Chimneys

I've noticed before that towns up here, and even the city of Newcastle, come to a very abrupt end at their boundaries - moving from fully urban to fully rural in a very short distance. I suppose I'm habituated to places that are constantly expanding. The urban fringe is constantly being consumed. The areas outside that become 'blighted' by expectation - full-bore agriculture gets replaced by horse livery, retail storage, letting of building as workshops, car breakers, semi-legitimate dealerships. Land gets used for parking, dumping, waste disposal, runoff; it become ugly, neglected and overgrown (though, stranglely, this semi-structured chaos can be very good for some wildlife)

Maybe there is more to it than that - better planning administration; places with a clearer vision of how they want their area to look; civic pride. Whaterever it is, it makes for a dramatic, uplifting outlook from vantage points in the town. Even the distant chimney - a large factory that converts wood pulp into boards for construction work and interior fittings in houses - which on first sight appears a bit of an eyesore, seems tolerable and something of an addition to the drama

Every art gallery, card shop, gift store or similar that we have been into has images of the stricken tree - not because of the recent offensive felling of it, but just because it has been adopted by the town as an iconic image of this borderland. I think there will be a particular mourning here