Air pollution...

The hot Bank Holiday weekend has been blighted by sporadic spells of appalling local air quality. Gentle easterly winds blew a cloud of pollution into our bit of the Medway Valley, clearing only briefly when the wind switched from east to south-east for a few hours on Sunday afternoon.

Here are some snapshots from Church Hill, showing the brownish smog that was hanging over the valley this fine Bank Holiday morning...

Looking south through the "bright golden haze on the meadow" that is Church Hill

The Medway Bridge, just visible through the smog...

The UKAIR air quality website declares this pollution to be "moderate", although levels of PM2.5s have consistently exceeded US air quality standards (no more than 35ug/m3 over 24 hours) for the past couple of days...

Screen grab of air pollution data from UKAIR's Stoke monitoring station

The US seems far more concerned about the quality and safety of the air they breathe than we do: the UK does not feel a need to set short-term limits for the insidious micro-particulates that damage our lungs and cause misery (or much worse) for those suffering from respiratory illnesses.

The East Anglian and Essex coasts have had it far worse than us, however. Our local air pollution is only rated at 5 ("moderate"). They have had ratings of 8 or 9, with the not-at-well-publicised advice from the Environment Agency to "reduce your outdoor activities" (while holding your breath?).

Screen grab of UKAIR's air pollution map for Bank Holiday Monday

Indeed, because there are no short-term UK limits for micro-particulate air pollution, no national air pollution warnings for the south-east England are currently in force.  Laughably, the gassing of visitors to Frinton beach has therefore been linked to a possible "fuel spill" rather than the truth of a far wider poisoning of the very air that the population of South-East England breathes.

This pollution seems to occur as a result of easterly winds and dissipates rapidly if the wind direction shifts (which it now has, mercifully), so there cannot be a local cause. It is possible that we are simply getting the fallout from the wildfires that have been raging in the forests of Siberia for the past couple of months, although similarly poor air quality occurred back in April and in January, before these fires began.

Easterly winds now spell poisonous air for the South-East, based on recent trends.

Having said that, Cuxton and Halling have more than their fair share of sociopaths who don't seem to think that it is wrong to light bonfires in built-up areas. Despite the fact that there is a municipal tip less than a mile away and that the local council provides a weekly green waste collection service, there are still people who can't be bothered to use them. Instead, they prefer to burn their lawn clippings or whatever (often mixed in with other waste, and always during those lovely evenings or weekends in the summer when everyone has their windows open), distributing sticky black combustion residues over their neighbours' properties and filling other people's houses with toxic, carcinogenic, foul-smelling, choking smoke.

And on that happy note, enjoy your Bank Holiday.

Except if you light bonfires, of course, in which case I hope you have a miserable time.  Which you will, because you don't have any friends...

An organic interlude...

Luddesdown's "organic" vineyard has suddenly blossomed.  A sudden and spectacular bloom of wild flowers seems to be a testament to a policy of zero herbicides...

View from Wrenches Shaw...

The deep ploughing that so badly scarred the Luddesdown valley landscape earlier in the year seems to have unearthed a seed bank that has, in some places, now produced a remarkable flush of wild flowers.

The yellow is largely rape or some other mustard, but this is mixed in with the yellows of hawkweeds and sowthistles, as well as a profusion of common poppies and camomile...

View south at Cutter Ridge Road...

Looking west from Cutter Ridge Road...

A mixture of Common Fumitory, Chicory and Borage adds a splash of blue in amongst the reds and yellows...

Borage...

Common fumitory...

Chicory, with Painted Lady butterflies...

As can be seen above, the non-use of herbicides and insecticides has also given rise to an explosion of insect life, particularly bees and butterflies.  Most numerous are the Large and Small Whites that have been attracted to the pesticide-free rape and mustard in their thousands, but 2019 is also a boom year for Painted Ladies, hundreds of which were flying gloriously and powerfully around the fields. Brimstones, Peacocks and Red Admirals were also well-represented, though the vicious spring hack-back of the hedgerows seems to have scared away the Gatekeepers...

Peacock on crimson clover...

Brimstone on Toadflax...

It was also good to see that some Skylarks had returned to the field margins after being driven away in Spring. The long grass was densely flowered with the purple flowers of Knapweed...

Knapweed in the field margins...

I have a feeling that this wild flower bonanza cannot be allowed to continue, however. The vines are being crowded out by this super-abundance of home-grown vegetation, a state of affairs that surely isn't economically tolerable. This bloom is, of course, a one-off brought on by the breaking up of the soil structure. Buried seeds have burst into life for one final, glorious bloom

The vines must be protected as they are what will be making the money. I have little doubt that the vineyard land managers will soon be doing some heavy weeding, perhaps even carefully applying a hefty dose of good old glyphosphate or some other such poison, so that the precious vines can establish themselves free from the competition of pesky local flora and fauna.

Enjoy the flowers, birds, bees and butterflies in the Luddesdown vineyard while you can because I think they will all soon be gone for ever, and not by means of natural seasonal changes. The current flush of flora will not be permitted to set seed, and so gradually the wildflowers will die out.

All that will be left is a dull, sterile monoculture of vines, with vast areas of fields criss-crossed and defaced by the galvanised steels wires and supports.

The old days of the beautiful variety of organic arable farmland at Luddesdown are now gone, possibly forever...