How
On New Years Day the sun was bright and the sky blue. A great start to the New Year and a day to be marked by going outside. No doubt the New Year’s walk is an institution in the life of many families but we are not creatures of habit. So we just agreed we needed to mark the New Year by enjoying the outside and the wonderful place in which we live.
Strangely enough, when you live somewhere as stunning as this, you still need to be reminded of the fact, especially when you go outside with a basket of washing or a bin full of compost. Remember to stop and look around and centre yourself in the breathtaking beauty of the hills and water surrounding us
And so it was in this spirit that we agreed to go for our favourite local walk, along to the beach and then on to the shipping waymark in the middle of Loch Linnhe. This is a strange sort of stepped concrete edifice which marks the low-lying sandy headland. Almost surrounded by water it creates the optical illusion of being in the middle of the loch, well inside the shipping lane.
On leaving the front door, I impulsively picked up a carrier bag left in the porch from some previous shopping expedition. The carrying of the bag soon became the theme of our walk as we sauntered along, collecting plastic on the highwater line
The first find on our walk was an entire plastic lavatory, thrown out from either a boat or caravan. It was very worn by the sea and quite clean and so I was able to carry it to the roadside for collection later. Even before we had reached the bridge over the River Gour, we had made a pile of jettisoned plastic on the verge – and the theme of our walk was fixed!
I enjoy having a purpose to my activity and this one has now become our New Year’s Resolution. We will entreat our guests to take a bag with them when walking on the beach and to salvage as much as they can so we make a small impact on cleaning up the rubbish.
