Monday, November 26, 2007
Halo Release
I came across the above hauntingly enigmatic phrase yesterday, while communing with nature on Ashtead Common in Surrey. It was on a notice board outlining the next phase in the heroic conservation work that has maintained the character (and abundant wildlife) of this fine common. 'Halo release' means clearing, as it were, a halo of open space around the magnificent veteran oaks that survive in great numbers - ancient pollards ('dotterels', as John Clare calls them) that were part of a mixed timber-and-grazing regimen. Within their 'halos', the oaks will thrive anew, freed of competition from lesser trees, and what grows up in the cleared land will be of benefit to the unique inverterbrate life that lives on ancient pollard oaks. So there you are: Halo release - a capital idea. I only hope it comes up as a question this evening. But it seems, I must admit, unlikely...
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Interesting stuff. "Halo release", in my corner of the Internet at least, means something quite different. Google will spit back an entire galaxy of geekiness at you for such a query.
ReplyDeleteStill, this post's header may inadvertantly draw some unsuspecting new readers Thought Experiments-wards...
Aha - it could be the notorious Tattoos post all over again...
ReplyDeleteI was going to post that I enjoyed the first, hated the second, and thought the third was a letdown despite being a marvelous example of programming. I am, you see, a geek.
ReplyDelete'twas that storm in the late eighties, which pointed to all these innovations. But the funny thing about this one is that there was no arbouricultural mind behind it. The bean counters, in the various areas refused to clear payment for anything beyond that which was a danger to life. ergo, these odd little areas of true beauty.
ReplyDeleteAh, Chip, I heartily concur. Though having written far too much about them already, I shall merely add that the third felt a little too much like a Mr.Sheen-shined two-and-a-half - unless, of course, you enjoy spending those long winter nights being slaughtered by braying teenagers every few seconds. I don't.
ReplyDelete