Photo Friday:  Author’s choice – Green (as in environmentally friendly)

Do please leave a link in the comments if you’ve joined in (Mr Linky is poorly today!). Thanks!

I am fortunate enough to live a  truly beautiful landscape which was awarded (by UNESCO) Natural World Heritage Status (the coast of Dorset & East Devon) in December 2001 in recognition of its unique pedigree which spans 185 million years.

“This picturesque & charming resort, located on the world Heritage ‘Jurassic Coast’ nestles between majestic red cliffs. The resort is famed for its wealth of fine architecture including splendid Georgian & Regency examples. The picturesque town centre has a wide range of individual shops including boutiques; antiques and delicatessens. The town is also renowned for it’s gardens & floral decorations, receiving many accolades from Britain in Bloom in recent years.”

The quote about Sidmouth above, was written to promote our lovely tourist town. And in case you have any doubt about it’s beauty I’m going to start with a few photographs (that I know I have shown you before) to remind you:

Beautiful isn’t it?

So why is it that people drop litter, cigarette ends, leave dog poop on the sidewalks and beach, leave alcohol containers in the gutters and hedges and even dump whole plastic bags of rubbish in the street or on the grass? I have noticed that during the winter there is minimum litter about, but once the tourist season starts it is prolific. After a Bank holiday weekend it is gross (and this coming weekend is a Bank holiday). So it isn’t hard to draw a conclusion! The local people may not be entirely blameless but they love where they live and generally keep it beautiful. The locals often hold litter clearing sessions where a party of people, armed with refuse bags will swoop on the beaches and streets and use their valuable leisure time clearing it up. The local council do a marvelous job too – they provide a plethora  of bins and containers and endeavour to empty them regularly and sweep our street (although this is at great cost to the residents in council tax). And I do my bit: P often laughs at me, because as I walk along I frequently stoop to pick up rubbish/litter and I then carry it to the nearest bin. I could not consider leaving it on the floor, once I’ve noticed it – even though someone else dropped it!

We need the tourists, we like to see them, we love to share our beautiful town and beaches, and landscape – BUT please tourists, take your litter home! Don’t dump it just anywhere, spoiling the lovely landscape that you deemed beautiful enough to visit in the first place. Leave it beautiful for the next visitor, and the next, and of course the locals, OK? Can’t we all be environmentally green?  It isn’t just about recycling, or car emmisions, or carbon footprints, or refraining from hacking down trees – there’s more to being green than that.  It’s the whole package ; caring for our planet starts with us each caring for our own environments and our home towns. And we should feel a sense of duty to protect and respect the places we visit too. Let’s ALL be GREEN wherever we are! Just do it!

~

Advance Diary: 

Friday: 29th May : Author’s choice – Men Only!  (A favourite photo(s) of the man/men in your life! – Husband, Lover,  Boyfriend, male friend, brother, uncle,  nephew, son, father, grandson, grandad - or anyone else I’ve missed out!)

Friday: 5th June: Author’s choice  – Phenomenal Woman (a photo(s) of one of the women in or from your your life who have had a huge impact on you, influenced you, maybe changed your life in some way for the better). (Optional: tell us why!)

Friday 12th June: Author’s choice - Prohibition (What can’t you do in your own home town?)