Recycling.

 

Dear family, friends and followers.

Firstly. How are you all doing? I really am interested to hear how everyone is getting on in Lockdown Three or how others are coping across the world?. 

Keith and I are just going with the flow and getting on with it. We keep ourselves to ourselves and only venture out for exercise, well I go for a walk out of the Arm as you will know if you read my posts, Keith just walks up and down the pontoon, whilst his back is still getting better. I do collect and deliver parcels for everyone in the Arm, as I told you in my last posting. Thankfully no tights mishaps since. 

Many boaters are big on recycling and we are no different. We have bags which we collect, tins, glass, paper and plastic and at the moment being on our home mooring, we take our collection to Sainsbury's, just a couple of minutes walk up the road from us. But it seems from our local paper The Warwick Courier, we could be losing our recycle bins, because of the abuse that happens in and around them. I have witnessed the abuse for myself on a couple of occasions, when piles of rubbish has been dumped in front of the bins, leaving the Sainsbury staff having to clean it all up, which is really not right. When we are out cruising, we use the Biffa bins provided by the Canal and River Trust in the sanitary station compounds, but even these are open to abuse if they are not lockable. One such instance was at Marsworth Junction on the Grand Union Canal a few years ago now. I went to get rid of a bag of rubbish only to find the bins overflowing and rubbish strewn across the compound. When I checked the bins, some of them were filled with builders rubble and there was piles of dumped rubbish, such a mattresses, cupboards and even an animal carcass. I took photographs and immediately sent them to BW (Canal and River Trust) who were in charge at the time. I also rang them to tell them about the animal carcass. Within in the hour, BW were on the case. Biffa arrived later in the day to try and empty the bins. I was there to meet the driver and did my best to help him move the bins, but some of them were so heavy with rubble, we could not shift them. BW sent a team over to help clear the rubbish and to dispose of the animal carcass. What makes people think this sort of behaviour is acceptable? Even in the past few years, boating friends have posted photographs of the bin areas being full of rubbish. I spoke to a Biffa driver, who told me that if their carts cannot get close to the compounds they cannot take the rubbish and so have to drive away. They have arrived at bin areas, to find cars parked in the way, which means they cannot do their job. Sometimes bin areas are just overwhelmed, because of fly tipping, which is why all bin areas need to be lockable and then only boaters with the correct key can use it. 

Yesterday, Friday 22nd January, I had a fabulous day. I spent some of it working with our Grandson. Oscar is now 8 years old and is doing home schooling at the moment, because of Covid-19. Whilst he is very good with his lessons when at school, doing home schooling, has been a bit more of a struggle, because there are so many distractions. This is where Grandma and Grandad come in, because I suggested we may be able to help. We began with helping him with his spelling tests.

This weeks test was a lot tougher for an 8 year old, but with lots of practice Oscar got 10 out of the 11 right. After the spelling, he did maths with Grandad and then reading with me. It brings us both joy to help him with his home schooling and it gives Becky a chance to get some jobs done and time with Orion. I am not a maths person, so I am more than happy to let Keith do the maths. It was never my strong point at school. I remember having extra lessons, when it came to algebra, but I still failed miserably. I can of course do the easy stuff, but forget it when it comes to anything too difficult. I will stick to the spelling and reading. Oscar reads incredibly well and is an absolute credit to his parents. His teacher clearly thought he did a good job because he got the Gold Star of the week, long with one of his class mates. Proud does not come close to how we feel and it was proof to him that learning at home is well worth it.

Here we are another weekend and this morning, we woke to a frost and a few snow flakes. We had our usual cup of tea in bed. My early morning walk, took me to the Sainsbury recycling bins, because I needed to get rid of a few things and so this was my once a day exercise. Mask donned and hand sanitiser in my pocket, I set off for the bins. Thankfully the bins were not full and were tidy on my arrival. On returning to the boat, I stoked the fires and then made us our first coffee of the day. Having decided on Fish, Chips and Peas for lunch, I put the Fish and Chips in the oven and was waiting for it to cook, only to find we had run out of gas, part way through the cooking process. Thankfully we do have spare bottles, so I just needed to switch over to a new bottle, but this meant lunch was delayed. Whilst lunch cooked, I went down to the office with my trusty wheelbarrow and bought a new bottle. We like to keep at least one spare onboard when on the mooring and two when we are out cruising. It was funny because I did wonder why I could not spell fish cooking in the boat. I must check the oven more closely next time. The old gas bottle had done us well though, because we last changed it in September last year. With the cooker cooking on gas once again lunch was now back on track and there was the yummy smell of Fish and Chips cooking. Lunch was fabulous. We do not have chips that often, and so they make a nice change. Not even when we were able to eat out, did we have chips that often. I think for us they are more of a treat, as we try to watch our weight whilst in Lockdown. 

With the afternoon now in full flow, I topped up the bird feeders, because the birds have been very hungry this past few days. We have been getting a lot of Blue Tits and Great Tits coming to the feeders and Mr or Mrs Robin, who is incredibly bossy, when it comes to who they allow to eat from the feeders. The weather forecast, is snow later today and tomorrow, so we will see what we get. I would love lots of the white stuff, because it brings me a lot of joy. Yes I am a snow lover through and through. I of course realise it is not ideal if you have to travel in it, but as we are supposed to be staying at home, having some snow would be lovely. 

Pop back soon xxx