rubbish and streamlining

CAKE?

OR SOAP?

After receiving our latest electricity bill to discover that some more streamlining would be needed to save a significantly larger amount of money, we had an historic moment in our family. Probably something worthy of a celebratory bottle of champagne as during Gavins and my life together, spanning some 30 years now, this would be the first time we have ever purchased....... a brand new fridge! My reasoning behind the decision was it would be a more efficient fridge which would mean we could turn off 2 older fridges and a small freezer. Wow, it is all shiny inside with a really fabulous layout which means I can stand up bottles, and best of all it has an internal wine rack and a cheese drawer. All the essentials for a happy life in France.

Unfortunately some people obviously do not appreciate their lives in France quite as much. The other day when Gavin was out at one of the fields we use for the sheep down by the river he came across the place where a group of people had been having a party during the previous week. As you can see they were a tidy minded group leaving the area as they found it (heavy sarcasm). So "leave only footprints" was not a motto by which they lived.

Which brings me neatly round to the bin issue and the increase in popularity of charging for bin rubbish. I am not a fan as we already live in an area where quite frankly there is very little rubbish produced by the locals, and all our communal bins are filled by fly tippers. So with a charge on rubbish I imagine the fly tippers are just going to dump in the forest or in the fields and hedgerows next to the roads, which the residents of the commune will end up having to pay for in their taxes as it will become the communes responsiblity to clear it up. So in the long run all the isolated folk in the countryside will end up having to pay twice for rubbish clearing. 
If you want people to do things keep it simple and either cheap or free, and the thing will be done. Make it complicated and charge, then people will find a quick free alternative at the expense of someone else.

The first tomatoes

Lavender wands

courgettes

In our other efforts to economise on plastic waste this year we have bought a sodastream for fizzy water rather than buy it in plastic bottles. What a difference that has made to the amount of trips to the bin every week during the summer. However our commune has stopped handing out recycling bags for the bins and we are now supposed to put our rubbish loose into the large communal bins. Great! One would have thought........but........our large bins have holes in the bottom for drainage so all the small pieces of plastic fall out of the bottom, and on a windy day when the bin lorry picks up the bins to empty them into the back of the lorry all the light weight recycling rubbish blows over the road. So after all the bin mornings we have to pick up all the rubbish that lands in the little stream next to the bin, put the rubbish back in the bin, and hope for a non windy day next bin day.
I often wonder who makes up all this legislation, whether they live in a vacuum sealed cube, do they actually eat, have they ever been shopping, do they know what a bin looks like?
So many thoughts, so much blog material.
See you all soon
​Helenx