Eco warriors in miniature

After talking about it for months, I finally ordered some litter pickers and, this morning, making the most of the sunny weather the boys and I went out to clear some of the rubbish from the woods and paths near our house.
We started off picking up what we found on Percy's walk but there was so much to collect we slowed the hot and bothered bulldog down too much, so we split off so that Albs could litter pick at his enthusiastic but meandering pace.
We were out for almost two hours and managed to fill six bags of rubbish.  Stopping only when we ran out of bin bags (but having actually made a good amount of progress).  The boys loved it, stomping through the undergrowth, picking up cans and wrappers, dropping on the path and then disappearing again whilst I cleared their rubbish piles into the bags.  Smalley was obviously completely inept but very enthusiastic and used his picker as more of a pointer: "Here's some rubbish mummy.  Come and get it!" (Managing to both clear rubbish and disturb the peace in equal measure).  Albs was in his element. It turns out picking rubbish is as exciting as using the "scan as you shop" mobile scanners at the supermarket.  He would have happily carried on for another hour but instead settled instead for a promise to clean more rubbish soon.

There's so many things we talk about doing but don't do. That we think about doing but walk past.  We may have not got everything.  We may have only put in a few hours effort. But why waste time thinking about what wasn't done when we can enjoy what was?
 I don't claim to be a true eco warrior but I do my best to recycle, ensure unwanted items are passed on rather than thrown away and buy almost all of mine and the boys clothes second hand rather than new.  And alongside all of this I try to teach my children to respect others and to respect the world around them.  And today proved how easy and fun this could be - especially if you sing the Captain Planet theme song on a loop as you go like we did! 😊

Meanwhile, as we picked litter, Super Husband was busy building a tortoise run for the garden.  BBQs, gardening and DIY; it's been quite the Bank Holiday Weekend of dreams for my man.  The tortoises showed their delight with the new run by walking the perimeter and before investigating the foundations.