What Am I Talking About?

Introduction

This was something I noticed nearly ten years ago and recorded on my Seven Days In blog, replacing grass verges with astroturf (artificial grass) I assume to save maintenance costs for the council.

The thing is, that a lot of councils let their verges run wild, which is good for bees and butterflies and other pollinating insects and although I was up there a few hours back I didn't notice if it was still astroturfed. I need to go up there again so I will check and report when I return.

What Am I Talking About?

It's the middle of the working week and the clouds are dispersing giving way to blue skies and sunshine. Everybody seems to be checking apps on their phones, tablets and computers to see what the weather will be like , I still stick with looking out of the window and if I think it's gonna rain I take my umbrella and if it's going to be wet and windy I take my hat (it's water and windproof).

The weather is a complex thing and while it can be influenced by governments with the right resources, nothing can be guaranteed.

A worrying development is the replacement of grass with plastic at Cowgate near me. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, but in Earth's ecosystem plants take in CO2 and exhale O2, it's part of the balance of nature. The thing is if all the grass is replaced by plastic it will have a detrimental effect on the environment. It looks nice and new when it's laid but it soon gathers rubbish and I reckon it's going to soon get very tatty and it WILL affect our environment.

Astroturfing Paradise

Also, we see trees being removed. An oak tree may take 50 gallons of water a day. I look at the plants and bushes and trees around my garden. The garden seldom gets too wet to walk in and those plants, bushes and trees are doing very well thank you. Take them away and I have a swimming pool. We are getting more and more floods and a big part of it is tree decimation. Trees can have negative effects, their roots can destroy buildings, roads and footpaths, but they need to be conserved and managed not destroyed.

I am not a scientist, but these are just some thoughts on stuff I have seen.

Anyway, I am going to leave for work soon and I suppose the line from Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" is coming to pass:

"They Paved Paradise, and Put Up A Parking Lot"

Though Cowgate is hardly Paradise, it does have the best fish and chip shop in Newcastle DG Gorman's Fenham Fish Bar.

Anyway with that thought, I will get off and you have a brilliant day.

Oh, and Craig Charles just mentioned my Earworm on his 6Music Show, just before the 7:30 news. It was Earl Mankey's Mau Mau.

Conclusion

Thank you so much for reading this ten-year-old slice of what I was up to and talking about then, and maybe it will give you some ideas for your Vocal stories.

You know I share by blog posts when they seem to be getting a bit of extra traction, and while my blog pages have a lot of visits ( over ten thousand so far this month) they are probably 99.99% robots and the odd human. At least I know when I see a comment on here I know that a Vocal creator has been here.