Golden light..and poor old Amazon
November 18, 2021, 9:03 am , by Newsroom
Richard Lutz takes a late autumn walk through a shoreline wood
IT’S mid morning in a wood bordering the Scottish coast. It’s still warm and the low light spreads through the oaks, the pines, the beeches. Even now in mid November, I can feel the warmth of that low sun.
The bracken, the lady ferns and the maple leaves are turning a vibrant gold before the die back. And a Monterey Pine, a tree that loves the sea, improbably curves in a tight circle as its branches are swept and bullied by the constant southwesterly wind that roars up the Clyde estuary from the nearby Irish hills.
As a matter of fact, aside from the rigidly erect red pine and Scots Pine, most trees are carved by the wind. Behind the loopy tree above, take a look above at the scrub oak and infant sycamores twisted by the Atlantic winds. Even the straight-trunked trees have to lean away from the southwesterlies:
No wonder the Monterey Pines, whether curving or not, flourish in this pocket of woods. Their actual home is the eponymous Monterey Peninsula south of San Francisco. It has the same cool misty climate. It butts up against a sea. But this Scottish wood is tempered by the Gulf Stream. The Californian cousins peer out on the endless Pacific Ocean.
Aside from what I see around me, this pocket of woods is also embroidered by continual sound. There’s wind through upper branches, the whisper of the the tidal waters on a quiet day and the rustle of things unknown underfoot. And threading through the woods, there’s song as birds weave in and out. Beyond, the long shore of the bay is filled with oystercatchers chattering like anxious children as they take off.
Amazon Jungle
I leave this woodland reverie to land in the harsh world of global economics. The Amazon website is banning the use of Visa credit cards from next year. It feels the Visa rates are too high.
Boo hoo. And moan, moan, moan. Let’s get it straight. Amazon and the Bezos world, famous for viciously undercutting High Street stores, Main Street merchants and shopping malls, raked in $424 billion in revenue last year.
I’ll remember poor old Amazon’s bankrupt state the next time I go past my closed down shuttered local bookshop which had been bullied into penury by the tech giant, a thuggish uncaring conglomerate that even set up its own second hand book service called Abe to corner the market and squeeze the bejesus out of the independent sector.
I hope Amazon and its gold plated rocket-riding bosses rot in hell. I really do.
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May Evans
trees being bullied by the wind !!
Sian F
The Amazon story disgusts me
Robert
As a Seattleite, also the hometown of Amazon, I find their business practices to be an embarrassment to their hometown. Rotting in hell is too good for them.
Neil
I think there’s a dimension of the VISA/Amazon story that’s missing. No dispute about the loathsome Bezos, but can’t say I’m that enamoured of VISA. I understand that VISA are currently restricted to a charge of 0.3% per transaction, within the EU. Since Brexit they plan to hike the limit to 0.5% within the UK. Very naughty. What I suspect is a migration to MasterCards and their ilk. Virtue doesn’t rely abound in that cesspit, or am I maligning the wrong rogues?.
Lee Anthony
Racketeers
Ann Bank
There’s an impressive Monterey Pine to see a mile up the coast at Culzean Castle
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