Christine's space

I decided to take most of Monday off and wandered down to the allotment well after lunch. To find that one of the other plot holders had been sweeping down “that road” and had moved most of the remaining leaves. Well fair shares for all I suppose. I still managed to move a final nine bags for my collection.

Between the two of us by Wednesday afternoon, about 80 bags of leaves had been moved. There was hardly a leaf showing when I looked. I wonder if the council leaf sweeper has turned down that road yet and discovered that it is clear.

Not bad going for two old age pensioners with nothing more than rakes, brooms, wheelbarrows and garden sacks.  But leaves are free to clear when they fall on roads and anything free that makes good compost is always welcome.

Eventually and slowly the council workmen have turned their attentions to clearing out the town’s decorative tubs and flower beds. Goodbye to the dead summer bedding plants and assorted weeds and hello to the winter staples of spring bulbs, pansy, primula and wallflower.

Better later than never. But just a little observation. Every year the council workmen clear the pavements of leaves and take them away. Now to save us money you would think that these leaves would be taken to a central point and composted for future use on flower beds. Surely there is nothing difficult in tipping leaves into an open wire container and leaving them to rot down. As the lorries used by the teams doing the planting out carry bins for collecting weeds, it must be possible to top up these empty bins at the start of the day with leaf mould to be turned into the flower beds due for attention on the day in question? But no, the lorries are loaded with bags of commercially purchased compost instead.

For goodness sake, is there no financial incentive to be environmentally friendly in this situation? I’m hardly surprised that green issues are not very high on the agenda of a council with serious monetary problems. But if green meets financial interest? Obviously not – just charge the tax payer it seems.

Overnight the watch stopped. No obvious reason, no recent and obvious mistreatment, no warnings, no recent errant behaviour.

Sure the strap was coming to the end of it’s useful life but the battery was only about a year old and watch had not been in line of water during the previous flood.

Had it just needed a new battery and a new strap that would have been about £10 locally. But nothing so obvious. It cost about £28 5 years ago, been as good as gold at timekeeping, had one new battery, one new strap and had now sentimental value at all.

With using it mainly to ensure that I catch the bus back up the hill from the allotment, back from the garden centre and on outings where I want to know what time it is so that I can catch the bus home – leaving it at a repair shop didn’t appeal. Not at that price and with a new, almost identical model costing £19.99!

Talk about a throw away society where it is cheaper to replace than to repair unless you have the appropriate skill. Nope I know nothing about the inner workings of a wrist watch.

Funny but many of them apply to other groups in the country as well.

So the heating bill is high? It’s the same for people on the minimum wage and people on jobseekers allowance who don’t get an allowance in the winter.

So the food bills are high and many of the offers are for families? But there are single people such as students too.

So we are beginning to wear out physically? Arthritis, false teeth, deafness and failing sight happen to younger people too.

So we feel shut in, housebound and lonely? Now if you are older and very frail that I can understand but there are a lot of older people who don’t make the effort to do what they can.

Maybe the GP doesn’t always consider that you need to have something done to make you better but are you sure that you are doing what you can to help yourself?

Perhaps the two areas where real reform is needed are in care facilities (which apply to younger, disabled people too) and suitable housing if you can’t afford to buy a retirement home for yourself.

But then again – housing is a hot potato for the local authorities and the government at the moment due to the fact that many more people are asking for social housing. Which means that it’s not entirely an older people’s issue.

I wonder how often things become issues because older people don’t have the option of going to work any longer and have more time to notice things.

The dehumidifier has left the building. That’s because the plaster and woodwork is dried out from after the flood.

Now all that is needed to clear up completely is:

1. plastering to repair a couple of damaged patches
2. the tiles on the bathroom window ledge grouting back into position
3. three rooms redecorating

Not a lot really. There’s no need to hurry for the landlord to do the plastering as I’m going to have to save up to get the decorating done as there are ceilings involved.

Besides, there might be another flood. Things are apt to come in threes aren’t they? Or does two floods and plaster damage from an overflowing gutter count as the three?