Christmases to come - Quinn & Rex Di Noci

with the effect of the gamebirds themselves, could explain the differences in the vegetation communities we observed between rides in game and non-game woods. The high light levels in wide rides, the soil disturbance caused by vehicles, and the physical disturbance and increased soil fertility caused by the pheasants themselves may have created conditions for particular ground flora species to flourish. There were more species that prefer these high-light and high-nutrient conditions including grasses, and ruderals like hempnettle and hogweed, in game woods. These species tend to be fast-growing and competitive, and increased numbers of these species may explain why there was also less bare ground in rides in game woods.

What does it mean for our woodland open areas?

In recent years, species found in ancient woodlands have declined, and it has been suggested that this decline is partly because open areas within these woodlands have been lost. Our work suggests that rides in woods managed for gamebirds can provide these open areas.

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust Registered charity number 1112023 (England and Wales)

Tel: 01425 652381 Email: info@gwct.org.uk Web: www.gwct.org.uk

Christmas 2020 will have memories - not all good but we can’t change the past. New routines, new challenges hit us every day, so many things we can’t do anything about, but there are many things we can do something about. We just need to hold on to the good memories. Based on our present experiences, as we discovered for Christmas last year, COVID was the Grinch that stole not just Christmas but stole so much more in 2020.

We can wish ourselves, our family and our friends, the best for the future but never forget tradition. Not all traditions are good, but in them there are many positives and changes, still very much alive today that will survive just like Christmas. Some old traditions die and new traditions are created. We are a year on from probably one of the biggest challenges we have experienced in our lives. Day by day we have to accept there are so many things we can waste time on, however, one of the most important things we have is time, and time doesn’t stop for anybody, so we should make the most of it.

I am so looking forward to Christmas 2021, it’s not here yet but I’m already sharing with you…

THE PRESENCE OF CHRISTMAS YET TO COME

Fast forward to the year Infinity Where there is no sense of nostalgia In the likeness of man Divinity No blood, no tissue, no neuralgia Post a millennial sabbatical Humanity absconded from the Earth Succeeded by hologramatical Units with ev’ry one a virgin birth The activists have turned androgynous No shapely calves in the Christmas stocking Energy has become hydrogenous The free range turkeys robots a-mocking Christmas lunches were never this pleasant Silicone chips with virtual pheasant

Rex di Noci November 16th 2021

Eden107.5 A Celebration of an Eden Project with a difference

Part 2 (Continued)

In the November edition, we started to describe the journey of Eden FM as a project - the idea was for Cumbria to have its first full-time community radio station.

2010 was about putting in a lot of foundations for a project that never had a finishing date. When it switched on for its first trial transmission in 2011, just for 4 weeks, the challenges it faced then were just the beginning of many challenges that would follow! By Christmas 2012, the station was known but still unable to transmit on an FM frequency. It had to wait until Ofcom invited stations to apply in the next application round for community radio licences, that was anticipated to be at the end of 2013.

To keep the team together and support its continual development, it had to be motivated. Switching its transmission off after its second 4-week trial was always going to be a low point, so with not much more to prove to the community, it continued as an online station in an area with struggling broadband connections. Its only constant connection was through the Eden Local then, which had changed to become the Cumbrian Local, as it stretched out of Eden into areas of Keswick.

By March 2013, Eden FM was preparing for its final trial transmission in June, but also preparing for its last 12 months as an internet station just needing to be on an FM frequency. In June, Eden FM completed its final trial licence, which also meant it was the last time on that 87.7 frequency and the last time it would be turning off its transmitter for a long period. Other projects running in parallel with Eden FM

were now in place. Links to its future included the start of the Penrith and Eden Valley Monopoly board game design, and on the horizon as the founder and Chairman of the station, I was also then very active in the campaign for Penrith to have a Town Council. This was addressed on page 12 of the June 2013 edition.

Meanwhile, as Eden FM progressed through 2013, in an article titled ‘The Lids off and its Manic for Monopoly’, which appeared on page 6 of the October magazine with the official Monopoly logo on the front cover, sponsors and interests to purchase the board were on a growing list. On the downside, it was about to lose its main sponsor - The Penrith Co-operative Society, as it was taken over by Scotmid. A part of Penrith died that year and it’s never come back as we see every time we drive past the empty, decaying shop front of no 19 Burrowgate. This story was covered in the