mark Grinnell, the managing editor of BBC Radio Devon. Not a bad idea Mr Elliott, not a bad idea at all!

Last Tuesday's snow event

Writing about the better weather in my last post reminds me that I haven't commented yet on the snow event last Tuesday (the 12th) which caused so many problems for drivers in my two counties. I say "snow event", here tucked down in the valley we had no more than sleet that day. A depression coming in off the Atlantic had its weather fronts bumping into the existing cold air that was dominating the UK, a classic situation where substantial falls of snow can occur and one I've seen before a few times. It was very well forecasted by the Met Office and it was always evident that altitude would have a substantial affect on snow quantities.

For those not familiar with my two counties it has to be said that the topography has an absolutely enormous influence on the weather we experience. This weather can be incredibly local, one classic example being the rain that caused such havoc at Boscastle and Crackington Haven in August 2004. This flood was over a geographically small area, villages a few miles away were unaffected. The hills and valleys in the south west that please the tourist's eye (and mine it should be said) have always been a nightmare for road and railway builders. So far as the railway is concerned Brunel hugged the river estuaries and coast between Exeter and Newton Abbot. OK he kept the route pretty flat but we all know about the huge problems there have been with the sea wall at Dawlish!

The main road from Exeter to Plymouth, the A38, has to cross the Haldon ridge soon after it leaves Exeter. Now the top of Haldon is approximately 800 feet above sea level but it's not just drivers having to ascend that much from the Exeter direction that can create problems, it's the degree of steepness. In a much earlier life I was involved in road design and although it was decades ago I do recall that the maximum gradient for trunk road design was 1 in 25 (4% in modern parlance I suppose). I was never involved with 'Haldon Hill' but it wasn't possible I know to get remotely near that figure - I can't remember for sure but I think it was more like 1 in 14, very very steep for a trunk road. Unsurprisingly a third crawler lane was put in place for the uphill carriageway. A similar arrangement holds for the also very steep 'Telegraph Hill', the Torquay A380 route that forks off the A38 at Splatford Split at the bottom of Haldon Hill.

Exact details of the way traffic ground to a halt on these two notorious hills on Tuesday remain a little sketchy but it seems that the rain on the ridge quickly turned to snow, a lorry jackknifed on the A38, traffic stopped and couldn't get going again and because some vehicles started sliding whilst others tried to pick their way through the gaps the whole road system got clogged up making it really difficult for gritting lorries and snowploughs to get through to where they were needed. Result: vehicles stuck for hours and hours with nowhere to go. Eventually, somehow, things did get sorted out and thankfully nobody was hurt. A few comments from me then:

• Although well forecasted the weather changed very rapidly at Haldon, many leaving Exeter in the rush hour I'm sure genuinely didn't perceive a problem just down the road.
• The authorities seemed to be very tardy about officially closing Haldon Hill, the result being that traffic was just joining the queue with nowhere to go. As I heard it on Radio Devon it seemed that they were suggesting traffic could just about get through, that doesn't seem to be the case for the general public although police, fire crews and Dartmoor Rescue Group volunteers seemed to have got through. A very muddled picture.
• There is an alternative coastal route from Exeter to Newton Abbot, a pretty lousy road in my opinion and this got clogged up with traffic. There is a pinch point on this 'A' road at Starcross where two pillars forming part of a property jut out into the carriageway so it's single file only there and it sounds as if this created a lot of trouble.
• All sorts of suggestions from the public and others about how to avoid similar problems in the future. One was to cone off an uphill lane on Haldon and Telegraph Hills when snow is forecast so that gritting lorries etc can get through without hindrance.
• From what I heard today it looks as if underoad heating is being looked at. Nice idea but surely a non-starter. Yes I know that there are heating elements in the Hammersmith Flyover but I'm sure that was all part of the design. I don't know anything about the newest technology but the area at Haldon would be huge and the disruption massive. I really can't see that one flying.
• Similar problems occurred at Telegraph and Haldon Hills less than 12 months ago, in February 2009. On that occasion the sudden snowfall was well into the evening , after I think most commuters would have been home.
• I have memories from decades back of getting stuck on Haldon. It was in the morning I think and I believe it was a similar case of waiting patiently for gritting lorries to clear a way through. Much less traffic back then and I don't recall having to wait for hours for it to be sorted out.
  
• Another morning memory is of going up Telegraph Hill in daylight but with snow on the ground in what was known as a "sit up and beg" Ford Popular of 1950's vintage. Side valve engine, three speed gearbox and 6 volt battery sums it up. But successful in the snow. It had tall wheels, excellent ground clearance and with very little power wheel spin didn't appear to be a big problem! I might have been more confident at the time as well of course.
• Although the Haldon area grabbed the headlines on Tuesday there were other parts of Devon and Cornwall where drivers became stuck. Particularly badly hit were the A386 between Tavistock and Okehampton and, west of the Tamar, the Liskeard area.

As I stated at the start of the piece so local is the weather that we experienced none of that particular bout of mayhem here. As ever the elements can make man look very puny indeed.

Gentle warming of weather

There has been a gentle warming up of the weather here in the last day or two and I have to say it's been good to be able to open the bedroom window a little bit. That one is a sash window, one of two I had replaced with timber double glazed units last year. I love sash windows with their ability to permit air circulation top and bottom; for a while yesterday and today it was possible to open it a fair bit and get a change of air in the room. And for part of the day I turned off the heating - I don't have central heating with a thermostatic control, I have a gas fire downstairs and gas heater in the stairwell to cover upstairs. Sufficient for my needs I guess, I try to keep room temperature in the 60 to 65 degree F range which no doubt is freezing for some!

We went out for a fairly short walk yesterday (Sunday) afternoon and it really is a relief not to watch every step you make in fear of falling over. No special wildlife sightings but no matter it's just nice enjoying the fresh air. My friend had previously seen a redwing in her garden and I've noticed one or two about the village, not surprising with the recent harsh weather. Interesting report from a lady I know in another Tamar Valley village of a snipe in their garden! She told that they had seen them in fields close to their home but this was the first time I think in their garden.

One thing I must check is how a favourite mimosa in a Tavistock courtyard is doing. It had been affected by last winter's cold weather but recovered well. I do hope it has survived the recent sharp frosts.

The horror in Haiti

Obviously the story of the moment is the devastating earthquake in Haiti and I can't add any suitable words to the very many that have already been written and spoken by others. Like I guess a good many other people my knowledge of this state is fairly hazy but click here to read an informative summary about Haiti with some clues as to why it is so impoverished. Thanks to 'The First Post' for this information by the way - it certainly enlightened me.

Speed is of the essence of course in bringing relief and hopefully saving some lives. I want to draw attention to two fantastic organisations from the south west right in the forefront in helping the situation. The first of these is the now well known charity 'Shelterbox' who I believe are already familiar with Haiti following earlier hurricane damage. I've written about them before so I'll just remind folk that they are based down west in Helston and are well geared up to move very fast. Their website is here.

The other one to mention is 'RAPID-UK'. Perhaps not so much in the public consciousness as Shelterbox. As they say on their website here :

"RAPID-UK exists to provide experienced disaster response personnel anywhere in the world when required and to facilitate sustainable training and mitigation programmes in disaster prone countries."

R.A.P.I.D is an acronym for Rescue and Preparedness in Disasters. I understand that it is based at Jacobstowe in West Devon. As with Shelterbox they are already there in Haiti, trying to do what they can. I think that both Shelterbox and RAPID-UK are absolutely brilliant; there may well be some aspects of life in my country that one should be embarrassed about but when it comes to disaster relief I can honestly state that "I'm proud to be British"

Alastair Campbell at Iraq Enquiry

Today is the day when Alastair Campbell is taking centre stage at the Chilcot Enquiry into the war in Iraq. Ignored by many blogs we have to thank Andrew Sparrow of 'The Guardian' who is blogging the enquiry as it happens. It can be read here. And thank goodness for Paul Waugh of 'The Evening Standard' who has taken a keen interest in the Enquiry and posted a lot of Twitter comments. Paul is the best of the political bloggers in my opinion, he really gets how it should be done. He's a journalist as well and has a nice lightness of touch with his blog and picks up on details others miss.

So what of Campbell? Obviously still loyal to Blair. We know how combative he is and so no surprise he attacked Andrew Gillingham in the course of giving his evidence. For Campbell it's pretty obvious that he believes in attack being the best form of defence at times. I've now just spotted as today's session finishes that the BBC have been supplying live video of proceedings. As has happened in previous enquiries Campbell wasn't subjected to really strong cross examination and probably got away with it again. The problem is that the inconsistencies will get lost in the overall narrative.

Slow thaw today, snow forecast tomorrow

It's certainly been less cold in my part of the world today and there has been a very gentle thaw of some of the snow and ice, the last mentioned being a greater problem than the snow. For a change the windows on the car were frost free when I first looked out, not that I needed to drive anywhere as it so happened. If there is just one thing to rejoice about in not having to commute to work by car it's the fact that I don't have to do the de-icing routine first thing in the morning. How did I put up with that for so many years?

Tomorrow is another day as they say and it looks like a sizeable dollop of snow might be on the way. It's the classic situation I've seen before where there is blocking high pressure over Scandinavia maintaining cold easterly winds whilst at the same time a low pressure system with its fronts is trying to make headway from the Atlantic. These situations are always notoriously difficult to predict as to whether one sees snow or rather cold rain - it only takes a degree or two difference to produce one or the other. At the moment the forecasters are going for heavy snow turning to rain. We shan't have to wait long to see the outcome. Strong winds are in the mix so drifting is certainly on the cards especially on the moors.

The really cold weather we have had has perhaps put extra strain on underground services: I'm assuming that is why Mortehoe up in North Devon was devoid of gas supply over much of the weekend - not much fun if you rely on it for cooking and heating. Not heard anything further today so I assume all the repairs are complete. There was also a gas leak at Tavistock bus station on Saturday morning but our local bus was able to drop off and pick up passengers nearby and there appeared to be very little inconvenience when we went in to do a small amount of shopping.

It was a few years ago now when the gas main running down my road started leaking, the gas people appeared promptly enough and did the necessary repair. They came back some later to replace all the gas pipe serving this road. A good deal of upheaval because our road is only one vehicle in width (it can just accommodate the dustbin lorry). We were lucky though because our original gas leak didn't occur during cold weather; I guess it was just 'anno domini' catching up with it! The original gasworks for the village was built in 1872 with coal being brought up the Tamar and then through the little canal that bypasses the weir across the river. One used to hear complaints about service providers not co-ordinating their work but this certainly didn't apply here. At one time electricity cables crossed the lower part of some of the gardens in the Row and I can can recollect the power company coming out to do a little pruning to a tree in my own garden where the wires could easily make contact. At the time of the gas main replacement the contractors also inserted a duct in the road so that at a later date the electricity people could route their overhead line through it. It's difficult to remember the electricity cables over my garden now.

Inconvenient though snow is I must admit that there is something hypnotic about watching it falling. I'm at a low level here so it might be rain rather than the white fluffy stuff. Whichever, it's due here about lunchtime.

Lack of blogging - must do better!

I'm putting it down to the very cold weather demotivating me but I've managed only one post so far in 2010. Not that I'm short of things I would like to write about, there is more than enough stuff around for me to comment on. It's just a case of getting down to it ... Or giving up altogether. No I really don't want to do that but I can empathise with those people who start a blog full of enthusiasm but after a while find their blog starting to wither a bit, particularly if a few days are missed and one gets out of the routine!

Inevitably the weather is the hot topic of the moment, not a good use of the word "hot" perhaps bearing in mind the freezing temperatures. We have had minimal amounts of snow in the mid Tamar Valley and it's been the ice that has really caused problems in getting about. There has been a good deal of sunshine with the associated crystal clear visibility but with that sun so low in the sky there are many places permanently in the shade at this time of year and in those areas the ice has not released its grip. The big plus is the way that communities come together when the elements decide to cause mayhem. I don't know about other countries but folk in the UK can be very insular. A bit of this can be put down to our perhaps understandable desire to just hop in the car to travel from A to B. Our only communication then might be a few choice words when someone 'cuts you up' in the traffic! But with the recent weather phenomena there is a greater likelihood of people moving about on foot, or using public transport. Even if one ventures out in the car and gets stuck someone is likely to volunteer assistance.

Perhaps then the British are still upholders of the "nice" society, of politeness and of helping others in need. I certainly hope so!

Gentle walk eases me into New Year

First of all to my avid readers (there must be someone out there) and to anyone else who by some mishap stumbles on this blog - "Happy New Year" to you! As is my customary practice I did not go out on New Year's Eve, it's one of those things that is meaningless for me personally. As usual fireworks were let off from midnight onwards, I think that they were popping and banging for 20 to 25 minutes but, as noted 12 months ago, they don't seem to be as noisy as they used to be.

Today dawned bright and cold and, making use of the little warmth there was after lunch, we went for a relatively short walk: a stroll along the lower road towards Calstock and then down the 'cul-de-sac' lane that drops down to the forgotten quay at Slimeford. Returning the same way we enjoyed our perambulation - one of its joys being the lack of traffic and other noises. On 1st January 2009 we had walked over to Cotehele with a picnic lunch so our effort today was far more modest. In our defence I have to point out that my companion was just getting over a bad cold whilst I'm a bit out of practice doing decent length of walks! Nice to be out however and we both enjoyed that clarity of vision one can get on a winter's day - definitely no heat haze to spoil things!

Once clear of the main body of our village one passes the odd house or cottage and it's amazing to see how many birds flock to the feeders in people's gardens, at this time of year especially. My friend bemoaned the fact that birds hardly ever turn up at her own feeding stations and we both reckon it's down to ... cats! Whereas in our immediate locality one can hardly move for moggies, the more isolated properties we passed always seem to be happily devoid of felines. Although my friend has neither cat nor dog her garden gets visited by many examples of the former and she has seen them take birds. There is a relatively recent addition to the cat population in my Row and, although I don't have proof, he is the prime suspect concerning the 'murder' of a male blackbird whose dead body adorned my lawn recently. A very cheeky cat incidentally - he had the audacity to use the cat flap in the front door of a neighbour's cottage and eat the food in the resident cat's dish while it was asleep!!

Apart from this bad relationship with our feathered friends the other bit of unwelcome behaviour from the local cats is their tendency to poo in one's garden! Not very nice. I would be very happy to see far fewer cats around the neighbourhood.