So this morning I woke up to the sound of rain on the skylight windows, switched off my alarm (having snoozed it once already) lay back to listen to the rain and woke up about an hour and a half later!! Well, I reckon I must have needed the extra sleep but it changed my usual start to the day. And it was still raining!
By midday the sky was clear and the sun was even shining. Maybe I’ll get out for a walk to make up for not going for a run.
Packaging is a big feature in modern life where so many of us order large amounts of stuff online. What often happens is that one small item arrives in a rather large box, the small item cushioned by scrunched up brown paper. It seems that most companies have one standard size box that they use for everything. It’s probably been carefully calculated in a time and motion study, no time wasted on selecting a suitable size of box for the item to be dispensed! And we, the recipients, then recycle the box and the brown paper packaging into the paper and cardboard recycling … assuming that we are good environmentalists.
Here’s another aspect of the same problem: Granddaughter Number One has been ordering underwear online from Marks and Spencer - noted for the quality of their underwear. She did make a foray to an actual M & S shop but they didn’t have her size and so she resorted to online ordering and found what she wanted. There’s a delivery charge. And of course there is packaging. If she orders two items, possibly two identical or near identical items, she says, there will be two packages and two delivery charges! Come on, M & S! You can do better than that!
On a broader scale the whole problem of waste disposal is getting out of hand. Fly-tipping, dumping your waste products in some out of the way spot in the countryside, still goes on. Walking back from the village the other day I noticed an old bath tub, neatly cut into two halves, at the side of the roadway through the local industrial estate. I am hoping that this is on its way to a proper waste disposal place and has not just been abandoned when someone from the nearby housing estate has had a bathroom update! Here’s link to an article about the waste disposal problem in the UK.
While I’m on an environmental roll, here’s a link to an article about sand dunes in Chad, and the struggle to prevent those sand dunes from further engulfing the oases which keep old traditional ways of life viable in the changing world.
Sand dunes are fickle creatures, changing landscapes and shore lines. We’ve recently returned from Figueira da Foz on the coast of Portugal, where you walk miles, well, long distances, to reach the Atlantic. I have seen old photos, dating back to the early twentieth century, showing the sea coming up close to the promenade which ai have run along on many occasions. Not so much the work of sand dunes there as the gradual depositing of sand and the withdrawal of the ocean. Just a reminder that we don’t control our environment … we can only try to do so.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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