Pubdate: Thu, 23 Apr 2015
Source: Maple Ridge Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc
Contact:  http://www.mrtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1372
Author: Bob Groeneveld

THAT'S NOT A SKUNK, IT'S GRASS

There's not much that you can experience that's more satisfying than 
sitting in your own backyard on a sunny weekend like the one just past.

You can just sit in your lawn chair, drinking in the sights and 
sounds and smells of spring bursting all around you.

The grass is as green as the sky is blue... greener, indeed, as the 
whole Fraser Valley sky has become tinged with a bit of city.

Speaking of blue, the grape hyacinths and the woodland bluebells are 
peaking out my way right now, albeit several weeks earlier than usual 
- - if you count usual as the times they used to bloom 20 and 30 years ago.

There are yellows and reds... even the greys and browns of the 
tree-trunks seem more vibrant at this time of year.

Maybe a few weeks earlier out of a globally warmed winter isn't so bad.

The sounds aren't quite what they used to be, either.

We're seeing more and different birds in our backyard, and enjoy 
indulging in the pleasantry of their songs and antics.

Not the least of the benefits they bestow on us - in exchange for a 
few bags of sunflower seeds and finch mix to tide them through the 
cold and hungry months, they offer us organic protection from various 
pests that try to ravage our garden.

I only wish we could attract birds that eat slugs. In the days when 
possums and raccoons made forays into our yard, the slimy beasts were 
barely a problem, but a division of houses between ourselves and the 
ravine have made them skittish.

Although there does seem to have been a modest resurgence in the 
local bee population in the past couple of years, their mind-gentling 
buzz in the backyard rarely out-competes the mind-numbing rumble of 
increasing traffic past the front yard.

And then there is the wonderful array of smells that liven up the 
spring air - the subtle apple blossoms, the heady lilacs... and the 
powerful aroma of... what the heck is that!

That's not a skunk, dear, it's the neighbourhood marijuana production facility.

First I wonder why the smell is suddenly so strong. But it's 
certainly an indoor hydroponics operation, and on a warm day like 
today, the build-up of heat requires opening the vents.

Some folks want to deny marijuana exists, or maintain it is an evil 
influence, a temptation from Satan.

Others begrudgingly allow that that nasty pot may be of benefit to 
handful among us - who should pay dearly for society's indulgence in 
allowing them to partake of its healing (but still somewhat evil) powers.

That latter view is taken by the current government, which allows the 
virtually secret construction of medical marijuana plantations that 
are carefully regulated... and almost universally abused - not the 
"drug," but the multi-million-dollar business opportunities.

Consequently, we have everything from neighbourhoods consumed with 
mindless fear of roving gangs of grow-rip artists mistaking their 
homes for the industrial pot farm building next door, to legitimate 
concerns about dwindling groundwater supplies - and that overpowering 
skunkweed stench.

How is it that I can ferment as much wine as I wish to in my 
basement, but the guy who prefers to toke on a bit of homegrown 
instead can't grow a relatively innocuous plant among the hyacinths 
and roses and apple trees in his backyard?

With a massively diminished need for those industrial plants?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom