Categories: community, seasons
Date: 03 September 2007 19:29:28
The beginning of September has a new year sort of feel to it, don't you think? Back to school (sorry to remind you, teachers!), newly-sharpened pencils and shiny shoes. Even for those of us who have been working throughout the summer, the beginning of September heralds the re-commencement of evening classes/activities and a new start. And if you belong to the same school of thinking as my Pa-rent, you will be of the opinion that every day is the beginning of a new year; it just depends where you start counting from. (The Pa-rent dislikes being obliged to celebrate certain events which have been decided somewhat arbitrarily. This even includes Christmas which means in some ways our family doesn't suffer from quite the same levels of festive pressure as other families seem to. But more of that some other time. Perhaps at Christmas. But then again, perhaps not. I am my father's daughter.)
Today has been one of shaking off the past and welcoming the new - only in small ways but very releasing all the same. The nursery school opened its doors to the little people for the first time in six weeks. This meant that I was able to dispose of my compost on my neighbour's compost heap. Huh? Allow me to explain: the only access to his allotment (apart from jumping down an eight-foot drop) is through the grounds of the nursery school. Not willing to risk a broken ankle or even just being covered in rotting food means that I have to hang on to bucket loads of decomposing pongy stuff until the little angels go back to their activities.
Another new start was a step taken in the decluttering department. The local homeless charity is opening a shop in the village next week and a call for donations went out at the weekend. Only too happy to oblige. I am trying to purge the rose-covered cottage of all items extraneous to requirement - so the first black bag of items has gone. Another will follow shortly. You may or may not be informed of my continuing progress.
Thank you to my gentle readers in Moldova and the US for their thoughts on village flower show-type thingies. I am much obliged.* The survey is still open if others would like to make their contributions on this topic of cultural comparisons. My next enquiry is about charity shops**. Is this an international phenomenon? For all my travel to foreign climes, I can't remember ever having seen a charity shop when abroad. International readers and British-based ones who know about this topic are invited to enlighten me.
Happy New Year, one and all!
*Izzybee - I tried to visit your blogspot but somehow failed to access it. I shall try again when I am feeling a little more technically competent.
** Just in case the concept of a charity shop is unknown to international readers, it is basically a shop run by volunteers which receives goods donated by the public. Customers (again, the general public) buy the second-hand goods and the profits are donated to a charity such as research into medical conditions, overseas development aid, animal charities, work with the underprivileged, etc.