Eggs, Umbrellas, and darn good compost

Today I didn't feel like picking up litter at all, but felt like some exercise, so I stuck the cheap mini-camera in my pocket and just walked. It wasn't sunny but not cold either.

First off towards the BlogStation. The potplants have been composting nicely, with hyacinths and bluebells coming up like gangbusters. I'm glad the plants were put to some good use.

Joseph P I-want-A-Job-In-Construction was kind enough to leave three copies of his resume on the path. Joseph, you're a litter bug, I wouldn't hire you in a million years. And please pay attention to your spelling.


At the station, someone had discarded a rather fetching, but most probably disfunctional, purple umbrella in the bushes beside the station. Acting very suspiciously, I slipped in there with my camera and took a picture. A woman loaded down with shopping bags, waiting for a bus, looked at me rather disapprovingly but said nothing. Clearly I had "Drug Dealer" tattooed on my forehead.

I moved on and up the other side of the station. I glanced inside the BlogTrain concourse. Very clean today, no sign of any litter. I looked up the stairs to the platform then realized that I had stepped over the Line-of-Doom (fluorescent yellow and black tape on the ground screeching that you are in a fare paid zone). By rights they could clobber me with a fine for not paying for a ticket. And there I was with gardening gloves, 2 plastic bags and a mini camera. But not a cent on me.


I stepped back over the line to righteousness and walked up the path by the side of the station. A cheerful man walking a large dog assured me that Fritz would not attack me. The dog enthusiastically inspected me for a moment then his attention was drawn to two women approaching from the other direction. Fritz bounded over to them and they huddled together, expecting the dog to leap up on them. The dog owner again assured them that the dog was perfectly fine, he just wanted to say hello. I could see that the women were not too comfortable with Fritz, but they smiled uneasily and passed by as quickly as they could. A lot of folks are afraid of dogs, in this instance, Fritz was bounding all over the place and running straight at walkers. The owner did not have proper control of his animal; I think the dog should have been on a lead.

Because I was a walker today and not a litter collector, I spent more time looking around me. Spring is well on its way with lots of new growth. I spotted lots of items that had been dumped beside the railtrack. A microwave oven and a pair of heavy duty shoes lay at the bottom of a verge. A little further on, a dead crow lay forlornly at the bottom of a gully.


I crossed over the track at the bridge about half a mile down the path. Curiously, a hundred yards down the path again, I spotted a hen's egg lying on a patch of grass. It was in perfect shape. I left it just where it was. So am I looking for hen next time I along by the BlogTrain or is there someone who goes round placing eggs on the ground? Or, alternative theory, may be this has something to do with some kind of realistic Easter Egg Hunt.