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| Hospital car-park. March 17th 2014 |
I've spent a lot of time in car-parks recently; waiting . . . waiting while the driver had a dental check-up . . . went into a garden centre . . . bought chips . . .
If it hadn't been raining, I would have taken the opportunity to scout around and look for wild plants in the borders and at the edge of the road . . . and pictures for my other blog, Message in a Milk Bottle. But it seems always to be raining. We had months of rain. Rain seemed to be a perpetual state. And now it's March . . . we're having April showers. There are sunny moments. But, well, whether it's raining or showering I don't like to take my camera outside.
There are special 'seeing' challenges in car-parks. They are not the kind of places people like to linger. They are boring. They are a bit dangerous. There's nothing there except cars . . . or . . . except . . .
Someone decided to put trees in squares cut through tarmac and the idea caught on. Trees (like blobs on sticks) are stuck in the ground in car-parks all over the land. If I'd thought of it, I would have put them bang in the middle of parking spaces so drivers could aim at them and stop just short. It might have made it easier to line up straight. But the fashion is to put them at the corners with the point of each square intruding into the space allocated for each car. This way they are neither trees nor targets but annoying bollards.
Then there are hedges. Hedges aren't universally present in car-parks but they are sometimes used to divide one section from another. (See picture at top of page.) In car-parking-hurrying-to-get-to-an-appointment mode - they are merely barriers. Fences would do just as well. But they are living plants. Once noticed they may not turn out to be very interesting . . . but they are there . . . and if we were to look closely (which we might if it weren't for the rain!) there is bound to be something to see.
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| Hospital car-park. March 17th 2014 |
But because of the rain I've been sitting in the car, front and back, and taking pictures through rain spattered windows instead of taking the camera outside; or opening a door and pointing my lens through the crack.
All of a sudden . . . there are trees!
All of a sudden . . . there are trees!
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| Garden Centre. Car-park March 25th 2014 |
Trees stuck in the middle of the garden centre car park. (While we're here . . . don't you think garden centres could make a little more of their land? I expect some do but I know three reasonably well and they might as well sell paint.)
Trees in the car-park outside the chip shop and the hardware store and the newsagent's and . . ..
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| Car-park for local shopping centre . . . small shops and doctor's surgery. March 25th 2014 |
This local shopping centre car-park-tree has a nest in it.
There's so much to see in a car-park, even without leaving the car! (And I suspect hardly anyone notices, we generally just rush by.)
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| Car-park for superstore. March 25th 2014 |
Trees outside the superstore. See the catkins?
When summer comes, maybe we'll return and see what plants have sprung up around them.
Do you have un-noticed trees in squares in the car-parks near you?
Do you have un-noticed trees in squares in the car-parks near you?
10 comments:
It makes you wonder why pied wagtails like car parks. They seem such desolate places
we had 3 blacksmith plovers pottering around in the carpark. Seen off by a rain squall, then back again when it cleared. I suppose they cannot find an open field in suburbia and must sadly make do with a carpark. And its trees.
It's always the birds I notice in the leafy edges. Apparently one of the best places in the south east to see waxwings in winter is the car park at ghastly Lakeside retail park.
I was watching a blackbird in the supermarket car park the other day - he seemed quite at home hopping through the shrubbery - his own mini-woodland.
Some of the really enormous shopping centres probably create themselves a nice little micro-climate. There must be so much excess air conditioning heat being pumped out around the buildings that it may be (I don't know for definite) a rather nice, warm place to roost. Eeven close to the ground - because there will be few land-borne predators cats, foxes, stoats, weasels, martens, etc.
A+ for creativity...I only took photos of the steering wheels, and down the street when I wait.
Jen
You are SO observant! This puts tree following in a whole new light.
I feel so guilty now that I just read my Kindle if I'm stuck in a car park...
All the best :)
I don't drive so I spend very little time in carparks, though I did recently think that the golf course carpark which was the meeting place for a recent birdwatching walk i lead was a good place for observing the oystercatchers and curlews on the golfcourse and surrounding fields
I think there are loads of unnoticed trees in parking lots here...so sad really.
I chuckled while I read this post. I'm imagining you careening your neck and camera this way and that to get good angles for photos out the windows of your car. Of course, too much rain isn't a laughing matter, but you've made the most of it. :) I do often think about the lovely decorative trees in the parking lots. Often they're too closely manicured for my taste, but some of them are quite lovely. I hope the rain will diminsh for you in the days ahead.
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