It's the little things that matter.

The state that the poor world is in at present, is too sad to contemplate. But contemplate it, we should! However, looking at the big picture is a) terrifying and b) pointless unless you are an expert. But the gang have been thinking about all the little things that they can do to make a difference.

• Leave your leaves in the garden.
• Turn your heating down a degree.
• Pick up one piece of plastic from the beach.
• Rescue a dog/horse/cat/mouse/rabbit/guinea pig - any furry.
• Plant something.
• Use the eco-cycle on the washing machine.
• Use your mobile phone less.
• Wear clothes until they wear out.
• Re-use your Christmas tree every year.
• Change your bedding less often.
• Give your old glasses to an eyesight charity.
• Feed the birds.
• Pay a complete stranger a sincere compliment.
• Turn your air-con down a degree.
• Rescue that bug from the puddle.
• Eat and drink a tiny bit less.
• Put a permanent log pile in your garden.
• Do not upgrade your phone unless it's stopped working.
• Do not miss your NHS doctor/nurse/dentist/hospital appointment.
• Join and use a library.
• Hand-down your kid's clothes and toys.
• Only go to Accident and Emergency if it is one.
• Buy locally produced food.
• Hug a tree (it'll make both of you feel better).
• Treat everything with kindness.
• Smile at everyone you pass by.
• Volunteer.
• Dry your washing on the line.
• Walk more.
• Drive a little more slowly.
• Leave a bowl of drinking water in your yard.
• Do not leave 'it' on standby.
• Leave some of the cobwebs.
• Send less (a lot less) Christmas cards.
• Collect rainwater.
• Recycle everything you can.
• Don't have Christmas crackers - have a silly (re-usable Christmas hat) instead. Tell your own jokes. Have a 'silver' charm, or a 'sixpence', in the Christmas pudding.
• Switch off the lights in the room you're not in.
• Put a hole in your fence to let the hedgehogs through.
• Try to do at least three of these every day.

Clever Bird doesn't believe that it's always healthy to focus wholly on the big picture. By focussing instead on the little things, the brushstrokes as it were, that make up that picture, things can make more sense.

Creative Clara is incapable of painting a masterpiece; but she's more than capable of painting lots of the multi-coloured single brushstrokes, that are needed to create that illusive painting. If she were to combine her brushstrokes with everyone else's, who knows how many masterpieces could be created between them?

If everybody did their one tiny bit to help the world, what a difference our seemingly insignificant efforts would make.

It's the little things that matter in this life...

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No Baggy was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!