Now that I have introduced you to the wonders of TerraCycle it’s time to talk some more ‘recycling’.

I also collect clean dried foil, small metal items such as metal jar lids and anything that can fit in my car to take to a scrapyard to raise the funds for Help for Heroes, Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Care.

Last year we removed over half a tonne of metal / foil and in turn raised £209 for the charities. I know its not considerate amount but at least its metal that people would normally not bother with to take to the tip and it would end up in the landfill.

     That’s where this year is going to be different. All that is thanks for my newly discovered hobby, Metal Detecting. Sadly, I do not belong to the group of detectorists who discover hoard of precious gold Viking items. I am the one that should be called ‘free scrap removal service’.

     In a field where my colleague finds a lovely silver Elizabeth I hammered coin, I find enough lead to fix a church roof, aluminium that can fill one black bin sack and random bits that fill a random metal bag for the scrap yard. Who knows how much metal contributed to this much needed cause, but I can surely say that the amount of horse shoes I supplied in my last lot might be significant?

     Sadly, this might stop as without permission of the land owner I can’t go detecting. I do not know anyone with land either nor am I friendly with any local farmer.  I would love to ask you all to spread the word that I am keen as mustard and in need of permission. In turn I can show them what history I have found on their land.  

       As I scroll through my metal detecting forums, I envy other’s finds. I was most intrigued when someone was unable to identify one their finds. It was a glass mushroom with its own chain attached to it. As I love glass and pottery, I was also keen to learn its history. After reading the answers my naïve life was enriched as I never knew that this glass item wasn’t to put on your window sill but rather to put into the one place on your body where sun never shines

      Pink cheeked I moved onto another post where I learned that romans loved their phallic symbol to ward off an evil and that houses of pleasure used their own coinage. In these red-light house district accommodations, you weren’t allowed to pay with an emperor headed coin. Hence, depending what you wanted to be done, you had to pay with a coin depicting the specific thing you purchased.  

     I had to explain the above as if anyone is kind enough to give me permission to detect on their land, they need to understand my metal detecting abilities. Knowing my luck, after all day detecting, I rock up to their household holding a glass mushroom with its chain, roman coin without an emperor and a fabulous phallic brooch…..

    J. Karst (#jkarstauthor; #littleberkshirewomble)

https://www.instagram.com/little_berkshire_womble/

https://www.facebook.com/J-Karst-Author-106278647988024