jeudi 10 juin 2010

Magnificent Municipalities!





I'm lucky to live in a nice town not too far from Paris, next to a river, a huge park and lots of houses with gardens. But today I wanted to just say a big 'thank you' to the local Council for our green spaces. I know, the taxes are high so we pay for them and so forth, but personally I'm grateful that they have decided to spend some of their income on making my town as pretty and well-kept as possible.



In our 'quartier' the streets are tree-lined and those trees are pruned and shaped with care 3 times a year. Yesterday there was guy crouching at the bottom of each tree, cutting off all the small offshoots from all the trees really carefully. Last week the excess branches were cut away and the new growth neatly shaped in ALL the roads in my town. The flower beds and green spaces have had their summer overhaul and, although I find the little additions such as these ladybirds, a bit twee, my children really like them and they add a touch of fun and maybe the trees are pollarded to within an inch of their lives, but......it looks great! Here's a modern day version of a municipal fountain that was constructed last year near our home. And an avenue where they've planted two types of trees for a lovely effect. I think it's backbreaking work being a municipal gardener and probably quite monotonous at times but really those spaces do make a difference to the overall 'feeling' and pride of living in this town and I'm sure they brighten up the day of not only gardeners like me who are especially sensitive to green stuff, but to anyone who drives or walks through. And the great thing? Up to now, I have never seen the public green spaces vandalised and it's seldom that one sees litter in the flowerbeds. We are not all angels or Stepford wives who live here, it's no 'model village', but maybe the locals respect these spaces because they are well kept and it's nice to have them around?




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