Life in modern Britain (1)...

...today the garden needed some work, so, glad to be out of doors and away from the computer, I pruned the apple-tree, tackled the mess of the gooseberry/rosemary bush/brambles and generally tidied things up. It was a cool Autumn day and I enjoyed chatting to a neighbour who is one of a group of us at this end of the street who enjoys gardening - and whose garden, along with that of another neighbour opposite, is lovely in all seasons, a joy to see.

What to do with my resulting pile of wood and greenery? No bonfires now allowed. Oh, it's quite simple. You find out the right telephone number, telephone the local authority, get their automated answering service, hang on for a long while while various recorded announcements are made, and then find none of them are helpful. You do this a number of times and then find some one from the wrong department who will finally put you on to another department which isn't the right one either, but where you can leave a message, and then you put in a request for a Green Bag. When this is delivered to you some while later, you fill it with your garden rubbish, and then telephone for them to collect it. Apparently it only takes a week or so...

There is a lot of ghastly rubbish around at the corner where our street joins the main road - there are some sofas, armchairs, and other items all starting to rot there where the fence has long since been destroyed and the owners do not care to mend it, or indeed to do anything except use the area, and the surrounding roadside, as a place to put old furniture. Apparently it's OK to do that, but not to stack wood and leaves and then have a bonfire in November.