Saturday

Well, we survived the first week back at school!  It seems like ages ago since Monday when small daughter started back after the school holidays; she and my husband have had bad colds, big daughter has been mulling over the idea of a Master’s Degree (Wednesday saw the pair of us at the University of Manchester open day to check out the options), and I have been reaping the rewards of my procrastination skills … or not!

Our green waste collection is every other week and I’ve known all week that our bins needed to be full.  So what have I done?  Everything except get out into the garden!  In fairness, the weather has been against me and it was particularly bad on Thursday when the dog and I ventured out in the wet to the Lyme and Wood Pits Country Park.

I should have known it was going to be a wet walk from the moment we drove into the car park …

but luckily, we hadn’t planned a picnic – just as well, really!

We set off, squelching through the gate and into the first field.  The colours of the leaves were beautiful, but oh boy was it wet!  The path is under here somewhere!

The dog wasn’t in the least bit bothered, bouncing through the streams whilst I had to pick my way carefully through …

This is my favourite place on the walk; I’ve written about it before as it reminds me of where I used to play when I was growing up, and I love the familiarity of walking on the spoil from the former coal mine.  That’s my very favourite point right over there – that little tree on top of the conical hill.

The stream that you can see running beneath it is usually a dry channel but there was so much water coming off the hill behind where I was standing that it was full and rushing down the slope to form a waterfall.

The dog loved it.  He had a whale of a time scrabbling about in the water for sticks that were being brought down, and I was happy to stand and watch him.  I’ve often said that he’s like a big hairy toddler, and no more so than just then!

Eventually, he’d caught every stick and a very soggy cardboard box and we set off back along the path towards the car.  The fishing lake was very full too, but thankfully there were no fishermen around (the dog has a bad habit of trying to “help” and has to go on his lead, much to his disgust!).

I picked a different path back to the car, thinking that it might be drier – but no!

I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to be wearing my wellies!

I found out later on Thursday that there has been severe flooding again in other parts of the country, and my heart goes out to those people.  We’re fortunate that we don’t live in an area that’s too prone to it; I can’t begin to imagine the heartache of seeing your house disappear under the water.  Please stay safe if it’s likely to affect you.

There was no chance of getting outside to fill up the garden waste bins on Thursday as the rain got heavier and heavier, but on Friday morning it had stopped and 8am saw me outside with the lawn mower in a race against time to beat the bin lorry arriving.

You might be wondering why I’m not composting all that lovely leaf mulch and the short answer is because the garden waste collection isn’t free in Warrington, so I never like to leave the bins empty on bin day.  Our garden is surrounded by trees which still have plenty of leaves on them, so there will be more for the compost bin!

The dog and I took a much drier walk on Friday afternoon.  This is our favourite walk in Callands, in the Sankey Valley Park.  A lot of the leaves have fallen along this path …

but that just meant I could admire all the colours of the leaves on the path.

This wood is mostly beech trees and the ground was carpeted in copper leaves.  Beautiful!

Today, I’m putting my feet up!  No gardening for me (I did make it in time for the bin collection, by the way!) but some knitting by the fire instead.

What’s that you say?  Is that two socks at once that I’m knitting?  Why, yes it is!  And I did promise a tutorial on that some time ago – I haven’t forgotten!  In fact, that tutorial will be up on the blog tomorrow – a photo AND video tutorial (this is why it’s taken me so blooming long, it takes me forever to edit the videos!) so do come back in the morning and take a look.

See you then! 🙂

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4 Responses

  1. Mandy Slatcer says:

    Lovely read again Christine.
    Our green bins cost £80 so like you I try to fill them.
    Your photos are fabulous and Roscoe (my dog) would be in his element with all those leaves (he had a leaf fettish).
    Great blog Christine.

  2. happy hooker says:

    As i started to read this I thought "Lucky Christine – green bin collection every 2 weeks." But then I read on and saw you have to pay for collection! Ours are every 4 weeks, but at least it'd free. It's madness in my mind. The council wants you to recycle, but makes it difficult to do so. Someone, somewhere must think it makes sense! Like you, luckily, we don't live in a flood-prone area. My heart goes out to those affected. I can just imagine how wet and muddy, but very happy, your dog was after his walk. xx

  3. sustainablemum says:

    You have to pay to have your green waste collected, wow I do feel lucky ours is free. It is every two weeks for the whole year except in the Winter months when it is once a month.

    We don't live in area that floods either but my heart goes out to all who do it must be heart breaking to watch the water rising knowing that it will come in to your house.

  4. Julie says:

    Handknit socks, herdy mug of something warm, and a little sock knitting beside the fire – sounds the perfect way to keep warm and cosy to me.
    Our council charge for emptying the garden bin too, but as the local amenities tip has its own silly opening hours is easier to let them come and collect.

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