BS: Isn't nature wonderful!

Subject: BS: Isn't nature wonderful!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Jun 19 - 03:01 PM

Yesterday I had a lovely afternoon walking to and around the Grassington Lead Mines. The mines operated from the mid 1700s to the late 1800s and processing of the spoil tips continued until 1963. In its heyday it must have been hell amongst the heaven of the Yorkshire Dales. Yet now all is peace and in only 50 years, nature has reclaimed its own. It was wonderful to realise that if we stop screwing up nature, she will recover. How we stop is a much more complex issue of course but I am, for now, optimistic :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Isn't nature wonderful!
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jun 19 - 04:23 PM

And isn't it curious how some things turn out.

There was a rural property, not far from Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, which following
the War of Independence / American Revolution,
was purchased by a French sea captain named Audubon.
The property included a working lead mine.

When I visited the place some years ago,
the thought of mining for lead in this place gave me pause;
I thought, not of the mining itself, but of
the lead-based paints, the resulting possibilities for lead poisoning.
I don't know when the mine was closed down.

It seems that the lead mine was still functioning when that
French captain sent his eighteen-year-old son
to maintain the property in his own absence.

The eighteen-year-old grew up to be
John James Audubon,
with no head for business in general or lead mining in particular.
But this property was Audubon's introduction to
the North American countryside,
and it was in this spot that he first
started studying birds.

Mill Grove, Pennsylvania

Subject: RE: BS: Isn't nature wonderful!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Jun 19 - 05:01 PM

Those lead mine spoilheaps are of great interest to us botanists. Certain species of flowering plants that are resistant to heavy metal soil pollution thrive in such places though they are rare elsewhere. We have a favourite walk that starts at Pentireglaze farm near Polzeath, passing round the Rumps peninsula and ending up with the long downhill stretch to Polzeath. Before we set off we have a picnic at the nearby Leadmines car park, surrounded by nature-reclaimed spoil heaps and with a glorious view across the Camel estuary and the Doom Bar.

Subject: RE: BS: Isn't nature wonderful!
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 23 Jun 19 - 05:39 PM

Funnily enough, only yesterday we recorded a BBC news special
about the serious health hazards of ticks and lyme disease...

Might watch that tomorrow...

Subject: RE: BS: Isn't nature wonderful!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Jun 19 - 06:04 PM

Mrs Steve and I had a month-long summer holiday in south-west Ireland in 1977. By the end of the holiday I was sporting 35 ticks in various stages of swollenness. Their favoured locations were any part of me that had bits of thinner crumpled skin. Inside elbows, backs of knees, armpits and, especially, the family jewels department were all highly regarded. The advice in those days was the cigarette treatment. All I can say is that if you are up for the prolonged holding of a glowing fag end two millimetres from your scrotal/underwilly zone, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

I didn't get Lyme disease.

Subject: RE: BS: Isn't nature wonderful!
From: robomatic
Date: 23 Jun 19 - 06:48 PM

I am a fan of John James Audubon and I've been a member of Audubon at times, but let us remember that those wonderful glorious paintins were made from many many birds that he personally shot.

Nature IS wonderful, but she is also everything else. And a lot of problems come from not thinking of ourselves as a part of nature, or, somehow above nature or apart from nature.

"The Front Fell Off"

Subject: RE: BS: Isn't nature wonderful!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Jun 19 - 11:03 PM

We are very lucky to live in such a beautiful country.

Subject: RE: BS: Isn't nature wonderful!
From: Mr Red
Date: 25 Jun 19 - 05:42 AM

Certain species of flowering plants that are resistant to heavy metal soil pollution

Indeed, there are plants known to science that take up metallic pollution and are harvested because they have concentrations of specific metals that make it economic to reclaim, in the context of cleaning-up an industrial site.

When I wus yung, we had an area the was known locally as "the Tip" because it had been a dip used/owned by a foundry for dumping spoil (mostly sand). And all unwanted household/vehicular ephemera ended up there. The plants that grew there were all weeds, like Rosebay Willow Herb, and one I couldn't now identify. Not even a nettle braved the dump.
It is now a play area, all leveled and grassed.

Subject: RE: BS: Isn't nature wonderful!
From: olddude
Date: 25 Jun 19 - 08:40 AM

Nature is beautiful to see. It’s healing to the mind and soul. Except for that Alaskan brown bear that chased me into the truck. I guess I pissed him off somehow. No harm no foul I was on his turf