Wind Farm

[maryanddavid]

[maryanddavid]

Im trying to post an image from photobucket, why wont it show?

<a href="http://s441.photobucket.com/albums/qq137/doomlord/?action=view&current=STA60372.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i441.photobucket.com/albums/qq137/doomlord/STA60372.jpg" border="0" alt="Kate at windfarm"></a>

[Kerrin]

Don't fret David, we can see the link if we click on it.

[Kerrin]

Sorry for the double post, I realised that my early morning, after pub advice wasn't immensely helpful there David.

If you look at your tool bar on your "post reply" page you'll find the image button under the B for bold text. When you click on it you will get two sets of [], square brackets appear that say "img"in them.

On your browser, open another tab and go to your Photobucket album. From your album put the cursor on a saved image and you should get a little menu pop up with an option which says "direct link". Click on the script in the direct link window, it should highlight itself (you may have to wait a second for it to highlight all of itself), then click and drag that line of script (don't worry if it looks like you've only got part of it) to the middle of the two sets of img brackets on your post reply page. Usually that will mean dragging the script to the post reply tab on your browser and then into the brackets.

Then hit "preview" to see if it worked.

I hope you find this helpful, it took me bloody ages to work it out, and that was only after plenty of helpful advice from other board members.

[House of Usher]

[maryanddavid]

Cheers HoH and Kerrin, dont know why I couldnt figure that out!

Anyway getting to the point(s) of posting the picture.

I took this picture on saturday, that my little girl Kate in the pic, she is seven. I think it really gets across the size of these turbines, they are huge in the flesh.

Firstly, its amazing whats near that you dont see, yet I am willing to travel far to see 'sights'. This wind farm has been up and running for a good few years, I can see it from my house and its about 4 miles as the crow flies. To drive its about eight miles, and saturday was my first visit.

Secondly when we went to see it I had a kind of 2000ad moment, the whole landscape is very bizzare. Its very high up, beautiful blanket bog streching for miles, no house or telephone lines, the only signs of civilization is sheep and large clamps of turf(for burning not for gardens!), then you have these giant things dotted along the landscape that look totally alien, but yet fit in somehow, the sheep were grazing right beside them! 

I personally think they are great, in a perverse way they preserve the landscape, provided the engeneering is done properly to prevent landslips, life as normal is continuing underneath them, and everytime I boil the kettle I know that a bit of the elcetricity is coming from the turbines.

Has anyone any thoughts or serious objections to these type of wind farms which will inevitably become more numerous over the next few years?

David

[House of Usher]

Nice picture. Digital and hi res?

The short instructions are: in the 'reply' window, click the 'picture frame' icon under the 'B' for bold, and paste an url ending in .jpg or .gif between <img> and </img>.


Wind turbines don't offend me none.

[TordelBack]

I'd rather see more investment in tidal power, but I think the wind turbines look fantastic.  Mind you I also love watertowers.

It's a pity when they interfere with landscapes that people like as they are (although I reject the assertion that any Irish landscape is natural'), but I'll take anything over burning our bogs, and while I accept that nuclear may well be the more practical route I have a bred-in-the-bone hatred and mistrust of that industry that I can't shift.

So til something better comes along, bring 'em on in all their future-shocky glory.

[I, Cosh]

I've always thought of them as weirdly beautiful. There's a small family of them which you can see from the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh. At certain times of year(well, probably all year, but I'm passing at the same time every day) you see them highlighted against the low sun and the effect always makes me smile.

[maryanddavid]

Im not sure if this is right but I was under the impression that the blanket bog covered areas were one of the few remaining natural landscapes in Ireland.

'highlighted against the low sun and the effect always makes me smile'
Thats kind of the way I see them as well, it may be an influence of the green agenda coming through the media, to see any renewable as been good for the globe.

'but I'll take anything over burning our bogs'

Im kind of half with you on that, the milling and use of peat briquetts is questionable as to the sustainability of the practice. I have used timber briquetts and they are a great sub, hard to light though.

On the other hand if you have people cutting a trailer full of turf FOR THEIR OWN USE  from thier own land, and they are not using a hopper, I have no particular problem, it could NEARLY be described as a cultural type practise.
A Hopper is a  maching that requires a digger to scoop up large amounts of bog into the hopper, and then squeezes into sausage shaped pieces. This maching completly destroys bog the bog which the material it was removed from and also upsets the water table on the surrounding bog, which depend on high water levels for growth.
I havent cut turf for a good few years, although my father has cut a bit, and its an education to watch him use the traditional way to cut it using the  spade called of all things a 'slain' , two different types, a breast slain used for above knee height cutting and a foot slaine for digging downwards, I have just realised im waffelling!


David

[TordelBack]

On the other hand if you have people cutting a trailer full of turf FOR THEIR OWN USE  from thier own land, and they are not using a hopper, I have no particular problem, it could NEARLY be described as a cultural type practise.

I wouldn't be at all shy about describing turberry rights as a legitimate cultural practice - and cutting and saving turf is one of the very best ways to spend a day, and nothing on earth equals fresh caught herring cooked on a griddle over a turf fire.  Turf-fired power stations, milling and sausage machining on the other hand...  

And you're probably right David, some of our blanket bog is a natural landscape, especially down your way.  Most however is heavily modified with tracks, pylons and cuttings, and much is actually post-agricultural peat growth only starting at the end of the Neolithic/earlier Bronze Age, and so its spread is arguably at least partly influenced by human tree felling and soil erosion.  

[Colin YNWA]

I've always thought of them as weirdly beautiful.

Oh completely there's something very calming about them absolutely love um

[House of Usher]

I havent cut turf for a good few years, although my father has cut a bit, and its an education to watch him use the traditional way to cut it using the  spade called of all things a 'slain'

Tordelback, you know you'll be failing in your duty if you don't alert ThryllSeekyer...

[maryanddavid]

cutting and saving turf is one of the very best ways to spend a day

Thats the culchie coming out in you  Tordleback! Your right about the cooking turf gives it a class flavour, as well as herrings, salmon and wild mushrooms are lovely.

click the 'picture frame' icon under the 'B' for bold, and paste an url ending in .jpg or .gif between <img> and </img>.

Cheers HoU, im slowly coming to grips with the new board, just figured the quote function!

David

[Kerrin]

The short instructions are: in the 'reply' window, click the 'picture frame' icon under the 'B' for bold, and paste an url ending in .jpg or .gif between <img> and </img>.

Well, yeah, if you're into that whole brevity thing...