Local recycling saga

Pembrokeshire has a new recycling scheme, which has caused so much complaint that it even hit the BBC news. The switch-over onto the 'new scheme' was the first week in November, since when it seems to have taken over everyone's life and is the favourite topic on the Pembrokeshire Council Watch group on Facebook.

Several months before we switched over, we knew that there were changes coming, but there was very little detail available until a couple of months before the change over was implemented. Wanting to plan where to keep the various new recycling bags and boxes, I asked for information on their sizes, to no avail. There were some 'demonstration sessions', although I found out about the local ones the day after they happened, so along with many others, didn't appreciate the size and shape of the new box and bags until they arrived on the doorstep at the end of October.

Or not. Some properties were still chasing their receptacles in the first week of the scheme.
Some properties, such as blocks of flats, are not on the new scheme. A friend of mine lives in one of them, and tried to check where her new boxes were, or whether her location was exempt, but never did get an official reply, only finding out in conversation with her neighbours when none of them received boxes. It's just as well; I can't imagine how she would lug all the various bits up and down stairs, although at least she has a bin shed in an outside block. That's more than another friend of mine in a rented maisonette, which effectively has a small space in a front porch.

The driving force behind all of this is the need to clean up our act in the face of the global crises of climate and waste, reduce our use of plastics, stop landfill, with its use and pollution of land and production of greenhouse gases. The aim is for Wales to become a 'zero waste' nation by 2050. In 2017, Wales exceeded its target of 58% recycling, managing 63-64%. There is a target to recycle 70% of waste by 2025 and Wales is well set to achieve that, but some counties are better at it than others. Pembrokeshire was meeting the targets and improving, but not exceeding them, hence the need for changes. Councils face fines if they fail to meet their targets.

This wasn't really a big change, although it does seem to have caused a disproportionate amount of upheaval.

We previously had a green caddy for food waste, orange bag for recyclables (plastic bottles, cans, foil, card and paper) collected weekly; a green box for glass bottles and jars, and black plastic bags (which we had to buy ourselves, although a few years ago, they were provided by the council) for anything else - the 'residual waste', collected fortnightly. There is also an optional subscription for a wheelie bin for garden waste. Some supermarkets took (and still take) things like old plastic carrier bags, batteries and printer ink cartridges and the tip, sorry, 'waste and recycling centre', could take pretty much everything else, some of which is recyclable, such as electricals, lightbulbs and rags. (I knew that wearable clothing and shoes were collected, but rags and worn-out footwear was news to me.)

Now, we have kept the food waste caddy, the optional garden waste subscription and the glass box, although the latter is now emptied weekly along with the other recyclables. There is a new service with purple bags for nappies, incontinence pads and the like, collected fortnightly, for which users register. The orange bag has been replaced by a blue lidded box for (clean, dry) paper, a blue weighted woven plastic bag for (clean, dry) card and a red weighted woven plastic bag for plastics (all sorts of recyclable plastic bottles, boxes and trays except for brown or black plastics, and excluding plastic bags, wrappings and films), tetrapaks, cans, foil. We can also put out batteries for recycling in a separate (ziploc, plastic) bag. Once every three weeks, we can put out 'residual waste', now in council-supplied grey bags, which are not opaque, so recyclables carelessly tossed into the residual waste can be spotted. We get the equivalent of 52 bags, one per week, and 'a household' can put out a maximum of three bags at a time, although large households can get additional green bags and put one of those out per collection too.

We have new, big, colourful bin lorries with a number of holes down the side. And for many people, their bin day changed.

Changes. Oh deary me. People are largely resistant to change, and when changes are made which people find difficult, impractical and onerous in terms of time and energy, there will be problems.

When changes are planned and implemented, communication is key. There was some drip-feeding and a demonstration at the county show (for those who could afford to go!). Eventually, we received an information pack through the door, which included a glaring mistake in the collections calendar for some areas, including mine. (And, I later learned, other mistakes.) What, no proofreading? Evidently not.

It soon became clear how inconsistent and unclear some of the information was, and together with queries about missing information packs, boxes, bags and so on, the Council became overwhelmed by calls for information, as they didn't have enough staff with enough information to keep up with demand. People calling the council would find themselves queued, then their call would be cut off before they even got into the queue's single figures. The website was not easy to read (e.g. an infographic of what was recyclable where, but which was too small to be legible and wouldn't click-expand). Many people were concerned about the size and number of containers, and were asking how and where they were going to store all this. This generated a good discussion with people sharing ideas, but implicit in the question was another, to the Council: 'You've created this issue, what's your suggested solution?' The council's condescending answer was that it was 'up to you where you keep them'.

The various recycling containers take up half my (small) kitchen floor. The orange bags hanging on the door handle are for theTip or Terracycle charities

My new containers live outside, the weighted bags folded into the blue box, which doesn't sit neatly on the green glass box because they are different sizes. It would have been good if they'd stacked neatly ....  The blue box has drainage holes in the bottom, and if left at an angle, water drains into the box.
A grey bag has replaced the black one in the kitchen bin, which holds the door from the kitchen to the utility room open. It's an unsightly nuisance, but in a small 1950s kitchen, there's no other place for it. I still have an orange bag in the undersink cupboard for the recyclables, which would go into the blue box, blue sack and red sack. On a Thursday evening, I bring them in and sort the contents of the orange bag into them. I don't always put out the glass box and don't always have batteries or food waste, because all the fruit and veg peelings and cores, cat litter, tea bags, coffee grounds, household dust go to make compost, as well as garden waste and some paper and cardboard. I bought a wheelie bin when I moved here, to hold any black bags between collections, so that now holds grey bags until collection day. I bought it on special offer, and it's become as essential as my compost bins.
It takes me about 20 minutes to sort everything and take it out. At least I just have to carry it through and out onto the front drive, but that can take 3 or four trips if it's a week when everything goes out. After that, my knees are generally screaming at me to sit down!

Depending on how full my orange bag is, some weeks I don't bother to put anything out. It's not worth it to have such a small amount in each sack, which despite being weighted, get soaked and blown away in a windy, rainy Pembrokeshire winter. I sit the blue box on top of the sacks to try to keep them down, but that gets blown off too. My garden wall and driveway don't provide enough protection from a blustery wind. One week, my blue sack disappeared. A neighbour found it had been blown into her driveway (three doors down across the road!) and put it by her wall, too late to be emptied, but at least it wasn't so full (and the cardboard therein not too wet) that I couldn't cram it into my wheelie bin and put it out the following week.

When the bins are emptied, they are left open to the weather, so I often have to tip water out of the blue box and shake the worst of it off the weighted sacks before putting them away. They are often still wet when I bring them in the next week, leaving wet and dirty puddles on the kitchen floor. I tell myself the floor has to be cleaned sometime, and a Thursday night is as good as any. If I were teaching on Thursday nights, I'd resent coming home tired and having to clean the floor as well as sort the rubbish. It makes me wonder, how many people don't go out to an evening class, simply because they are already tired from work and feeling the pressure of housework?

All in all, I'm not having significant issues with the new bin scheme, but I do wonder sometimes at the apparent lack of consistency. One week my glass box was left unemptied, although everything else was taken. I just took it and put it back out the following week, when it was emptied. Some weeks, the sacks are folded neatly into the blue box, with its lid tucked upright into it, to show they're all empty, and they are placed neatly back by my garden wall. Other weeks they are just tossed back down again. Did some people on the crews not get the message to leave things tidy, does the crew include someone who just can't be bothered, or is it someone trying to keep up with the lorry?

The 'new scheme' has now been running for nearly four months; enough time, surely, to resolve teething troubles and straighten out the kinks, but many issues have still not been resolved.

Some people found slashes on their rolls of grey bags, and find they can split easily. Now some are finding that they are running out already, having had to double-bag or otherwise discard the split bags, reducing their usable quota. Several people had their grey bags nicked from their doorsteps, and haven't all successfully had them replaced. The council allows more bags to be bought, but they are expensive, and considering that people aren't allowed to put out more than the equivalent of one grey bag per week (thus no more than three on the three-weekly collection) I would have thought the council could allow those with issues not of their own making some replacement bags.

There have been many complaints from people saying they are putting more in the grey sacks and recycling less, although on inspection, it seems many people were formerly putting the wrong things in their orange bags. Much of that was plastic with a recycling symbol on it, but which the council didn't take. They now take a lot more, but not plastic films.
The other aspect of 'putting more into the grey bags' is that they are in fact larger than many of the old black bags, and if you pack your plastic film down, you can indeed get more in without exceeding the weight limit.

There is a perceived increase in the amount of rubbish blowing about, whether from split sacks or escaping on the wind as the waste crews empty the sacks and boxes.

More receptacles means more wet and dirty bags and boxes to deal with. The holes in the bottom of the paper box let in water. The woven sacks have a flap which folds over as a lid/top, held down by Velcro closures, but they're not sealed and rainproof. Some sacks were very badly made, with stitching coming apart and misaligned sections, which left large gaps and Velcro with unmatched hook to hook or loop to loop faces. The flap closure is unwieldy and the Velcro catches onto clothing, hair, skin, so that sorting into and doing up the bags can be an annoying, scratchy affair.

Some report finding cats and dogs (and possibly foxes) have peed or pooped on their sacks.

Bags and boxes have disappeared. Mistakenly taken, blown away by the wind, or nicked? The weighted sacks are heavy enough to be a problem for those with mobility issues, but not heavy enough to stay put in the wind. And the food waste caddies in particular, if they are just tossed down, especially when open, can shatter or be blown by the wind into the road, where passing cars can complete their destruction and leave shards of plastic around the place.
Finding replacement or additional sacks and boxes has been an issue, as stocks were low when demand was highest after the change over. Residents then have to find out where there is a stock of what they need, and go to pick it up; some have then found that the location ran out in the meantime. An absolute pain if you don't drive, and a surprising number of people here do not, often for reasons such as health issues or expense.

Missed collections can be reported, and they are supposed to be picked up the next day, but in practice it may be two or more days. Some people find in particular purple sacks can be left for a week or more after their scheduled collection date. (plus,when everyone knows what a purple sack is for, having them left outside is indiscreet and potentially embarrassing). Considering they can become quite smelly after a week, people are beginning to ask that the collection be weekly, as in the warmer weather, the smell could be awful from bags hanging around for the best part of a fortnight.

In the first couple of months, there was a process of tagging a sack or box with a label, to show it contained incorrect items. The idea was that the label would state what was wrong and if possible, take the recyclables and leave the incorrect item(s). Many found that the whole sack or box-full was left, and the the tag was blank, leaving the home owner with no clue why their refuse had been 'rejected' and having to organise taking it to the tip or finding some place for it until the following week, with the added issue of finding somewhere to put that week's recyclables.

Cardboard boxes are no longer just picked up; all card has to be folded or torn so that it fits into the 50 cm-cube blue sack. It's not really a problem for cereal and cat food boxes, but boxes from new furniture or moving house must now be taken to the tip.

Whatever the failings of the Council and their new processes, what has shocked me the most is people's attitudes. The selfishness and sense of entitlement are staggering!

The fire brigade saw an increase in bin fires, as some decided it would be simpler to incinerate their rubbish now that they couldn't put as many sacks out as they liked and couldn't be bothered to sort the recyclables. Some claim that since the grey sacks are generally incinerated, they are cutting out the middle man, ignoring the difference between an industrial-scale incinerator, with particulate capture and use of the generated heat, and their little garden bin. This includes burning plastics, using their garden incinerator on a fine day or when the smoke will blow into their neighbours' gardens or across a road or path, rather than into their own property. I don't object to incinerators in general; I have one, and use it to burn garden waste only in damp weather when my neighbours don't have any washing out, then tip the resulting wood ash onto the compost heap.
Some people are refusing to recycle, perhaps burning some things, or putting as much as they can into the grey sacks. They consider this reasonable, that they are punishing the Council for what they see as their unworkable scheme, especially if they have had experiences where their rubbish hasn't been taken, sacks tagged with no detail of what's wrong, with no response when they try to complain. Some are doing it in protest as they consider it the Council's job to sort their rubbish, others to protest that as the Council is not taking some items marked as recyclable (not that they used to take them!) then the whole idea is fundamentally flawed.

This type of all-or-nothing, over-reaction is also seen in posts where a little news is blown out of all proportion, complete with big-brother type conspiracy theories and escalation of fear and despondency. An example was some news that Denbighshire were trialling microchipping some food waste bins, 'to check that people are recycling their food waste correctly'. The problem with this was an assumption that if you don't put out a food waste bin regularly, then you are probably putting your food waste into the 'residual' waste, although of course, it could be that you compost your fruit and veg waste and don't eat meat, so no fat or bones to go. Suddenly, there was talk of people in Pembrokeshire being fined, ranting about 'big brother' and threats to withhold council tax payments.
Of course, the councils tasked with meeting their recycling targets will have to collect data to prove that they are doing enough, and finding solutions to policing and educating those who wilfully disregard the rules and cause problems.
Pembrokeshire Council started a new policy some time ago that black bags dropped at the tips, now formally the 'waste and recycling centres', would be inspected for recyclables. The general reaction to this was that it was none of their business what people choose to throw away and a certain hysteria that the Council would pass their fines for insufficient recycling onto the people who fail to recycle. (Though in some respects, that sounds like a good idea to me. Why should anyone refuse to recycle what they can?)

There are a number who are climate change deniers and/or those who don't see why they should change their lifestyle and take no personal responsibility for their consumption and the waste they create.

There is also a perceptible increase in fly tipping, on which the council has now declared war.
There are also variations on the typical fly-tipping of rubbish in the wild - some rubbish in black/orange bags has been dumped with household rubbish, particularly galling for any householder who finds that some bags have been slyly added to their neat stack, and then left by the bins team for them to deal with. Bags of mixed rubbish are also left for the Terracycle recycling for charity company Pembrokeshire Care, Share and Give. They rely on volunteers to sort and pack the types of recyclables which the Council doesn't take but can be returned to specialist recyclers in return for money to charities. Adding unnecessarily to their work and leaving them with additional rubbish, especially when some of it contains disgusting and potentially dangerous items, is outrageous and has pushed them to the edge of closing some of their drop-off points.
Bags of all colours, shapes and contents are also being left next to rubbish and recycling bins in public areas. Some of the bins have now been removed. This is a typical Council response to the misuse and abuse of facilities - removing or closing them so that no one has use of them because of vandalism and abuse by a minority, punishing everyone for the misdeeds of the few.

This was an opportunity to look at the quantity and type of waste we produce, and educate our children too about the ecological impacts of waste and consumption, and for us to make changes, big or small, as and when we can. It's such a shame that some people are just too selfish, short-sighted and stupid to realise that we all need to do our bit for the world in which we live.


Links for further exploration
https://www.recycleforwales.org.uk/recycling-knowledge/turning-welsh-waste-energy/one-wales-one-planet
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/11/wales-household-waste-recycling-england
https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/about-terracycle/recycle_your_waste?utm_campaign=admittance&utm_medium=menu&utm_source=www.terracycle.com
https://myrecyclingwales.org.uk/local_authorities/pembrokeshire?finyear=2018
https://www.facebook.com/pembrokeshirecareshareandgive/

Gone, but not forgotten

I was reminiscing recently about Bradford's Rawson Market, which was where I bought most of my fresh food when I was living and working in Bradford in 1984-5.
I worked, briefly, as a cutter for Seymour's Shirts, on Sunbridge Road. We clocked off at 4.00 pm, which allowed a little shopping time before the stores closed. Then, I could walk way faster and further than I can now; a very brisk walk up Grattan Road and through the ginnel (alley) into James Gate, then onto James Street, took me into the market as they were packing up. I was on a low wage, so I took advantage of the end-of-day price reductions, and the produce was still good. A couple of quick trips after work and a main shop on a Saturday (no Sunday trading then!) took care of all my needs.

Rawson was one of three covered markets; through the bottom door (like much of Bradford, it's on a hill!) and across the road, there was the Kirkgate centre, then mostly a shopping centre but still with a few stalls selling clothing and haberdashery. Through the top door and across the road, there was John Street Market, and the Westgate Morrison's supermarket. John Street had some greengrocers selling more exotic fruit and veg, and a delicatessen, and probably other stalls with things like crockery, fabrics or carpets, but I don't really remember them.

Rawson market's main hall mostly contained the greengrocers' and butchers' stalls, in separate sections, with shops around the edge specialising in cured meats or offal, such as tripe and black pudding. There was a small Morrison's stall too, still selling butter and a few other goods, even though they had a supermarket across the road. One of the shops sold hot pork pies in a bowl of mushy peas, with sharp and aromatic mint sauce on top. With a mug of tea, it was a great lunch on a cold day. Not that I like meat much nowadays, but it's still the only way I could contemplate eating a pork pie. One of my favourite butchers did wonderful, thick pork chops with a slice of kidney in them; not something you see any more.
A side hall with a door onto James Street contained stalls selling fresh and cooked Whitby crabs, fish and shellfish, game and eggs. The vendors would happily prepare your fish or game, chatting as they wielded scarily sharp knives. Not a place for the squeamish, but it seemed to me that fewer people were, then. 40 years since the end of WWII, but that was still very much within living memory of the older population, whose main meals were still based on the traditional British 'meat and two veg', where one of the 'two veg' was generally potato.

I remember the place as light and reasonably clean, easy to navigate and friendly. I now regret not having tried to capture the atmosphere with my camera. In those days, I found photo processing expensive. Besides, it seemed so ordinary; but as with so much in everyday life, a retrospective view reveals the extra-ordinariness and impermanence of what we took for granted.

There is some archive film of the 700th Anniversary of Bradford's Market Charter in 1951 (sadly without sound), with footage in the markets, complete with eggs still on ration. It looks like its rebuilding, after being bombed in 1940, was managed in time for the anniversary. Or perhaps they just didn't point the cameras at the unfinished bits.

I haven't been back to Bradford since the late 1980s, when old and derelict housing and mill buildings were already being redeveloped for new housing, I thought it was time for a little tour via Google Maps. To my immense sadness and surprise, I found that the Rawson and James Street Markets are no more.

I found it quite hard to find out what happened and why. A public version of an agenda document for regeneration from 2017 had a couple of paragraphs. Google didn't bring up very much and although there were a number of articles from the Telegraph and Argus, photos have often been lost in the conversion to their new archive, and many articles are edited down to a desired length.

It seems in 1989 there were 'serious Health and Safety concerns and inadequate trading facilities', thus major redevelopment work was thought necessary by the Council. Only four years after my impressions that it was a thriving market full of well-established businesses! (Historically significant, too, as I believe J. B. Priestley remarked on the Pie Tom pie and peas shop!)

Traders were relocated to a temporary market in 1996 during the planned refurbishment. I'm guessing this is the 'new Rawson Market' shed building on Rawson Road, north of John Street Market, (which itself was refurbished, extended and renamed the Oastler Centre in 2002). Rawson Market was demolished in 1997, but by 1999 it had still not been refurbished.

So what of the old market traders, who expected to be back in a newly-refurbished market in 1998 as promised when they were moved out, and whose livelihoods depended on their trade? A few might have moved into the Oastler Centre, but I expect many of them didn't survive the move out of the old markets. It might be due to losing clientele in the upheaval of moving, and the lack of passing trade at the new site, (the old Rawson Market was a handy cut through, because who wants to take a less direct route in the typical Bradford winter weather?) Changing tastes mean reduced demand for game, meat and fish, and a preference for sanitised, packaged lumps of produce, with no reminder of their living origins.

The old Rawson Market has since been 'regenerated' into the Rawson Quarter, containing, by the looks of it, a Wilko and a B&M, and some residential units behind the old facades. The Rawson Road building has since been renamed 'The Bazaar' and reused by a selection of stalls selling (largely Indian/Asian) clothing, jewellery and make up. In the pictures, it looks bright and clean and just the place to go if you need a new shalwar kameez.

It makes me wonder if this was part of a hidden Council agenda; markets, with their open stalls, are obviously untidy and most of their shoppers are poor and immigrants, etc. There's more to be made in business rates and rentals, the creeping gentrification placing more value in the young, trendy and more affluent section of the population.

By 2017, footfall in the Oastler Centre was declining, partly attributable, I'm sure, to the closure of the adjacent Morrison's on Westgate in 2016 (? - I may have the date wrong). There has now been a proposal to demolish the Oastler Centre and regenerate the 'top of town' into a 'city village'. The existing infrastructure probably makes redevelopment there less financially daunting than other derelict property around the city, which would need updated services, utilities and road infrastructure, as well as potentially having to clean up contaminated brownfield sites.

A new, 'food-led' market is being built on Darley Street and Kirkgate market will undergo changes too. Nothing stays the same for long any more. Unlike the magnificent (and grade 1 listed) Victorian buildings such as City Hall and Cloth Hall, it seems the expected lifespan of modern developments is only 20 to 25 years. 'The death of the high street' and need for urban regeneration are big topics for another time, perhaps, but I find the rate of change alarming, as if we no longer value what we have.

So much for progress. I'm happy that I had the opportunity to experience and use Rawson and James Street Markets. They were a marvellous and now increasingly rare resource. I like living down here and don't miss the city, but I wish we had a proper market. The young and trendy don't know what they're missing.



Links (in case you feel inclined to explore further!)
https://bradford.moderngov.co.uk/documents/g6553/Public%20reports%20pack%2008th-Mar-2017%2018.00%20Regeneration%20and%20Economy%20Overview%20and%20Scrutiny%20Committee%20.pdf?T=10
https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/18240998.1-000-home-plan-city-centre-village-described-radical-unprecedented/

Create 366 January

Following on from last year's Create 365 paltry output, I restarted the clock from the winter solstice. It's a leap year, so it's Create 366! Even if I don't manage to create 366 items, the aim is still to do something creative every day and then brag, sorry, blog about it. It will also be a continuation of the destash, getting projects and ideas off my chest and out of my overcrowded head.

I've made a good start, I think, over the first six weeks (although it could be better, of course!). While I was fetching the Christmas decorations, I came across a bag of bags of works in progress (WIPs) and there's nothing like a spot of knitting or crochet in front of the TV on a winter night for some some relaxing, happy, flow time.

The process of working out patterns is perhaps not so relaxing. Trying to get the decreases on a hat (to match the cowl, below) while keeping the pattern going, the frogging (that is, unravelling, ripping back) has got to me. It's sitting by the side of the sofa, looking at me accusingly, while I remind myself that I must pick it up again - this is the way that works in progress become hibernating Unfinished Objects (UFOs). As usual, I aim not to have UFOs and finish the WIPs, because these posts are all about the finished objects (FOs), but it really takes an effort of will. It's still a good idea, it just needs some persistence.

The WIPs included bags of knit and crochet motifs; sets of different coloured leaves, to be attached to a scarf (yet to be worked out and knitted, or possibly 2 scarves, depending ...); a bag of flowers in pinks and pinky-purples, with some leaves, to be made into a flower scarf; another bag of motifs in orange and yellow shades, with some greens for leaves, to be made into a summer jumper - better get on with that! I started all of these five years ago. FIVE! High time they were finished. So I've picked them up again and in so doing, made a start on another idea which has been lurking in my subconscious for a while.

Create 366 

Here's the 'January' output:
'Hillview Road' cowl. The textured stitch is absolutely scrumptious. I shall do a separate blog post on this when I've sorted out a hat pattern, providing I can get my head around the decreases, and possibly mitts too, if I have enough yarn,
A 'destash' crochet square.
A double layer flower knitted with the last of the Stylecraft Cabaret. It needs a matching leaf or two before it becomes a brooch.
Various knit and crochet leaves: 9
Various crochet flowers: 5

Create 366 totals:
Total this month: 17
Cumulative total to date: 17

Happy New Year and Decade, 2020

Here we are, yet again. Time for a review of the year, plans for the year ahead, and my now traditional photo of the London fireworks.
I was disappointed with their football theme, but they made a good show, even if every third shot seemed to be looking through the London Eye.

Pods of the London Eye.backed by and reflecting the light from the fireworks.

There were so many going off at once, that sometimes the sky was just blaze of light, missing the individual beauty of some of the fireworks. I think I would like a finale where, after a crescendo of rockets going off, there is one final, large, beautiful rocket, the sparks dying away as we all admire the falling stars, rather than yet another big blast which whites-out the sky and then abruptly, nothing. Then perhaps less could be spent on them, given the extreme need for funds in all directions, even though the entrance fee for those standing on the embankment to watch the show repays some of those costs.

Too many fireworks at once, and this was quite early on!

I've delayed this post a little, because I've had an attack of the glums in the six weeks since the solstice. I was just re-reading a friend's Christmas letter on Christmas day and thinking loving thoughts towards her and her family, when her husband sent me a message to say that she'd been in hospital for over a week with a respiratory problem which had been plaguing her, and they had decided there was nothing more to do but put her on palliative care. She died on 29th December. On the same day, my closest friend lost her brother, who had been fighting pancreatic cancer for a while.

In early December, we had a general election which returned the Conservative Government (although Wales still has a Labour majority, and the Scottish National Party holds Scotland, but England has the majority of seats in Parliament, because of the higher population, so whatever England wants, England gets), sealing the UK's fate to leave the EU. With all the talk, you'd be forgiven for thinking that we were leaving Europe (and it feels like it), the Channel widening as we move into the Atlantic. The UK (and Gibraltar, who I bet voted to Remain) formally withdrew from the EU on 31 January, entering an 11 month transition period, and effectively putting full withdrawal on 31 December 2020 with 'no deal' back on the table.

The jubilation of those who were enthusiastic to leave the EU is getting to me. I've seen lots of comments along the lines of 'now we need to all pull together to make Brexit work' and 'putting the great back into Britain' (sorry, Northern Ireland, you obviously don't count!). I don't know what this means in practical terms. I really want to know what, precisely, those who were keen to leave and are urging us to make it work are going to do, what action they are going to take to implement this, personally and together. So far, no one is coming up with anything concrete except that both sides have to stop arguing and we have to 'wait and see what happens', and a lot of crowing about finally being free and not having the EU telling us what to do.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, US President, wants us to import chlorinated chicken from the USA and there's been a lot of talk about deals involving our precious National Health Service (NHS).

Enough of our woes, the news is full of worldwide gloom too.

After months of drought, then record high temperatures, bush fires are now burning across Australia. People have died, many have lost their property, the cost of fighting the fires is huge, but the environmental cost is enormous, with many animals, including endangered species, killed or left without shelter, food and water. Then, like some cruel cosmic joke, there have been downpours in some areas, extinguishing the fires, but causing flooding, with golf ball-sized hailstones which have damaged houses and cars (and further battered the poor wildlife).

The climate emergency is still high on the agenda in Europe and many other countries, pursuing a goal of net zero emissions by 2050, but this excludes the biggest CO2 emitters, China, the USA and India. Trump started a process to withdraw the USA from the Paris Climate Accord, because (apart from other things, like possibly not believing there is a climate emergency) he supports using coal.

His idiosyncratic style of brash denials, blame, insults and threats continues unabated, with added drone strikes, so that what started last year as a US-led military effort to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz nearly escalated into full-on war with Iran in early January.

The Civil Wars in Libya, Yemen and Syria rumble on, with no apparent end in sight.

Also in early January came the first news of a virus outbreak in Wuhan, China, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) advised was a new type of Coronavirus. It later emerged that cases have been known since November, but Doctor Li Wenliang, who in December alerted some of his colleagues and tried to warn the authorities, found himself being investigated for spreading rumours and lies. (Update 7 Feb: sadly he was infected with the virus, and has just died). However, they didn't lock down Wuhan straight away, because they thought it was caught from animals at a market and was spread by animal-human contact (which it obviously was). It soon became clear that it could and did also spread from person to person, with an estimated incubation (where a person can be infectious but not aware of symptoms, just like a cold or 'flu) of a fortnight, at a time when people were travelling internationally for Chinese New Year, so the virus has a head-start. By the end of January, it became clear that previous estimates of the numbers infected were completely blown out of the water and it had spread outside China, the WHO decided to declare the novel Coronavirus a global health emergency. Let's hope it's brought under control quickly and doesn't affect the Olympic Games, to be held in Tokyo in July-August. However, it is already spreading to other countries and has the potential to become a pandemic and impact the global economy.

Mid January brought Storm Brendan, with damaging 80 miles per hour winds and heavy rain on already saturated soil.. The shed is now so wonky, the door keeps falling off. There's a warning already looming for next weekend (update: now named Storm Ciara), with similarly high winds and rainfall.

So much gloom and doom! What else has 2020 in store?

• (Chinese Zodiac) Year of the white metal Rat. Although I don't take much notice of horoscopes, it seems this year could be a better one for me than last year.
• Year of the Nurse and Midwife (NHS/World Health Organisation)
• International Year of Plant Health (United Nations): 'an opportunity to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment and boost economic development'.
• Year of Coasts and Waters (Scotland)
• Global Year of the Bible: 'to highlight the importance of the Bible as the enduring foundation for fostering unity, freedom, development and quality of life'.
• MMXX has a nice symmetry to it, as does the date 02/02/2020.

Last year started with buying a new car. Even though it isn't as easy to get in and out, and was right at the top end of my budget, I love my Skoda Fabia, and the freedom it represents. Although the insurance is slightly more expensive (it goes up every year anyway, despite no claims), the garage is good at their customer service, it seems to be more economic on fuel and the road tax is way cheaper. And it's a faster, smarter car, and there are lovely little details, such as a drop down box above the windscreen for my driving glasses, and a little clip on one side of the windscreen for parking tickets. So far, very good.

I also passed the JWAAD 'Understanding Music used in Belly Dance course. It seems so long ago now, but it was a great course, and I ended up listening to so much wonderful music.

Although I didn't get to teach much belly dance, I treated myself to a weekend in Swansea for some workshops with Khaled Mahmoud, which gave me so much to practise and think about, they completely blew my mind.

My right knee played up so much last year, it got in the way of a lot of gardening, walking, dancing and generally having a good time. It's still a major issue now, something I want to change!

I've started the year with several WI bookings, both for belly dance talks/tasters and a couple of wire-wrapped sea glass workshops.
I've replaced my Create 365 project with Create 366, so the crafting, creativity, destashing, making do and mending continues.

My aims are the same as ever: trying to earn an income, losing weight (I'm very pleased with the 7.5 kg lost last year), getting the garden, the house and my life in general feeling less chaotic and more under control.

Whatever this year and this decade brings, I hope and wish for us all health, wealth, luck, happiness and creativity!

The Sock Addiction Continues: Tarn with German short row heels

This is a time-warp post, having languished in draft for years, because I mislaid my design book with the notes for a while, then found I hadn't dated them. Note to self, put dates in the book when you make notes! I think they were completed in January 2017, as they were completed before the 'Strong' Heel socks and had been worn and washed by the time I took the photo in March 2018. And now it's January 2020 and I'm just completing it, having unearthed my design book.

This was then ...
However mild this winter has been, and however impatient I've been for finer weather so that I can get out into the garden, I must admit I have been enjoying the colder weather as an excuse to wear wool socks.

They feel warm as soon as I slip them on, in a way that the commercial cotton-rich socks I would otherwise wear do not. There is an inexpressible feeling of snuggly comfort, and a few times I've taken them off when getting ready for bed, only to find half an hour later that my feet now feel too cold, and I slip some bedsocks back on. I find the warmth does wonders for reducing the arthritic pain, often stopping it altogether. I know, I'm repeating myself. If you're a fan of wool socks, you'll know what I'm talking about, and if you're not, perhaps the way I rave about them gives you a clue as to what you might be missing.

Since I'm loving them and wearing them, I reckon I'm allowed to knit myself another few pairs, to replace some of the worn-out cotton socks. The trouble is, a pair of the wool socks takes up about twice the drawer space of a pair of cotton socks, so I'll have to retire two pairs of old socks (at least) to make room for the new wool socks. Or decide I need a second sock drawer.

My 'everyday' socks are definitely my comfort zone, although they could perhaps do with some tweaks. Just so that I don't get too set in my ways, I decided to do a different heel, choosing German short rows for no particular reason.

A local shop had a lonely ball of Wendy Roam Fusion in Tarn, predominantly blues and greens plied with all sorts of other colours. The main colours tend to pool, but the plies create drifts of different coloured flecks and I love it. I was late to the party with this yarn, and, in typical fashion when I find something I like, it's now being discontinued. I looked at the yarn reviews are there were complaints about its quality. I haven't had any problems with the balls I bought, but I find it knits up 'large', as if the yarn is slightly thicker than, say the DROPS Fabel (although that grows a little on washing).

I cast on 72 stitches on my usual 2.75 mm dpns, 12 rounds k2, p2 rib and 48 rounds stocking stitch for the leg.

At this point I would normally start a Sweet Tomato Heel, so it was no problem to switch to German short rows instead. I watched some YouTube videos and found the technique quite easy and straightforward. I followed my usual shaping, using half the total number of stitches for the heel (leaving half for the instep) and then decreasing on a third of the stitches on either side of a central third. I knit clockwise and begin my rounds at the start of the heel stitches. On the last heel round, where the round starts with a double stitch, I knitted that round as the last round of the heel shaping, marking the next as the first round of the foot.
The resulting heels are quite smart with neat diagonal lines of decreases, but even though I knit tightly, the decrease line is slightly more open than I would like. The heels don't sit quite as well on my round heels as the Sweet Tomato Heel, so that remains my favourite.

Since the yarn knits up a little bigger than usual, I decreased one stitch on each side of the foot on rounds 1, 3 and 5, and knit 59 rounds for the foot. The sock fits well enough, but in a yarn which knits up smaller, I think the decreases should be on rounds 6, 8 and 10. On row 60 I decreased another single stitch each side to leave 64 stitches, redistributing them so I had 32 stitches each for the instep and sole.

I knit to round 64, then started the toe round 1 (on what would have been round 65), decreasing using SSK at the start of the heel and instep sections and K2tog at the end of the heel and instep, to reduce by 4 stitches on heel rounds 1, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, leaving 24 stitches.
Kitchener grafted toe (12/12). I noted at the time this may have been a little wide, but haven't noticed it since and Kitchener stitch of 12 instep to 12 sole stitches has become my standard.

So my plain socks pattern exploration and refinement continues.

Big Garden Birdwatch 2020

Having given this up as a waste of time last year, I was in two minds whether to keep an eye out for what I might see for an hour, given the poor weather and the fact that my garden, at the moment, has little to attract bird life, although there is water, a hedge to hide in, and the remainder of the evening primrose seeds (which the sparrows have been enjoying).

In the end, I managed the survey, but the results were as unimpressive and unrepresentative as in other years.

6 sparrows
1 dunnock
1 starling
2 blue tits.

Even my resident jackdaws were off somewhere else. The regularly-seen robin and resident blackbirds were absent, as were the occasional visitors, which include a wren, goldfinches, bullfinches, long-tailed tits and rooks.

I suspect that the enclosed and untidy space that is the back garden (at the moment, anyway) is just not very inviting. I really miss the numbers and variety of birds I could see when back on the farm. My neighbour's new fence could be a good place for a couple of nest boxes once I plant up against it, having given it a lick of preservative first. More work to do, but worth it to increase the local bird life.

The starling is beginning to look like a new resident, with loud song and beautiful breeding plumage. I shall have to see what I can do to encourage him and others to stick around.

Walk this way ...

There was a time, which now feels like another lifetime, when walking 5 km/3.1 miles was really no problem for me. Before I had a car, I used to walk a lot more, because there was never a bus going where I needed one to go to, when I needed one. Walking was free, even if I did tend to arrive a little sweaty. But as life and the demands of household, work and leisure got busier, using a car was the only solution. I would have had to take leave from work to deal with solicitors, estate agents and banks when I bought my first house in 1991, if I hadn't had a car. But with a car, I got lots more done, and walks were more scheduled events.

Even then, I had started getting pain in my feet from arthritis, although it wasn't formally diagnosed. My GP at the time told me it was gout and if I didn't agree with his diagnosis, we had nothing more to talk about. He also said I had to lose weight and should join WeightWatchers. I explained that all the WW classes clashed with my dance classes and rehearsals, I preferred to dance. He said I should stop the classes because of my gout. It was clearly not gout (he didn't even look at my feet!) Sorry, I digress. It's one of those things which still rankles after all these years.

So back to the present day, 5k feels impossible to me now. My right knee is still painful, waking me at night, giving me stabs of pain when I'm just sitting. The trouble is, I've started to feel my lack of exercise and I know I need to move. Just standing for 20 minutes to do things like cook and wash up leaves me ready to sit down again. My legs shake, my knee gives way, my feet hurt. I'm even starting to feel it in my hips. Bloody arthritis!

But managing osteoarthritis includes strengthening the muscles around the joints and keeping them strong, and pain does not necessarily mean more damage. I have to move or seize up entirely. Use it or lose it! I used to enjoy walking, if I could go at my own pace, in good weather, with birds, trees, water and preferably without many people.

It's the time of year when everyone is signing up for walks and runs, exercise programmes, diets, going vegan or teetotal for a month. I had previously investigated 'Couch to 5k' plans before, but there seems to be an assumption that it will be for a run and that you can already walk for an hour.  Then I found a 'beginners' couch to 5k walk plan and it sounded just about right. If I can stand for 20 minutes then I should manage the five 15 minute walks in the first week. It's about 10-13 weeks long, but although it would be great to be able to do it sooner rather than later, I'm not going to pressure myself into that timescale. I've been lucky this week, with high pressure giving lovely weather instead of the high winds and rain, some of it frozen, we've been having for what seems like weeks. Months, even.

Because the idea glimmered in my brain a couple of months ago, I bought myself some new walking shoes, and a running (walking!) belt which will  hold my (now new!) mobile, house key and hanky. It has an elasticated belt, so it fits comfortably and I can tuck the sleeves of my fleece in when I get hot. I took advantage of this week's lovely weather and did 3 walks, overdoing it on the second one because I got a bit carried away; the weather was so gorgeous and there were birds to look at and dogs and their walkers to greet.

Brunel Trail: The tantalising onward view at my 1 km turn-round point

I'm tracking my walks on Strava, which shows me little maps and motivates me to do more.

My knees and feet aren't really feeling any the worse for the exercise, but the other muscles in my legs, which haven't had much use since November, really ache. I was ready for a rest day today. Then I need to do two walks and have another rest day, and see if next week I can do five 20 minute walks. I expect I will plateau for a couple of weeks, but that doesn't matter.

I'm not looking forward to the next one as much - the weather is due to change, but hopefully so too will I!