3 Things

I think one of the most annoying things about sustaining a long-distance relationship seems to be the phone calls… At first the worst thing was simply being apart, but I have found that you can adapt to that. What becomes problematic and irritating are the regular, long phone calls when neither of you has anything to say…

Hanging on a phone, with nothing to talk about, simply sitting there with the phone up to your ear while you both struggle to think of a topic of conversation, when you would really rather be relaxing with some crochet, or writing a blog post, or some other activity. And then you have to be the horrible person who points out that you have nothing to talk about and would rather be doing something else… And after your husband was the nice person who phoned you because he just wanted to chat…

I feel mean, but also I had stuff I wanted to do and now I don’t have time, and all we talked about is the stuff he already texted me about this morning! (bad Debbie for being so horrible about this!!)

I am now a volunteer conservation worker again! This time it’s with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust (before we moved I was with Berks Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust). I had written to them before I went to Poland asking about volunteer opportunities, but then had to wait until I after Cornwall to get back to them as I was too busy and not always with internet connection… But finally I returned my registration form and then received a calendar of work days for the next 2 months. I had tried to get in touch with a Wednesday work party, but it was only first thing this morning that I got a phone call confirming that I could come along. Talk about short notice!!

So today saw me heading off to a local woodland to spend a morning helping to fence some gaps to prevent unwanted access. I think people will climb the fences anyway, but it was a pleasant morning of meeting new people and digging deep holes in which to set fence posts. I didn’t feel quite as at home with this group as I did in my previous group, but I will still carry on.

No photos from today's work, but this is one from my previous work group at BBOWT.

I only worked half a day with the work group as I had promised my labouring skills to my mother-in-law. Yesterday I had helped her with some hedge maintenance, and there was still quite a lot of material to remove from where we had done this. Then afterwards we prepared a new area for hay storage by fixing up wooden pallets and laying in an area of barn that we allocated out of the sheep barn. We next spent several hours (until 7pm in fact!) moving bales of hay from another site to this one, in order to free up a bigger space in readiness for storing this years’ hay when it is baled. The baling will happen soon, and will be another big job for me to help with. Needless to say, I didn’t make it to the gym today! And no photos of any of this either as it was just hard work that needed to be got on with.

I am now up to 4 completed panels for my mum’s flower blanket. This is pretty poor progress, thanks to my gallivanting off to places like Somerset, Poland and Cornwall, and I really need to pull my finger out if I’m to finish in time to give to my mum before we leave the country! I’m going to try to finish off a 5^th panel tonight, but thanks to the long phone call with hubby that is looking unlikely…

4 down, and a 5th in progress...

So on that note, I will sign off and try to get some more blanket done. The late finish tonight meant that I didn’t get a chance to write up any more about Cornwall, but fingers crossed for tomorrow… :)