Last Hurrah

 

Recently we had a holiday with our children.

It had been postponed from Easter lockdown and rescheduled to September.

A whole week in a lovely old house on the edge of Cardinham Woods in Cornwall.

Mainly, we went walking.  In the evening we cooked for one another and played games.

Over the front garden flew ravens, buzzards, nuthatches and siskins. 

On Bodmin Moor we climbed Rough Tor and Brown Willy, the tallest hills in Cornwall, scrambled up the granite tors which looked like craggy stacks of cheeses and explored the nearby prehistoric settlements and stone circles through an atmospheric mist.

At Fowey, we clambered round St Catherine’s Castle and Nigel, Carenza and Pascoe went for a swim at Readymoney Cove while I painted a watercolour.

It wasn’t a perfect week as Perran had been relying on being able to work from home. But the wi-fi simply wasn’t up to it, so he had to leave early.

Yet all through those days of late summer sun and early Autumn mist, we knew this was a week that had been snatched from the fire.  That once we returned home, the COVID levels would likely be rising and precautions enforced once more.

What we had not realised was just how quickly the axe would fall.

Thank heavens for golden memories and our photos which preserve those days in amber.

 

Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill – please help our planet

Please follow the links below (which will take you swiftly and easily through to your MP’s email) and ask your MP to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill which will be debated during this session of Parliament.

Find everything you need to take part here: https://digitalrebellion.uk/cee-bill

An Arresting Experience 2

I already blogged last week that Nigel was arrested as part of the Extinction Rebellion protests.

A few days later, in complete contrast, we were driving down to Cornwall with Pascoe in the back, aiming to meet Perran and Carenza for a family holiday.

It would be a time of regeneration after the stress of protest.

So what we weren’t expecting was a flashing blue light in the rear-view and police asking us to pull over. We pulled over.

Nigel hadn’t been speeding - he stays below sixty to conserve fuel and limit pollution. 

So what was this about?

To show that we were upstanding citizens with a clear conscience, we sprung out of our car and walked round to greet the police.

But as I looked across at Nigel, I saw that he was still wearing his Extinction Rebellion badge.  Not something which puts the police in a good mood. 

However, they were polite and pleasant.

It turned out that our number plate, caught by police surveillance camera, was showing up as uninsured. 

Very luckily, Nigel had proof on his phone that we ARE insured. 

It turned out that when we removed the twins from our insurance earlier in the summer, the company had inadvertently flicked a switch on the database which made it look as if nobody was insured.

It was weird to feel for a moment as if we might really be on the wrong side of the law.  It contrasted with Nigel’s arrests for Extinction Rebellion where he is doing something very RIGHT.

Please follow the links below (which will take you swiftly and easily through to your MP’s email) and ask your MP to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill which will be debated during this session of Parliament.

Find everything you need to take part here: https://digitalrebellion.uk/cee-bill

An Arresting Experience

 

Nigel got arrested as Part of the Extinction Rebellion protests last week.  He was said to be sitting in the road in Parliament Square.

 He never normally finds himself on the wrong side of the police.  However, on Tuesday he took a day’s holiday, travelled into London, was arrested and carried bodily into a police van and detained for a number of hours in a distant police station on the opposite side of London from where we live, finally getting the train home at 11pm.

For him, the sacrifice was intensely necessary.  His aim, and that of the 700 other Extinction Rebellion arrestees, is to highlight the ongoing Climate Crisis and to try to get the government to act.

Getting arrested is Nigel’s answer to the question, ‘What on earth can I do to try to keep this planet habitable for my children and grandchildren?’

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The aim is to get the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill passed during this parliament. Please follow the links below (which will take you swiftly and easily through to your MP’s email) and ask them to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill.

Find everything you need to take part here: https://digitalrebellion.uk/cee-bill

 

 

 

An Imperfect Activist

Over the last few days I've been taking part in the wonderful, brave, creative actions by Extinction Rebellion.

However, people sometimes accuse me,
'But you use a car and plastic!'

True, I do. 

To avoid them completely I'd have to become Amish. 

More to the point, I'd have to devote all my energy to changing my own lifestyle - energy which I'd rather spend in changing the system so that there is better public transport and so that companies have to arrange for the recycling of their packaging.

Then we can all have lower carbon footprints and help to curb devastating climate crisis.

And that's why Extinction Rebellion is putting an emphasis on changing the system, particularly by supporting the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill, tabled last Wednesday.  

Email your MP and tell them how much it means to you.

 https://digitalrebellion.uk/cee-bill