The summer's coming to an end , and this is probably the last chance most of us will have to get to a beach. Unfortunately the problem of plastic rubbish in the sea isn't going away. If you've been to the seaside this summer you'll have seen the evidence: abandoned plastic bottles, drifting plastic bags , unidentifiable bits of broken plastic. These last are especially worrying, because the rest of them has probably already choked or poisoned some kind of marine wildlife.

Look up www.plastictides.org to learn about four people who are doing everything they can to prevent more damage.

One thing we can all do is try to use less plastic. This is how much I managed to collect in my own house yesterday:

That took ten minutes to collect. it will all be recycled - but the world would be a healthier place without it.

Anyway - have a good end of the summer -

Rachel

This summer I've become a devoted Discworld fan - not quite  enough to camp outside a bookstore when the last - postumously published - novel  came out last week , but I do love them. Unfortunately you have to be quite old to enjoy them ; the language is complicated and you really need to have read lots of other famous authors first . This one, however, is just good fun. It includes some familiar Terry Pratchett themes - such as 'the trousers of time' - and it makes you think, but it's easy to understand.
If  you've read your way through the entire Cherub series (I love that too) - this might be an acceptable next book.

Last weekend was the RSPB Big Wild Sleep-out when families all over the UK spent the night outside, finding out what wildlife appears at night.  I decided to watch day time wildlife instead. This is some I found not very far from my house.
Most of my regular letter-writers now know my real-life 'Owl and Pussycat' story. (There was an owl, and there was a cat : those are the facts . Also the owl was still around a few days later).

Don't try this at home. Don't try any of it - advertising your party on social media, climbing into people's gardens at night, playing with swords....Also I don't really recommend reading it. Shakespeare didn't mean his plays to be read. He meant them to be performed. Anyone can enjoy the 30 minute  Animated Shakespeare version ; if you want to see the whole play, watch the 1996 Baz Luhrmann film.
There are many things I don't like about this play. It makes you embarrassed to be an adult, for one thing. For another, I dont believe the great love would have lasted. Romeo and Juliet get married knowing nothing about each other except that they're both good looking and none of their parents will approve.
Of course there is some beautiful poetry. But the parts I like are the little glimpses of real human behaviour. Catch Juliet trying to sound casual when finding out Romeo's name (Act 1 Scene5 lines128 onwards ) - or the Capulets organising a party at the beginning of Act IV Scene 4, before everything goes horribly wrong.