"Look at it this way"

The title of a nice piece in 'Apollo' magazine , written by James Purdon. It explores the changes that occured in the landscape when we started to erect pylons to transport electricity around the countryside. A good read to start 2013's landscape musings...

Pylons are a common feature of the British landscape. They are not well liked by people, but burying the power-lines that they carry would add substantially to the cost of the infrastructure, and we all use electricity (apart from those of us who life 'off-grid') Cumbria is the latest area of landscape to be 'threatened' by a new line of pylons. There is a competition currently to identify the best new pylon design. Which of the 6 is your favourite ? I like these ICELANDIC ones personally. Don't forget to visit the PYLON APPRECIATION SOCIETY.

As featured in Lesson 3 in the book... There are plans for more pylons in East Anglia to connect proposed power stations to the National Grid to improve infrastructure. The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has been opposing these developments in some areas of Norfolk. My local paper has some more on this issue... It costs 10 times as much to place cables underground as it does to put it over ground. Check the plans and have your say here . And don't forget you can also join the Pylon Appreciation Society

Lesson 3 in the book explores changes in the landscape and their relative impact. Pylons are often viewed as being a blot on the landscape. An item for my (relatively) new Iceland blog: NICE LAND ICELAND A proposal to put a string of pylons shaped like human figures , which would go some way to reducing the visual impact on the landscape of this development... Or is a pylon a pylon no matter what shape it is ?