One word? When seven would do…

Today was a much rearranged day with us having various plans that got variously changed. It all revolved around a litter picking activity which Davies and Scarlett wanted to do for their RSPB WAA stuff. They had long since decided to pick litter up along the alleyways that formed their artwork display at the library a while back. I’d been waiting for nicer weather but before the school holidays and started a very long and frustrating dialogue by email with the local council waste and recycling department who handle litter collection and street cleaning.

I’d noticed on their website that there is an education officer who does school visits and supplies educational packs about waste and recycling so i thought she would be a good first point of contact and emailed asking if she had any resources that would be suitable for us to use at home such as posters and leaflets and whether she could offer any support / suggestions for the litter walk we were intending to do.

I never did get a reply from her about any of the educational stuff but did get an email from the Waste manager asking when I was doing the walk and where. I carefully worked out the route for him and replied, once again asking for any support the council may be able to offer (I was thinking of litter pickers, sacks, gloves etc.). I got no reply to that so I picked a date to suit us and emailed him again to say we were doing it today. I got a reply to that one asking if I had the correct insurance and had done risk assessments and got protective equipment and telling me that I didn’t need permission as it was public highways we’d been collecting litter from.

At that point I lost patience with both the ignoring what I was actually asking for and the defensive tone of the emails – I assume he was imaginging we were wanting to make a point about the council not keeping the streets clean when in actual fact we were trying to raise awareness about people not dropping litter in the first place. So I sent back a very blunt email explaining, again, that it was simply me and my two children, we would not be needing insurance and could he possible loan me some litter pickers? He replied he could and we collected them last week in preparation.

So, litter pickers at the ready I decided we’d do the walk at 10am this morning, had arranged to meet Julie, Jack,Maisie and Lorna at PYO at 2pm and arranged to pick Tasha, Toby and Vinnie up at 1130 to have a picnic at Highdown with them before all meeting Julie and co at PYO before coming home for Badgers. I emailed the local paper (partially becuase another of the tasks is to get in the local paper, partially because if they’re going to do something like a litter picking then I think they deserve the publicity and raised awareness to go with it and partially so they could be nice and ‘visible in the community’ – and another opportunity to wear their Home Ed T shirts :)). The reporter rang me yesterday to arrange for a ohotographer to meet us at the library but he wasn;t free til 2pm.

So a hasty rearrangement with Julie and Tasha saw us picking Tasha and co up at 930am, heading straight to PYO where Julie joined us at 1030am and 90 minutes strawberry picking ensued. In fairness it was mostly me who picked strawberries as I got a full 3 baskets worth for jam making. The kids all had a ball though. Lorna sat in her pushchair, parked next to a blackcurrant bush so she could pick from the comfort of her chair 😆 Vinnie enjoyed crushing berries and getting to know Lorna, while Davies, Scarlett, Maisie, Jack and Toby all ran around together doing not very much picking but having a lot of fun :). There was a great photo opportunity of the five of them walking along in a row chatting away together in the sunshine with strawberry fields all around but although I’d brought my camera it didn’t have the battery replaced from when I’d taken it out to charge it so you’ll just have to imagine that one please :).

We bid goodbye to Julie and kids who were staying awhile longer for a ride round on the tractor (we’d already done that) and some pea picking and dropped Tasha and the boys off before coming home for a speedy lunch. We pulled up to find my Dad’s van in our drive with him sitting in it listening to the radio. He’d popped round on the offchange and decided to sit for 10 minutes to see if we arrived home and low and behold we had. He did say on Sunday ‘haven’t seen you for ages’ so I guessed he might pop round this week.

Dad came in and had lunch with us and a bit of a chat before we had to head back out again. Davies and Scarlett were keen for him to join us on the litter walk but unsurprisingly he declined ;).

So armed with litter pickers and plenty of enthusiasm (them) and a bag full of black plastic sacks and antibacterial handwash (me) off we went. The idea was that I would hold the bag open and carry them but everything else was up to them. I quickly vetoed dog poo even if in bags and broken glass. I eventually also vetoed cigarette ends of which there were probably thousands just because we were time pressured but I suspect this is an excercise they may want to repeat anyway.

We chatted to several people along the way, all with positive things to say although one woman said she’d done litter collecting before and got loads of verbal abuse. That made me slightly more wary about the fact we were in alleyways and therefore slightly vulnerable if someone took against us and our do-gooding work. We didn’t encounter anyone negative though fortunately.

It took us nearly an hour to walk the mile or so which usually takes about 15-20 minutes and we ended up with four black sacks full. One was sweet wrappers, crisp packets and general litter but the bulk of it was tin cans and bottles. Loads of them were cider or beer and plenty of those were up to half full when we found them.

We arrived at the library and the photographer was a few minutes behind us. He got the kids to strike various poses, took their full names and proper spellings, commended them on their efforts (I was quick to refuse to be in the picture and insist this was all their own work, not mine) and then disappeared again.

We left the bags piled up next to the bin while we walked home again and then came back with my car to collect them. They were very heavy and I didn’t fancy walking all the way home with them again. Once home we emptied them all out on the lawn, put the one bag of landfill rubbish in our wheelie bin and tried to be creative with the tins and bottles. Unfortunately it was too windy to build a pyramid of them which we thought would be creative (and way taller than D and S) so instead we made a rubbish man which they posed lying next to:


and wrote the word ‘litter’ in tin cans too

Then we put them all into our recycling bin. We had over 50 tins 🙁 Davies was particularly sad to note on the walk back home again someone had dropped a coke can in an alleyway in the half an hour since we’d walked through picking up rubbish. We said when we first did the walk for the library artwork that if their efforts stopped one person from dropping one bit of rubbish then it had been worth it so they consoled themselves with the thought that thanks to them there are now 4 bin bags less rubbish than there were before.

I need to write some words to send to the paper, Davies and Scarlett need to create another display for the library for Monday and also write to our MP about the rubbish for their next few tasks so they have plenty to be getting on with.

I’m really proud of them for this, they have approached it really well, are keen to make a difference and talk to people about what they’re doing. It’s been a really good thing to do for lots of reasons :).

Scarlett and I made pancakes for their tea and then it was off to Badgers. Unfortunately neither of them had put their Badger uniforms away properly last week so there was much last minute stressing about clothes, shoes and hair which had me lecturing them all the way there. Ady met us there and then Scarlett had a bit of a moment about me leaving. This did mean I got to listen to the first 10 minutes when they sat in a circle and talked about what they’d been up to since last week so I got to hear them both talk about litter picking :).

Ady and I went for a walk and then he headed off as he needed to drop some plants at my parents while I stayed to get the children. I got chatting to a couple of the new parents, both of whom have to wait around for the hour as they don’t live close enough for it to be worth going home, just like me. We talked about a Badgers Parents Group meeting at the pub for the hour :). It feels odd to be chatting to parents as I don’t normally do it but I’m sure when they find out about our weird ways they’ll not be so friendly ;).

Back home I made some jam with some berries I’d picked and frozen but had defrosted too mushy to do anything much else with. I made summerfruits and lavender and it’s come out very well :). I’ll make some strawberry and chili maybe tomorrow. Tasha was telling me about marrow and ginger jam but I’m not at all sure I’m convinced by such mad ideas ;).

We read the second half of Mr Gum (just as good with a second read :)) and then the children went off to bed while I wasted yet more hours of my life playing bejeweled blitz. I’d like to pretend I can take it or leave it and walk away any time but the truth is I’m even eating into my wine drinking time for playing it so I probably need help weaning off it! 😆