Restoration is easy.

[Radio Fixer]

There's a lot here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/...mills.html

To me there is a huge difference between a mobile phone mast, most of which are hidden away and a wind turbine or I should say turbines as there is always a factory of them (note not farm as that conjures up a nicer and wrong image) . Someone coined the saying "visual pollution" and that to me is what they are. Look at any half decent view, if you ever go out walking in the countryside that is, and if they are sited your eyes are dragged to them, they have a mesmeric affect and nothing else registers. If you want to see the visual pollution affect at its worse have a drive across Germany ...

Gary

Gary

[pwdrive]

I guess it's down to what anyone would class as visual pollution, I would rather see the turbines than pratts blazing around with four headlights on all the time.
I saw a mobile phone mast once, can't remember where but they had tried to make it look like a pine tree! I called it the Pinus Radiata (aka Montery Pine) it looked stupid I have to say. I wonder what the sod dwellers thought when all them windmills popped up on the flat lands of Norfolk and around that district centuries ago.

Lawrence.

[pwdrive]

Hi Gary I read that article in the Telegraph link you supplied in the main fairly well balanced except I would have issue with there calm winters stormy summers assumption, well for down here anyway.

It does however highlight the issues that we and the next generation will face so far as electricity supply goes, I read last week that Cumbria gave the no go for dumping of nuclear waste and that Centrica have pulled out of some kind of nuclear deal.

Lawrence.

[Radio Fixer]

Well prats dont blaze around beauty spots with 4 lights headlights blazing when I'm out in the wilds walking during the day. Anyway they are low down but tubines dominate the landscape for miles. I'll go along with them, with reluctance, off shore but no more on land please. The farmers, Danes and Germans have made enough money out of them. Too many people have had their homes blighted by them as well.

Get loads of high pressure days during the cold time here and no wind. I know a lot about that having been a a windsurfer for decades.

So we are just going to buy our elec from France from more undersea cables, most nuclear generated, at a big mark up I expect.

Gary

[pwdrive]

Hi Gary it was gusting 60 odd down here last night from the North, we would need a big interconnector from France the existing is a small one, I think they are planning one from Ireland to the UK, large solar farm planning applications are the buzz down here at the moment, I suspect there will be several rainwater run off issues to come with them, everyone has got used to the turbines at Carland Cross down here, they have been up for 20 years. Nearly all "green" generation systems seem to attract negative comments, If Drax goes fully bio I wonder if people will moan about that, my guess is that if the lights do go out we will take energy from just about any source. wether it's green or not.

Lawrence.

[Radio Fixer]

Well 60 mph is no good for them either, have to shut them down

Read there will still be go ahead on nuclear with Centrica but partnered by the Chinese !! So bulk power in the future 'controlled' by them and France (Centrica).

Gary

[pwdrive]

Time to get the Lister out.

Lawrence.

[Retired]

Hi,

Looking back to when I started this thread I wasn't at all happy with my working conditions especially whilst I always seem to end up doing my projects during our long miserable winters but the thread was added February 2nd this year which obviously is deepest winter.

So why is it that I feel like doing absolutely nothing at all this morning after all it is our glorious summer with wall to wall sunshine and scorching hot (NOT).

I returned from Morrison's at 8;30 this morning and as I drove along all the vehicles heading towards me were lit up like the Blackpool illuminations; its a black hole and has been raining leaving everything soaking wet outside.

It's very difficult to get motivated in this dire climate and I know I'm moaning but I'm simply fed up of fighting the weather. A month ago I thought great summer is here; I spent four days in lovely warm sunshine ripping up part of our patio and digging a trench for the new flood defences; immediately the trench was dug down came the rain and filled it with water from then on I was playing cat and mouse with the weather unable to work during the deluge and still unable to work because of the wet sticky clay.

During the dry days I've worked like mad doing twelve hour shifts and whilst rushing around trying to get on top of a bad job I hurt my back knocking me up for three days in pain. Last week I suffered a cold which was annoying and now I'm clear of the cold Bron has caught it.

It's cool in the garage and cold in the workshop; the concrete under the bungalow is taking forever to dry out due to the water ingress because it is cold under the bungalow and on it goes without let up.

Its now 21st June and apart from a brief glimpse of summer there is little let up with the black hole I keep finding myself working in.

I've got lots of very interesting projects lined up and have bought some excellent new toys to play with but this morning I just can't get motivated. It will eventually fade and I'll get stuck into something but finally where the heck is summer again?

Kind regards, Col.

[camallison]

It's all downhill from today Col - the days are going to get shorter and the nights longer!

I commiserate with you as I had planned to go away for a few days onto the Northumberland coast - only to see the forecast for the coming week or so. Better to stay at home and watch the rain from my comfortable armchair than sitting in a field with the dog coming in from rolling in puddles (Labrador).

Earlier in the thread, a pine tree mobile mast was mentioned - they are made by a company on the outskirts of Cheltenham called Alan Dick (he who had many contracts to put up TV transmitters in the 70s and 80s). They also did mobile Tx/Rx arrays that hid behind louvred panels on church bell towers. In Dublin there is a large Guinness Bottle atop the brewery and that was also made by them.

Colin

[Nick]

We haven't got it that bad - I used to work in Singapore and we still have an office there. The air quality is dire and they haven't seen the sun for weeks - illegal logging fires in Indonesia (mostly in Kalimantan) creates smog that blocks the sun for weeks at a time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22998592

Back in the late 1990s when I was in Kuching, the atmosphere was almost post-nuclear, with ash just falling from the skies.

Its difficult to beleive that 15 years later, there's still wood to burn on a scale that blots out the sky for weeks on end...