Of wombles and weirdos

I hate litter. Why must a beautiful spot be blighted by pie wrappers, condoms and wet wipes?

Two years ago Mr B, repulsed by me picking up litter, bought me a litter tool - as a Valentines Day gift! Who says love wanes after 20 years of marriage? It is the best gift he has ever bought me. I pick litter most days. Sadly, the woods and the car parks are used by the detritus of humanity. I can only imagine what goes on there after dark. Weirdos.

And it isn't right that children, old ladies, mum's, dad's and dog walkers should walk through the muck. So I clean it up, bag it up, take it home and throw it away.

The Countryside Ranger is aware of the problem but says there is no budget for any action on her part. There used to be a bin in the car park, but someone set it alight a few years ago. It was never emptied anyway.

When I see evidence of cannabis I tell the Police Community Support Officer. When I see flytipping, I tell the Council. When I see garden waste dumped there, I tell the Ranger. More often than not, if it fits in my car, I don't tell anyone. Just pick it up and take it home. Last week, I recycled more than 20 plastic plant pots at Squires Garden Centre. Job done.

There are builders at work in the road, and there is a constant pile of coffee cups and sandwich wrappers in the ditch. A neighbour saw me, with my litter tool and wooly hat, in the ditch, picking up litter. 'What a good idea' she said. I smiled. If only, more people were truly irritated by litter, the countryside would be a much nicer place. Or perhaps we need a womble or two....

New blog posts at Surrey Life and talkhealth.

Can't see the wood for the trees?

We had a great day on Sunday. We chopped down trees! OK, that sounds a bit over-dramatic. We were actually working with the Countryside Ranger in the Woods, removing the invading silver birch trees. We worked in a triangle along the main path, and found an avenue of oak trees, struggling to grow big and strong. Good job.

We were accompanied by a few other volunteers from the Village, some encouraged by the refreshments, others were there because they care about our environment. I know there are more people who care but just can't find the time to participate in village events. I don't go to everything. I pick and choose the events that will give me the most satisfaction, and it's those that I commit to. The temptation is to try to do everything, and end up doing nothing. I think that happens a lot. So I never promise anything and don't disappoint anyone by not doing my bit.


There were two lovely dogs with us, not the Boxers! Can you imagine our two mad dogs creating havoc? No, we had the pleasure of Charlie and Obi for company. Charlie is a large German Shepherd, Obi is a black labradoodle who travelled from Billingshurst (I think that's actually obi-wan-kenobi but I don't know for sure). Charlie loves a tennis ball or three and we were all distracted at one point or another to throw the ball for him.


I did notice, however, that both he and Obi have very sharp teeth and didn't give up the ball very gently. I am always surprised by this, as my boys have very soft mouths and never 'lick you with their teeth'. Last week, a lovely old boy ran up to me in the car park and sat for a treat. I pulled a Shmacko out of my pocket and he properly grazed my fingers. His owner said afterwards that he isn't very gentle. 


Well, I think dogs should be taught to have a soft mouth when taking treats. You never know how some people will react to the teeth. Pulling your hand away or making a noise of surprise could upset the dog, leading to an unpredictable response. I am very confident with dogs and didn't react but it does concern me that dog attacks on children seem to happen so frequently, and I wonder if some of the attacks could have been prevented by not allowing children to go up to strange dogs, especially dogs on leads. Because you can't tell the temperament of a dog just by looking at it, you can't tell if it's nervous or stressed, and all dogs have teeth, soft mouth or not.


You can read about some of our favourite dog walks at Surrey Life.

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