Bee Swarm

Spotted on the way for an early morning swim!

Alphabet In Landscape

Courtesy of the British Museum via The Dirt is this rather wonderful set of  lithographs which are the letters of the alphabet depicted as elements of the landscape. They were created by Charles Joseph Hullmandel in the early 1800s and are wonderfully inventive snapshots of romantic landscape vignettes. The full set can be seen here

Spring Sprung......

Feeling distinctly Spring like in recent days:

Ooops

A new housing development close to the office has been proceeding at pace since late last year. Rumours began circulating that a structural element was not right and that some of the houses may have to be demolished and rebuilt.........

 The local newspaper reported; 'The homes are being constructed by developer Croudace, whose building director Gary Rapson explained they have had to demolish ‘about 15’ new builds due to substandard concrete being used.“We have had a look at all the options available and concluded that for long term durability and to maintain high standards, the only action is to rebuild the affected units,” 

The report went on: 'Mr Rapson confirmed that ‘it isn’t ground conditions that have caused the problems, but it is to do with an issue with the foundations’.“Something did not go according to plan,” he said, adding that in their own quality control inspection ‘something came up awry - a genuine mistake by a party’.

An expensive mistake no doubt and no option for the developer once the problem was discovered - I wonder how much (if any) of the demolished material can be reused...... 

Storm Casualties

Always sad when mature trees go over although interestingly the casualties around us seem to have been confined to trees which were already structurally defective. Given the rain that had fallen prior to the winds it is perhaps surprising that not more trees were completely uprooted.

Interesting image below which came via The Big Tree Society which gives an indication of the size of root system a mature tree can develop:

East Lothian Landscape Interventions

Second World War Tank defences which zig zag their way through mixed deciduous and conifer woodland off the A198 south of the Firth of Forth in East Lothian. 

Interesting landscape interventions...........

LI South East: Medmerry Realignment Scheme

Off to Medmerry on the south coast for a talk and visit organised by the LI South East to see the the new flood defence scheme (the biggest in the UK) which is nearing completion. 

Over 7 km of clay banks have been constructed to create an area which will be allowed to flood naturally, alleviating the risk of flooding to Selsey and over 350 properties, two holiday parks and a water treatment works. A breach has been made which allows the sea water in and out and the plan is to construct several kilometres of paths for walking and cycling.

The site is owned by the RSPBA and the new wetland areas will attract various wildfowl and wading birds.