Monday 3 December 2018

Strange Fruit



I was walking near a large block of flats in Shirley, Southampton, when I noticed there was something odd about one of the trees along the side of the road. Hanging from the branches were a dozen or more pairs of shoes, presumably tied together by their laces and flung up there by passing schoolkids, either as a bit of bullying or perhaps as some kind of ritual to mark the end of the school year, or some such occasion.


Curiously, the trees in the streets around those flats are also very susceptible to mistletoe: I've never seen so much of the stuff in so many trees in such a small area. I took the photo below in February this year, just before a massive hailstorm. Why nobody "harvests" it I don't know, but it's clearly been there, untouched, for a very long time. Perhaps the shoes and the mistletoe indicate the survival of some atavistic druidic cult in Shirley? Perhaps not.


4 comments:

Kent Wiley said...

Ignoramus that I am, I had no idea mistletoe existed outside of Christmas mythology. Wikipedia to the rescue. Now I'm fully informed, and despite my new found knowledge about it's possible benefits to biological diversity, I am still creeped out by such obvious parasitism. Here in 'Murica, we believe in individualism and independence, responsibility and individuality. Get offa my cloud, ya damn mistletoe!

Mike C. said...

Kent,

Good to hear from you: yes, it's real enough. Unlike reindeer or snow, obviously.

Mike

Kent Wiley said...

Also, FWIW re the shoes in the trees. I've heard it said in the eastern US, that shoes hanging from overhead electrical wires is some sort of gang turf signal. How this could be, has me baffled. I know I wouldn't understand the signal, and would unknowingly stumble into something inappropriate. Anybody else ever heard tell of this?

Mike C. said...

Kent,

That's an intriguing comment. Certainly, any gang activity in Southampton would be active here. But, also, I wouldn't put it past the average schoolkid to know this, and to imitate it without it signifying anything much, a bit like most of the mindless tagging that goes on.

Mike