Blooming great news for us all..

THE queue for a recycling facility in Belfast started at 7am on Monday as Northern Ireland took its first steps out of the coronavirus lockdown.

Ken Mills was first in line for Palmerston Recycling Centre as a queue of cars stretched along the Holywood Road in the east of the city.

Motorists read newspapers in their cars as they waited for the gates to re-open at 9am.

Mr Mills said: “I got up this morning thinking, I’ll get on the ball here, because I knew it was going to be busy.

“So I’ve had a two-hour wait, but I don’t mind because I am getting rid of a lot of stuff that has been cluttering the garage. “It wasn’t so much from a clear-out, my daughter moved house and has been buying a lot of furniture and stuff which all comes in a lot of cardboard.

“She has been storing it in my garage so I had the job of getting rid of it.”

And there was a steady stream of customers at Hillmount Garden Centre, but no long queues.

Hilary Hall, from Holywood, Co Down, expressed delight at being able to browse the greenery again.

She said: “I’m here today to look at some plants for the garden that I’ve cleared during lockdown.

“I bought a lot of bedding plants through the online system so I have all my tubs and baskets done and I’ve also bought fruit and vegetables from it, which I hadn’t done before.

“I have grown most of them in tubs so I’m now eating my own strawberries and I’m starting to see little sweet peppers come along, and tomatoes.

“It has been fabulous. It filled many hours during lockdown.”