My milkman, who works for Dairy Crest, informs me that milk is going up 4p/pint on Sunday. That's because "the company has to pay 3.85p a pint more to its farmers". So - I sincerely hope all the increase is going to you guys and not just into the pockets of the middle man.

(I only belong to 'NFU Lite', so was unable to log into the members section to see if I could find out more about milk prices.)

I probably won't be logging in again till Monday now, so there's no hurry to answer.

Bramble leaves are colouring up. Seen here backlit by early autumn sunshine on the Trinity Hill Nature Reserve, an area of rough pasture and heathland near Axminster. Still blackberries to pick, and more unusually, the pale pink flowers are still in evidence on some of the bushes.

A photo from a few days ago - a happy time before the spectre of foot and mouth had raised its fearsome head again.

A beef suckler herd grazing in the evening sunshine on the side of Cannington Lane, Uplyme. They belong to Clive and Jo Sage of Wyld Weadow Farm, Monkton Wyld. And very tasty they are too: the beef is superb, and we know it's had a good life.

Last week, Pete and I were clearing some brambles in our field, and he commented on how much noisier it is now than when we first lived here in 1985. At almost any time of the day one can hear traffic noise from the A35 or A3052.

The wonderful dark night skies are almost a thing of the past, too. In the 80s, we could see the Milky Way almost every clear night; now it's only very occasionally visible on the darkest frostiest night. Why? Thoughtlessness by neighbours with their intrusive security lighting, a general increase in street and property lighting, and especially the bright street lighting on the Axminster bypass, visible on our northern horizon.

You can see maps that show how our rural areas are being spoiled by thoughtless development here:

http://www.cpre.org.uk/campaigns/planning/intrusion

(Edited 14/09: I asked for permission to copy parts of the maps here, but the CPRE is obviously a bureaucracy like any other and hasn't yet answered.)