bitterlawngnome:

Bill (

bitterlawngnome) wrote,
@ 2008-04-25 10:23:00

Snail graveyard. Several thousand of them. Why did they gather in one place? What I enjoy about this framing is that in the rock - perhaps at this size you can just barely see it? - is the fossil of a shell, laid down here millions of years ago.

In Hamilton nature happens in areas that are not so much set aside for it but in areas that are inconvenient for building on (I realize now, this deeply informed how I think about many aspects of life - the interesting stuff happens in the margins, in places that Official Life hasn't - yet - paved over). And indeed I think this is common across most of urban North America, areas that are not deemed worthy of Development are through neglect allowed to become "wild", and that is seen as somehow beneath the notice of Decent Citizens. Or at best, as a Problem that must be Cleaned Up. The idea of having managed urban natural areas is not at all popular here - it is a tremendous struggle to find funding for upkeep of the Bruce Trail, for instance.

BTW, yes I pick on Hamilton a lot, but stuff like this shit still makes me want to smack people. "About Ontario (except: Toronto, Hamilton or Ottawa). A group for photos of Ontario, and discussion of the province as a whole. There are different groups for Ontario's larger cities, but this group looks outside of those grubby grubby metopolises."

(Post a new comment)

caprinus
2008-04-25 03:05 pm UTC (link)

My guess would be that the snail shells are the mark of a bird or small mammal which nested there and happened to eat snails. I don't know if snails otherwise congregate in such great numbers, they'd run out of vegetation!

While I agree with your observation about how nature inserts itself into the interstices of development, I think you should consider that many areas in the Americas are not merely 'allowed to become "wild" through neglect', but are in fact Wild, having never been tamed. That's one thing that sets this continent apart from Europe, which has been thoroughly combed over and developed -- much as it may seem human sprawl has tainted everything, we're still mostly hinterland.

Last year several members of my extended family came to visit me here in Toronto; for some of them, it was the first trip outside of the old country, for almost all the first trip outside of Europe. What impressed them most about Canada, what they took endless pictures of and rhapsodised about was not the masses of different-coloured multi-lingual people, or the well-appointed homes and malls, or the CN Tower, it was the emptiness, the silence. The highlight of the trip was a week of camping in Labrador.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

bitterlawngnome
2008-04-25 04:14 pm UTC (link)

Sorry of course you are right, I should have sprinkled the word "urban" through those sentences. Which I will do after I finish this reply.

I wondered at first if maybe that was why all the snail shells, but wouldn't one expect them to be cracked open? or of varying ages? these looked like they were all last autumn's, and were for the most part in perfect condition. Mysterious.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	quirkstreet 2008-04-25 03:11 pm UTC (link)
	Well, we all know that no beauty is possible within urban spaces. And the countryside is always sparkling clean, once we ban things like farming with its nasty smelly animals and its closeness to nature. Everything is pure wilderness or perfectly manicured parkland. [eyeroll] (Reply to this)(Thread)

	bitterlawngnome 2008-04-25 04:18 pm UTC (link)
	Seriously, it is a variation on the Noble Savage theme. That's why those Indians are so much wiser you know, they live in pure clean untainted Nature. (Reply to this)(Parent)

megalomaniac metonymy

chefxh
2008-04-25 05:44 pm UTC (link)

I have long resented the tendency of places like Phoenix and Portland to appropriate for themselves the respective names Arizona and Oregon. Phoenix does NOT equal Arizona. Why does the Phoenix branch get to be the Arizona Heart Hospital, and the one in Tucson must make do with a smaller moniker?

I resent people in Seattle classifying themselves as "Washington: other" on cruisy websites, when they have their own categories with far more content than the rest of the state.

So I can relate to people who want to see the REST of the world, not just the namegrabbing cities.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: megalomaniac metonymy bitterlawngnome 2008-04-25 06:00 pm UTC (link)
	It's like a personal ad. State what you want and you like, and skip over all the things you hate and don't like. There is no need to insult anyone. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	tide_and_time 2008-04-25 11:42 pm UTC (link)
	Maybe they were Aztec snails and that was their temple for the Snail Gods. ;) Or a snail proving ground where all the losers from the mating contests go to die. Rather like Church and Maitland where all the old whores retire from the massage parlors. Or maybe they just have an instinctive nature to try and die in one place. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	bitterlawngnome 2008-04-26 12:24 pm UTC (link)
	or maybe they were having a party and the police came and they swallowed the drugs to hide them but they took too much and passed out and it snowed while they were out and baby jesus was flying overhead and saw all those snails and was all WANT! so daddy took them all to heaven for him? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Dodgeball jacked01 2008-04-26 11:47 am UTC (link)
	"oh come on I took Ottawa last time" " ok.. Ottawa." "hmmm... Ham... no Toronto" "grr.. God I get stuck with them every time" "OK! Hamilton, but we get the ball first" (Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: Dodgeball bitterlawngnome 2008-04-26 12:25 pm UTC (link)
	aw you get Oakville every time! no fair. I'm going home! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ruralrob 2008-04-29 03:15 am UTC (link)
	I think there is much beauty in our city landscapes - the amazing graffiti of Montreal for example, or the vacant lots - although for many those both would fall in to the "Problem That Must be Cleared up" category" that you've mention. The CN Tower stuff and such? Nah. Leave that to the souvenir ashtrays. (Reply to this)

Mini Sitemap:

Username:		Create an Account Forgot your login? Login w/ OpenID
Password:
	Remember Me
	English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…