Bottle Feeder

No, it’s not some modern sculpture based on the Jonah myth but a mere rubbish bin. This, close by the now closed (temporarily) and somewhat despairing fish tank known as the Deep, is a receptacle for plastic bottles. Someone more eco-friendly and less sceptical than myself might have shown all the do-goody-save-the-panet-from-plastic signs that accompany this but I couldn’t be bothered.

When every day seems like yet another Sunday it’s difficult to keep track but I believe that the weekend in black and white should be here if not it’ll be along shortly.

The best seat in town

Tourists are flocking to see the latest city of culture installation on Trinity House Lane. The work, sponsored by a local public house, is constantly added to and occasionally subtracted from but will remain a feature in the city through out the year. I think it’s a strong statement of the conflict between high ideals and base reality. I highly recommend it.

Keep Britian Tidy

Oh yes, it’s a reminder to keep the the place tidy and well they can’t even spell their own country right … they meant well I suppose.

Margot spotted this delight.

New kid in town

Nature abhorring a vacuum as it does means that the space left by the sad demise of poor Charley earlier this year has been quickly taken over by this smug little thing. We’re not going to give him a name and we’re not going to get attached; he’s somebody else’s problem. 

I’m glad that’s the neighbour’s fence and not mine.

Pictures are by Margot K Juby and while I’m about here’s a link to her blog on the innocence of Gilles de Rais.

Oh and finally the year of culture program was announced today but you don’t want to know about that.

Typical

Nothing special about today’s offering. A typical Hull side street, Grafton Street if you must know, with its typical array of terraced housing, typical array of bins on the pavement (they’re an obstruction but no-one gives a toss, which is also typical) and its typical white van parked on a double yellow (but really it’s on the pavement so that doesn’t count).

Today is a bank holiday and the forecast is cloudy with some rain … typical.

"Bag it and bin it; that way we’ll win it …"

Bricknell Avenue, Hull

Mobile refuse containers or wheelie bins as everyone calls them are surely the bane of modern life. Designed to save the planet by aiding recycling they have multiplied so that now each household in the land has at least two sometimes three, four or even five depending on how eco-stupid the council is feeling. Naturally a population of 70-80 million bins cannot be contained and so it spreads along the streets like a plague. As for the trash collected I’m told most of it gets put on to big ships and sent to China where no doubt it gets converted into wheelie bins and exported back to dear old Blighty….

And if you think leaving a bin on the street is a harmless pastime think again …

From the Criminal Justice Act 1982

“137 Penalty for wilful obstruction.

(1)If a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding [F1level 3 on the standard scale].”

F1level 3 is £1,000!

A load of old rubbish

I’d somehow forgotten the true tale of Hull City Council’s attempts to get householders to spy on their neighbours’ bin habits. Yes, a few years ago residents of Hull were being urged to ‘keep a diary’ if their neighbours were putting out bins at the wrong time or putting the wrong sort of trash in the bins. People were urged “Don’t turn a blind eye to environmental crime in your neighbourhood.” People responded in the manner you might expect them to and I never heard anything of this preposterous idea again. There’s sometimes a little brouhaha about bins being left on the street and causing an obstruction. It never seems to be mentioned that all these bins belong to the Council and it is Council dustmen that leave them on the street instead of putting them back where they found them. Ah weel, it is a well known fact that HCC can do no wrong.