Spades? We have them in spades at the ecohouse. But we don't have spades in Bloomsbury. You'd hardly take a spade to the window boxes, would you? So the idea from Camden council that we can get spades from them should the weather turn nasty, to keep frontages clear of snow and ice, seems eminently sensible.
Of course we're willing to go out and clear the bit of pavement in front of our building - it's commonplace in many European countries to do that. So why is the Mail moaning about Camden Council lending us spades to do it? Jolly sensible thing to do; last year we were shoving beastly snow about with bits of stiff cardboard.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Spades? Spades? Camden are thinking about giving out spades?
A spade is a digging tool with a heavy narrow body convex on the upper surface and tapering in thickness from tang to blade. It is designed to be thrust into the soil, to lever and to lift conglomerated material. It is engineered, not manufactured. A spade adapts over time to your body, and one experienced in its use can easily dig a perch (30 square yards) of land a day without fatigue. It has also, through history, and along with the billhook, been the weapon of choice of the peasantry. Wielded capably, it can take a head off cleanly.
A shovel on the other hand is flat and broad bladed, uniform in thickness, pressed or beaten from a thin sheet of metal, often with upturned side and back edges. It typically has over twice the surface area of a spade and is quite useless as a weapon. It is designed for scooping up loose, unconsolidated material from a pile or from a flat surface. Its robustness as a lever is zero. Spear and Jackson manufacture over 50 varieties of shovel, from the popular Square Mouth Contractors' No. 2 to specialist grain shovels, trenching shovels, taper mouth shovels and ... yes ... snow shovels.
If Camden need advice on the correct implement with which to equip the Big Society to clear snow, I dare say a single day's consultancy will crack it.
I'll forward your note to the appropriate authority, R. Though now you mention it, arming the peasantry of Bloomsbury, if not of Camden in its entirety, isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Heads right off, cleanly? Hmmm.
Now, about that secondary school south of the Euston Road...
Post a Comment