It's been a funny sort of week. Rushing here, rushing there and generally not having enough time.

The dustmen came as usual. This week I think they were emptying the blue bin or was it the black one? It may have even been the green bin. To be honest yours truly has no idea.

While going to work early one morning one of my neighbours was busy putting some black bin waste in their blue bin.

As they pointed out the bin men don't check what's actually in the bin so its basically the same rubbish but a different coloured bin each week. The trick is not knowing what to put in each bin but knowing which colour bin to put out.

Sadly my neighbour is colour blind so more often than not they put out a fully loaded bin but sadly it's the wrong colour and never gets emptied.

Believe me there is an awful lot of swearing when my neighbour arrives home and discovers the bin has been emptied because they put the wrong one out.

With so many bins to choose from it seems there's almost a different coloured bin for each week of the month. Surely a collection rota could be devised that used fewer bins?

Are you fed up with having too many bins too?

Of course this time of year the weather is getting colder. Rather than put food waste in their brown food recycling bin another neighbour has decided to put it out on the lawn for the local wildlife.

Things were going well for the first couple of days indeed they even invited me round to watch the little birds pecking at the crumbs of bread on their lawn.

Just as my good self was sitting there with binoculars in my hand a dirty great rat ran out onto the lawn and started eating the food intended for the birds.

Naturally your humble servant told my hosts what happened but they are unrepentant at putting food waste out for the wildlife. What can be done? It seems very little.

I wonder how many more residents have decided to put food scraps out for the animals rather than disposing of them properly.

From my own personal experience I can tell you that rats are dreadfully difficult things to get rid of. All manner of poisons, traps and snares seem useless once a population of rats infests an area.

Of course rats will be looking to move into the warm at this time of year which means they may nest under floor boards and run up cavity walls.

The sound of a rat scurrying from within a cavity wall is most unpleasant and there is very little that can be done.

The powers the be are obliged to offer free rodent eradication but from my experience it seems the poisons and chemicals they use are about as effective as a cat flap in an elephant house.

I wonder if anyone else has seen a rise in the local rat population since the new bin collections were introduced?

Please think twice before putting food out for the local wildlife.

There's no harm in putting the food out but it should be in a specifically designed container such as a nut feeder or bird table which will not end up feeding the rats instead.

What do you think?

*Don't forget to read my regular column in this Friday's edition of the printed version of the Bucks Free Press!