Last Friday we awoke to the sound of a small petrol engine labouring
away somewhere on the rocky shoreline; an oscillating sound like it was being
waved back and forth.
F located the source of the sound and pointed out a man in a light coloured t-short strimming the long, dried grass near the other stairs which clamber over the ancient stone wall round the top of the beach. He was accompanied by someone in a bright orange vest.
His little machine with its wand and whirring string, was flicking up dust and flailed, beige grass fragments. Maybe at this time of year the dry grass is a fire risk, but it looked like a task of Sisyphean proportions (or painting the Forth Bridge) if one man and a little whipper-snipper was going to take on the whole coastline.
He might have just been clearing the top of the wall itself (various archaeological sites about the town get a good tidy up at this time of year), so when we got home that evening we expected to at least see the wall cleared from those stairs around to ours, but in fact we couldn't actually see any difference at all.
......and throw down their cigarette butts.....
....so maybe there is some method in the
whipper-snipping madness.
Maybe it was a good samaritan who had seen the smokers and was fearful of a firs in that area. otherwise I can think of no explanation why he should only do that bit.
ReplyDeleteBriony
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No such thing as a good Samaritan when it comes to tidying public spaces Briony - they were indeed Council workers. Hottest week of the year and the ground-works teams are out in force clearing overgrown parks and public spaces, chipping weeds out of cracked streets and pavements, painting curbs....so they might be spread a bit thin and being choosy about doing the worst bits or most used bits first. (We all understand the myriad of reasons - it has been a strange year.) We've seen them all over and in fact were going to blog about the smell of fresh cut grass in a square we pass on the way to work.
DeleteLots of dry grass there. Here they trim the edges but don't take away the strimmings so the risk is just laying there.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting place to live, right on the top of ancient walls and ruins.
I think people just take the walls for granted - more old stonework. - but they are fascinating.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDelete...and all I could think about was how lovely it was to hear the term 'whipper-snipper' again after struggling with all these Brits calling it a 'strimmer'!!! Do report back if you find closer inspection reveals the bonus of his efforts, won't you Tigger? Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
F's brother lived in Oz for many years (in fact half the family is Oztraylian) so she has 2 lots of strange words that northern speakers of a similar language find amusing. Furrings and purrings Aunty YAM. Mr T.
DeleteYup. Sounds like he was just trying to avoid a fire
ReplyDeleteOr clearing a nice area to enjoy the smoking
You have to feel sorry for the smokers, even Greece finally got tough on smoking last year and they have been banned indoors and pushed to the perimeters of social gatherings. (if we knew how to use icons we would put irony or a wink there.)
DeleteAfter seeing how fast a grass fire can move, I get very suspicious of long dry grass. Hopefully those dog walkers are careful about how they put their butts out.
ReplyDeleteI, Mr T, be not afraid of fire, but that scares F. She had to put me out a couple of times that I got too close to the rubbish fire at the allotment. She's with you on the grass fire. F used to be a firefighter in the NZ Forest Service for her first job out of school.
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