Spring has Sprung .

We all seem to be enjoying Spring weather today. For those of you in GB it's unexpectedly warm and for us in Turkey, it's very welcome but a bit late in coming. Everywhere I went today, Nature was bursting out in beautiful bright greens, pinks, lilacs and reds.  It's a shame that there is so much rubbish around to spoil the show. 

There is no excuse for the amount of litter at the road sides.  The dustmen come twice a day and no one is more than a few hundred yards from a bin.  

Thirty years ago, the countyside was untouched by ugly plastic.  Drinks came in glass bottles with a hefty deposit. Any bottle, carelessly discarded was quickly collected up for the dosh. Cheese came in large cans which were re-used as plant pots, water carriers, storage containers or watering pots.  Every garden had a row of tomato or pepper plants growing in old food tins of all sizes.  

Working on yachts, we spent quite a lot of our time in the Greek Islands and had access to duty free bags and  plastic water bottles. We never had to throw these away. There was always a queue of Bodrum housewives competing for these useful items to use on their weekly shop or to put milk in.  1 litre Gin and Vodka bottles were always in demand to store drinking water. This could lead to confusion.  Once, at the party of diplomat friends, we were all enjoying our gin and tonics when one guest (who in their obituary will be referred to as a 'bon viveur') took the host aside to point out that we were all in fact drinking water and tonics. The friends' staff had filled all the old bottles with water and on the pre-party inventory check, it was assumed that there was plenty of gin in the house.  I hadn't even noticed and was even feeling a bit tipsy. Now spirits are so expensive here, I might try filling a few bottles with water and seeing if I can kid myself again.