10:10

Today is the anniversary of the death of Thomas Traherne, from Hereford so a local-ish lad. Of the Metaphysical poets he was probably the one who was most celebratory of creation, exploring its glory with little mention made of sin and suffering.

I had my own celebratory moment while sitting in the sun with a cup of tea. I was joined on my bench by a dragonfly for a good ten minutes, probably a mature female Common Darter. Its finest filigree wings shone silver in the sun, with some black edging at the end of each. Its body was brown, paling to almost orange on the back, and it had large brown insectoid eyes. It had a continuous kind of swallowing motion under its head, like a frog, but also a similar motion under the end of its tail, which was slightly odd. I suppose instead of 'body' and 'tail', I should say 'abdomen' or some such.

The 10:10 campaign has been asking people and organisations to pledge to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010, and then to do it. It's a first step towards reducing emissions by the 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 needed to avoid dangerous climate change. A while ago, I tried calculating my carbon emissions using various carbon calculators, and wasn't overly impressed with them. Given that I've made a fairly dramatic lifestyle change, it's a bit pointless trying to estimate and compare 2010 with 2009, so here are some figures derived from my utility bills and MOT certificates:

• Electricity down 5% in year to mid-August 2010
• Gas down 10% in year to end-August 2010
• Water down 12% in year to mid-September 2010
• Car mileage up 15% (ahem) in year to end-September 2010

I excluded journeys on behalf of Exeter Diocese from the mileage calculation, so it's even worse! And I'd meant to sell the car in June 2009. I confess I stopped worrying about mileage in the summer of 2010; I had things I wanted to do in Devon and people I wanted to see before I moved to Mucknell. Lots of difficult small decisions not taken. Thankfully, so far at Broad Marston, the car has barely moved.