Cleaning up the environment today!  I have yet to do my chosen challenge, but that's the theme.

QUICK WORK
Pick up any litter you spot today and drop it into a bin. (You might want to wear latex gloves or use a litter-picker!) Not going out? Sort out your kitchen so that you can get into the habit of recycling easily.

I'VE GOT MORE TIME
Pick a patch of land around where you live and commit to keep it litter free. You might also plant a few bulbs or flowers that will attract bees and butterflies.

GO THE WHOLE HOG
Organise a community clean-up or find out about conservation groups in your neighbourhood. Connect with other 40acters in your area and arrange a date/time to scrub off some graffiti or do a group litter-pick.

So, I thought I'd do the first one on my way to church... but by the time I'd walked about fifty yards I knew that wasn't going to work, I'd have needed several sacks and not a few pairs of gloves.  It was salutary to realise how acccustomed I have become to the appalling level of littering in this part of the city.  I recalled how shocked I had been when I first arrived here, and to a degree still am, at the casual attitude people here have to dropping litter - often when they are in arm's length of a bin.  So, what kind of things did I see...

drinks cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles (broken)

pizza cartons, burger boxes, chip wrappers

lollipop sticks (dozens), sweet wrappers, crisp bags

carrier bags (which are no longer free here) and re-usable shopping bags

paper, tissues, card

a mop, gloves, socks

a cat food sachet

and then I gave up keeping a mental list after I saw a council refuse truck take a corner at speed and scatter broken glass aross the road in the process...

Once I have posted this, I will go a litter pick round the church grounds... there is an empty salad container in the sand bucket by the back door, and any amount of empty cigarette boxes and fag-ends abandoned by folk from the support groups that use our premises.  Good job I have plastic gloves and bin sacks in the vestry!!

And here is the perversity of it all - I will actually derive pleasure from picking up this mess!

One last thought, back in the day when we were at school, litter-picking was a task that every registration group had to take a turn at... if nothing else it taught us not to litter!  Should I mention this to the nice people at Holyrood and Westminster... ;-)