Mr Grumpy strikes again!

I've been very aware that the bulk bags in which we stored all the Himalayan balsam that we pulled some time ago along the Black Lynn were still lying there. We're not allowed to take the plant material off site so we decided, 'Keep Oban Beautiful' that is, to leave the plants to rot down in the bags and then turn them out. 

I'd had someone moan at me recently, saying that these bags were hardly keeping Oban beautiful, so I went down there this afternoon to tip the contents out and bring the bags home to wash out. As one would expect, I got talking to a number of passers-by including a friend, an innocent old lady, a community councillor and a road sweeper, so I was there for a lot longer than planned! I was disgusted at the amount of rubbish there - along the path, over the fence, down the bank to the water and a huge dam of rubbish in the water itself - mostly beer cans and bottles and polystyrene takeaway boxes. Among the litter I found a five pound note, so at least I got a tip! I didn't have the means or the time to deal with the rubbish today and will have to organise a clean-up some day soon. My reason for talking to the innocent old lady was to ask her, as an ordinary local passer-by, if she actually noticed all this disgusting crap, and she said she certainly did, being a clearer-upper herself. We had a long chat, as I did with the road-sweeper, who asked if I worked for the council and when I told him that I was a volunteer, actually thanked me for getting involved! He told me that he'd recently been to stay with his daughter in Middlewich, in Cheshire, and after going for a walk along the canal he was so disgusted with the rubbish there that he went back for his litter picker, which he obviously takes on holiday with him, and cleaned it all up! Obviously in the blood!

I hadn't planned on it raining - the forecast had said it wouldn't, so I got pretty wet and muddy, but afterwards I went along to the police station
and flashed my KOB hi-vis vest at the lady who came out to see me. She agreed to make sure that an officer went along to the High School, whose pupils are known to be among the worst of the culprits, and had a chat with the headmaster with a view to putting him in touch wth us!

So that's my civic duty done for the day - photographic club this eve.