Still getting back to normal.

Good afternoon. 

Just popping in to let you know what I am doing. Sewing. I made these flowers. Don't know what I am going to do with them yet. I might attach stalks to them, add some leaves, and display them in a vase. Or I may stitch them onto a dark background and frame them. 

And I made a strip of mini bunting. Would look nice on the front of a shelf or hanging in a window. 

The power went off here last night at 11.30pm, which was rather unusual. I was about to go to bed. It was still off this morning when I got up at 6.30am. I'm pleased that the electricity company managed to fix it. Most of the village was without power, all the street lights went out. I hope this is not going to be a regular thing. 

I went to Crafty Club this morning. Knit and natter, Stitch and bitch. It was all rather jolly. We celebrated Jane's birthday, with cake. 

It's hot again today. I need to tidy the garden. A video is in the oven, coming out soon. 

Thanks for popping in. Toodle pip.   ilona

The Annual Summer Fair

Good evening. 

We have just had a massive downpour. I'm glad it didn't arrive this afternoon. Today was our Summer Fair on the Green. It was hot so people were making the most of the shade under the trees. I had a stall and sold some of my arty crafty makes. Proceeds were given to our Cat Rescue who had a stall next to me. I took the photo's before it got busy.

The Teddy Bears Picnic is underway here. 

The Women's Institute always have a good selection of cakes and pastries. 

I took Gloria with me. She sat on a bench opposite my stall. It was funny to watch people sit next to her and pose for photographs. 

I noticed several new faces that I haven't seen before. New people have moved into the village in the last year. We have a good community here. Lot's of people know me from the Crafty Club and Coffee Mornings. There are several groups who meet weekly. Everyone is very friendly. 

Thanks for popping in. See ya soon. Toodle pip.  ilona

Local litter checking circuit

 I did a local check round on the litter situation yesterday. Through the churchyard and out of the back gate. There is a footpath through to a housing estate, which a lot of people use as a short cut. I was surprised to see that the people in the big house in the corner has chopped down most of the hedging between the fence and their garage. The rickety fence is very old and won't last much longer. This has exposed numerous bottles and cans, and now looks a mess. I will tidy it up, even though as a litter picker, we don't go into private gardens. I dragged the church bin through the gate and put it close to the fence, so I could reach over and pick up the debris. I could do with a longer stick, so I hopped over the fence to dig out the hard to reach stuff. Looks much better now. It will be interesting to see what they do with this narrow strip of land. 

Onward I walked to the picnic area car park. They still call it a picnic area although nobody could picnic there now because it is so overgrown. 

There is a litter bin here, but it is not big enough. I pulled out the extra black binbag that someone had tried to put in, then proceeded to pick up all the fast food debris and fill the extra bag. Two nitrous oxide cannisters were found in the bushes. Here is a description. We don't get many of them around here, but I believe they are popular around town and city centres. 

Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, is a colorless, slightly sweet-smelling gas used medically for sedation, recreationally for euphoria, and industrially as an oxidizer and propellant. 

I left it all tidy, but this car park needs regular monitoring. 

Sunday morning and the sun is shining. 

Enjoy your Sunday. Toodle pip.   ilona

What I did yesterday

Good moaning, ooops sorry, morning. Forgot myself for a minute. 😁😘😵

This is the house on the corner of where I parked yesterday to start a litter pick. The people love having birds in their garden, and scatter copious amounts of bird seed to encourage them to come on in. It's nosh time. 

Every time something disturbed them they took flight. I tried to capture them in the air and almost got run over by traffic coming around the corner. Good job I had my yellow vest on. 

Like a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock's film. 

I planned to do a short stretch of road that I hadn't had time to finish on Saturday. It is never as easy as you think it might be. A lot of the litter was partially buried in the long grass. Some people only use the red bags, but they are very heavy when full. I have my own method. Fill two carrier bags first, walk back to the car, then empty them into the red sack. I did this up and down method twice, First one side, then the other. 

Oooh look what I found. 

There is a bus shelter with a litter bin next to it, so that's where I left my two bags. The Council will be along today to take them away. I will check on that later, as well as the two other piles I parked elsewhere. 

Remember the video I did on the possible next location for picking? The grottiest spot I have ever seen, it's on and Industrial Estate. Well it came up on the Scunthorpe pickers page last night. Someone has been to sort it out. Oh gooodie I thought, I don't have to do it. But, reading the report more closely it seems that they didn't do the whole length of it. Yes, they got 18 bags out, but there is still a lot left. I will go and have a look, to see if there is more to be done. 

Now I need to wash my hair before I go to Crafty Club.

Thanks for popping in. Catch ya later. Toodle pip.    ilona

Checking out my patch

Aye up me ducks, how are you diddling. It's been a lovely day. Warm sunshine, able to do a bit of repotting in the garden. Those four little conifer trees I bought for £1 each from Home Bargains have finally been transferred into bigger pots. 

The pink litter picking cabinet in the centre of the village was filthy so I gave it a good scrub. 

I took Billy for a walk, and stopped for a chat with Paul, one of my old walking buddies. He has a new dog. A beautiful short haired German Shepherd called Bella. 

Yesterday I drove to the area where I left five bags of litter and two tyres on the roadside. I was intending to record a video there, but lo and behold it had all been taken away by the Council. I made the video anyway. 

Then I had a drive to an area where there is a horrendous amount of litter which needs clearing up. I recorded a video there as well. I'll upload that tomorrow. 

That's all for now. Thanks for popping in. Catch ya later Toodle pip.   ilona

Two red bags

Good evening. 

This darn weather is confusing. It changes almost every hour. Raining when I got up. Then blow me down, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Maybe I will be able to go out after all. 

I went back to where I was litter picking on Thursday, to continue along the road that I didn't have time to finish. I found that the farmer had cut back all the grass, the brambles, and the hedges with a machine. Thus exposing the rubbish that was previously hidden. By doing that there was a lot of flattened and mangled cans and plastic bottles to pick up. Here are some examples of how hard it is to find them when they have been squashed into the ground. Good eyesight is needed, and a pair of sturdy boots. 

 

Surprising what you find. An axe head with a broken shaft. Too heavy for me to carry, and I don't need one. I left it there. Hopefully someone who needs one might find it. 

I am not picking that up. Looks like it was a deer. I saw two deer carcases in a field. Not much left of them, mostly bones. 

This boot makes a good photo, the way it has deteriorated on one side. I can imagine a little mouse poking it's head out of one of those holes. 

Ooooh, look what I found in the hedge bottom. Surprisingly not broken. I will keep that.  

Two bags filled. Time was getting on and the clouds were getting darker. I pulled a lot of litter out from under the hedges and left them in piles alongside the road. No time to bag it up today. I will go back and work my way through it. The road is almost a mile long so there is still a lot more to tidy up. At least it's a quiet road with not much traffic. Just as I set off back home, the heavens opened and the rain drenched me. Chuffing crazy weather. 

I will find a use for this. 

Now I'm going to cuddle Mayze. 

Thanks for popping in. Enjoy your Sunday. Toodle pip.   ilona

Good ideas

 Good morning. I am so excited. Litter picking is taking off in a big way. I have just found this faceboook page on dealing with the bags when they fill up and become too heavy to carry. People are so inventive. 

Thanks to UK Litterpicking Groups for these ideas. I need to be more organised, I need a set of wheels. 

Happy Tuesday. Catch ya later. Toodle pip.   ilona

Quick look at the town

 Good evening.

Coffee Morning at the club was lively today. There was a raffle and I bought five tickets for £5. They have now realised that it is cost effective to sell the tickets singly, and not five for £1. Yippeeee, I won a prize. Three miniature bottles of Port. I'm not sure if I could have bought the box of three for £5 from a shop. Then I won again as another of my numbers was drawn out of the pot. For my prize I chose a very nice dusky pink knitted bobble hat. I don't need another hat so I immediately passed it to Pat who works in a charity shop. Perhaps they can sell it for a couple of quid. 

Back home for a quick lunch. It was at last a sunny day, so lets make the most of it. I got the bus to town. My friend Nikki is away on holiday so I didn't get to see her today. I had a quick look at the High Street while I was there. 

Lots of empty shops, everything looking a bit scruffy. I wonder what happened at this one. Electrical fault? Card machine down maybe? 

This is a man standing in his booth. He is moving about and chatting. It isn't a real man. The key cutting shop was closed down, so now they put in an automated machine where you stick your key in a slot, press a few buttons, pay with a card, and out pops a new key. 

These box things are popping up all over the place. Sit at home, order what you want on the computer, they deliver it to a box, and you go and pick up your package. No thanks. I won't be doing that. 

The sign says, they are removing this telephone box because no one is using it. I am not surprised, it's disgustingly filthy. Around the other side is a cash machine. I wonder if they will be removing that as well.

I set off to walk back home. Enjoying the sunshine. I got about half way and a BMW car stopped just ahead of me. I know that number plate. A few minutes earlier I was thinking if I am offered a lift I will take it. My legs were getting a bit tired. Philip must have been reading my mind. So I got home earlier than I had planned. That meant that I had time to take Billy dog a walk. 

I hope we get another sunny day tomorrow. 

Thanks for popping in. Toodle pip.   ilona

What I did, what I ate, what I saw.

 Good evening. 

Here are a few quick photo's from the last couple of days. 

This is a public footpath. It looks well and truly churned up by the tractors going up and down to access the turf fields. No litter here, but when I come out onto the road at the end of it, there will be lots of litter to pick up. My bag is already half full. 

There is something striking about a row of skeleton trees against a moody sky. I have photographed this scene before. 

 

Lunch yesterday.

Lunch today, eggy bread omelette and beetroot. 

I wanted to take photo's of these decorated houses in the village, before all the lights get taken down and put away for another year. 

I wanted to get the moon in one of the pictures. 

This display is a stunner. If you stand there for five minutes the colours change every few seconds. 

That's it for tonight. Mayze is waiting for a cuddle. 

Have a good weekend. Thanks for popping in. Toodle pip.   ilona