A busy Saturday

Hi all, what you been doin today? It's been dry here and quite warm. As you know I spent the morning making the bag, then after a late lunch of spud in the microwave with grated cheese on top, I took Rocky dog for a walk.

We went past the woods, high up on the hills overlooking the river, and sat down in the grass to enjoy the scenery. It's great to be able to walk half a mile and have such fantastic views. Our usual routine is that I get him out of his garden, he drags me back to my house where I give him a dish of tinned meaty chunks, then we go off for a walk. I have trained him now to jump up onto a bench every time we pass one, and he gets a treat. I have to stop him from jumping onto every bench outside the bottom pub though, there are about a dozen of them, ha ha.

When we got back I put him back into his garden because his owner had returned. Some times I keep him longer if she is not there, yesterday I had him for four hours as she didn't get back till after 7pm.

Next I decided to go into the woods and do some more litter picking, as I hadn't managed to get it all last time. My two bags were bulging with bottles and cans, and there is still a lot more to pick up. The kids have left parts of the wood in a disgusting state, I sometimes wonder whether it is worth bothering about, but something tells me that if no one cares it will end up an even bigger eyesore.

It was starting to get dark as I got back to the church to empty the bags into the big bin next to the Lych Gate. There was the usual gang of youths hanging around the back gate, so I went over to talk to them, to appeal to their better nature and ask them not to throw litter down. It's like talking to a brick wall though, in one ear and out the other. I'm hoping I get through to them eventually, but I won't hold my breath. Threatening doesn't work, it only makes them more determined to mess the place up if you give them a rollicking. They had already thrown litter around so I just picked it up around their feet. It's a good job the church is flood lit so I could see what I was doing.

On the way home I walked over the village green picking litter as I went, then I remembered there were some empty lemonade bottles lying in the grass next to the health centre, so I picked those up as well. The church clock struck seven, flippin heck, I thought, I had better go home and get my dinner.

Couldn't be bothered to cook so it was scrambled eggs, and half a tin of spaghetti, on toast. Sod it I thought, I deserve a can of cider for that. So here I am, at the computer, supping cider. I've just watched a programme about Mary Portas who wants to open a knicker factory and bring back manufacturing to the UK. I love that woman, she has so much passion. My goodness it brought tears to my eyes, she had eight machinists jobs to offer, and got over 300 applicants. Some of them were so desperate to get a job. The young man whose parents had never worked, he had a baby of his own and wanted to break the mould and provide for his family. It turned out that he was pretty good with a sewing machine, I hope it works out for him. I can't wait for next week when we see how they are all getting on, I think it's going to be an interesting series. Toodle pip.