Vienna sausages, an old mill and discarded paint into a river are my inspiration for this post.

In my last post I said I would next talk about how a can of Vienna sausages, an old concrete mill and discarded paint cans were the inspiration for the next part of my book - Our Environment's Friends. When I was a boy, dad and I would leave the house and walk for an hour to up to a place called Blackwood's Gully, on the Terra Nova River. We were sure to get trout there. A couple of year's ago, I was on bike on the same Plant Road when I came across some discarded paint cans, very near our old trouting spot, paint leaking into the river. Of course, I was upset like Joel was when he discovered all the litter by their fishing place. It was too late to stop the paint from leaking into the river as it had already drained onto the bank. All I could do was pick up the empty cans. The old mill - a paper mill that never went into production- is also located close to the river. Until the town put a fence around the perimeter to keep people away from the old mill because of the hazard of concrete falling off the old building, it was a favourite place for parties and fires. Lots of times there were drink cans, bottles and plastics strewn around after the revelers had gone home. Someone else had to clean up after them. When I started training for this year's Tely 10, I always went plogging (picking up litter while you are jogging) during my practice runs. The first time I jogged by a particular spot in the road I noticed an empty Vienna sausage can thrown by the roadside. Well, a couple of days later I spotted another empty Vienna sausage can thrown in the exact same spot. In the first couple of weeks I must have picked up at least 6 empty cans in the same location. Puzzling indeed. So, the next part of the book, these three incidents were the inspiration for Joel and his Grandpa encountering all sort of litter on their fishing trip. But the Vienna sausages became a good part of their excursion. My next post will be about an unfortunate bald eagle, a school of caplin and an unfortunate Minke whale. Remember that each shared post gives you a chance to win one of two of my new books or a stuffed toy puffin. As mother always said, "When you show kindness to someone it always comes back tenfold." Please show kindness to our environment and pick up litter. Cheers, Phil