HELPING TO CLEAN UP OUR COAST AND COUNTRYSIDE
Firstly, may I take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy new year. It would be lovely to think it will be a good year for our environment but I'm not holding my breath! As long as we try and 'do our bit', it does make a difference.
I spent my New Year on Lundy Island which was wonderful and I made the most of my time there exploring the island in it's winter state and enjoying some stormy seas. Staying at 'Tibbetts' cottage (the most remote cottage on the island) meant we gave up the luxury of electricity and mains water. Along with this, the lack of mobile phone signal, it really is like going back in time. Water is pumped from a well which shouldn't be drunk without being boiled first. Bottled water is supplied if needed which we avoided doing. Bottled gas supplies the cooker, fridge and hot water boiler although the pilot light kept being blown out by the windy weather so had to rely on boiling a kettle. There is a coal fire, blankets and hot water bottles to keep warm. Contact with the outside world was by a little transistor radio I took with me. There are plenty of board games and jigsaw puzzles for the evenings. It was wonderful! I'm pleased to say litter was something I could forget about while I was there although I did rescue a crisp packet and couple of sweet wrappers which I'm hoping was accidental litter which perhaps blew out of someone's pocket. Best to put these things into a zipped pocket which you don't need to access until back inside somewhere sheltered. Fast forward to this weekend, I was pleased to be involved in two beach clean events. The first was from Minehead to Dunster Beach where around 100 people were involved in picking up litter along the coastline. The weather was perfect which encouraged people to get out and help. The second event was further up the coast at Watchet where a further 50+ people turned up to help tidy up the coastline and through the town as well. All the litter collected over the weekend is being recycled where possible with a small percentage having to go to landfill. All of the hard plastics including plastic bottles will go towards the Ocean Recovery Project which I hope to have news on next month when I know what it will be made into. Over the next week, I'm hoping to get down to Bossington and Porlock Weir then up the coast near Hinkley Point to see what the winter weather has washed up on the coastline there.
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AuthorBorn in West Somerset, I have always been proud of where I live and want everyone else to enjoy it too! Archives
September 2022
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