Let’s Hear It for the Tidy Towns Gang…

It’s so easy to just drive past and not really notice – but the Tidy Towns gang do incredible work.

And you notice it more on a sunny day like today, as April slips away and summer is just over that hill, the sun beaming and the clouds just scuttling on by.

Swinging into Bray, I saw these hardy men – plus, I would discover later, one camera-shy colleague – hard at work, over by Redford cemetery and on down into the big dipper that leads you up past Windgates. By the time I came back, an hour later, they’d practically turned the roadside into a garden, and were just packing up their lawnmower, hedge trimmer, rakes and spades.

The few hours that the lads had spent tidying up this particular stretch of Greystones will last for months, and make you feel that little bit happier to be home. Without necessarily realising why. The blooms will be brighter, the greens deeper, the day that little bit sunnier.

So, take a moment to remember these faces. And don’t forget to thank them the next time you see ’em, no matter how busy your sunny day might be…