Edited to add - I'm so sorry for the fonty sillyness below. Grrr. Font gremlins. Please bear with me, I'll try and clear it up soon, but not right now - or I'll miss my bus;)
Edited (much later) to add - let's try this again, and yes, I missed my bus anyway, sigh.
A couple of people have been asking why I chose to name this blog as I have. I thought you might be curious too. I know I often am when I'm a bloggy visitor. Sometimes the answer appears self evident, sometimes it takes a couple of visits and the penny drops. Sometimes, well, darned if I care - just enjoy!
I set up this blog on the spur of the moment. Been brewing in my mind for sometime. Put on hold until I 'had time' to 'do it perfectly'. But (a bit like bloggy lurking, flitting from link to link, you're not sure why or how you got where you got) there came a tipping point when I blinked and the deed was done - and so easy! (no 'cooling off period' ho ho) (and not perfect either, hey ho).
So, not a great deal of preparation (none!) on design or content. And the title.............?
A bit like the character in a movie, a spy or somesuch (grrr, I can't think of a single example....) when caught in the wrong place/wrong time scenario and forced to give name, searches her surroundings and fabricates an alias from a neon sign, shop window, newspaper headline. Still with me?
When blogspot asked for blog title I rolled my eyes, muttered curses, thought briefly 'I give up', and then realised my eyes had rested on a pile of mags and periodicals nearby. You know what I'm talking about, 'How to live your dream in a (flippin' mind-numbingly expensive) Country Idyll',
Resting on the top of this aspiring, inspiring and eclectic mix was a delightfully pretty paperback publication entitled "MAGical Meadows...and the Durham Magnesium Limestone".
Ahh you say. Lazy girl. But let me tell you, there was good reason for my choice. It wasn't only panic-buying! It is where I live.
I love where I live. The north-east. It's an area discounted by many as boring, industrial, post-industrial, lacking character, lacking imagination. Actually, it has everything. Rich in history. Spectacular scenary. Wonderous wildlife. Everything. (well apart from some tasty vegan eateries and a branch of Wholefoods, but hey, nowhere's perfect).
Pass through with a stranger's eyes, what would you see? Take a look. Small 'ex-mining' pit villages, hemmed between motorway, mainline railway, 'A' roads and backlanes. Rows of back-to-back terraced streets, allotment gardens, churches and chapels. Post-war (i.e.1950's) 'New Towns', market squares, factory units, charity shops, community halls, quarries and mine-workings. Supermarkets, shopping malls, pubs, clubs, war memorials and schools. Sounds quaint? or grim? Both or neither, depends on your perspective I suppose.
But underpinning all - geology. And linking all, on the surface - natural 'corridors'.
Little pockets of wonder - bird sanctuaries, ponds and streams, copses and woods, hills and moors, and meadows. Here comes the sciensy techy bit ........
“MAGical Meadows are the wildflower-rich grasslands found on thin soils overlying Magnesian Limestone rock. In the UK Magnesian Limestone is restricted to a narrow band which stretches northwards from Nottinghamshire into Durham and Tyne and Wear. The geographical position of the Magnesian Limestone acts as an ecological bridge between the chalks and limestones of northern Britain. As a result magnesian limestone grassland contains unique assemblages of both southern and northern calcareous (lime-loving) plants. Many of these plants are close to or at the limit of their natural growing range including Bee Orchid (Ophrys aptifera), Bird’s-eye Primrose (Primula farinose) and perennial Flax (Linum perenne).
Completely unique to east Durham and Tyne and Wear is the magnesian limestone grassland community containing Blue Moor-grass and Small Scabious (Sesleria caerulea – Scabiosa columbaria). This community is not found anywhere else in the world and is both nationally and internationally important.”
Described as rare, valuable and unique, this habitat has been exploited and industrialised for millenia. Species have perished, lost forever, more still at risk. Conservation is imperative. The quarries and their surrounding lands are crucial, little oasis in a desert of industry, at risk of infill with waste and effluent.
There is no more beautiful, breathtaking or peaceful habitat on a summer's day.
And it's where I live.
So there you are, just in case you were wondering. And even if you weren't;)
Thanks for visiting.
pamela x
P.s, love to know, how did you choose your bloggy home?
P.p.s., underpinning, linking ..... hey - it's a patchwork thing! Even more apt, for a crafty sort of lass wouldn't you say?!
Edited to add - the second edit worked, result;)
http://www.durhambiodiversity.org.uk/magicalmeadows.htm
http://www.northeastwildlife.co.uk/gallery/
