Becoming Victor Meldrew…
Listed on January 24, 2014 in Blogs!Now it may be my age or something else but increasingly I feel I’m becoming Victor Meldrew – that curmudgeon of about fifteen years ago who coined the catchphrase ‘I don’t believe it’. This morning I was speaking to the Dillington Estate Manager, a very nice and interesting man, about the water pouring off the fields down in front of the Mews. We came up with a plan to divert the run-off and then started talking about how busy the parkland had become with dog walkers in recent years. I suggested that the naming of the industrial units converted from the old farm buildings as Eaglewood Park may be part of the issue. The term ‘park’ suggesting an open public space. Of course, the parkland surrounding Dillington is private land and is used for grazing livestock. Although this dog walking thing is generally not a problem and you wouldn’t want to get difficult about it, people do seem to think that they can park where they like and do what they like. In a moment of incredulity I heard about the plastic bags of dog poo hanging on the branches of the bushes and saplings. I actually uttered the words ‘I don’t believe it!’ It seems some dog walkers have taken to the habit of picking up the poo in a plastic bag and then lobbing the offending article into the bushes. Fine in summer you might thing – out of sight, out of mind – but when autumn comes the undergrowth reveals all. Like Christmas decorations, the non-degradable bags hang from the branches for all to see. It’s interesting how winter reveals the skeleton of the countryside and how the summer benignly cloaks everything. And as for Victor Meldrew? I think he would have written a letter to the council or else manufactured some homemade signs. I’m just getting it off my chest by posting this blog!
