Nature, whose sweet rains fall on just and unjust alike, will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide, and secret valleys in whose silence I may weep undetected. She will hang the night with stars so that I may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling, and send the wind over my footprints so that none may track me to my hurt: she will cleanse me in great waters, and with bitter herbs make me whole.
Hello everyone,
As some of you may know, I moved down to London from Buxton last September to be with my girlfriend. I've been either very busy or had no internet connection to tell you all this little story, but I think you may find it amusing.
Our little flat is on a little road inside what is now essentially a roundabout in Archway and is basically the A1. A very busy road and junction, however the little road that I park on is usually very quiet. (Before the comments about "do you really need a car in London?" start - no. I probably don't, but I still can't stand to sell up the car. I lived in the sticks for too long maybe)
Quite by chance, we saw a poster for "Car Free Day" part of Carbon Neutral Archway and realised that it was on our little street. Further investigation talked of making the whole street a car free haven for one day.
I decided to park my car somewhere else, the day before.
We awoke to this...
... and looking in the other direction ...
Yes! It was REAL turf...
Now I'm not totally convinced of the Carbon neutrallty of the event. All the residents had to move their cars (in my case, I hadn't moved it in weeks) the turf (who knows where it came from or went) was trucked in and the stage at the end there was powered by a diesel generator.
There was little stalls around. One giving bike maintainance advice, another face painting and one doing massages. One was set up by the organisers to be a place of carbon reduction advice (Boris has decided that Archway is to cut it's emmissions by 20.12% by 2012) sadly, because of the cold that day and the fact that it was it the middle of a busy roundabout, not very many people came across the (dangerous) road to enjoy the event.
At the end of it all the vans came and took all the stuff away..
... and they want to do it next year too.
Archway roundabout peaceful??
Many years ago I lived just up the road from that very roundabout and remember wondering what it must be like living on that little street! So, for at least one day a year it's quite good fun, eh?
Must have been a huge job to organise this event. Do you think it raised much awareness of climate change, peak oil etc?
Cut emissions by 20.12% in a year?? I'm sure you're all on target...