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Right so this years theme is the environment.
What do I write? I ask myself.
Of course I could tell you how much we are damaging it at a nation, I could spout on about climate change caused by carbon footprints, and all the other terms that are meaningless to us all and have been thought up to scare the hebejeezies out of us all.
But I am not going to, because I struggle to come to terms with some of the propaganda that is fed to us on a daily basis, because dear 0.5 of a reader, if Governments were really concerned would they still be letting scientists develop things to make our life better? Would countries still be sending spaceships up to explore space? so on and so forth.
No I am going to give you a glimpse of the environment where I live.
I live in a cul de sac, one of several that make up our street.
As I sit here, looking out of my front window I see other houses, the same as mine in style, most with two or three cars in their driveway. Some houses have been extended to fit an expanding family. Some have had an extra bathroom added, a bigger kitchen, or added a bedroom. Others, like mine, have stayed the same design as when they were built. The inside of the house may have changed over the years, a wall knocked down or added, but the outside looks the same.
At the back I look out onto a small garden, through the conservatory windows. The garden is a hive of activity. Birds of all sorts visit daily, robins, sparrows, tits of many kinds, the odd woodpecker, wood pigeon and Jays. They fight over the food that is left for them with the squirrels that jump from tree to tree, fence to fence, who bury their finds in the plant pots scattered around the garden, searching for a titbit or two. The hedgehog visits to check if we have remembered to leave any food out for her, and wanders from garden to garden on her nightly round. In the summer butterflies visit the plants that have been put in for them. I like my garden to be wild and unplanned. If I do plan anything then I look into what plants will attract the wildlife, what butterflies like, what the bees will be looking for, what the ladybirds will want. Any plant in my garden or in my pots, have been planted for a reason and they are allowed to spread at will and grow where they have seeded. I have plants in my garden that haven't been planted by myself, but have settled there when their seeds were dispersed by nature. It is peaceful here, it is my haven from the world.
On one side of the garden, is my neighbour, who is currently having an extension built on the side of their house. On the other side is an open field, which is surrounded by a wood owned by the Woodland Trust.
The field is owned by the Girl Guides, who visit in the summer months, where they will play and do their badges before retiring for the evening to their huts. In all the years we have lived here, there never once has been a tent erected on the site, though a few bonfires for them to sing around has appeared.
When the Girl guides are not using the land, a variety of wildlife can be seen wandering through the field. The Muntjack deer mixes with the foxes, rabbits playing in the field bouncing through the long grass before it gets its seasonal cut, pheasants wander through looking for any food they can find or to preen their feathers, though I swear they only come into the field to upset my dogs as they head towards the fence and push their heads through the hole there.
When we first moved here, the field was a public right of way. You could walk through it to get to the woods, but due to vandalism that involved fire by local youngsters, the area was fenced off so that only the guides get to enjoy it when they visit. I am lucky, I can see into the field and enjoy watching the wildlife as they safely wander through.
It is quiet here. The only sounds you hear on a daily basis during the summer months, from the children playing in their gardens. Bonfire night is a noisy time as well as it tends to extend into New Year, the smell of smoke staying in the air.
Five minutes away from us is the Chiltern hills. Glorious countryside, farmland and wooded areas to visit wander through. We are also surrounded by parks and pathways to walk along, where you can watch the changes in the seasons by the flowers that appear, the colour of the leaves on the trees.
How long this will last though is anyone's guess. One can hope a lot of it is protected, but in an age where housing seems to be at a premium, land being bought to build upon, all around us, there seems to be houses, apartments and retail parks springing up.
In this town there are three retail parks. In all of them there are at least one unit, if not two, that remain empty. The retail parks sell the same thing as each other; electrical goods, carpets, home furnishings. Nearby there are housing sites being developed. Houses so small there is not room for a family to live in comfortably, so squashed up together you cannot help but hear what is happening in the house next to you. The gardens so small, there is enough space to hang some washing but not much else. The park that once used to be there for children to play in no longer exists. The more houses that are built the more we need local amenities, schools, shops, water, electricity, the more we build the more we need. Trees being chopped down to make way for them, some are replaced, most aren't. The saplings that replace the trees fight for survival as vandals come along and pull them up, cut them or write on them.
Floods happening because we build more and more on land that is unable to drain away the rainwater as it falls, there is no where for it to go. Nothing to stop the rainwater from draining away into the next village or town because the natural resources have been taken away to make way for buildings.
Why?
Progress. An overcrowded country. A need for a quality of life which we have all got used to. A developing world.
Yet has any thought been given to how they affect our environment? In the future where will the children play? Where is the wildlife that I see now, will it be there for future generations to see? Will the walks through the countryside end because it is no more?
Only time will tell. For now I will enjoy and make the most of what I do have because it will be gone all too soon.
Two corporate representatives, crane, and
rigging complete with faulty turnbuckle (supplied by Specialized Fabrications Ltd).
$2, 500/ho ur
(Note the guy in the stern!)
Watching your dreamboat nose dive into the
harbor, accompanied by two corporate
representatives just prior to "inking" the
final paperwork...
PRICELESS!
(or not, depending on whether you are the buyer or the seller!)
