People do strange things

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Today I arranged to meet a friend to go for a walk in the woods with her dogs. And while I was waiting for her I thought I would clear up some of the litter that plagues the roadside around the parking place. In five minutes or so I cleared up two sacks of litter plus a carrier bag of cleanish bottles and cans that could be recycled. Among the usual rubbish – drink cans and beer bottles, sandwich wrappers and wet wipes – I found a large tub of aqueous cream (the sort of thing used to treat babies with eczema), a new 2023 diary and a hoodie, but the strangest thing was two jars of home-made preserves in a bag. Why would anyone toss those on the roadside? My only theory so far is that maybe someone received them as a gift for Christmas, perhaps from a grandmother or some other relative, and after leaving the family gathering they decided they didn’t want anything like that and chucked them out of the car. One was fig jam and the other pepper jam or chutney, in cute little jars, dated last August and apparently unopened. Certainly they were well within their usable lives. I would have been very happy to receive them! It was sad to think someone had lovingly made those delicious preserves only to have them dumped once the recipients were out of sight. Of course I didn’t keep them, but I emptied the contents into our compost bin and washed out the jars so at least they can be used again. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2023.