Re: Lack Of Trees In Irish And British Countrysides

On May 10, 1:26 pm, F=C3=A9achad=C3=B3ir <F=E9ach@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Scr=EDobh mothed out <mothed-...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
>
>
>
> >On May 10, 10:25 am, "Westprog" <westp...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> jl wrote:
>
> >> ...
>
> >> >> Manufacturing, farming, and the
> >> >> monies being made out of harvesting the peat bogs were main
causes.
> >> >> (Alas Bord Na Mona, so much for greed). Blaming the British,
> >> >> (English) is merely being paranoid and specious. Britain had more
> >> >> than enough forests of her own to build all the ****ps she wished!!
> >> > As far as I'm aware Britain got most of it's marine supplies from
the=

> >> > Baltic countries - that trade certainly is mentioned quite
frequently=

> >> > in various history books.
>
> >> I wonder if anyone wrote a poem or song about Irish trees being cut
dow=
n.
> >> That would be interesting.
>
> >There's definitely a sort of 'horticultural aesthetic' prevailing in
> >Ireland which doesn't seem to accomodate trees much.
> >By and large, the norm for most people in the countryside is to have
> >no trees at all in your garden or near your house.
>
> On the other hand, older houses in the countryside are usually
> surrounded by mature trees planted when they were built to provide
> shelter. Newer houses are often exposed, in part I suspect because
> modern materials makes added shelter less necessary. New roofs don't
> fly off as easily at thatch used to.

Aha, there you go, all *practical* considerations, not aesthetic,
which is the kind of thinking I can see screamin out from most (by no
means all) of rural irish homes : )
whereas in Blighty, once you've got the house in the country (or even
if u were born there) you'd have a job keepin most householders away
from the ornamental shrub and tree section of the local garden
centre !? It's just that this is one curious little thing that
distinguishes the cultures a bit. The 'garden-centre' culture is ultra-
rampant in England, and one thing i think the English are second to
none on is parks and gardens. Having said that, I'm sure my very rude
imputation of horticultural philistinism onto the Irish is somehow
deeply flawed...for a start, one of the panel on Radio 4's Gardener's
Question Time is Irish, then there's that Dermot Gavin on the telly
doing gardens (though he seems to spend most of his time building very
ambitious non-vegetable garden architecture), plus my ex-boss from
Kerry who apparently knew the Latin and common names for all known
plants....


> I think you've got it the wrong way around. Often its not so much that
> they want the house to stand out in the landscape, as they want a view
> of the landscape from the house.
>
Still, surprises me a bit that more people don't want to see a tree or
two ?!?