Welsh mountain architecture
August 3rd, 2009
Hafod Eryri, Snowdon new visitor’s centre is the highest building and highest café in Britain (see Slideshow). The Guardian’s architecture critic, Jonathan Glanceyn describes it here as a ‘complete surprise’ and “a feat of ‘engineering sorcery’… fits so effortlessly into that peak is a real credit to those who designed and built it.” On arrival, visitors are greeted by lines of poetry carved into the outside walls of building, by Welsh poet Gwyn Thomas. The building must be able to withstand extreme weather conditions on the summit (Winds over 150mph -twice hurricane force-, over 5 metres of rain a year, temperatures of -20°C -excluding wind chill).
Well worth either the climb or taking Britain’s only rack-and-pinion mountain railway train.
Fears about the impact of last December’s severe weather, the coldest in 100 years, were unfounded. The drop in small bird populations witnessed in the 
The oldest osprey of the UK – and probably the world – has returned to her eyrie in the Scottish highlands. When she left for West Africa at the end of last summer, no one expected her to return. At 26 she’s lived 3 times longer than most female ospreys. In her life she’s laid 58 eggs and hatched 48 chicks, a massive individual contribution to the survival of ospreys in Scotland, where there are still only about 200 breeding pairs. The questions now are if her mate will return and if she is still fertile. Events can be followed on the 
The construction company currently finishing off the Shard building in London, which will be the UK’s tallest skyscraper, recently had to call the council to remove a squatter from the 72nd floor: a young fox. He was surviving on scraps left by builders. After a check-up at the Riverside Animal Centre, the fox has been released on the streets of Bermondsey, having shown the type of curiosity we associate with cats. 
Otters, water voles and fish are all benefitting from the improved quality of the UK’s waterways, now described as the cleanest since the industrial revolution. Since almost disappearing from the wild in the 1970s, otters are thriving, particularly in the south west of England, Cumbria and Northumberland. The population of water voles, highly precarious in the 1990s, is also beginning to recover. The good results of stricter pollution controls and extensive conservation work are set to continue in the new year with the introduction of new European water quality directives. 
