…..has sadly lost its rubber seal and, rather than replace the seal which would be difficult to find, I looked for a new little food caddy.

The purpose of the food caddy is to save all the kitchen scraps, avocado seeds, crumbs, old dog food etc inside a compostable bag and, once a week, put it out to be collected by the council at the same time as they collect other rubbish.

I used to have a composting bin in the garden. I would go to the bin several times a week to add coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, chicken bones, sprouted potatoes, greens that have passed their use-by date etc etc but, every time I looked for compost, I found only bare earth!

Eventually it occurred to me that something was coming along, digging under the edge of the bin and carting away anything it thought edible to its family. It was probably rats!

We used to have a bird feeding station near the house. One day I saw a rat climbing up the post and taking peanuts from the feeder. Then it ran down the post and went under the big hydrangea bush we had. The bird feeder was given away as was the big compost bin! Where the rats have gone is unknown but the hydrangea bush is gone as well, so they’re not under there!