This is Andy Stewart singing the Road to Dundee, which has nothing to do with this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtltT7K_-pI
I do however drive to work every morning on a road and I have become increasingly entranced by the flowerpower. All the way to the university there are beds, hedges, slaps and stiles of flowers, which I don’t think anyone looks after. They just er grow.
I mention these beds of brilliant lily things to a colleague. She said” Oh those are just weeds.”
Hibiscus hedge lines the route
Yellow stuff with tombs
No idea what this is but it is everywhere
Old man lying
by the side of the road
With the lorries rolling by.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jzhLtt_pGQ
Anyway, it is nearly October but flowerpower is still strong. Nice drive to work but what I am trying to get across is that all these flowers are er random, no local government is involved. They are just there.
Okinawan roadworks
The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond 
And I thought this was going to be a blog about marmalade. Never mind, Obladi-oblada. Nice pics though, both the terrifying roadworks (that’s the point I suppose) and the spontaneous flower power.
How was your trip to Nihon?
No local government involved? Hmm. Very Japanese those ‘weeds’. Only grow in neat plantations and inclined to be monocultural! Strange that the trees only have one kind of weed growing around their bases and that lovely straight bed of pink things – such nice wilderness. Maybe the gardeners only come out at night? Must make the journey to work quite delightful. Here the roses are still blooming but their time must soon be over.
You are right it seems weird. I will investigate further.
Hai!!
So on consulting the oracle,it turns out that these flowers are planted by women’s clubs in the local community. Each tiny subsection of a village is communally responsible for making it look nice. Apparently the women usually get together to do this.
Sounds a bit like the system we have in Stony Stratford where the street flowers, mainly hanging baskets in the streets and plantings around the bus stops, are done by volunteers organised at village level by the town council (Stony likes to call itself a town but it’s really only a village). Common amongst villages looking to win gongs for being the Best Kept Village in the county or England. I like the idea that it’s done in Okinawa at such granularity as a tiny subsection of a village – happens here in places but not in any organised way. Regular listeners to the Archers radio saga will know of the importance of keeping fresh flowers in the phone box – looks like the Okinawan ladies are living that rural idyll. Looks just lovely.