The rain didn’t stop play today. Unlike cricket, litter picking is a year-round sport and on the whole, I firmly believe we are winning.
Today our team of volunteers tackled the roads and woods with a concerted effort to shift the debris entangled in the deposited branches along the carriageway.
This was mostly Nitrous Oxide canisters and great effort was made to first clear the large pile of wood so that the litter could be picked.
Even the youngest member of the team got involved
Until the job was done
Our “Talking Rubbish” campaign to dissuade littering is working at the triangle but needs a boost to show people continue to give a damn. The visibility of our effort will communicate our concerns. Half of our team left the triangle and Childwall Abbey Rd looking clear and cared for.
We can blame the change of season for the change of weather. The equinox (Latin: Equal night) took place on 23rd September and for astronomers was the start of autumn. It’s not the same on other planets. Perhaps the worst: Uranus, with a tilt greater than 90 degrees, it rolls around on its side relative to the sun for its 84-year orbit. The seasons each last for 21 years and it would be 42 before the summer sun has enough strength to warm our workers.
Let’s count ourselves lucky therefore and enjoy the splendours that our seasons bring. Fungi are plentiful in our woods. For those confident in their identification, they are a feast of free food. They are also a feat of natural engineering enough to make any architect jealous of their parabola curves, slender spires, crystalline, geometric formations and gravity-defying unsupported projections. Our webpage dedicated to this special life-form is a treat for any mycologist; amateur or professional.
A walk in the woods is rewarding enough for our volunteers with food for the eyes, the mind and the spirit. It is all the more special when the guardians of the natural world have stumped up and taken their turn at the community crease.
The score today was 16 volunteers, 13 bags of litter and one plastic seed spreader.
I am grateful to all who so willingly participated.
Committee members present:
John McCombs
Pam Leadbeater
David Howatson
Brenda Cameron
Andrew Weighill
John McCombs – Chair FCWF
13th October 2019