Recycled Scarecrow

When I was in West Hallam in July for the Well Dressing Festival and Scarecrow Trail, there was a figure outside the Old Post Office dressed as Guy Fawkes. Now as Christmas approaches, the figure has had a change of costume and is now standing beneath a small umbrella that offers a little protection against the elements.


I'm not sure whether the umbrella is a subtle comment about global warming but it seems "change" is the operative word - a change of clothes, a change of character and of course climate change. Whilst world leaders gather in Copenhagen to discuss the reduction of harmful emissions and attempt to thrash out an agreement the sad fact remains that whatever your view on the science surrounding the changes in the weather, you can be sure someone will have the opposite opinion.

Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them. - John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801 - 1890)