>The other point of this post is a rant about people in
>general who have destroyed all the wide open and
>woodsy spaces in upstate NY. I love the West for this
>very reason. The fact that one you get out of one of
>the major population centers there isn't 200 miles of
>suburb until you hit the next city. I'm sad about
>that. Sorry for the rant I just had to vent since I
>didn't find a single peaceful empty spot in my entire
>6 hour 150 mile trek, not even one, people just suck
>sometimes.
>Mark Lloyd
I live in a hilly forest. It has its problems - invasive wildlife, mud in
winter, bushfires in summer, no cable. (At least we now have mains water
and gas). But, the main problem is the urge you yourself display. The
search for some kind of mythic, ideal wilderness which can be accessed by
car. If you can see wilderness from your car, it's not wilderness. You
stopped it being peaceful.
People come up here to live (we're only 30 miles out of a 3 million city)
because it's beautiful, cut down the trees, build an inappropriate,
suburban style house and then give up after a couple of years because of
the mud, or the cockatoos chewed out the window frames or the possums peed
in the roof and the fires were a bit close this time and move back to the
suburbs leaving their mess behind them. That's how the suburbs spread. I
believe Walden Pond is now a housing estate.
Then there are the ones who do what you did and choke the weekend road
sightseeing, encouraging development. Bloody tourists - half of them are
too scared to actually get out of the car. Demanding that parks be mown
grass because long grass burns and hides snakes. (Paid up member - DRATS -
Dandenong Ranges Anti-Tourist Society. Motto - you like so much around here
then buy a house and push up the real estate prices!)
You live in a city - peace is not provided! (Not that the woodsy spaces are
that peaceful anyway). I often feel the urge to go and photograph the urban
and industrial wilderness - trees get so, well, unphotogenic after a while.
Use what you've got or move to what you want.
End of my rant.
AndrewF
"For each man kills the thing he loves." (Oscar Wilde)
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