Who would dream of starting a travelling circus at the dawn of the 218 century? Who would brave old trucks, noisy animals, lack of toilets, lack of baths, unless they had been born to it? Nell Gifford would. From 1998, when she and her husband Toti took the great decision, she built up Giffords Circus from one second-hand tent and one abandoned wagon found in a wood to a treasured summer institution. As soon as her shining hand-painted wagons appeared in a town, queues would form and tickets would fly out as fast as they could be printed.

It was a pocket circus, with a small ring and a group of perhaps four dozen performers. Most of the costumes were handmade. Yet all the thrill of the circus was there full-on. And there she was at the centre of it all, dressed in whatever feathers or hat the show demanded.

What was a middle-class graduate form Oxford doing in such a place? She had many answers.Childhood dreams came into it, of horses and dressing-up boxes, and of living in a beautifully decorated wagon under the stars. The ring allowed her to ride horses, which she loved, in ways that magnified(放大) their mystery and possibilities. She could push her creativity to the extreme.

Nonetheless it was a business, and the road had been long to get there. She and Toti started with almost no money and almost no experience. In her head, though, were the images (景象) that had amazed her at the Circus Roncalli in Germany, where visitors drank wine and the front-of-house staff wore designer uniforms, celebrating shows that were also works of art. She would have elegance and order in her circus, too.

Meanwhile, as they renewed their first wagon, they worked in a freezing hut, were fed for nothing by a friendly restaurant owner, and ran up debts of $10000. Slowly they found performers. Then in 2000, they played at the Hay Festival and everything changed. By 2007, they needed a director. By 2010 they had a permanent base on a farm. They became famous.

I was never very neat, while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled(贴标签) everything. I always looked for everything. Over time, Kate got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.

War broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming. “Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!” Deafened, I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.

The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it. From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled(爬under her covers, sobbing. Obviously, that was something she should not go through alone. All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart.

Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bed, cleaned the socks and swept the floor, even on her side. I got so into my work that I even didn’t notice Kate had sat up. She was watching, her tears dried and her expression one of disbelief. Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me, “Thanks.”

Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn’t always agree, but we learned the key to living together: giving in, cleaning up and holding on.

When Maria Beall sees trash on the ground, she picks it up with joy. “It's your workout as well as keeping your community clean,” says Beall, a sports exercise physiologist. She and her husband, Mike, recently moved to Richmond's Manchester neighborhood. While walking their dog, she noticed someone had dumped(倾倒)a sofa and a microwave in an alley, and she saw fast-food wrappers(外包装) and plastic bottles on the sidewalks. Beall was concerned about the impact on the environment. So she decided to organize a regular cleanup to keep Manchester beautiful.

Beginning in March, volunteers began meeting at Legend Brewing Co. for a monthly Saturday-morning cleanup. Open to everyone, the effort has attracted 20 to 75 people monthly. On a recent Saturday, volunteers wearing gloves and carrying trash bags were divided into smaller groups, and for two hours, spread across all parts of Manchester.

“I've always found that getting involved with projects like this is a win-win," says Ann Kramer, one of the volunteers, who moved to Manchester in 2019. “I meet great people, and my community gets stronger.”

“I think the cleanup sends a message to new residents that Manchester is a neighborhood that cares,” Kramer adds. “This area is exploding in growth, with many new people moving in each month, so we hope that the regular commitment to ensuring Manchester's streets are clean will be another reason why people would choose Manchester.”

New businesses are also opening here, and some are monthly cleanup sponsors, including Dandelion Health Direct Primary Care. Family physician Joe Fields-Johnson says he opened his practice in Manchester "because of the critical need for primary care access in this neighborhood”. Fields-Johnson says beautiful green spaces and clean neighborhoods benefit people's health.

Beall feels grateful to live in Manchester and appreciates how neighbors come together for the cleanups. “I like the sense of community,” she says. “I'm also hoping it inspires other neighborhoods and that there will be more cleaner neighborhoods, because we're all in this together.”