The Devil Finds Work For Idle Hands

... But maybe somebody else does too.

I went to the meeting, and good stuff came from that. I was there representing our charity, among a whole host of interested parties in the town. The big event was the presentation of a new comprehensive plan, with interesting ideas all wrapped around one that has proved solidly unpopular with residents and voters; a ring road through the hills.

Focus as I might, I couldn't see the point of a ring road. People are moving here because it is in a peachy position for both Edinburgh and Glasgow, nothing easier... and its also easy to just saunter off into the hills. So what does a ring road do? It's being argued that this would be a buffer against development, that a forest belt could be planted as a 'green lung' around the town. But we have the green lung now without the road. The argument seems to be that a field given over to road development would be safe from building development? Hmmm. There's a lot of building pretty close to main roads in Scotland; we rejected several gorgeous places out of hand simply because you could hear the traffic at all hours. The current Scottish government is very keen on house building (though not social housing strangely enough) and seems quite arbitrary about where developments are built, protected land is under threat everywhere. Permission is hard to protest; you need the courts and it gets very expensive. I do not think a road close by will stop developers, they may even use it as a selling pitch. It feels like a faulty premise to me, but doubtless there is more to learn.

Meanwhile a lady sidled up to me to talk about the Diversity day she is running.

'I remember your stories on Witchcraig to the French students,' she said, 'and how they wanted to stay on that hill and look for the cross!' Well I think that may have had as much to do with the heat and their tiredness than my story-telling talents, but it's nice to hear. She would like me to come and tell some of those stories. I am happy to do so, if I can.

And speaking of stories, my companion, whose stern expression and folded arms had denoted unmoving determination re any ringroad that might disturb badger setts, told me more of the silver man. One of the people who bought tickets to our geology walks revealed that they saw two silver men in pretty much the same place, but of course, this was ages ago and there are no details... and apparently a guy well known to everyone but me saw a silver orb floating around the same place. Orbs! Lordy!

I don't know about a ring road, if I was going to drag business into town I'd host a Fortean conference every year, complete with pop-up cafe and souvenirs, and night stake outs at Ravenscraig and Dechmont Law, go full Roswell on it. Town for business, hills for badgers, and the Silver Man can go where he likes.