Yew Only Live Twice

Karen and I met Westminster councillor Ray Lancashire at Queen's Park Gardens on a bright and sunny Saturday morning - perfect weather for roaming the streets, stepladder and snippers at the ready, to retrieve air pollution measuring devices affixed to 20 local lampposts. We made good time, as the tube-clasp-cable tie combos were much quicker to take down than they had been to put up last month!

Happily, every tube was still safely in place (unlike the time when, Ray told us, several had been mysteriously pinched, in an incident known internationally as the Great Tube Robbery of 2017) and the only drama today was Karen being pinged in the head by a flying cable tie as it was snipped off a lamppost eight feet above... thankfully there was no concussion and we didn't need to bust out the first aid kit which Ray, prepared as ever, had brought along. We really should get danger money for such hazardous missions :-)

Tube samples successfully gathered, they'll now be sent for analysis to see whether air quality has improved - if not, this data can be used for grant applications for more council initiatives like the burgeoning yew trees planted outside St John The Evangelist Church, which absorb nitrogen dioxide from the Harrow Road traffic in their leaves. Looking forward to hearing the results!