Swans, weeds and litter

 What a beautiful weekend at last. Yesterday I met my friend for a walk and a spot of wombling. It is the start of the Great British Spring Clean but we do it anyway. Since the womble group has been set up in the town there is a great improvement so we only picked half a sack on our little walk then sat on a bench by the lock watching the boats. To our joy the swan family swam up into the lock. It is the first time I've seen them since the eggs hatched. Mum, dad and 8 little ones was such a happy sight.

Then we saw a coot with her two little ones. 

 

Today I was waiting for a friend to let me know she was home but it was too nice to stay in so I started to walk but got as far as the little park and was horrified at all the litter there so I came back for my litter picker and the half full rubbish bag and ended up clearing from my house all round the park, up the cycle track to the hospital then up to the top of the road to the bus garage. The bag was full but I couldn't have carried any more any way. I do usually pick up a few masks but I was amazed at how many were discarded outside the hospital. We are able to leave the bags next to bins then report the location on the council site and they pick them up the next day. 

As I walked through the park I was pleased to see the mass of cow parsley which appears every year. Only a weed but how beautiful. 

It seems such a shame that in view of such beauty people have to chuck all their rubbish down. I suppose the warm weather has brought them all out. 

Tim Horton and charity shops

 A Tim Horton coffee shop has opened in the retail park. DDIL was very happy as she is Canadian and so are Tim Hortons. It is 7 years since she has been in one. So I had my first experience of a drive through and I treated us all to a breakfast meal deal with the famous TH coffee and a box of Timbits. I didn't know what they were either. They are the middle of doughnuts! Not my usual diet and I am not a fan of doughnuts. I was impressed with the children's meal as the toy was a packet of crayons and a poster to colour in with Canadian images such as polar bears. No plastic. Also most of the packaging of our meal was recyclable. The coffee was very good too. 

After splurging, its been more frugal with the delivery of a large cube storage unit for the bedroom from a charity shop. When I moved here 18 months ago, I had to leave all my fitted bedroom furniture behind and there was none here so DS who lived here before, left one old wardrobe as they didn't need it. I did get a really nice huge pine wardrobe from a charity shop but was still using the old wardrobe for storage. Then with lockdown all the charity shops closed. So once the new piece was delivered, I dismantled the old wardrobe, including sawing the two long sides in half to get into my little fiesta to take to the dump. I also took a bedside cabinet to the charity shop. Of course while I was there I had to have a little browse. I was looking for jeans and books for our upcoming week away. I found a pair of next jeans that fit so beautifully, 3 books and a game of rapidough. I already had that game bought from a boot sale but there were bits missing so this one is much better. The books look interesting too. I have read Back home before by the same author as goodnight mister Tom. It is a children's book but I find it very interesting about a family reuniting after the war. 

Here are the charity shop buys. £3 the lot.