Good news and bad news

The good news is that it was busy on the Ewell by-pass at around 1700 this afternoon, with plenty of car and vans and some lorries. But generally speaking, despite both northbound lanes being quite busy, the motor vehicles were considerate and gave me plenty of space - which was kind on the older nerves. Not as steady next to fast moving vehicles - particularly lorries - as I used to be.

Looking east towards the railway bridge, just visible

The bad news is that the London Borough of Kingston - or perhaps the Mayor of London - has planted more trees down the centre of the stretch of Bridge Road between Hook Road and Chessington North railway station - than they can afford to look after.

Planted since Google came down the road with their camera in 2018 and quite possibly not watered since. About twenty of them, perhaps three metres high, and pretty well all of them looking sickly or dead. 

I don't suppose many, if any, of the many people living round about thought to give them a bucket of water once in a while. With maybe a bucket every three or four days during the hot spells making all the difference.

Maybe also the council tree people had not made a very good choice, with the raised strip of grass between two strips of tarmac not getting much of whatever rain might be going. Something tolerant of dry conditions indicated.

A small tweet on the start of the home straight around the top of Hook Road Arena, in the form of a second small thrush, in more or less the same place, not far out of the hedge, in two days. Might even have been the same small thrush for the second time. In any event, a fast walk rather than hopping. Not a bird I get to see very often, except in the short redwing season. And, according to the record, not even one of those in more than a year, with the last unconfirmed tweet, noticed at reference 1, being early in 2019.

PS: a win for Ordnance Survey. Its maps mark the county boundaries so that I know that this stretch is in London. Not something Google go in for on their maps, although to be fair to them, their maps are free and it would be a fair amount of bother to put administrative boundaries on them.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/02/more-abbey.html.