Monday, August 24, 2009

Double perils at Rose Hill Marple

The commute home on the 18:06 from Manchester Piccadilly to Rose Hill Marple is a very pleasant experience at the moment; today there was plenty of room to sit and gaze out of the window while listening to my chosen medley of The Chords, Secret Affair and The Purple Hearts.

By the time the train screeches up the sharp rise from Marple junction and along the cutting towards Rose Hill, I noticed the embankment full of pretty pink and white flowers atop a towering bushy plant, but with blood red triffid like stems. Aaaaggghh. The dreaded Japanese Knotweed. This invasive and evil weed was imported in the 1880s as an ornamental plant and gets everywhere, it can cause havoc with gardens and is almost impossible to get rid of. Railtrack are part of an alliance to tackle this nuisance, here, and we wish them every success.

Walking home from Rose Hill station, I hang a sharp left along the Middlewood Way, the path of the old railway line, and emerging on Wood Lane by the entrance to the rugby club. That route should be lovely, but it is littered with dog shit. And horse shit. Dog owners carry bags with them and seem to have embraced the law that says they should clean it up. Some clearly do not.

It's one of my unreasonable prejudices that horse owners are self righteous middle class prats who feel morally superior to anyone who doesn't make way for their fetishistic animal indulgence. This is reinforced when I see their crap that litters the Middlewood Way. Horses just seem to do great piles of it wherever they can. I'm sorry, but that is just as disgusting. It might not stink the same as dog mess, but as far as I'm concerned there's no difference. Shit is shit.

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