I’ve been stuck inside most of today, and so earlier this afternoon I decided to get out of the house to avoid going insane. Off I went to my local park for another run, or as I like to call it, a stumble. Anyway, halfway through I decided to have a quick rest at a pond-type feature set back amongst some trees.
While I was trying to recover the ability to breathe, I had a look around me.
The pond is about 30 foot long and 10 foot wide, with some reeds and other water plants, and is surrounded in the winter by some perpetually wet and boggy ground probably ripe with worms.
In short, it should be a sanctuary for wildlife. And although I did hear a couple of blackbirds in the trees, and one ‘plop’ from the pond, the most noticeable signs of movement came from a collection of plastic bags waving in the reeds.
Now I know I’m new to this nature lark, but I think this is really sad. I know that there are other dedicated ‘nature friendly’ parks and retreats outside of the city, but not everybody has easy access to them. Whereas this park is central and filled with kids at the weekend who would probably love to see some fish and frogs. Plus there’s tons of primary schools nearby that could bring their pupils for a nature walk, or even help maintain it.
The park does occasionally get vandalised, and isn’t particularly safe after dark. But surely if city parks are left to look grotty and abandoned then we can’t expect them to be treated with respect right?
raahhh rant over! When my deadlines are passed I’m gona get in touch with the council and see if they at least run any cleaning volunteer type programmes there.
Happy Friday everyone 
