Thistles

Posted on June 17, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Green, Growth, Houses, Life, maintained, pavements, Plants, Streets, Thistle, vegetation, WeedsLeave a comment

Plants love growing, their seeds sneak in cracks, send down roots and push up paving, this thistle is an example of one. Looking round my area the streets are less littered with litter and more by plants. I’m not calling them weeds, they are wild vegetation. I don’t really mind them, except where they grow in front of and on doorsteps. I do think that the streets used to get maintained in a better way. I don’t think I’d like a lot of weed killer to be used, but I hope things can improve soon. Hopefully owners could do a little hand weeding.

Green street

Posted on May 31, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged black plastic bags, Houses, housing, Litter, Plants, Rain, rooms, Rubbish, student, student lets, ThistleLeave a comment

A large spiky thistle growing outside a terraced house front door. Why? These are student lets’ and a lot of them are empty because the students have already left. I guess the landlords will come back and refurbish the houses or rooms. There was a lot of rubbish in the street, black plastic bags, litter and bits of old furniture. If they don’t clear away the plants their roots will take over and get into the foundations. I think its worse because everything has grown rampant because of all the rain we’ve been having.

Terraces by the canal

Posted on August 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Canal, Cauldon canal, Etruria view, Hot day, Houses, Life, Morning out, Terraced houses, Travel, Trent and merseyLeave a comment

The sun beating down on Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent today. Terraced houses lined up near the canal. This is the Cauldon canal that heads towards Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands where it eventually joins with the river Churnet. The houses are lower down than the canal so there is a big retaining wall made of stone that prevents the water escaping from it. You can see the wall as it lifts up into a bridge over the canal on the left hand side. The street slopes away down towards the Trent and Mersey canal which is joined to the Cauldon canal by a series of locks. The Trent and Mersey is in the valley and runs close to the Trent River (which is really only a small river running through the city). The Trent eventually runs to the sea at Hull after passing east through Nottingham I think.

So these terraces are connected by water to many places. You might see them if you ever travel the canals.

Berryhill fields

Posted on March 27, 2019March 27, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Berryhill fields, Blossom, Building, Environment, Green lung, Houses, Life, Pollution, Potteries, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, TreesLeave a comment

I’ve just visited Berryhill fields in the centre of Stoke-on-Trent. It’s one of the green lungs of our City, a country park between Fenton, Longton, Bentilee, Sandford Hill and Bucknall.

I took some lovely photos of the view, including the TV mast that dominates the skyline. The white blossom along the pathway up from Arbourfield drive is floating like a pure white cloud alongside the path.

I’m worried that this green lung of the city could disappear. The local Conservative and Independant council wants to build 1300 houses on the site, this despite there being a covenant on the land to prevent this. In fact there have been protests over its use in the past. I know we need new housing but why destroy the environment. Yes there are industrial patches around the site. Why not build on brownfield sites in the city instead?

In a world where pollution and environmental degradation are on the increase we should preserve what we have left of our green spaces.

I was up there with Labour councellors and candidates. We were filming and taking photos of the parkland to raise the issue with the voters in the upcoming local elections

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Houses

Thistles

Green street

Terraces by the canal

Berryhill fields