heating and transport

'I am not/ ashamed to say/ that I light my wood burner/ every day...'

so say the rebel poets of the daily torygraph. 

now this is an interesting air quality struggle that has been largely won in the cities (because of the smog) - you cannot burn coal anymore in england and  if you live in a city (a smoke controlled zone) you cannot burn wood at all unless you have a defra-exempt stove. councils can apply on the spot fines. 

17% of  asthma, stroke and cancer causing PM2.5 particles in the air come from wood burners but in some parts of the country more comes from wood burners than from traffic (the other major source).  

the thing with the torygraphers is that they live in the cities as if they lived in the countryside. but the argument is that log burners are cheap to run. logs in the countryside must be dried (if not kiln dried logs) or smokeless fuels must be used. nonetheless even kiln dried logs can be cheaper per kwh than mains gas.

so much for horsemouth's sunday afternoon research project. 

there's a photo of credenhill former railway station in herefordshire. 

there are very few railway stations left in herefordshire - only four hereford, leominster, colwall and ledbury. 

this should be compared with the list of disused railway stations in herefordshire which is really quite extensive. 

the trains stopped at stoke prior (near where horsemouth's mum grew up) but she doesn't remember ever getting the train from there as a kid. she says she will ask her brother about it the next time they talk. he's also found bill from the trout inn's book on the cleobury mortimer and ditton priors light railway (OPC 1980) in shropshire.

horsemouth can't help but wonder about this whenever he has the desire to go anywhere. 

he's up early for some strange reason.

the black cat that visits is getting quite adventurous in terms of stalking the birds.