Aims and Goals for 2019

I’m not one for resolutions for the new year as things happen and I don’t achieve them and then it sends me on a big ol’ downward spiral because I’m a failure (at least that’s how my brain works anyway). So with that in mind, instead of “resolutions”, I have some aims and goals for the year but a lot of them are practical and will just happen anyway, but writing them down helps to focus my mind and efforts.

1)      Move out of my parents house (!!!) – I have just turned 30, and due to circumstances I just haven’t been able to afford to leave without risking putting myself in major debt. This year, now that I have a stable long term relationship, and am about to start a permanent job role, I am hoping to be moved out by my 31^st birthday.

2)      Lose a bit of weight. I want to lose about one stone (around 7kg). It isn’t much but it’ll make me feel better about myself and my body. And my jeans will fit again.

3)      Spend more time at the allotment. I am aiming for one hour a week. I will also budget a small amount of money each month to go towards allotment related things – tools, wood, paint etc.

4)      Walk more and hula hoop more.

5)      Save a decent amount of money and actually keep it saved. I am useless at saving money.

I have a swanky new diary and I’m going to keep a log of the walking, swimming and hula hooping that I do, and I’m going to set up new standing orders so my money leaves my bank account before I even know it’s there.

I want to get fit enough to climb Snowdon without being completely knackered.

I want to take David to Scotland.

I want to see a starling murmuration!!

Other aims include things like; take better care of myself and get my hair cut more than once a year. Ya know, ‘normal’ things.

7 Wild Days of Christmas; Days 4 and 5

On day four I whipped up some more jute twine scrubbies. These have replaced the little green sponges in the kitchen in an attempt to reduce plastic usage. I have crocheted them using garden twine, and when they are at the end of their working life they can be composted, or buried in the garden to rot down. Jute is a natural plant fibre which is strong and holds its shape when wet.

For day five Momma P and I went for a walk – we have decided to start walking on a Saturday in a bid to get fit and lose a bit of weight – so we went up to the allotment to put the turkey carcass out for the fox and top up the bird feeders. While we were there I noticed that the first of the bulbs are starting to push through!

7 Days of Wild Christmas; Days 1, 2 and 3.

My first three days of the Wild Christmas challenge are fairly simple. I am an outdoorsy person anyway, so it isn’t hard for me to get outside to do something, but I have liked having a reason to do so. I have lots of crochet projects and other craft things going on, so it’d be very easy for me to avoid the outside world this week.

Day One; Momma P and I went up to Plot 31 and fed the birds and fox, and I also hung a homemade suet, lard, cheese, mealworm, peanut & mixed seed feeder. We made it in half of a coconut shell.

Day Two; David and I went for a walk to a new part of Cannock Chase (new for us). We saw a buzzard flying low over the heath, and looked for deer tracks in the mud. We have both been ill and I had a wee hangover so it was only a short walk.

Day Three; Another day, another walk. This day was our two-year anniversary and instead of doing what we usually do (a mooch around the Wren’s Nest in Dudley so I can get more fossils that I don’t need) we decided to go for a walk up Kinver Edge. I’ve only been here once before and I didn’t walk anywhere, so it doesn’t count. David and I did a circular route along the top of the sandstone ridge, saw a small cloud inversion, spoke to some dogs, and I admired some long yellow catkins. I love catkins, they remind me of my childhood.

Four days left! I am posting my daily pictures on Instagram and Twitter. What are you doing to have 7 Wild Days?

Crochet Blanket Inspiration; Ombre Stripe

Sometimes a simple blanket colour scheme can be an effective way to make something unique. This particular blanket, I made when I was signed off work sick a few years ago. I was also away on holiday (had the holiday booked before I was signed off, went on holiday anyway). This blanket was born from a need to do something constructive but mind numbingly simple, and to keep my brain and hands occupied to help reduce my anxiety levels.

It is now referred to as my ‘anxiety blanket’ and despite each and every row having the same number of stitches – I have counted and recounted numerous times to make sure – there is an 8” difference in width at the top and the bottom. Why? Because I was so tense and anxious when I started, that my stitch tension was a lot tighter. Towards the end as I was recovering and was less ill, my normal tension returned and my stitches are a lot looser and relaxed.

I chose a simple colour range to fade in and out of white to orange and back again. The people I was on holiday with didn’t think it’d look very good, or agree with my colour choices, but I stuck with it and at the end it actually looks very effective. I decided not to do a border on this as I didn’t want to neaten it up. It is a product of me being ill and a story charting my recovery. Mental illness does not have neat and tidy edges, so nor does my blanket.

I used Stylecraft Special DK in white, shades of yellow, and spice.

My holiday you ask? I was away on the Isle of Arran in Scotland for a week, and I remember spending most of my time on a sofa, in the sun, watching the Firth of Clyde, doing crochet, and having naps whenever I wanted. During the week we saw an otter, seals, dolphins, and a basking shark. I also saw a fireball in the sky (no one else did though…)

There are worse places to be when you're off work with a bad brain.

Read about my other blankets too!

7 Days of Wild Christmas

You may have heard of 30 Days Wild, an event organised by the Wildlife Trusts to get people out and engaged in nature for the month of June. This year, they have given us a festive edition – the 7 Days of Wild Christmas! Running from December 25^th to 31^st, the aim is the same; get outdoors into nature even if it’s only for 15 minutes, and see what you can see. Stop and listen. Feel the sun on your face or make patterns in the frost.

Introducing #7DaysofWildChristmas, a week-long nature challenge to do one wild thing a day from 25-31 December! Find ideas and inspiration here: https://t.co/TE1GlPNHWZ pic.twitter.com/EWDcaPlzvV

— The Wildlife Trusts (@WildlifeTrusts) December 22, 2018

Simple things can include feeding the birds and given them fresh water, or going for a cold wintry walk in a local park. It could also be recycling your real tree, watching a sunset, spotting natural clumps of mistletoe in trees now that the leaf cover is gone, or making items from things you’ve found – natural wreaths, suet bird feeders, or bug houses for example.

I will be taking part as I need a reason to get out at this time of year. I hate the festive season, so having something to focus on will help me massively. I will be posting pictures over on my Instagram and I’ll try to blog every day but it may not happen as I’ll be in places without internet.

You can get more ideas here from the Wildlife Trust website.

Highgate Common

Doncaster

Charmouth

I can't remember.

Attenborough Nature Reserve

Rushcliffe Country Park

Plot 31

Rushcliffe Country Park

Allotment Life: Bed Prep

A.K.A: Dodging the rain showers to get some work done before Plot 31 turns to slop.

I’ve mentioned before that my plot floods every year. It is on very clay-y soil, and a downslope to the local brook. It gets very wet. I have been trying to dig over and cover the beds this winter so that I have less weeding to do in the spring. The first few beds were dug over, weeded, dug over again, raked, and then covered. As I’ve run out of room in my compost bins, and patience and/or inclination to do more work than necessary, I have started just roughly turning the beds and covering them. Any vegetation on or in the beds will hopefully rot down under the tarps which will fertilise the ground a bit.

I had a quick little trip up the plot in between rain showers to dig and cover two more beds. I only have one left to do!! I also filled up the bird seed and fat ball feeders when I got there, and was rewarded with a flock of long-tailed tits (about 12 in total), some great tits, a blue tit, a robin, and a sparrow. I was flinging worms for the robin but I think it is a new one as it didn’t really seem to understand what I was doing. The old robin would’ve been down in a flash to gobble them up!

Before.....

During.....

After!

So Plot 31 is looking ok and quite well managed as we broach the solstice. There are lots of buds coming on the redcurrant and blackcurrant, the garlics have so far not been ripped up by birds/squirrels/the fox, and my fennel is still standing proud at near 7ft tall (I have left it to provide shelter for beasties. Earwigs in particular like the insides of fennel stalks). 

The birdies like the fat balls.

I am planning works for the new year as I have a new, local, full time job which I am starting in January – I will actually have some leftover money at the end of each month so I am going to budget a small amount to go towards the allotment. I want to make a raised gravel platform to put a picnic bench on, I want to add a row of paving slabs in front of my shed, I need to rebuild the compost bins and also put slabs down in front of them, and I need more guttering for my shed roof. I also want to try and make more bug houses; a friend has suggested drilling holes into thermolite blocks. I already get leaf-cutter bees so I want to see what else I can attract.

So it was a short trip but very productive. I have run out of things to use to weigh down tarps though – need to go skip diving soon!

Exploring Highgate Common

David and I have been to Highgate Common a few times for a stroll. It is managed by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and it is (except for the gyrocopters & small planes from the nearby airfield) a very quiet and tranquil place, with heathland, grassland, woodland, and a small pool. It is a great place for a walk, and the weather was perfect for a wee jaunt. I also spent a fair bit of time here when I was a trainee with the Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust, as we had training sessions at Highgate. David likes it because it is near a good little antiques shop that he likes to peruse whenever we are near.

With the season, the weather, the Big Festive Event happening, and other mental health things all going on, I really don’t like this time of year. I have lots of bad memories and associations with the festive period, and it is really hard to break them and break through that and move on. It is a monumental struggle every year, and to be honest I can do without it. Two days after the festive day is David and I’s anniversary, so looking forward to that is seeing me through at the moment.

As I have Time To Do Things™ due to unemployment, a sunny walk was a perfect way to spend some time together in the great outdoors, get some fresh air, and breathe in the goodness. It is very easy for me to shelter and hide indoors, cosied up doing some crochet. It is in fact far too easy for me to do that, so getting out for a walk is very welcome and a very good idea.

Signs of spring!

I have recently joined the Birmingham Tree People so am learning more about trees, and I am enjoying being outside and thinking about what I’ve learnt so far and what people have said about trees. I am also continually inspired by naturalist people on social media; I am partaking less in Twitter but I still scroll through, and I love Instagram for the inspiration. I think David is getting rather annoyed with me taking pictures of ~everything~, but I can’t help myself. If I didn’t take pictures I’d be breaking bits off trees to bring home and have as décor.

We were only out for just under two hours so it was quite a short walk, but I spoke to many dogs, saw loads of different types of fungus, had the suns rays on my face and spent some time with David. In one patch of the Common there is a fenceline and every fourth fence post had a simple little bird feeding table on, for members of the public to put seed on as they walk. Such a cute idea, and one bird (chaffinch? I am not good on small bird ID) flew from one to another to get food.

And then afterwards we went to peruse the antiques shop and I bought myself a present for Santa to pay me back for and for Santas Momma to wrap up (because Santa can’t), and they are SO adorably cute I will never use them for fear of breaking them. Pics to follow in another post…….

Jelly Ear. So squishy.

Crochet Blanket Inspiration: Giant Granny Square

This was the first blanket I ever made! 

I made it as a way of learning how to crochet – it started off as a small granny square, and then I decided to use yarn scraps to make it bigger and bigger. It then became a non-scraps blanket, as Momma kept buying me yarn to use on it. When it was smaller I used to take it with me on the bus and to the doctors to work on it. It is now double bed sized, and lives folded in half on the back seat of my car.

The edging is bright pink picot – two rounds for the border! One treble, and then one with the picot. I don’t think I’ve made a granny square since.

Two Weeks of Unemployment

I have been unemployed for two weeks now. I have a large list of things I want to accomplish while I have Time To Do Stuff™. A day after I finished my old job with Rushcliffe Borough Council, I was offered & accepted a new job – full time permanent – in Birmingham, with a conservation group.

So far with my time I feel like I haven’t achieved much. I’ve played Settlers (Rise of an Empire) a lot (I LOVE the Settlers series – I tried to replay Settlers 3 not long ago; oh man that shit is old). I’ve sorted out two black bags of clothes I don’t wear, and I plan to sort out my shoes next. I’ve had trailer driving lessons and a test (oops), and I’ve started some training for my new job. I’ve crocheted a lot but haven’t done much work on my blankets. I went back to my old Thursday walking group and had a nice catch up with people I haven’t seen for the best part of nine months. I had a mini break to the seaside with David, and I saw my sister and her family.

I haven’t really crossed much off my to-do list yet, and my first two weeks have been actually rather busy, stressful, anxiety-ridden, and I had a four day run of getting up at 5am – what’s that all about eh?! – so for the next two weeks I am going to crack on with my to-do list, spend some time up the allotment before it rains too much and turns to slop, and spend some time working on my blankets to get them finished up as much as I can. I haven’t picked up my temperature blanket for about a week, so have lots of catching up to do!

Cosmic CAL. Still nowhere near finishing.

Some finds from Charmouth. Largest is about 10p sized.

Busy making mini santa hats.

My favourite girl - our Taffy-cat.

Learning to Drive

This year I’ve been thinking about what I can do to boost my practical skills and thus enhance my CV, in search for that fabled thing; the full time permanent conservation role. I decided that the best thing for me to do this year is gain my full car + trailer entitlement for my driving licence, so I started looking at lessons and the test. I booked in some sessions for while I am unemployed.

This week I have had my lessons and a test. I have been such an anxious wreck. I have stressed myself out SO much, and I don’t know why. I have driven with a trailer and a water bowser trailer before, I have had brief trailer lessons for work duties, so I know I can drive, I know I can reverse, I know I can manoeuvre; I know I can do it.

This week I have been a stressed mess. On the morning of my test I was sick, and after I had a practice run I then proceeded to burst into tears in front of the test centre manager. I hate my brain and I hate that I let it run (ruin) my life so much.

I failed my test.

So although I am not surprised at failing (my brain is all over the place at the moment), I am annoyed and frustrated with myself. I am not good at failing. I am trying to justify it – I don’t have much road experience with a trailer (true), or I’ve never done it before (half true) – so I am bummed out. It has cost me over £700 for lessons, and is now going to cost another £300 for another test.

Why is attempting to better yourself so expensive?! So with the new year comes a new job, with hopefully a bit of spare income (what!), so I can save up and get some practice in the meantime, and try again next year.

Onwards and upwards.

Maybe.

I saw these bulbs pushing through when I had a driving break on a lesson. Spring is coming! 

Roadtrip to Charmouth

My very first blog post on here was about a brief jaunt to Charmouth, back in 2016. On my first venture it was cold and foggy, so I didn’t do much proper fossiling as I didn’t have my kit with me. I took some photos of Mini Mary Anning (a Geological Society pattern) and found some trace fossils in the shale.

This time, I took David with me – I have been having quite a stressful, anxiety-ridden, crappy brain time lately, and I really needed to be at the seaside. I just wanted crashing waves, harsh fresh air, and a chance to not be surrounded by urban sprawl. I also had some stuff to take down to Devon for my sister, so we combined it into a weekend getaway.

I took Mini Mary Anning, how could I not, and we also took a riddle and my geological hammer, for some proper fossil hunting. It is important to not go near the cliffs here, or to hammer them. Charmouth is a protected site and it is against the fossil collecting code. It is also stupid. These cliffs are always moving, shifting, changing - and falling. 

This weekend we discovered that actually, the best fossils are closer to the water, but often just slightly buried. Moving the beach aside with your foot, hand, or hammer often yields bits of fossils. We found loads of bits of belemnite guard, quite a few pieces of broken ammonite, a couple of pieces of crinoid, and some whole pyritised ammonites! David found the first one and I am still mad, but then I found an absolute cracker on the second day so I still win. 10 geology points to me!

Davids first fossil find, maybe EVER.

Mine.

On the way to Devon we stopped off in Lyme Regis for lunch, and also happened to fall into a brewery for a couple of bottles. There is so much history in this area, and Mary Anning is a personal hero of mine, so walking in her footsteps and imagining what it was like in the 1700s is so cool to me. She walked these streets! She stepped on this beach! She may have liked local beer!

I had a great little much needed weekend away, now I have to sort and clean loads of fossils…………