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Changing the Landscape: One Bag At a Time

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March 28, 2012 10:30 a.m. Weather:  8 degrees Sunny, intermittent cloud.

I decided to tackle the section of Frank’s Flats where dog-owners like to leave their responsibilities behind.  From everything the City believes,  dogs are responsible for the big mess at these parks.  While this wasn’t my favourite day working on this project, I did determine that there is no way that the worst of the dog messes comes close to filling a single bag!  On the other hand, I’ve filled almost 40 bags with person-made litter!  What does that tell you?  I had fun making this film and considered, for one short moment, leaving the bright blue bags behind.  In the end, I imagined that they may be thrown onto the other side of the fence, so chose to retrieve them and get them into my bin.

I met Darlene today, outside of the Tim Hortons that edges onto Frank’s Flats.  I gave her one of the toques that Elma had knit for me last winter.

Darlene holds out her new toque.

She is Cantonese and has learned her english, just by being with people.  She let me photograph her recycling and her material possessions.  We chatted for some time about my project and some of what she does.  She took the Tim Hortons coffee that a young lady passed to her, transferred the coffee into an insulated thermos and then put her cup into one of her bags on her cart.  I told her how much I appreciated that she doesn’t throw her cups onto the ground.  She said, “Oh yes, that would be a disgrace.”

Darlene’s Stuff

 

Changing the Landscape: One Bag At a Time

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March 27, 2012 3:39 p.m. Weather: 5 degrees  The sun came out after a day of intermittent snow.  It felt warm outside…a real sense of springtime at Frank’s Flats.  In fact, there was Frank…soaking in the good feelings also, surrounded by a stand of evergreen trees.  He told me he’s likely heading for the coast, in search of work. He also got into telling me stories.  One was about a time when he watched a pick-up truck pull over onto the shoulder of 22X, throwing up a terrific amount of dust.  A guy rushed out of the truck and spent, what seemed to be, hours, scouring the ditches and the slope on the far side of the pond.  The next day, the same guy appeared again with an entire contingent of his friends and again, gave the once-over to the area.  Frank surmised that something very valuable must have been lost out of the back of that pick-up truck, so the day after that, he road his bike over there and spent a good bit of time looking for himself.  He said that he believed there was some sort of treasure over there, yet to be found.  I smiled…and just kept on picking.  I told him, before leaving, that I had named the place Frank’s Flats.  And he said, “Well, I appreciate that.”  I told him that not many people have a beautiful park named after them…just kings and princes.  He smiled…and we said our good-byes.

What God Leaves Behind: March 27, 2011 Frank’s Flats

The litter today included many granola bar packages and many plastic bottle tops and straws.  I topped off the bag of countless little bits of plastic and packaging with a part of a large cardboard box I found on the east side.  I’m thinking that health food bars and granola bar packaging should really reflect a more sustainable approach.

What people leave behind.

Changing the Landscape: One Bag At a Time

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March 7, 2012 3:30 p.m. Weather: 6 degrees, blue skies and sunshine. Findings:  I filled another whole green garbage bag with plastic bags!  I made a decision to capture a sense of what is going on in these wee clips, rather than taking redundant photographs of the blue bin.  Suffice it to say that there are presently three bags of collected litter in one of the bins, and little else.  It seems more than obvious to me that people do NOT throw their garbage in the bins.  I feel most disheartened today because an area that I had formerly cleared of all Tim Horton’s cups…is finding itself littered with new ones.  Am I fighting a losing battle?  I found myself saying, as I sat in the van at the end of an hour….”I will be your slave.”

Long Shadows