Bowling Green

I saw an Edward Hopper painting the other day and for some reason, it made me think of the local bowling green building. 

Bowling greens used to be an important part of the social life of people in the East of Scotland, particularly for pensioners. We had multiple world champions from the area including Willie Wood from Haddington calling "that's the shot".

However, the sport has suffered from the 'old man' image, dropping participation rates and cuts in local government funding. Most council greens in Edinburgh seem to be closed now. I can't help thinking that's a bad thing. Any exercise which involves social connection is so important for the health and wellbeing of the auld yins! 

Hopefully, the land will be re-assigned to the community and for social good. Public land should remain that, not sold off to the highest bidder.  But we can hardly blame councils for selling off valuable assets to property developers. People talk about Edinburgh Clowncil, but austerity, government policy and laws limit their options on how they deal with such land. It makes me sad.