Gratitude

A long time ago I was lonely. At the time I didn't know that was was what it was. I lived in a small town because it was well placed for work. I got to, went to that work, worked hard at it, then came home again. The rest of my week was filled with the usual keeping life going things, cleaning shopping, watching TV, exercise class. Apart from my husband I felt unseen in my day to day life. I was sustained by my amazing long distance friendships, people who knew me, who understood me, kindred spirits held back by geography (and the infuriating,unfortunate fact of Crewe making the M6 so long)
And now things are different. I've been through all sorts to get to this point and learnt so many things about life and myself(as Maya Angelou said 'i wouldn't give nothing for my journey now' but that's a while other post... Series of posts!).
Today I met a friend from church for an awesome, soul charging time, bumped into three (!) other friends on the way home from food shopping (who knew that the local supermarket was the social center of the modern world), and I'm scranning a quick lunch (including eggs from *another* friendsf chickens) because yet another great lady has invited me round to hang out with her and her son before I pick super kid up from school. All this, and I am immensely lucky enough to still have my kindred spirit long distance friendships as well.
I have these 5 hours each week. The housework can wait, life's calling.

June update

Here's June!

Possibly the best breakfast ever. Fresh eggs from my friend's chickens, scrambled with just picked peas and courgette, then served with peace, quiet and a light fresh breeze (With strawberries for pudding!)

Lottie update

April's worked out well, as we tipped into May I had a full day down there and I'm really pleased with the results.

The courgettes will move tho, because I've realised that bed gets the best sun so I've decided to save it for the sweetcorn.

Crochet

Lovely gift for a lovely friend, and I'm so pleased how it turned out.

First harvest 2018

Is rubarb, and over a month earlier than last year's (which was tiny strawberries; which explains the timings. Strawbs do have flowers already tho)
Ten months on, and after a gloriously sunny day's work, the plot looks like this...

It's looking so tidy! (Shame I've planted *nothing* - time to steal seedlings from my husband)

June round up

Harvest so far and the Allotment cat, known as 'Lottie' (of course)






And progress on the layout and growing space.

Recently I've been

Reading more
Since September I've been going to my local library book group and it's really been helping me to get more reading into my life; the group books and more besides.
Other things that've helped are consciously choosing to commit to fewer TV series (helped by the fact they all seem dark, gloomy and depressing of late, so I've stuck to old favorites rather than new shows) and being ok with not finishing a book of I'm just not getting in to it. Basically libraries are awesome.

Allotmenting
I'm feeling good about the sections of my wilderness I've reclaimed, and there's onions, potatoes, strawberries, sunflowers, beetroot and courgettes growing. I'm realising that my long term vision for the plot is going to be *very* long term at this rate though. I'm going to need to commit more hours, in a more regular way if I want things to happen more quickly.

banning 'should'
As simple and as complicated as it sounds.
"I should make lunches for tomorrow" flips to "the morning will be easier if I make lunches now". Removes the obligation, removes the guilt. (It also works for heavier things than household management, though some areas are taking more practice. I'm building up my should-ban muscles on the practical, ready for the emotional)

Reading, but no writing or sewing (or even much crochet - 5 months into a stop start soft toy project). I'm wondering about a rename, now I've reappeared here (and if I stay for a while)