UK - Lake District Daffodils Wilt So Early That Tourist Towns Replant W. Plastic & Silk Flowers

[hatrack]

While I was washing up I heard a ridiculous story on the news that I am still thinking through the implications of. The Lake District is famous at this time of year for its amazing displays of daffodils, especially thanks to Wordsworth’s poem, but the exceptionally warm winter and mild spring have meant that the daffodils have all flowered and wilted much earlier than usual, and, most importantly, before the tourists arrive. The South Lakeland Parks holiday park at Fallbarrow, on the shores of Lake Windermere, has responded by planting thousands of plastic and silk ones instead.

Says spokesperson Caroline Guffogg; "Our guests love to see the daffodils in bloom when they come for their Easter break, but this year the flowers have been out since the middle of February. The chances are they won’t be at their best come April, so we’ve taken the decision to replace them. The fakes are high quality silk and are extremely realistic. Unless they look really hard then I don’t think many people will notice the difference."

This really strikes me as an extraordinary sign of the times. I wonder if the owners of the park have made the connection here, and, as well as the plastic daffs, have insulated their caravans, begun sourcing local food, started planting walnut trees and put solar panels up? If not, it is a demonstration of an amazing kind of denial, somewhat akin to men of a certain age covering their bald spot by sweeping their remaining hair over the top.

What next? Perhaps we should cover Mount Fuji with thousands of tons of fake snow just to keep the tourists happy. We could make some enormous plastic icebergs and tow them to the North Pole so we can pretend the real ones aren’t melting. We could give some students summer jobs dressing up as Orangutans and swinging about in the trees in places where they are nearly extinct. Or we could just stop pretending. Really.

EDIT

http://transitionculture.org/2007/03/20/a-host-of-plastic-daffodils/

[phantom power]

1. I wonder if we can deploy plastic glaciers.

And grow our crops with plastic water.

[hlthe2b]

2. No, but I'll bet there will be some mega $$$ invested in

some colossal INDOOR ski slopes, given the pending collapse of European resorts in the Alps... Very sad, but true...

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. I am reminded of an episode of The Simpsons

When Lisa is in college (that would be only 10 or 12 years from now.)

There was a shot of the college campus dominated by a large, stately oak. It flickers like a poor quality television picture, then vanishes to leave behind a large metal platter, which had looked like a decorative border around the tree's trunk. A passing student kicks this platter a few times and the tree flickers back. A close up of where the student had been kicking shows writing....

"In memory of a real tree."

How very sad that the silliness of The Simpsons is coming to life before our very eyes.

[hatrack]

5. Is that the episode w. Lisa at Harvard, living in Dr. & Mrs. Dre Hall?

:rofl:

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. That's the one. n/t

[Benhurst]

4. Go down to Kew in lilac time,

in lilac time, in lilac time.
Ho! Ho! Ho! And a Happy Christmas to all!