The Summer Beehive Cluster

 

Dear England

 

So, in the wake of the Lionesses' victory at the Euros, a brief reflection on Dear England at the National.
As you can perhaps see, the stage set was stark, and effective.  
The play was fine, with wit and humour. It was mostly about Gareth Southgate and his humanising of the role.  And it worked well, when talking about the old English fear and failure at penalties.

But, I can't help but think the large number of men in England shirts sitting in the row in fron to me were hoping for aa show about football.  And the glories of England...

Oh, well.

Reform and Vaccines

 According to the Guardian newspaper, "Half of Reform voters have 'little or no' confidence in the Covid vaccine'.  If that is true, it is somewhat astonishing.  (And to be fair, that was a few months ago, and the number of Reform voters has increased, reently.
Now, we at the Trees don't actually believe that nearly half of Reform voters are as thick as mince, tempting as that may be.
Rather, they have been gaslit by social media posts, often on X and FaceBook.  
But how did this happen?  Of course there are nefarious people building the popular Far Right who love to deploy these myths.  
But perhaps also, scientists have become over-complacent and stopped explaining things as well and as often as they should, the results proving efficacy have been somewhat inaccessible to the lay reader, and there has been a lack of Government investment combating the lies of the Far Right.
Where are the people organising a response on the conspiracy sites like X?
We need to respond to Farage, Putin, Trump and Tufton Street with the truth.
Every time.

The Trees on Tour Again: Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway

 The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, or The La'al Ratty, runs into the Esk valley, from Ravenglass to Dalegarth stations.  It has the same gauge as the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (although it is somewhat shorter in length), and they occasionally share engines.

We also had a stroll down to the Esk and visited the Eskdale mill in Boot.

The Trees on Tour Again: Ravenglass

 The Estuaries of the Mite, Irt and Esk.  Three rivers that seem to be short of letters!
Some of these are views from my hotel room, others were taken while out and about.

The Trees on Tour Again: Wastwater

Last week's Trip to the Western Lakes...

Ninety-Eight Years Ago...

 The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway opened.

"The official opening took place on 16th July 1927, with Hercules hauling that inaugural train from Hythe to New Romney. When first opened to the public the line only covered, in double track, the eight miles between Hythe and New Romney. Owner Captain Jack Howey soon had his eye on extending the line and in 1928 double tracks carried the trains to Dungeness via Greatstone...."