2. January 18, 2020. Blue Recyclables bag on the Dumbleton road.

It can often feel like a thankless job, like painting the Forth Road Bridge with a toothbrush, or cleaning the Augean Stables with a fork. But look at that blue bag of recyclables at the beginning of 2020. Two thirds of the way up the shortest road out of the village, and it is already crammed full of bottles and cans. It used to take three hours just to do the 40-minute saunter up the Toddington road and back. Six full and heavy red and blue bags to do the Aston Somerville road as far as the little bridge. And on the day this photograph was taken there was the rest of the road up to do, and the whole road back.

Today, it would take a month or even more to fill one blue bag litter-picking all four Wormington roads. Whatever else is happening in the world around us, the parish of Wormington is coming up trumps.

Photograph taken January 1, 2020. Open skies and a beautiful landscape. Wormington is part of a Tewkesbury Borough Council volunteering scheme. TBC provides the blue bags (for recyclables); red bags for everything else (and boy, there are a lot of everything elses!); a hoop to hold the bags; a litter-picker; gloves to hold the picker; a hi-viz vest to protect the human picker; and insurance, just in case. And training. What TBC doesn't give is the satisfaction; the friendly chats with passing cyclists; the waves from cars; the camaraderie (because there are a lot of people out there who pick up litter, either formally and equipped with bags, or just as good neighbours on their walkings). The beauty of our surroundings. The changing seasons. The discoveries.