Electrician

As this hardy soul was up aloft fixing the pylon about a dozen or so asssociates were on the ground looking up. Says one "You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get men to go up there"; must be the understatement of the year. And, yes, the power is still on.

A means to an end

 

Many dislike long lines of pylons stretching across the countryside yet they still wish to have the benefits of cheap and reliable electricity. 

 

I have just learned that pylon is in fact a UK colloquial term for what others call a transmission tower; Australians use the term ironman and Canadians have hydro towers. They come in many shapes, sizes and colours but their function is simply to carry the cables from the power plant to your home. The strangest designs I have come across are here.

All photos by Margot K Juby

Whan that April with his showres soote ...

Photo by Margot K Juby

...then longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,...

Er, not quite. This palmer is none other than your man himself on the path to Beverley. There are modern ways of getting from Cottingham to Beverley by car, bus or train journeys of a few minutes duration; this is the old bridle path that winds its way around field edges for three and half miles and, due to dawdling and admiring the view and so on, took over two hours. Even then it was more by accident than design as having got to where yesterday's picture was taken from and seeing the minster in the distance it was a case of returning were as tedious as go o'er. At least we had Zephyrus (with his sweete breeth) on our backs all the way.

Power lines

Photo by Margot K Juby

There are plans to loosen the regulations regarding the siting of pylons and power lines so sights like this could be coming to a beauty spot near you. 

Making waves

Unintended Consequences

A few years ago the good folk of Bridlington had a major headache; herring gulls were nesting on the old buildings of the town and causing a mighty mess. Their habit of dive bombing passers-by caused distress and loss of trade. So, to prevent this, long spikes were fitted to window ledges and roof tops. It was a great success, the herring gulls hated the spikes and left. 

However kittiwakes, the birds you see here, simply used the spikes to fasten their nesting material to the building and took over the place. I guess it beats trying to nest on a cliff. Kittiwakes are the smallest gull that we have around here and are much less aggressive and really quite pretty for a gull. In recent years the UK kittiwake population has plummeted and several colonies have been wiped out so it's good to see these birds thriving even if in unusual circumstances.

Edges

 It's April 1st, Fool's Day and the year a quarter over already!

For some reason or other City Daily Photo's theme today is "Edges" . To see what others have made of this the following instruction will help...  Click here