John Pilgrim: Some things are still worthwhile and free

I made a half-hearted effort last weekend to tidy up the cupboards and shelves in the kitchen and when it came to the homemade stuff, I realised that, apart from a jar of wild plum jam, none of it has even been opened let alone eaten.

So I am not planning on wandering through the woods this spring and summer on a search for wild fruit and if ‘the apple lady’ offers me any fruit, I shall decline.

That will only leave me with the problem of what to do with empty jars because it seems such a shame to destroy them. And if I ask the neighbours, they will only say that they have too many already!

It seems that everyman and his mother collect fruit to bottle. Maybe it’s a throwback to times gone by when people had to conserve things to get through. If that’s the case I guess that I should save the jars because things don’t appear to be improving at the moment.

Our Prime Minister usually comes up with a new ‘commitment’ to sort this or that out every week but, like his predecessor, nothing ever seems to get done.

Empty promises are no good to ordinary people, neither is it any help for members of the Royal Family to accept gifts worth mountains of money from foreign rulers whose approach to democracy and human rights is, to say the very least, questionable.

Like the national Government, the present Mayor of London is managing to find hidden resources to spend on pet subjects. Would I be too naïve to suggest that this has something to do with the forthcoming election in the capital?

As yet we don’t have a tax on walking the dog and so Gemma and I can enjoy the odd stroll to meet her canine friends.

On one morning last week we joined a band of other walkers and soon there where a dozen canines happily playing together, which was a great sight and reminder that some things are still worthwhile and free.

All we have to do now is stop motorbike riders using footpaths in the park, get people to put rubbish in the bins provided and to encourage neighbours not to put out chicken carcasses for the foxes!