Talking Point with Vicky Turrell: I am hoping to use a garden waste bin next month
‘To subscribe online visit the MiPermit website.’ I am hoping to use a garden waste bin next month. We are new here and have only the General waste and the Recycling bin, which are both dark green, but the new bin will apparently be a lighter green. On the MiPermit Portal (no, I do not know what it means either) I filled in my details and paid, after choosing the subscription I required. All went well and I had an email confirming and telling me they would send by post a bin sticker to apply to my new bin, which in my case I have not got.
How to apply for a bin did not seem obvious. There seemed no easy answers, so I went to Frequently Asked Questions. ‘Can I have a smaller bin? ‘Where does the recycling go?’ were two interesting queries but did not provide answers for me. I never find FAQs much use, do you?
In the end, when I was almost on the verge of ringing up and speaking to their AI, I saw a ray of hope on the application form for another bin - if you had lost yours or wanted a second bin. I cannot fully remember all this journey, but I did eventually order a green, ‘green’ bin and have had an email to say it will arrive soon so that I can put my special sticker on which will not peel off in the rain.
We will probably need the new bin next year when my apple trees need pruning. They have been planted at last along with a cherry tree that I have bought with my special birthday money. What a treat it will be to pick our own cherries again; I never think that the shop bought ones have the same flavour. Then came the garden centre red apple tree which was the last one in the nursery and saved especially for me. Last of all came the one I bought from outside a supermarket about six months ago. Mr T re-potted it and watered it through the summer drought, it is now taller than me and so far, has a healthy crop of leaves which have not yet turned autumnal.
The leaves will soon fall and they will leave only twigs until the spring. But autumn, after sprinting in with an early show, now seems reluctant unlike the garden centres which appear to have jumped over autumn and darted into Christmas already.
I had to search hard to find bulbs to plant in bowls. I found tulips in a hidden corner; they are already in compost with a promise of green shoots to cheer darker days.
