In memory of Pixi Morgan a fellow Bard

Pixi Morgan was a Bard, a Travelling Minstrel and an Eco-warrior

Pixi Morgan's real name was Neill Morgan but Pixi suited him better in so many ways.  There was something magical and mystical about his songs and performance. He originally hailed from Cardiff in Wales but he spent a lot of his life in Glastonbury. He was a modern travelling minstrel, a bard and an eco-warrior, who took part in many road protest camps.  Sadly Pixi passed away on 6 February. He had been suffering from liver failure and had been in hospital in Southhampton where many of his friends and family had visited him before he lost his final battle in this life. He was taken from us too early because he would have only been 50 if he had reached his next birthday this coming April.  But Pixi had travelled far and wide in his time on Earth and touched the hearts of so many people he met along the way. 

Pixi Morgan with Bill the Nirvana fan and King Arthur Pendragon at Tinkinswood Burial Chamber

Usually my blog is about nature and conservation, not about singers and musicians, but I felt that Pixi easily merits being included here, not just because he was a good friend that I have sadly lost but because he was someone who made the effort to do what he could to stop the destruction of our once "green and pleasant land." Pixi had been a part of many of the biggest road protest camps, including Twyford Down and Newbury Bypass. It was at Twyford Down that he met Druid and eco-warrior King Arthur Pendragon, whom he is pictured with above on the occasion of his knighting into the Loyal Arthurian Warband, as a Quest Knight and Bard. At Twyford Down, Pixi had acted as Arthur's Herald and was featured on a BBC Radio 4 documentary about Arthur and his campaigns. 

Pixi had learned what it was like living on the land, in tune with nature and the seasons. He could build a bender, make a small wood fire, and play his guitar and sing when others (myself included) would have found it simply too cold. I remember him doing so on the occasion of his knighting, because I was there too and was also knighted by King Arthur. We were filmed by Sky TV for a documentary about reincarnation but stayed on partying after the television crew had gone. The full story is told here. 

Songs of Pixi Morgan

Pixi Morgan outside the Red Lion in Avebury

Pixi began cultivating his bardic skills as a teenager when he learned songs by Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Leonard Cohen and Bob Marley, amongst other musical mentors. He practised on the guitar and after a time when he freely admitted to using basic chords and the three-chord trick, he soon evolved an individual style of finger-picking and strumming and began to pen his own material with songs like Within Us All and Travelling Minstrel.  These songs and others were included on a homemade cassette album he released entitled Heart With Wings.

Heart With Wings

He became an accomplished busker and covered songs by many folk singers and folk-rock bands. Pixi made the songs so much his own that they sounded as if he had written them. Richard Thompson's Beeswing is in this category.  As a busker he knew well what it was like to get hassled by police and security officers and told you are not allowed to play, so Pixi often performed the song Go, Move, Shift by Christy Moore.  Pixi really knew what such songs were about because he had lived the experiences described or knew people like the characters depicted in the lyrics.

Reflecting his interest in the cycle of nature and conservation of the land, he used to play Jack in the Green by Jethro Tull. Another song he took to his heart was Spancil Hill, and you can hear him singing this when he was a protester at the Hill of Tara road protests in Ireland. 

Accursed Road, Rath Lugh 2007, Gabhra Valley

It was while busking in Devizes with Laura Howe that Pixi caught the eye and ear of Dave Davies, who is famous for being part of The Kinks rock group. Davies wrote the song Strangers and had a hit in his solo career with Death of a Clown. He knew talent when he heard it and was so impressed that he invited Pixi and Laura to open for him at a concert at The Barbican in London. 

Pixi and laura meet Dave Davies

Pixi lives on in the memories of his friends and family and in the recordings of the songs he played. To keep his memory alive and to raise funds for his funeral and wake a special CD compilation has been put together entitled ONE FOR THE ROAD. 

Clay plant pots versus plastic pots

Clay pots or plastic pots? 

Plant in plastic pot (Photo: Public Domain)

We all know well that there is too much waste plastic polluting the environment, filling the oceans, and killing wildlife, so anything which can help cut down our use of the material has got to be good news.  I have been thinking about how many plastic pots and containers for growing plants in get sold every day and how many of these containers are in use. It must be a a mind-boggling number when you consider how many of these pots are on sale in supermarkets, hardware stores and gardening centres.  Nearly all of that plastic is eventually going to end up in landfill sites or in the environment somewhere!

Clay pots (Photo: Public Domain)

I remember the days when there were only clay or terracotta pots. I prefer them too. The clay pots breathe and don't allow water-logging to occur, which can easily happen with plastic containers. Admittedly the clay pots can crack and break but broken pieces of pot make great drainage material to be put in the bottom of another pot you are getting ready to plant something in. It used to be standard practice to use up broken pots this way.

Clay pots showing mineral deposits (Photo: Public Domain)

The only other minor disadvantage of clay pots is that because they are porous they can absorb minerals that leach out of the compost and the water used for plants growing in them. This can create whitish powdery deposits on the outside of the clay pot.  It can be washed off, however.

Clay pots for tropical fish

I remember using clay pots when breeding tropical fish species. A clay pot makes a great spawning site for many types of fish, including cichlids such as the Kribensis cichlid (Pelvicachromis pulcher), which is a very popular and easily bred species.

Kribensis (Photo: Aquakeeper 14)

Many types of fish will accept a clay pot as an artificial cave and hiding place. many will make these containers their homes and will defend them from other fish. 

Buying clay pots

Unfortunately it has become a lot more difficult to find places that sell clay pots. I am lucky where I live in Portugal because the clay pots are on sale alongside the plastic ones, even at major supermarkets. I know the type of pot I choose to buy.

If enough people refused to buy the plastic containers and asked for old-fashioned clay ones then the manufacturers would be forced to supply us with clay pots not plastic pots.

Watering cans  (Photo: Public Domain)

Plastic is not just used for our plant pots because even watering cans are now made of the material.  Seems crazy how a can can be made of plastic not metal, don't you think?

Garden Tiger Moth and its Woolly Bear caterpillar in serious decline

The very large and colourful garden tiger moth (Arctia caja), and its hairy caterpillar, which is known as a "woolly bear," were once very common in the UK but are now declining in numbers fast.

Arctia caja (Photo: Kurt Kulac)

The garden tiger has brightly coloured forewings that are patterned in creamy-white and chocolate-brown and the hind-wings are orange with blackish-blue spots. It has a stout, mainly orange body and a dark brown furry thorax.  The colours and patterns are very much given to variation too, although the moth is easy to identify.

This moth is found, as its name suggests, in gardens, but also on farms, in meadows, on railway and river banks and on sand dunes.  It has a liking for damp areas, though the caterpillars can often be seen crawling rapidly across paths and open ground on hot days.

The garden tiger moth emerges from late June to August. It used to be a very common and widely distributed moth in the UK but over the last 30 years its numbers have dropped by as much as 89%.  This is difficult to understand because its caterpillar will eat a very wide range of food-plants, including many weeds, such as docks and dandelions. It will also eat nettles and cultivated plants, such as rhubarb and cabbage. The caterpillar will feed on various shrubs, including the raspberry, blackberry and broom as well.

Garden Tiger Moth caterpillar (Photo: Acelan)

The garden tiger moth caterpillar is known as a woolly bear because it is covered in long black and ginger hairs. These hair are a good protection for the larva and can cause irritation.  The young caterpillars hibernate and feed up in the spring. It is thought that Climate Change and mild winters have caused the decline in this species, which has failed to adapt to the changes in the climate.

The adult garden tiger is so brightly coloured to warn predators that it tastes very bad and is toxic. The colouration and patterns are a very good example of "warning colours."

The garden tiger moth is one of many British moths and butterflies that have been declining in numbers and are no longer as common s they used to be, which is a worrying trend.