Crossing to the other side of the street on my walk this week revealed more natural life than it occurred to me I might find. This is a busy city centre street (or close to it) and the predominant features tend to be of man-made materials – concrete and metal, tarmac and bricks.
As I reached the point where the street I was on changes its name, I crossed to the other side and as I waited at the pedestrian crossing I noted some of the patterns around me and also the plants and flowers lining sections of the street. The perspective of trees lining the extension of this street is a deliberate plan, but the plants and flowers (some would say weeds) in the forecourts (if they can be called that) of the buildings on this section of the street are there because that is what nature will do if you let it.
The owners of these buildings and businesses are clearly not concerned about this aspect of their working lives and from my point of view the growth of the wild flowers and grasses are a lot more attractive than concrete, but each to their own. At least the vegetation allows some natural drainage.
Street-side plants
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Alastair, I thought at first from the title of your post that you were going over to the dark side! Glad to hear that it was just to the other side of the street! Wait — I thought I spotted my surname on that pedestrian push-button sign. “Pedestrian” doesn’t do much for me but I do like that Welsh word for “walker!”
Aha! My little tease worked then 😉 I agree, “Cerddwyr” is preferable to “Pedestrian”. I imagine Dwyer is pronounced the expected way (can’t think how to spell it phonetically), “cerddwyr” on the other hand is pronounced “kehrthweer” – that’s “kehr” as in “care”, the double “d” is pronounced “th” and the “wyr” as “weer” – “kehrthweer” or “cerddwyr”. Fun eh 🙂