What an invigorating walk yesterday afternoon! I was preoccupied at first by the sad news that Hastings Borough Council is embarking on a weed-killing fest at the sides of local roads with a toxic spray.
Weed – a definition: that glorious array of little and large beauties who lift their heads out of all sorts of nooks and crannies and nod at us as we pass by. So much nicer to contemplate than bare slabs of stone and concrete. I know that weeds ruin roads, but doesn’t this follow on from what we’ve already seen in Lockdown? Nature recovers very quickly when we stop engaging in what we call “progress” or “improvement.” I have no problem with cutting back to grow again, but poisoning? Please…
The song Where Have all the Flowers Gone? popped into my head. Of course it has more to say about war than flowers as such, but the symbol is apt. The song is synonymous with the first Aldermaston march (CND ban the bomb) I went on in my early teens.
As I walked up Maze Hill past the flower- infused wall of The Uplands my eyes feasted on an abundance of blossoming plants erroneously separated, in name only, from the supposedly upmarket “flower”. They will overcome! (1960s anti war songs rising in my mind!)
My walks have been mostly over old ground recently, but I took a new short footpath, going to the right of the usual one in the elbow point of Albany road. More new delights awaited me!
I share some of them with you below. This bright bin made me smile, nestling on the burgeoning carpet of greenery and a new tree to fall in love with. On the pavement in West Hill Rd; outside the newly built houses on the old College site, was this strange pattern made by the boots of myriad workmen. Like the imprint of a reptilian skin.
