Discuss The Archers #108: Has Ed & Emma’s ship sailed? Will Alice stick her oar into Kate's love life? Can Shula walk on water? Come and discuss whatever floats your boat in The Archers.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to be Susan's best friend or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3439443-keep-it-to-yourself-the-archers-spoilers-thread-4, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to @QuaterMiss for the title of this thread. For reasons of space had to cut out the bit speculating about Oliver and Tracy pairing off. Surely not!

Off now to give blood, something nobody in Ambridge ever does. See you all later.

I remember watching some comedy (can't remember what it was now) and a cow was taken upstairs in a house, and it turned out that cows can't go down stairs. And I heard that again on something else, recently. No idea how true that is.

Love the image of cows walking down a hill backwards!

Looking forward to the scene where Ruth tells Pip that if she thinks she can have any of the Brookfield land for rewilding she can get lost.

Given that the money is not supposed to be a lottery win, the obvious pitch would have been: use the £500 k to buy a (small) piece of land, and just leave it alone.

Rex get back to his pigs, Phoebe get a job. Planet saved!

The idea of rewilding golf courses was the silliest suggestion ever. Isn’t rewilding something done by people who own lots of land but don’t need to make any money out of it because they have other sources of income? I’m thinking of that Danish family who now own half of Scotland and also ASOS.

I must say I didn’t understand their proposals for how they would generate income from this land. It seemed odd to suggest glamping, in direct competition with Phoebe’s own mother, and wildlife tours, in competition with the Wildlife Trust surely.

But then I never understand the economics of re-wilding - though it’s a lovely idea.

The idea of rewilding golf courses was the silliest suggestion ever

I didn't think that was actually the suggestion was it? More a contrast of the way land is used. I thought the questions were quite patronising - Peggy knows full well that they don't have assets/land at the moment; surely that is the whole point of the money? I also thought it was about supporting and enabling rewilding rather than buying up huge tracts of land.

By expecting bidders to be landowners Peggy is implicitly restricting the money to a smaller subset. On that basis they should not have allowed the rewilding bid onto the shortlist.

Gods I will be glad when this stupid storyline is done because I'm fairly sure it will go to one of the family farms just to keep the money in the family and that will annoy the hell out of me because neither Brookfield nor Home Farm care enough about this stuff to do it without a sodding great wodge of money handed over to them.

K

Oops posting to soon in my annoyance!

Last para should have been:

Kate might as well have it for her teepee collective - at least that was created in the right spirit, like Tony/Pat's organics.

LillianGish they were not suggesting rewinding golf courses, they were using golf courses to illustrate the prevalence of a non-productive use of land - i.e. purely recreational. I expect golf courses are quite resource-intensive to maintain too - with lots of watering & mowing involved.

The whole episode was quite tedious. The BBC has been doing a series on farming & climate change this week, although I can't find any good examples to link to right now.

For the benefit of a few pps who don't understand the concept of rewinding. It's not just about leaving land to go completely wild, as eventually it would all revert to woodland.

It needs management - you need a mixture of the right animals ranging free (who eat certain plants, fertilise the land, spread seeds & encourage other plants). The animals need to be culled occasionally (so providing meat) etc. It's not totally non-productive.

Gaah - autocorrect has changed rewilding to rewinding, but you all know what I mean ...

Rewilding could be like 'setaside' an old idea but not a bad one. Golf courses need greening though ,they use far too much weedkiller etc etc etc.

Cows seem to be happy enough climbing hills round here. Yes, that is a cow getting cross with the deer not moving out of its way.

I feel sorry for the next scriptwriter on the rota - presumably they will either have to 'implement' the project or simply never mention it again and hope we all forget about it.

I know it’s not totally non-productive, grumiosmum - but I don’t understand it being framed as a business option rather than a philanthropic move. What do the landowners get out of it other than moderate fame and glory - unless they score a regular paid slot on a rural affairs TV show?

(I know the place in Sutherland that Lil’G mentioned charges astronomical rates for hotel or cottage accomodation. )

Cows can't climb hills, I assume, so tend to be down on the flat Cows are bigger animals, therefore need more food, and valley bottoms have more soil and lusher grass. But Highland cattle are presumably bred for the uplands, and Ingleborough (one of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks)NNR has cattle grazing. They avoid limestone pavement, though.

As for abseiling Montbelliards ... try this report from Derbyshire Cave Rescue, who had to go to the aid of a calf on its first trip

"Friday 19 June 2009 Nether Water Mine, Hazlebadge
DCRO were asked to go to the help of a six week old calf which had fallen into old mine workings. Local cavers had already been down at the request of the farmer and reported the animal to be alive. A DCRO team of a dozen attended and in an operation lasting nearly four hours they successfully brought the animal to the surface.
The calf was either very lucky or very skilful. It jumped an initial 4 metres or so down the mine entrance. Then it ignored the first underground shaft on offer in favour of descending the next (5 metres) - wisely without making use of a rather dangerous iron ladder. Now gaining in confidence it made its way to the top of the next pitch (21 metres) which it descended rapidly and again without using a rope cleverly avoiding terminal velocity with the little used (and rarely successful) ricochet method. One more adrenaline hit descending a final 9 metre pitch and it found a side passage in which to make itself comfortable while it tried to work out how to get back up. It is now believed to be looking for a good caving club. Any offers?"

Golf courses need greening though ,they use far too much weedkiller etc etc etc. In my sourer moments, I can't help wishing we'd solve our housing crisis by building on golf courses rather than on good agricultural land.

R4:
I would be really pleased if she said, "Actually, there is no prize. If you lot are so keen about green issues then why don't you crack on regardless because your 'passion' shouldn't be dependent on my money."

This would be awesome and also a magnificent vindication for Tony and his long-term commitment to organics.

A certain Boys school near me has a tradition of practical jokes when they finish (this year was sending letters to nearby residents informing them of imminent plans to start erecting a bridge between sites).
But their most famous one is taking a cow up the stairs to the Grade 1 listed library.

I may have overstated my agricultural expertise earlier. in addition to all your excellent examples, it occurs to me that I forgot about cows being moved to the high Alps for summer. Loved the abseiling calf!

I quite agree Mere. There's a golf course near us, with a road around some of it, which is a one track lane, with high hedges, and a 90degree corner. My husband takes great delight honking his horn as he goes around that corner, just as someone is taking a swing! (You can see the course through a gap in the hedge.)

I would be really pleased if she said, "Actually, there is no prize. If you lot are so keen about green issues then why don't you crack on regardless because your 'passion' shouldn't be dependent on my money."

I'd love that. Also would love her recognising Tony's contribution over 40 odd years instead of dismissing him as the one who didn't make as much money.

I had been softening toward Peggy but this whole grandiose nonsense has reminded me how little I liked her (how much of the budget is being spent on the whole process of selection and monitoring?). I do like June Spencer though so its a struggle!

I like Peggy. She gets some good lines.
Have I mentioned that I can't stamd Pip?

stand not stamd.

I like Peggy's lines, but feel the whole inheritance lark has confirmed her as a colossal four-letter word person.

I also think it's a pity that the tribute to Peggy's RL avatar has become conflated with a stupidly implausible storyline.

The whole episode was quite tedious

I'm so bored with this storyline.

Me too. I really don’t give a stuff who wins and it’s not as if we’ll see the results of their work any time soon. However, the one good thing about this storyline is that it is putting off the inevitable one about Ian and Adams behbeh