Say goodbye to Hollywood

At least, goodbye to this pack of Hollywood chewing gum. Somebody tossed this empty pack alongside one of the roads in our neighborhood, probably from a car. If you've been to France you probably know that Hollywood is a common brand of gum here. I remember it from back in 1981. Yikes! According to the company's Facebook page, the brand was created in 1952.

A frosty, yet empty, pack of strong mint-flavored chewing gum.

Our neighborhood is active this weekend. The woman who owns the house next to ours is down from Paris with her partner. They had the electricity people in on Saturday to install their new meter. I saw Mr. Man (as I call him) out working in the yard. The house next to theirs belongs to the daughter of our late neighbor. She and her family came down with a trailer and a couple of vans to continue emptying the house before they sell it. They had another bonfire yesterday, burning more big pieces of furniture. The people next to them are digging out a portion of their front yard. I think they're making a space to park their second car so they don't have to jockey two cars in and out of their driveway. Oh, and I took a couple of bins of stuff to the recycling center. Woo-hoo!

On the ground, one more time

This time it's litter. We see all kinds of stuff cast from cars out where the dirt road behind our house meets up with a paved road. It's not a lot, but on more than one occasion I've seen empty beer cans out there. I've also seen empty cigarette packs, dumped ash trays, used tissues, and fast-food wrappers. This is the label from a plastic water bottle. Some grape growers use old one-liter water bottles to protect young vines, so this could be from one of those.

High-end litter.

Not far from our house there's a stream bed that cuts a pretty deep ravine on its way down to the river. I've gone into the woods to have a look and noticed that people have dumped stuff there. There's even an old appliance, like a washing machine, lying out there. I've never understood why someone would dump things there, when there's a perfectly good (and free) official dump just across the river. And they take everything. I mean, if you can drive your junk to a ravine in a vineyard, why not just drive it to the dump?

Cross Paul

On my way across the Ile de la Cité, I saw these discarded napkins in a crosswalk. I risked life and limb to stop and take the picture. I'm not sure what was more dangerous, oncoming traffic or crossing pedestrians. But, obviously, I survived.

Parisian litter.

Paul is a chain of bakeries/restaurants in France and around the world. I think the only time I've been to one was at an autoroute rest stop some years ago. But I see them around, especially in Paris.

The road to ruin is littered with dashed hopes

Someone's lottery scratcher did not produce a win, so it was carelessly tossed out of a car window onto the side of the road. The ticket's pretty colors will compete with the wildflowers until rain and sunlight cause it to decompose. Once again, I did not pick up this piece of litter I encountered on a recent walk with Callie.

I like the flowers better.

While there isn't a lot of litter around here, we do find curious things along the roads and paths from time to time. Mostly we see used shotgun shells. There is also a busted clay pigeon or two. Crumpled tissues, crushed cigarette packs, and empty beer cans show up periodically, although none in great quantity. A few times, someone used the woods as a dump for broken floor tiles, old appliances, and miscellaneous pieces of household trash (these were quickly cleaned up by the town). I remember wondering why someone would pack that stuff up and dump it in the woods when there are free dumping facilities within a few kilometers. A while back we discovered the rusted out shell of an abandoned car in the woods, all overgrown with vines and weeds. After a couple of years, it disappeared, but we have no idea who took it away. I once saw a couple of used condoms on the ground at the end of the dirt road that runs through the vineyard. Yuck. I used a stick to move them into a ditch and covered them with leaves so the dog would not get curious.

Litter

Somebody left a juice box behind in the vineyard. I took the photo, but I didn't pick up the box. I should take a little bag out with me next time. It's funny to see a box of grape juice among the grape vines. The French word for grape is raisin; what we call raisins are raisins secs (dry grapes) in French.

Pure grape juice.

The sun has come out again and things are drying up a little outdoors. Of course, with the clear skies, the early morning hours are chilly. But it's nice to see the sun and enjoy bright days for a change.