Wind Break

An early morning view of Traprain Law from the south on the Whittingehame road up to the Balfour Monument. This side of the Law is popular with climbers in summer, but that might be in doubt as the local paper describes in their report Law Breaker: the farmer has blocked the path across his fields.

This is a right big mess now, as described in the article, and the debate is whether the farmer's actions contravene the Land Reform Act 2003, the (in)famous "Right of Way" law that pretty much allows free access to Scotland's countryside - except where arable crops have been planted and that is exactly what has happened now. And why? It appears to be because the farmer wants to put wind turbines in to join the "Wind Rush", getting guaranteed income from the electricity companies through "Feed-in Tariffs" intended to encourage "green" energy but in fact leading to enormous wind turbines being thrown up all over the place to make a fast buck. So, he's been refused planning for his huge masts and he's ploughed out the path in retaliation. Marvellous. Anyway, enough of that.

I left the house about 6.30am and headed up the hill via Stenton and west to this view. Then on to Edinburgh for a full day of talking and drawing boxes and arrows. Home later via a more direct route with the wind behind me, and now the children are here, all excited about Gordon's 6th birthday tomorrow.

So far this week I'm just short of 150 miles with 9 1/2 hours on the bike. I won't have the opportunity to put in much distance in the next few days so I'll just aim for 200 again. Looks like I can manage 250 in some upcoming weeks, so I hope this good weather continues.

Off to work via North Berwick tomorrow after the birthday loot's been handed out and the children are delivered to school - most likely on their new scooters! The secret's out ;)