I've been trying to ween myself off Twitter, mostly because I find that the amount of negative stuff on there is not good for my state of mind, however amid all the name calling and other silly stuff there is always a few gems.

A few days ago I saw a tweet from a campaign group based in Northampton called "Save our Tree's Northampton", so reading on I found out that this group have started a campaign to bring back trees to Northampton's streets.

The number of street trees has seen a massive decline over the years, and the aim of the group is to not only reverse this and get tree's planted where none exist but also to protect existing trees, and they are working together with The Woodland Trust and Northamptons two Councils.

The twitter link for the group is @SaveStreetTrees

This whole subject was bought home to me earlier this year when Sheffield council decided in their infinite wisdom to chop down quite a number of healthy trees, a number of protesters were arrested, one unbelievably for blowing a plastic trumpet.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-4893479

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/woman-arrested-after-blowing-small-12241665


It seems we are not the only place to have short sighted councillors, thankfully people kicked up a fuss and the situation has been resolved but not before many trees were needlessly destroyed.

I took a walk into Wellingborough town centre from my work place earlier this week and although the road I was walking beside is busy thankfully the path I was on had trees on both sides.

What a difference those trees make, they provide shade, are great to look at, soak up pollutants in the air, and generally for me personally lift my spirit, why the hell would anyone want to chop down a healthy tree ?.

It's good to hear that both Northampton councils are involved with saveOutTrees and the Woodland Trust, I suspect the council would like to sell or rent the land where our old bus station once stood but if nothing is forthcoming ?.

Surely the site is a prime candidate for a park, even if only part of it was greened think of the benefits, but the problem we have is the existing culture where everything is seen only as a cost,

We need councillors at local level and politicians at a national level with the foresight to be able to see the very real benefits of improving our environment, its been proven that the quality of our environment has real cost saving potential.

In terms of both our mental and physical wellbeing we are storing up a whole world of sorrow if we not only recognise now the benefits but actually start putting things in place, with well thought out planting projects.

Depending on the time of day you can get some different scenes, when the sun sets is a good time to get some pictures.

So with the Cricket Summer nearly wrapped up and Northants CCC on the cusp of promotion I have mixed feelings, I would have prefered England to win back The Ashes rather than win the Word Cup but then hey ho.

On the whole I was disappointed with Englands performance, they seem to have lost the art of test batting, Ok there were a few standouts which saved us from complete humilation but on the whole not good.

I know we didn't have Anderson but the batsmen showed a lack of application, too many flash shots, too much limited overs mentality, on the plus side Broad did well, but we need to bring through more players of Test quality.

Joffra Archer was impressive and he really shook things up, lets hope he can play a part in the next Ashes series, maybe he he could be our new Tyson,

Ben Stokes, what can you say about his innings at Headingley, but rearguard actions are not good for my nerves.

Really when you boil the whole thing down without Smith Australia are a pretty average team, David Warner looked hopeless, it was touted that he was keen to make amends for his role in sandpapergate, he failed.

Marnus Labuschagne the concussion substiture for Steve Smith stood out for me, four 50's
to his name and a best score of 80 was impressive.

Steve Smith, it hurts me to say it but he is one great batsmen, whatever you think of his involvement with DIY products his skill can't be questioned.


I saw this in the one of the daily rags recently which interested me, the great Northants bowler Frank Tyson, he put the fear of God into the Aussie batsmen, we need some modern fast bowlers of his ilk coming through to take over from Anderson and Broad.

And now footage of Donald Bradman at Northants ground found in an attic.


www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-49731949


twitter.com/BBCNorthampton/status/1174210439124852736

Went out for a walk earlier and saw these Rosehips, seem rather large, wonder if this is a sign of a hard Winter coming up ?

And lot of bushes heavily laden with berries.

A new bench has been placed in our local park which I thought was really nice.

A  few times this Summer I've been to The Saracens Head pub in Little Brington and as I've driven to the pub I've seen an old church on a corner which looked a bit worn and torn so I thought I'd drive back just to take a look.


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When I'd set out from home it was sunny and bright, as I got to my destination the clouds rolled over, hence some of these pictures are not as sharp as I'd like them to be, but then in a strange way it made the church more atmospheric in that light.

A little bit of information about the church, it has a spire but no nave. The 4th Earl Spencer, Frederick Spencer, built the church of St John as a memorial to his wife, Elizabeth Poyntz whom he had married in 1830. The church was built for the convenience of villagers from Little Brington and Nobottle, who found it difficult to attend St. Mary’s in Great Brington.

Services were still held on a regular basis right up to the 19th and early 20th centuries.
By the 1940s, the church had fallen into a state of disrepair and the main body of the church was demolished in 1947.

And here is the really interesting bit, at the request of the Air Ministry, the tower with its octagonal spire was not knocked down, it had become a landmark to navigators and is still used for the same purpose today.

Northamptonshire housed a lot of air bases during WW11 used both by the Americans and the British, landmarks such as this must have been a great source of reassurance to airmen returning from raids.

www.abct.org.uk/airfields/airfield-finder/harrington/

I think we sometimes forget what a beautiful country we live in, there's a lot of pleasure in just driving out to a quiet spot and just taking in what surrounds you, something you probably only get to appreciate as you get a bit older.