It's been a bit more whacky than usual around here and this is one of the reasons why:
The contents of our dining room are now in our bedroom which in turn resembles Steptoe's junk yard!!
In other news, I completed my 'Think like a tree' permaculture based work based design and as a result I'm now studying for a Permaculture Design Certificate with the hopes of a Diploma further down the line. Thankfully the course is all online via zoom (one of the benefits of the pandemic) and I've just submitted my first assignment for module one, all centred around land based observations. If you want to read it (but no pressure if you don't) it's over here: https://spiralpermaculture.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-lie-of-land.html
Tracking back to my last post, the day after we arrived home I then travelled to Barrow so that I could take mum for her surgery in Lancaster. It was lovely to spend time with her so that she wasn't on our own the night before her surgery. It was a very early start on the Thursday morning as she had to be in Lancaster for 7am, which meant being up at 4am and leaving the house just after 5!
Ben has been busy with some extra joinery work which involved re-hanging and re-sizing one gate and completely rebuilding the frames of another and re-siting at the opposite end of an alleyway. As a result this work was also the catalyst to another job (building an animal shelter including timber framed and boarded flooring) with the same clients:
Sara, Tom and Ollie had a night away in York to see the Railway Museum and some nearby gardens:
I cannot believe how the weeks are flying by, before I know it Pip's birthday will be looming on the horizon 🤪. Speaking of Pip, she's working really hard at wrapping her head around combined science - Physics is her favourite (definitely takes after her Dad!), followed by Biology (my favourite) and Chemistry is last on the list.
When I get a moment I'll be popping over to catch up with you all, I do hope you are doing as well as possible x
12 comments:
Dusty work! Are you redoing the fireplace so that it will be a working one? It looks like quite a project. Good luck with it! I'm impressed with your permaculture course too, San. You've been so ambitious and learning so much. It's really wonderful. Ben's projects sound amazing and it's nice to see the pic of Ollie and Sara. I can't believe how quickly the children are growing . . even more quickly than our own! (Ottilie is an adorable pumpkin.) (And that looks like a fascinating railway museum . . such beautiful trains). Kudos to Pip and her studies. Chanda always found Physics fascinating too.
Hi Dorina, we are having a wood stove fitted, an upgraded version from the last one in the old house, it’s our way of dealing with the energy crisis and becoming a bit more self reliant 🙂
Completely agree with Dorina- this is such a lovely positive post, and it feels as if lots of really good things are happening for your family . Hurrah to them all I say . We have a wood burner too - would not be without it - and Ben is displaying lots of incredible skills.
I remember disliking Science at school, and in those days it was separate O levels for Physics, Chemistry
and Maths and the all girls grammar school I went to made all three compulsory - so I feel for Pip
Hello from Sydney - we fly home on Wednesday next week
Siobhan. X
Hi Siobhan, I hope you have had a really lovely time in Sydney, way warmer than here i reckon! Sadly the Convent Grammar school that I attended only existed in that format for one year and then joined forces with the local secondary modern across the road - I really hated my time at the comprehensive made worse by years of physical and mental bullying from a group of girls. That phrase of 'school being the happiest days of your life' did not ring true for me!
We were sad to leave the wood burner behind in the old place and so are looking forward to this one being up and running, it will be worth all the mess!
Children can be very cruel to each other , can’t they. I am grateful that I didn’t have to cope with social media pressures as a child - it was hard enough growing up in the 70s as it was .
Enjoy your new wood burner - they , as you know, are wonderful
Siobhan xx
I hope you mom's surgery went well. Cute teddy bear! Ben is doing good work. He must be happy about his end results. Ottilie looks so much bigger. Did you carve any jack-o-lanterns? When will the dining-room be habitable again? What caused your intense interest in permaculture?
Hi Eva, Pip carved a Jack-o-lantern but I forgot to take a picture! I made a lovely pumpkin style egg custard with the innards. I’ve always been interested in permaculture since Pip was small. I had every intention in studying for a PDC around the time she was two but then family health issues declined and that was that. I wrote a permaculture home school design for Ben when he was in middle grade and I loosely used it in the house move and health designs. The only time I didn’t use it was for my doula training and so no surprise that it didn’t work out - for a start I neglected to factor in my limiting factors such as a realistic appraisal of combined health in addition to being needed as driver for the family. Having completed a thorough design with Think like a tree I’m definitely more hopeful that this will work 🙂. My course finishes in March and I have a further six assignments to complete as well as a land based design, which will be based on our property.
We’ve had a slight interruption with the stove work but using the permaculture principle of creatively respond to change I’ll make a start on the painting where it is appropriate to reduce time at the other end. I’ll be glad to have the house back to normal 🤪 xx
The wood stove sounds wonderful. I hope the work has resumed and you can paint soon. Good luck with it!
Lovely to have a post, San, you've been busy!!!, and nice to get glimpses of the children and grandchildren. Life keeps swirling on! 🤗 I hope your Mum's surgery went well. Good luck with the wood stove ... and your course, that's wonderful, you're able to do some studies of your own. 👍🏼📖📝 I hope you and Dave are healthy and well.
A lovely post filled with so many lovely things. I hope the work on your new wood burner is completed soon and you are able to enjoy your lovely new stove. Wood burners are wonderful aren't they. Your permaculture course sounds really interesting, I enjoyed reading your post about what you have been doing.
Good luck with the new studies! I hope it will be fulfilling and you will manage to complete all projects. It sounds like it is a very interesting and covers many aspects.
I believe that having the house back in order will feel very satisfying.
Whoa, that fireplace looks chaotic INDEED! I hope you continue to enjoy your studies- it's nice to try something new! x
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