Townlife

Good evening all,

I was not going to bother with writing a post this evening, nor probably this week. Tis not writers block (I’d have to be a writer firstly and then get a block!) nor was it that I’ve been resting upon my gluteus maximus, indeed far from it I’ve been a busy little bee of late what with ‘the grind’, starting on project number 5076 (fishing trailer for a cycle), E-bay, a little fishing and of course the odd ramble with she who smells of fox shit (yes the bog monster found something far more er ….. intoxicating shall we say, than stagnant ditch water, bless her).

But ‘the grind’ doesn’t merit a post unless I’ve actually shot a manager, project 5076 is still in the development stage and requires some more head scratching before becoming even remotely reportable upon, E-bay? I really don’t want to be telling tales of the folks that I’ve fleeced er I mean sold exceptional high level goods too do I (far to incriminating), the fishing has been steady but would be more a post on the ones that got away than any great catches and Lucy reeking of fox shit? my humble scribing would in no way do the resulting stench justice. So I was to remain postless in a happy cider induce haze.

But I hadn’t reckoned on my friend from across the pond Wolfy over at Flowing waters and his comment upon my last post. He expressed his feeling concerning the abundance of ‘wildlife’ in a more suburban setting beginning to rival wildlife’s abundance elsewhere. Now regular readers (2.5 I think) may have picked up upon the thread that seems now to have started running through my posts as this scratched together blog evolves. Basically it’s to do with my desire to lead a simpler life with a much reduced impact upon mother earth and some of my basic attempts at achieving it. Part of this drive is to reduce the use of my chariot of steel; the old fun cruiser. With this in mind Lucy and I have been taken more walks around the pavements of sunny Buckley instead of heading off to the hills and as always I now seem to have the camera in hand when we’re on the prowl. Without even realising it I’ve been snapping away and already I’m getting more pictures of animals around town than what I ever have out on the trails.

I’ve given the reason to this some timely thought (‘bout 5 minutes now I reckon) and so far I’ve come up with two possible reasons for the very small increase of fauna that I’ve been able to capture in a digital sort of way. Firstly the animals around town are living with humans twenty four seven and are much less wary than their country cousins, after all it doesn’t take a great deal of figuring out that the majority of humans around town are not interested in the wild flora and fauna around them regarding it as nothing more than either weeds or vermin and certainly not as possibly food or just plain ol’ natural beauty. The second is that for long parts of the walks Lucy is now tethered to me via her lead (not a happy bunny at all!) and so is far less able to dash ahead dispersing everything in my path to the four corners, cue smug feeling. So to the photographs, not many but enough I feel to start showing the diversity of townlife and not wildlife, hopefully as these town walks increase then so will my knowledge of ‘townlife’ which I’ll share with you all as and when.

On a footnote its funny how my perspectives have changed as time has shaped my thoughts through this life of mine, I now seem to view neatly trimmed front lawns as deserts devoid of interest containing just one plant, the rest ‘weeded’ or herbicided into extinction, the ruler straight borders containing a galaxy of imported flora which have little or no benefit to the insects which form such vital links in our biosphere as wasted opportunities to grow far more beneficial plants or even food crops on a small scale, the vermin I now longer see as the animals but instead the self preserving, at the cost of this planet, humans driving themselves forward to oblivion thinking faster, bigger and more shiny is the answer to all our woes. I have no answers myself except to try and change my own impact by learning new ways to live in harmony with mine and your world, some by trail and undoubtedly error and some by learning from people who’ve taken this path already. Thank you for reading thus far.

Your friend,

John