Troubling times

We have had a leaflet in our letter box giving important information this week from gov.uk. It is a bright and glossy page with pictures and easy-to-follow instructions We are to have a new bin for recycling.

In these days of fighting, rising energy prices and COVID I might be thinking of something other than rubbish. But strangely our ordinary life goes on and we are left deliberating about applying for a sparkling new purple lidded bin. Is recycling still important considering current world problems? I do not know but I have ordered my new bin.

When I was a little girl living on our farm, we had no thoughts of such things. Our few empty tins were buried in the corner of a field (there was no other waste). Wild plants, fungi and animals were in abundance. I learnt to recognise celandine and stitchwort, puff balls and red toadstools, along with butterflies and beetles. There was such a luscious variety.

Yesterday morning we saw our hedgehog again. He was all rolled up in a ball near my summer house. He must have come out to feed at night and been threatened by a predator, so he rolled up until it was safe. He escaped into the long grass moments later. 

Hedgehogs are not thriving in the countryside but are living well in towns. Perhaps it is because there is plenty of leftover food and sheds to shelter under. Also, they can travel unhindered from garden to garden. Here, there is no place for them to go after our fields. The farming machinery clears leaves and crops grass and hedges. Everything is managed but not to the hedgehogs’ satisfaction.

On another pressing point. Have you tried to get a plumber recently? We have had a dripping tap for two years. Then a second and third tap joined in. It was only when the first leaky tap decided to pour that I tried to get someone to help. We have managed through lockdown and the risk of catching COVID but when Mr T had to put a large brick on the top of the tap to stem the flow of water, I decided enough was enough. I sat with the internet list of local plumbers ringing one after another. No answers. I kept going and after about ten calls a bleary voice came on the phone. He could come Wednesday, but then another plumber called back. He could come today. Two plumbers at once! So, we have taps that work and the brick has been removed at last.

All our domestic troubles have been solved for now, but horrific world problems continue relentlessly.