Autumn In The Air

No doubt about it, here we are, still in August but already there is a bumper crop of berries, some of the leaves are starting to turn and the summer bedding is long past its best. I have never known things change quite this early especially as apart from a searing three week heatwave, we did not have any summer.

Here are a couple of shots taken in the garden this morning.  They always used to say that lots of berries meant a long cold winter.  Whether that is true remains to be seen

This next picture is the bloom of a marginal plant in our pond.  Mike has no idea why the background came out totally black, we have not played with it in any way, but it certainly makes the flower stand out and it is very pretty.

Over the weekend I was reading in the papers as many of you would have done,  about the new "spy" in our refuse bins. Apparently, unknown to us unsuspecting British public, around half a million bins contain a sinister secret - they are fitted with surveillance devices.  These devices are screwed under the rim of the bin and transmit information about the weight and contents of the bin to special sensors on the refuse trucks.

Apparently our wonderful Government thinks we are not recyling our rubbish and helping the environment.  Really, well around here we already have a collection for newspapers, one for tin cans, another for glass bottles and jars and that is apart from the other household rubbish.  Anything we cannot dispose of in the normal way, him indoors takes to the local council dump as does almost everyone else in this vicinity. 

The idea is to identify households who produce too much refuse and  charge them a "pay as you throw" fee as it will be considered they have not re-cycled enough.  Excuse me, but we already pay a very expensive Community Charge which is supposed to include the collection and disposal of our rubbish. This charge has been steadily rising over the last few years.

Just another way that our Government wants to screw more tax out of us.

Yes, something needs to be done about the vast amount of rubbish we produce. Our land fill sites will be full in around eight years but I feel this is not the way to go about it.  It is only likely to insense people (me for one) and if I find a spy on our bin I would not hesitate to remove it.  Mike and I already do everything we can to dispose of our household waste in a responsible manner.

What should be done is to make it even easier for people to recycle everything that they can but, of course, this would mean the Government spending money on us instead of getting more money out of us.

When George Orwell wrote "1984" it was considered a good book but a work of total fiction. Now we are seeing it become reality.  Today we have speed cameras on practically every road, CCTV in shops and outside shops and countless other places.  I am not against it in some ways.  If people drive more slowly because of them and thus cause less accidents, that can only be good.  If CCTV helps to stop theft from shops and crime in general that is another positive.  Yet, alarm bells ring in my head with this latest news.  Spies in our refuse bins -  it does not take much stretch of the imagination to envisage the day when we all have cameras trained on us in our own homes watching what we eat, what we talk about, what we watch and listen to.  You think it could not happen?  Well, twenty years ago none of us would have thought we would have cameras all over the place to start with and as for surveillance devices in our refuse bins, people would have roared with laughter and derision at the merest suggestion.

I hope there is a general outcry about the spies in our bins and the plans have to be dropped.  I can imagine how mad those people are who have found that their homes (bins) are one of  the half million currently being spied on.

Well, that is my rant for today.  You may agree, you may disagree, that is your choice

Now, I had better go and get the second lot of washing on, although the morning has been bright and sunny, they say rain is coming in and I want to get the washing dry. 

Have a good week everyone.  I am totally out of sync because I keep thinking it is Monday.  That is Bank holidays for you.