Thursday Photo Prompt – Bridge #writephoto

Time to get my thinking cap on!
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/3193846/posts/1351076650

The colour reminded her of raspberry blancmange, but there pleasant similarity ended.
These murky waters were strewn with rubbish, rotting food, even an old mattress.
The River Dummer bore a revised sign, an ‘m’ having been replaced with PST by a crude hand.
Government cutbacks had led to reduced waste collections which only increased fly tipping, so now local rivers were awash with trash, scenic streams conveyor belts of waste, and picturesque bridges like this an eyesore.
Gone were the ducks and swans she used to feed as a child, gone too were the small fish, newts, tadpoles and toads, and in their place uncaring decay ate away at the river bank.
Time for change.

As Mayor, she called a meeting at the Town Hall.
She recognised families, friends, work colleagues, shop owners, bankers, even the snooty librarian had put in an appearance. In fact, no-one had stayed away, all wanting to hear what she had to say.
Her ideas were met with mixed reviews, but overall, everyone wanted to play a part in cleaning up their town.
A local skip firm offered free hire for a weekend to clear the river.
The youth hostel said they would send along a gang to help load it.
Mrs Jenkins the baker said she’d provide coffee and cake for the workers.
A builder said he would help repair the brickwork on the bridge in his spare time, together with his three sons who were learning the trade.
A new sign replacing the defaced River Dummer appeared, no-one knew from where, or who had done the beautiful artwork.

It was a start.
They had six months before the judges visited for the Village in Bloom competition, and already excited wannabe gardeners were cultivating shrubs and bulbs to put in planters donated by a DIY centre which were old stock and wouldn’t sell. The woman running the evening arts and crafts class had some ideas of her own about those!