19 April 2011

there will be a path

No, I haven't suddenly "found my way". There is no path, paths are made by walking. But here in my beautiful village "they" are making a footpath. Great news? Or not so great?

One of the things I love about my town is that we walk on the road, not on the footpath. Footpaths are for seating, for checking out the talent, for meeting together. Never, ever, are they for serious walking. In the summer the tables and chairs spill across the footpaths into the parking and onto the road. And so, in a slow waltz with the traffic, we walk, stroll, meander down the road.

But in my part of the village, the tiny hamlet with not a single shop (and long may that status last), we drive in the centre of the road because walkers do, all the time, walk along the verges and on the valley side of the road. To drive where one would expect when travelling south would be to wipe out half the population. But now...?

The question is this: when they have finished putting the footpath and seating along our hillside, on the valley side of the road, where oh where will we park our cars? And if we park them next to the seating on the footpaths, where will the pedestrians walk? They wont be able to walk on the footpaths, cos that's not what footpaths are for, and they wont be able to walk where we eventually park (legally or not). I guess that leaves the middle of the road for pedestrians, and that happens to be where we drive.

And so, no matter which direction you are heading, I suspect that we will all soon be driving on the rock-face side of the road, as pedestrians seldom walk on that side. Our slow traffic waltzes might have to become polkas and quicksteps and there could be a few "bumps a daisys".

Today I am grateful for lost items found.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Happy Easter Kay, eat lots of chocolate. Ann