My walk this week was through three different Swansea parks – it was a very pleasant walk but one which started with something of a challenge to my patience when it comes to park keeping!
St James’ Park is small but has a wonderful collection of trees, some of which are truly majestic in stature. It is a wonderful environmental oasis in an urban setting which naturally has a regular deposit of leaves and pine needles on the ground. And this is where my patience was tested – not by the leaves but by the park keeper using a leaf blower to clear them. I say “clear”, but really, that is a joke. I find the noise pollution alone is enough to set me ranting.
So please excuse my opening to this post and enjoy the dulcet tones of the leaf blower with a brief scan of the St James’ Park and then move quickly on to the preferable sounds of the birds, children playing and adults walking in Brynmill and Singleton Parks.
I totally agree 100% and it’s even more stupid around Morriston Hospital, where peace for recovery is paramount and the blowers are totally bonkers! I wonder what happened to light weight, wide toothed rakes and making compost?
p.s. Your post inspired me to write this one:
https://oversoil.wordpress.com/2021/02/19/leaf-it/
Very pleased you agree I think they still do compost the leaves when collected in larger amounts but I may be wrong. I also suspect their excuse for using the blowers is back injuries from sweeping. I that could be better dealt with by rotation of different tasks rather the weight, pollution and noise of the blowers.
Thanks Alastair, and I sympathise with the dislike of blower noise. I agree with Over Soil’s comment, that I’m not really sure whether they’re any more efficient in the main than using a rake. But obviously less physical effort for the operator. Whether or not we’ll all see a benefit in more of a good physical work out, after CVID problems with metabolic health and well being are assessed is a moot point. Best wishes
Julian
Thank you Julian. As I said to I we Soil, I think the issues of health and leaf clearing could be addressed by managing task duration and allocation but I do t claim to be an expert in that field.
I wonder what the trees make of all the noise………..as for me, a good rake reminds me of my mom.
Maybe that’s why their bark is so heavily textured.
Count me in as a leaf blower disliker. 🙂 Raking is great exercise but I do understand why landscapers or yard services wouldn’t want to take the time to rake all the leaves. In a yard, though, it seems to take about the same amount of time. Here’s in Arizona where many natural yards are cacti and other plants surrounded by lots of rocks, any leaves from the plants are difficult to rake without rocks going all over the place, making leaf blowers more useful. I like all the photos of the trees.
janet
Thank you Janet. I would live to visit Arizona some day. It is so different to Wales!
Don’t even get me going on the absurdities of leaf-blowers…because I can rant on for a l o n g time about these useless and noisy tools. I sure enjoyed your textured photos of the trees here, Alastair, espec. that very large tree that we’re looking up at. Also enjoyed the sound clip, hearing the children playing, and at times I heard a bird or two, sounded like jays or corvids of some kind. Lovely to walk the parks in Swansea, thank you. Beautiful final photo of the cattails and water reflections.
Thank you Jet. Very pleased to hear you are of like mind re the leaf blowers. Cattails eh! We call them bulrushes. It’s god to have different names and terms for things in different countries. I must apologise for not commenting on your recent posts – I have read and enjoyed them all but having been under a lot of pressure lately I have been taking the pleasure without feeding back. Please be assured I have enjoyed both pics and words.
I figured you probably had a different name for them, loved hearing it, Alastair. And am really glad you stop by and enjoy the posts, and happy they bring you joy espec. during a stressful time. Take care, my friend.