Stuff and stuff and pictures in Hello.

Hi.
There’s only Eleanor and I in the house right now. John and Rob have gone to work and Bel is away in Wales, after being invited (very last minute!) to go along with Katie and co. It seemed to take them a VERY long time to get to their destination, but I haven’t heard from them since they got there last night, so I’m assuming all is well.
Because of Katie and Shaun going away, we’ve been left in charge of the cats, Owly and Peggy. Poor Peggy isn’t well at the moment, she’s under the vet for some tummy issues. She’s like a tiny little barrel! As a consequence, their litter tray is revolting to empty! Thankfully Katie keeps it in the bathroom, so all I have to do is scoop it straight into the toilet. You’d have thought they hadn’t seen another living soul for weeks, the way they reacted when I walked in! Rub, rub, purr, purr, let me show you where my food is kept, if you’d be so kind....now pet me and play with me a bit....
Wee Owly has ataxia too, so she walks with her back end swaying from side to side. She’s otherwise fine, but occasionally flops a bit. She appears to be able to jump and down onto stuff.

A couple of weeks ago, we spent a week camping on the beautiful Scottish island of Arran. The weather was great, we only had one rainy day, which we spent walking in a forest. Rob also discovered fishing. John bought him a rod and we didn’t see him for a couple of days! He didn’t catch a single thing, but through it made friends with a couple of German chaps who wanted to take photos of Rob fishing off this rock and ask him about travelling in England and Scotland. In return they bought him a couple of drams in the nearby hotel. The Germans got legless trying each whisky behind the bar, whereas Rob sat and nursed his two all night…he’s not a fan!

Valdareee, valdaraaah! Eleanor carrying her own sleeping bag and roll. :)










Eleanor couldn’t get the hang of making a heart....

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I’ve been being crafty as of late. I’m trying to get my online shop filled up for Christmas. I’ve recently bought this amazing book with wonderful creations in it. This was my first knit out of it, I love how it’s turned out!

Shellie put it on my head and took my photo:

We’re so completely normal, I swear....
I’ve also rustled up an owl for Bel:

A phone case for myself:

…and been experimenting with doilies:

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A couple of days ago I found out about a brilliant volunteering opportunity for me, via the Mosaic group that Rob’s a member of. It’s learning how to do practical outdoor things, like brush clearance, gate hanging, fence building and dry stone walling. In return for volunteering my time, I can also do a college course that leads to an NVQ level two. This involves learning how to drive an ATV, which sounds like loads of fun! I already have the hands on, customer facing experience, but I lack a lot of the practical skills. I’ve done a bit of footpath maintenance and drain clearing, but not much else. So I’m well up for that!
Speaking of which, I’ve just finished doing my mini trekkers sessions! They went really well, with families turning up for all three days. I also attended a follow up session, where we decided we would try it again next year, with a heck of a lot more publicity and clear signage, as a few people actually turned up for the walk and walked right past us, because they weren’t aware we were actually there to lead the group! I loved doing those, they were great fun. Seeing the different ways the kids would interpret the activities was really interesting!
One of the activities we did was to build a natural map of the view the kids could see from the shores of Derwentwater. This was the one from the other day, complete with mummy in a tent and sheep made from real wool!

So, even though I’ve been a stay at home parent for almost two months now, I haven’t been sitting doing nothing!

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I’ve been having a lot of meaningful dreams as of late. It’s funny, I was just saying to Shellie last week how I don’t believe in dream interpretation, I think your dreams are as individual to you as your fingerprint. Say for example, you dream about a spider. I’m not scared of them, but you might be terrified of them, so saying that dreaming about spiders means this thing to everybody, just feels wrong. If you dig really deep, you can interpret them yourself.
My recent dreams didn’t need any interpretation at all. In one dream I was living in a commune with a bunch of real and online friends. It felt great being a part of this group where I could use my skills to benefit the group as a whole. I’m not sure what I brought to the group, I do know I was knitting at blankets at one point. It was wonderful sneaking in through the secret door to our home, and watching other people whizzing past in suits, going to their 9-5 jobs. When I woke up I felt totally calm and happy.
Then another dream that I had was I had all this business to take care of, buying stock for a shop, sorting out paperwork and buying a bunch of flowers for my boss. As I was going back to work (don’t know where it was, it seemed irrelevant to my dream!) I saw a band busking. I stood and listened for a while and they started playing Debaser, so I just threw all my paperwork in the air and started to dance like a crazy person. I danced all the way through the song, flinging my hair around and not caring about the people who had gathered to watch (that would happen in real life anyway! :p I’m a dangerous dancer!) Right at the end, I approached the singer and gave her a kiss on the cheek and the bunch of flowers. I then got on the bus and went home. I think those two dreams need little to no interpretation, truth be told!

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Last updated August 30, 2014