Yesterday I mentioned some of the issues I'm still having with New Blogger and photos. Some commenters said they hadn't noticed those problems lately, so to test the system, this morning I tried to upload all of my photos at once. And again, they wound up in the post in reverse order. Argh! I'm back to uploading pics one at a time.
Yesterday Olga and I took a long walk along the Grand Union Canal and through Wormwood Scrubs. We hadn't been out that way since early September, so it was good to have a change of scenery, and the day was sunny and bright with lots of great reflections on the water.
Even a discarded can of spray paint made an interesting (to me, anyway) photo.
The coots were splashing around the brightly painted narrow boats moored along the canal. Some of them were clambering over each other and squawking amorously. "That's starting early!" exclaimed a man as he walked past. "They usually wait until February!"
Some of the boats were covered with artistic murals...
...or curious objets.
There were messages everywhere.
Olga and I walked all the way to Ladbroke Grove (1.6 miles along the canal) and then doubled back to visit the Scrubs. Altogether we must have walked about four miles.
We weren't the only ones who were exhausted!
Once on the Scrubs, Olga chased her tennis ball and, when available, the resident squirrels.
Now, to abruptly change the tone of this post (and sorry about that): I learned from signs posted in the park that parts of it are to be torn up to relocate a sewer line for HS2, the high-speed rail project (some say boondoggle) being built from London to Northern England. This will involve cutting down trees and running heavy equipment across the wildlife sanctuary, where animals such as foxes, bats and badgers live and migratory birds nest. I'm sick about it and I signed a petition to resist it, but work is supposed to start soon so it may be too little too late. (Apparently campaigners did have some success in re-routing a planned access road across the Scrubs to a shorter, less damaging route, so that's good.)
Anyway, the Scrubs will not look the same the next time Olga and I visit.
This HS2 project has been a nightmare for nature nationwide. In other parts of the country they've cut down ancient forests and even chopped down a recent tree of the year in order to plow through the rail line. The government views it as essential to boosting northern economies (which admittedly need boosting), but must so much damage be done along the way?
So sad that it's felt boosting the economy requires destroying public land and wildlife sanctuaries. So many great photos here today. Of the reflections photos, I especially love the red, black, & white coot shot.
ReplyDeleteI think that one may be my favorite too!
DeleteHmm, my geographical knowledge is failing me. I didn't think Wormwood Scrubs was near you.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think HS2 is a great and necessary project, it really sounds like it needs to be more local friendly to the areas it will traverse. It's all about money of course.
I love the photo of young daddy and child.
Four miles is quite a long walk. You must be fit.
It's not THAT near us. We take an overground train four stops west to Willesden Junction and walk from there.
DeleteMay be of interest. https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2020/12/29/the-environmental-argument-in-favour-of-hs2/
DeleteOnly yesterday did I have a mega falling out with someone. Listening to her I thought I was being force fed the Daily Mail. I shall not utter one more word on politics ever again; let's rephrase that: I won't ever leave my own dinner table again - in disgust. Instead I shall take lessons in diplomacy - and how best to divert a conversation to, say, the weather. Which won't stop me from looking at your petition link.
ReplyDeleteTrees? Can't talk about them without getting emotional. Not for nothing do I stem from the land of forests.
I am totally with that little fox. Best to sleep with one eye open. That way - in absence of eyes in the back of our head - you can outfox the fox.
Close up and personal, a question for Olga: Would you chase a red squirrel or is your ire reserved for the grey pest? Still, on the bright side and in their defence, they aren't rats. Anyway most of us chase something. Rainbows don't mind.
U
The strange conspiracy stories that abound on places like Facebook get me rather flexed too!
DeleteChin chin
Soupspoone
Isn't there an old axiom advising us never to talk politics or religion in polite society? (If there is such a thing anymore.) Olga would certainly chase a red squirrel, if she ever saw one. She chases rats and foxes as strenuously as squirrels. Basically anything small and furry is game.
DeleteMost ordinary northerners - like me - believe that the HS2 money would have been much better spent on improving transport links here in the north so that northern cities would be much better connected. We simply cannot see what benefits HS2 will bring many years from now. It is a ludicrously expensive vanity project and the environmental price is too high.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I thought northerners might support the project. It makes you wonder why the government has been so relentless about it.
DeleteOh dear. That's heartbreaking about the trees and wildlife. This project sounds more American than British.
ReplyDeleteI know! We've had a spate of anti-environment crimes in Britain lately, from plowing up riverbanks to cutting down old forests. Maybe we're in an anti-regulatory post-Brexit frenzy.
DeleteI, too, have had the reverse order of photos on New Blogger, and then one time I did not. Sadly, that didn't last so I also put the photos in one at a time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, sadly, it's almost 2021 and we still haven't learned that progress which destroys the land is not really progress at all.
When it comes right down to it, given a choice between building and preserving, humans always choose building.
DeleteI usually upload my pictures one at a time so that isn't a problem but I still have to go back and correct font size every time. I have no idea why.
ReplyDeleteI love the little sleepy baby.
For some reason I thought that the British were much more prone to forbid the taking down of historical trees and cutting through the forests than that. How very, very sad.
I haven't had the font size problem, fortunately, maybe because I never deviate from the default font. I knew you'd like that baby photo -- I took it with you in mind!
DeleteThank you!
DeleteWe have coots here too, although they don't show up until the spring. They are the ugliest babies I have ever seen but I do love their distinctive calls.
ReplyDeleteProgress indeed, cut down trees, mow through wild spaces, I spit on their progress. I am glad that cuttings are being taken though so the tree will survive in some form.
I guess baby coots aren't ugly to adult coots! Taking cuttings from that tree is a pale approximation of preservation, but I suppose it's better than nothing.
DeleteNice walk there, love the signs and beautiful reflections.
ReplyDeleteReally big bummer about cutting down the trees. I always wish there were less damaging ways to accomplish the human drive for transportation.
I'm hopeful that the damage won't be as bad as foretold, especially now that the access road's route has changed.
DeleteEnjoyed your photos today! I am glad you take the time to load them up for us because they are sure a treat to see! Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked them! Sometimes, when the light cooperates, I get a good haul. :)
DeleteThey are always tearing up good habitat. To fight them you have to get on it when zoning and rezoning starts. I hope they don't tear up the area. They don't make any new habitat anymore.
ReplyDeleteExactly -- you can't replace these areas once lost. There's a lot of value in the interaction of all the species built up over many years.
DeleteI love that shot of the baby fox with one eye open. And yes progress, as it's called, invariably ruins much of what has existed as nature for thousands of years. It's sad but one aspect of our relentless human growth on this tired old planet.
ReplyDeleteRelentless is the word! Fortunately, some species, like the foxes, seem to adapt well to our human presence.
DeleteThat is a shame about the construction that will happen and the busy rail line that will follow. I enjoyed the photos from your walk. I especially like the mural of the foxes.
ReplyDeleteIt was my favorite part of a boat that was covered with a big mural -- too detailed to capture in a single photo!
DeleteI am reminded of the Joni Mitchell song about Paving Paradise. There are so few ancient trees left it seems like they should merit a protected status in perpetuity. I thought YP's comment made the most sense to help the northern territories.
ReplyDeleteExactly! Joni had it right, and that was -- what -- fifty years ago?! I thought YP's comment was interesting too.
DeleteI use a paid service and still have issues with my photos. They disappear, then come back (or not), then I re-publish, they're there again, but disappear later. It's driving me nuts! It seems that governments all over like to pit economic concerns against environmental, even though there might be a better way to respect both. Much of the bureaucratic machine isn't given to creative problem solving.
ReplyDeleteWeird! I'd be especially annoyed if I were paying. Are you on Wordpress?
DeleteNo, typepad. They keep telling me that they're trying to figure it out. It's something about being caught in the cache. Whatever, just fix it! :)
Deleteit's a shame that they are going to run the road through the wildlife preserve. nice series of pictures. I always upload mine one at a time too so I hadn't noticed anything askew about that.
ReplyDeleteThanks -- and yes, it is a shame. Fingers crossed they will be careful.
DeleteIt seems in choices involving money, nature and animals get the short end of the stick.
ReplyDeleteAlways. Nature and animals don't have any "value" in our capitalistic society.
DeleteI love your walk, BEAUTY and the baby just about did me in, nearly lactated! I swear! I am very sad to hear about "progress" once again destroying that which can not be replaced, you would think that they could come up with a better idea.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked the baby photo! It's a little blurry because the dad and I were both walking as I took it, but it works for me, too. I agree about finding a better place -- does that sewer line really have to go THERE?
Delete'Life is a sequence of moments called now'. I like that very much.
ReplyDelete