ooh, I do love a good rummage

First of all, Spring here is pretty amazing.  This is a view of Emu Point from Bayonet Head and it's all pretty spectacular.

As you may be aware, we are in the middle of my favourite time of year, when the girls go a-gathering.  And so we have.  Worryingly, the sheer amount of junk which people are putting out appears to have decreased.  It's either that people have stopped consuming and tossing out, reducing waste and living a more green lifestyle, or (much more likely) that the notices about the collection are confusing and the collection's too early in the year and at the wrong time.

 

There have been the usual furphies doing the rounds about who the junk actually belongs to, when it's discarded by the former owner and placed on public property - ie, the verge - for collection.  I would have said that the more critical question is what the contractor does with what's collected.  In the past, separate trucks went around, one for the reusable recyclable stuff, and one for the unsalvageable.  Nowadays, sadly, it all seems to go into a crusher-type garbage truck and straight to landfill.  Do not pass the tip shop, do not reduce waste. 

  

Anyone picking up stuff and giving it another go around is doing their bit for the community by reducing landfill.  There.  I feel much better.

With my usual collection compatriots enjoying the European Autumn, I started slowly and small this year with my neighbour, but a friend with a 4WD and I spent a happy 6 hours today combing the allotted areas in a grid pattern.  Obsessive?  Perhaps, but the haul was impressive.

I've been able to replace my wheelbarrow (from a couple of years ago, sadly no longer able to carry things) with a more sturdy model.  My baby will be going to live on a farm (literally) and be planted out with flowers.  2 wooden sunloungers, one for me, one for aforesaid neighbour. Oh, the suitcases.  I'm liking the 50's/60's streamlined models this year, very groovy.   I got some rusty containers for my tomatoes and some gloriously rusty but robust garden edging.  A meatsafe ( including the hooks still inside), with a very original hinge replacement.   You may be sensing that I like rusty rustic stuff.

 

 Wonderful picture frames, some old, some not.  A horseshoe.  A dome tent.  An old cutlery box.  A kerosene lamp base.  Wooden frames for a project which is beginning to take form somewhere in the back of my mind.

The sheer serendipity of it is stupendous.  Roll on next week!