Say Hello to My Little Friend - Mr. Trash Man

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I found this little man at the side of the road and I just couldn't leave him be. Nature didn't like him and he seemed to be shattered about it.
How could I leave him out there, in the scorching heat?

There's different approaches to everything.

Where, in the not too distant past, I would be annoyed by trash along the road - especially by the people who dump stuff and litter from their car windows - but I would probably still leave the trash be, I now deal with the issue, without complaing about it, feeling good about my contribution to cleaning the environment and making the plants and animals - and perhaps some humans too - happier by my actions.

As I never saw anyone pick trash out here, in Portugal, I decided to "just do it" myself. Not only that, I also sort and recycle it and then throw it in the designated bins.

I wanted to just take a picture of the amount of trash that I picked on a half hour hike this afternoon ( with the plan to pick blackberries ).

After I'd put it on the floor of my living room, my creative brain took over and started making a trash man instead.

I even used some straw / dried grass, that I picked up accidentally while picking the plastic out of my area's nature, to give the li'l man some hair.

For those of you who were wondering, this aint a self portrait:

I have loads of hair.

In fact, I haven't had a haircut since pre-'The Thing' ( mid February? ). This is probably a new growing record, since my childhood.

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Wild enough for you?

It's starting to look pretty 80s, but that's fine by me - as I'm a kid from the early 80s anyway.

A month or two ago, my twin sister, of all people, asked me - after seeing a selfie of mine - if I had curls?

She didn't remember haha.

It should be pretty curl, I mean clear, by now, to her and the world that I do indeed have curly hair ( if it's long enough ).

Anyhow, this wasn't supposed to be a post about trash picking nor about my hairdo but I find it an important topic anyway ( the trash picking that is )

Whenever I can think of it, I take a plastic bag ( sorry about that, another problem here in Portugal ) along with me, to collect trash from the side of the road. I guess that's another benefit of not having a car ( nor a bike - working on that ) and walking a lot.

People who walk, can actually pick trash.

I don't think many people who just drive cars do the same.

In fact, most trash here seems to literally be thrown out of cars ( especially empty cigarette boxes ).

By the way, if you were wondering, yes I did.

I picked loads of blackberries, making sure that I left way more on the plants though. It also felt good to take from nature, in exchange for cleaning it.

Here's a picture of the blackberries:

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They are small, probably due to the drought ( it has hardly rained here in the last couple of months ), but they are also extremely tasty. I gobbled up a couple of handfuls of them this afternoon.

I'm gonna end it here for today - this became a different post than you're used from me.

Yes, I'm still writing :<)

I rewrote around 15 pages of last November's 50k words ( about 90 pages ) of The Story of Hypersensitivosaurus.

The heat made it hard to work on this a lot but I'm happy with the progress so far.

From tomorrow onward, I will spent a couple of days - without a laptop, without Discord, for some holiday feel - at my twin sister's place. I'm looking forward to it.

I plan to go there on foot ( I guess that it will be a 3 hour walk ), for the very first time in the 1 year and 10 months since I bought my house here and I must say that I'm eager to give this a try.

I've always walked and hiked a lot, just not to Lot(te), my twin sister.

I might do some hitchhiking too but - knowing myself - I'll probably try to walk the entire way. It will require some serious fitness - as it's mountain roads - and probably be pretty adventurous too but I'm up for it.

I'm pretty healthy these days, even though there's still so much that I can improve on.

I plan to leave tomorrow morning, as early as I can ( probably not that early as it's hard to sleep before midnight due to the heat ), bring loads of water and fruit along, as well as good walking shoes and - of course - a plastic bag to pick trash and hopefully blackberries too.

See you around, ✨

Vincent

P.S. I'd love to hear if you're a trash picker too? Especially if you're not living in a city. If you're a city person though, you might do dumpster diving instead ( read this inspiring post by @ammonite on how he found a computer in the so called 'trash' - HERE - and how he managed to get it working )

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 4 years ago  

Is it just me or is your writing getting more awesome each day? It was a kind gesture you had towards Mr. Trash, and those blackberries were nice reciprocation from Nature 🍃

It's just you ;<)

Gracias hombre. I appreciate the compliment. I'm pretty much in a flow these days. Feels like I keep on leveling up, kind of like hypersensitivosaurus ( changing into SuperZENsitivosaurus )

Thank you for your kind words and I can only hope that you're doing well too.

Onwards and upwards. Here's some of my never ending good vibes, all the way from Portugal towards Chile:

 4 years ago  

Thanks, they should be arriving right about now :D

Hey congrats @vincentnijman!
@cleanplanet is happy to see this post ! Thank you for your Eco-citizen action

@cleanplanet account reward each person who clean up our only one Planet

100% upvote for encouragement !

Just next time please...

  • pick-up trash from nature
  • shown or prove the date of the day
  • put the collect in a public bin
  • use cleanplanet tag or CLEAN PLANET COMMUNITY

Much love !!!
@yann0975
@cleanplanet

100% upvote

You earn 500 PLANET TOKEN

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Burn CLEAN TOKEN to @null on hive-engine with each link of your post in memo and get @cleanplanet upvote

 4 years ago  

It also felt good to take from nature, in exchange for cleaning it.

Oh this is wonderful Vincent, nature couldn't be more grateful to have you.

By the way, I've never in my life tasted blackberries, never.

How about keeping your hair long until December? If you do, I'll cut mine hahaha.

I hope you have a wonderful time with your sister.

Muchos abrazos gigantes ♥.

nature couldn't be more grateful to have you.

Nature loves you too, Daniela :<)

A shame you've never tasted blackberries. You're missing out on something. Blackberry jam is probably one of my favorite jams around.

How about keeping your hair long until December? If you do, I'll cut mine hahaha.

Hmm... let me think about it, I'm seriously considering a haircut. Besides, I like the way your hair looks ( but I'm not sure if it's the same length as on your profile picture )

I had a good time at my sister. Loads of people, loads of talking. Now I'm enjoying the contrast again, home alone in my little hamlet.

🤗

If you're a city person though, you might do dumpster diving instead

Ha ha, I would love to do this too, but I don't live in a city. So all trash here is taken/ recycled. Nothing left.

Same here. No serious dumpsters to dive in :<)

Only a 3hr walk, you'll be fine :D (just watch the heat and whatnot and maybe leave early morning or plan to arrive before it gets dark, carry enough water etc XP) Mountain roads hey, be super careful :O

Things were actually better around here for a bit with stupid virus forcing everyone indoors, there wasn't so much trash around. I haven't been out on foot recently to see how it is now though ^_^;

Blackberries look good :D

I survived and really enjoyed the walk. There was some light rain ( the only rain in weeks ) and it really made for a perfect temperature. I had plenty of water and fruit with me. Also, the roads weren't dangerous all, aside from some big trucks passing every now and then.

I should get myself some blackberries again, today or tomorrow but my body is telling me it needs loads of rest right now so it might need to wait till tomorrow.

Thanks for your never ending support and thoughtful comments

🤗

My experience with mountain roads is that they tend to be narrow and bendy with poor visibility and drivers that think they're pro racers XD

Yeh I'm not surprised you need loads of rest, 3hr walks are a decent effort (despite me saying "only" 3hrs XD).

I get you :<)

These roads are kind of the opposite. Pretty good visibility, little traffic, and not that narrow. Also, a big part of the walk was kind of off-road, with trees on both sides ( if they hadn't been burnt down in the fires of 2017 )

I feel my tiredness has more to do with ( possible the acupuncture, my body's energy resetting and ) the three days spent at my twin sister's, where I had to play the extrovert again and interact with dozens of people ;<)

Yeh the gathering sounds more exhausting than the walk for sure XD

There seems to be a blue theme happening with your trash. Is it a popular colour there?

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There seems to be a blue theme happening with your trash. Is it a popular colour there?

You have an eye for detail. Good question. Perhaps it's just the color people like to get rid of the most ;<)