Community Garden Vandalism

Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,409
1,697
Cumbria
In some cultures a thumbs up is a grossly offensive sign; do you think they write on their forums "it still amuses me when I see non- (insert language here) origin or native speakers, internet social media posers use the thumbs up sign. Are they really telling their followers to ...?"
:)
Actually the two fingered pose on Internet social media is kind of a young person thing. I've seen people in their early 20s do selfies in the UK with that gesture but never understood what that meant. I think a lot of US and most British youth would know the two fingered insult gesture so why use it as a social media pose?
 

Kav

Nomad
Mar 28, 2021
452
360
71
California
Please don't take this as a dig but can I ask is English your first Language ? Were you born a native speaker ?
Well , to start and finish simultaneously, I wasn’t born so much as showed up on Oscar Wild’s birthday during a earthquake.
My ‘English’ was standard Californian mixed with my great grandmother teaching me Gaelic in her caravan and dire warnings not to trust a sassanach. I had been kidnapped by our Barbados housekeeper and baptized Anglican. I added a patina of Calo,
The slang patois of Chicanos, except back then they were Mexican Americans. We briefly moved to Arizona. My ancestry
Got me into the tribal pre school
And I added a bit of Apache. This caused my abrupt dismissal ( with full refund) from Tom Brown’s class. My parents divorced. The public school succumbed to the neighborhood hostility and I was expelled end of the third grade. Now, my dormant baptism came back as lifeline. I was accepted in
A private Anglican School and added a rudimentary knowledge of
Greek and Latin . The Vicar was an Orangeman and approached this seven year old Fenian like a unattended parcel.
But when POTUS Kennedy was shot he walked in crying andhustled everyone to mass
and prayer as the initial reports came in. He pulled me out of que.
‘ you and I are the only two Irishmen here. You’re my alter boy.’
He introduced me to Irish and British literature; Flann O’Brian, G. K. Chesterton and Shakespeare.
Then back into public high school
and the miseries of The Sixties Universities excreting armchair revolutionary fools who thought
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was great poetry and didn’t understand My reciting YEATS. So, I confess.. Owner of our Indian restaurant- grocers rolls his eyes when our two indecipherable dialects collide over cardoman chai.
Just do what we do in multi cultural California. Smile a lot, eat the food and nobody will get hurt.
 
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Disabled Preppers

Full Member
Apr 3, 2023
213
102
58
west midlands
I'm sorry that all that work seems ruined, that the lady is so distressed and upset.

Salt though, in our climate, well certainly around here, salt just washes away, it's not desert region, iimmc? It will ruin present seedlings but it'll not ruin soil, not 5kgs on a piece of land that would feed 1600....that can't be right, to feed 1600 folks needs acres. It might be to provide fresh vegetables to help feed 1600, but no way would that small patch feed so many.

I too suspect that the neighbours (or a neighbour) has had enough.
Enough of what though ? we don't live there, we don't know the subtext, the underlying frustrations that led to this. Something must be pretty bad for them to resort to this level of what seems to be spiteful vandalism.

M
I am glad someone else has smelt a rat , now we had 2 allotments i mean full size allotments and no way did we feed and share 1600 people that is BS , now to the story look at the photos hmm how does she know it was 5kg and the pictures are of her back garden in one that she said she used then in another she has an allotment again i find that strange , but with over £250k donated hmmm now lets see what she does , as i say i smell a rat and something does not add up .
As i say we had 2 full size allot,ment and could never grow enough to feed 1600 people was it 1 carrot each because i guess over the year we could say we have feed thousands to in shares but then again may be more but i just find the whole story a little untrue and i hope the police investigate where the money goes because i said the same about Captain Toms family and low and behold on that story
 

Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,409
1,697
Cumbria
There was a picture of a fair sized plot on one website, looked a farm type setting or smallholding. 5kg might my go far in sufficient dose to harm I reckon.
 

Lean'n'mean

Settler
Nov 18, 2020
741
460
France
Yep, that's probably having helped out 1600 people overall, over a period of time, by offering some fruit & veg, as & when it becomes available, rather than 'feeding' 1600 folk everyday, every month of the year as journalistic licence would have us believe.
 

SaraR

Full Member
Mar 25, 2017
1,651
1,209
Ceredigion
I’d be more inclined to blame the writer for bigging it up a bit too much rather than the lady doing it and like with food bank stories I don’t assume that they provide all the food those people need but that doesn’t any less worthy or important for the people getting help.

Shrugging your shoulders and saying surely it will wash away is a bit like telling someone who’s had their car/house/fence pelted with paint or spraypainted ”why are you upset, it’ll come off”, when clearly the nastiness behind the act is what hurts more.

And who knows, maybe they found 5 empty 1 kg salt bags on the ground…
 

Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
4,794
3,738
66
Exmoor
I’d be more inclined to blame the writer for bigging it up a bit too much rather than the lady doing it and like with food bank stories I don’t assume that they provide all the food those people need but that doesn’t any less worthy or important for the people getting help.

Shrugging your shoulders and saying surely it will wash away is a bit like telling someone who’s had their car/house/fence pelted with paint or spraypainted ”why are you upset, it’ll come off”, when clearly the nastiness behind the act is what hurts more.

And who knows, maybe they found 5 empty 1 kg salt bags on the ground…

I'd agree with you Sara, facts are often skewed for sensationalisn and non of us have all the facts from the horses mouth, so I feel its not fair to judge, particularly with cynicism.
If you can't prove what you say, .....perhaps it's best not to say it.
I was brought up to the adage, if you can't say anything nice... don't say anything. It seems anybody is fair game nowadays, no matter what the situation.
I'm sure the money will be put to good use, and better security in this day and age would be a good use.
I do think we should be condemning the vandals, not picking holes in the grower. At least she's trying to do some thing positive for her community.
 

Scottieoutdoors

Settler
Oct 22, 2020
889
635
Devon
I'd agree with you Sara, facts are often skewed for sensationalisn and non of us have all the facts from the horses mouth, so I feel its not fair to judge, particularly with cynicism.
If you can't prove what you say, .....perhaps it's best not to say it.
I was brought up to the adage, if you can't say anything nice... don't say anything. It seems anybody is fair game nowadays, no matter what the situation.
I'm sure the money will be put to good use, and better security in this day and age would be a good use.
I do think we should be condemning the vandals, not picking holes in the grower. At least she's trying to do some thing positive for her community.

This is all very true, but equally, we have very real examples of donations being poorly allocated (morally speaking) in past calls for help and support.
It's not to say that is the case here, but being cautious isn't a bad thing.

But as the other old adage goes, "if you dont watch the news you're uninformed, if you do watch the news you're misinformed"
(Watch, read, listen..)
 
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Disabled Preppers

Full Member
Apr 3, 2023
213
102
58
west midlands
I'd agree with you Sara, facts are often skewed for sensationalisn and non of us have all the facts from the horses mouth, so I feel its not fair to judge, particularly with cynicism.
If you can't prove what you say, .....perhaps it's best not to say it.
I was brought up to the adage, if you can't say anything nice... don't say anything. It seems anybody is fair game nowadays, no matter what the situation.
I'm sure the money will be put to good use, and better security in this day and age would be a good use.
I do think we should be condemning the vandals, not picking holes in the grower. At least she's trying to do some thing positive for her community.
HI woody i do agree we should be , well being polite words here but the vandals need a good kick up the backside or as our local copper use to do the leather gloves round the earhole .
My point is when people start shouting about what they do for others i smell a rat everytime , see if i went in to it we have given so much away rather than sell and people say why i say because if we can help another then that makes us smile just as much as the person recieving, like giving away the over produced food on our allotments we use to share with anyone , i use to take donated computers rebuild get them fixed and then give back so again loads of people help others with out the big shout outs , my other point the lady wanted to raise £4k so when it got to that why not close it no she kept it open and still has it open , anyway back to bushcraft
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
Polarised threads like this one are hard to Mod.

Damned if we do, damned if we don't, and meanwhile we are in accordance with the guidelines to keep things family friendly.

I certainly don't want to close it, and more certainly I do not want to have to 'ride herd' on adults who know better than skip too near the knuckle.

Discussion is good :) it broadens everyone's knowledge, but gently please.

M
 

Wander

Native
Jan 6, 2017
1,418
1,986
Here There & Everywhere
Yes, there are some really ill-thought and un-informed comments on this thread.
Just taking 2 and 2 and making 5. Even worse, patting themselves on the back for it.
A good example of the Fox Network school of journalism.
 

Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
4,794
3,738
66
Exmoor
I think we need to start being kinder , there is so much nastiness in the world, let's step back and think about thinking positively and being kind, not just automatically taking a cynical view of things.
I know a lot of people have done just that by donating to this lady who tries to make a positive impact in her community and well done them.
Having fibromyalgia myself, I know what a struggle it can be to get out there and work hard to make a wonderful food production area for others.
It realy doesn't matter how many people get fed from her plot, the fact is, she does it, and it's a lot harder for her than for a younger or fitter person doing it. So I for one , am going to believe in her, and take any journalistic embroidery for what it is, and ignore it.
Well done that lady, and it's a sorry shame that nasty minded people think it's a good idea to try and ruin her plot and generosity in any way, and a great thing that people want to help her get back on track doing what she can to feed others. Go girl! Show the spiteful little nerds that good will win, as she will now be able to go bigger and better.
 

Kav

Nomad
Mar 28, 2021
452
360
71
California
If she starts driving a Bentley convertible and taking vacations
In Jamaica the Pythons’ red robed
Spanish Inquisition can show up.
I volunteer for the service veterans
Group that helped me and donate to the church based social services
That connected us.
We just had a new ‘volunteer’ descend from Mount Olympus.
Ex USMC , retired teacher and he
Initiated an interrogation like we were a student accused of cheating on an exam. He also managed to insert a James Joyce
Stream of Celtic BS before noticing my name tag. I was informed my surname was spelled wrong!
Ahem, I started speaking the Gaelic
In its sweetest, and purest form. It sounding like pigs tearing into a sack of fermented grain.
Then a homeless vet, shattered by substance abuse, PTSD and malnutrition was brought in by the church group after a good meal.
My lace curtain Irish American fled
Like he saw a banshee.
You spend nine months sleeping rough, and you smell BS faster than that fermented grain.
 

Disabled Preppers

Full Member
Apr 3, 2023
213
102
58
west midlands
@Kav good on you mate i just seen your fromthe states as i started to type a huge letter asking about donating to your service lol .
I am uk based i have tried well years ago we treid to donate to any charity all the excess food we use to produce on the allotment we would have 80 -100 lb pumpkins and so much fruit raspberries and strawberries to give away but non here in the uk well in the local area where we lived could take it you had to be registered to donate .
These days it is always toms and cucumbers lol don't ask i now have a huge garden with a big polytunnel so hence the greenhouse type fruit is more , we still give it away just to the neighbours like back where we lived before just use to knock doors and say can you make use of this lol , marrows became the hard sell .
I wish sometimes my health was better so that the wife could drive me to a vertans center in the UK so i can help out but well long health history and blackouts and heart stopping no one likes me round due to the health issues .
Nice work mate on the volunteering , we do all we can for the Ex-Vets here that we can , on that note not sure this is not a plug to a business i was put on to this company for my les't we forget shirts , as far as we know it is run by UK vetrans and employs UK vetrans .
Ok hope ok to put this mods remove if not thanks .
 

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