I just saw this article on The Guardian How green is your city? and it immediately made me grateful for the rain shower I’d been caught in while walking Polly this morning.
Green Cornwall.
Cornwall is irrepressibly green.
The path to Gwenver from the Tregiffian cottages.
And when the sun comes out after rain our land shines; beautiful, clean and new.
The view from the bedroom in the lovely No.3 Coastguards at Porthgwarra.
It happens all year, but no time is it better than these next few weeks when the leaves are new, so bright, so optimistic in their iridescence.
I love a shot with barbed wire across a scene of beauty. This is from Tregiffian towards Sennen.
Looking at the article in The Guardian also helped me realise all over again what I loved abut the places we’ve chosen over the years.
The Midlands.
Birmingham is much maligned by those who have never spent time there, and loved by most who have. It didn’t surprise me to read that it’s the 4th greenest city in Britain. We lived in a couple of places around Cannon Hill Park. The park itself was special, but it also led to a green corridor that took you completely out of town.
The South East.
London. We think of London as a mad hectic place of queueing traffic and teeming people, and indeed it is. Yet with 23% green space it comes in at number 5 and it’s one of the greenest capitals in the world. In London we did lack green space – Shoreditch Park around the corner from our flat was more drunk’s hangout than verdant pasture. It didn’t matter though, the vast Epping Forrest was only a few miles drive, and the proximity of the Thames made up for the long walk to real green.
The North West.
Manchester definitely feels the most built upon, as befits the first truly industrialised city. Even in Manchester though a fifth of the city is green. We had the wonderful Mersey flood plain on the doorstep giving us many miles of river side nature reserve for Polly’s delight, and the beach was only an hour away.
The Farther North East.
Our favourite city was one where I really only worked rather than truly lived, but my two flats in Edinburgh where both special. In Stockbridge Leith and the Botanical Gardens were both a walk away, and for a lung challenge there was Arthur’s Seat. In Dalry the parks and canal meant you could walk right out to the hills without touching the road. I hadn’t considered just how green it is at the time, but it doesn’t surprise to see it topping Britain’s list with 50% green space. There’s even a golf course less than a mile from the centre.
All great cities that we go back to as often as we can.
Exciting places to live. Easy places to commute between. Yet we chose to leave each behind to fulfil our lives’ dreams to live full time in quirky St Just.
Wheal Owles towards Geevor.
And we love it.
Let the rain fall.
Just give us plenty of sunshine too!
Another view down to The Cape.
