Unusually, I was down in the village twice today during the day. We don't have to go through the village to get home, so under normal circumstances we only see it in the evening or at weekends, when it is an altogether busier place. I was quietly stunned by the fact that people talked to each other on the street, and meandered in and out of the shops. I was caught for a ten minute chat by the mother of one of Mouse's primary school friends, and it was actually rather nice to hear about how he's getting on at a different high school from Mouse. I shouldn't think Mouse has thought twice about him for two or three years, but I used to chat to his Mum all the time at school functions and Sunday morning rugby practices...
The village felt like a village, whereas usually it feels like a thoroughfare or a means to an end.
Recently there have been quite a few efforts to make the place look better - there are now planters at all the road entrances (there are four) although they haven't yet been filled, and they have 'Welcome' notices next to them. The war memorial has been cleaned up, and the park at the top has had some landscaping done. It's just a shame that the main entrance to the village is dominated by a half-burnt-out shell of a building, that cannot be demolished because it is owned by a property developer who claim that they are going to develop (sometime in the future, plans available behind the third filing cabinet in the (locked) basement).
Getting older is not fun... I have new glasses, and there's a one-and-a-half whateveritis (hang on, I'll go and look it up) diopter change in my left eye. Which my optician warned me was quite a lot, and might take some adjusting to. He was right. I can no longer sit with my laptop on my knee and watch tv at the same time, and I'm having more than a few problems with the main pc at work, which is set on a podium. Ah well, it'll sort itself out eventually.
On the plus side, my distance vision is much better, I hadn't realised how much it had deteriorated, I can see for miles!
Seen when dropping Hairy off for his new term in Glasgow last week - on Kelvingrove Road.
It has been greyer than grey today, with a freezing cold heavy fog that never rose all day. It was a grey paperwork day at work today as well - all list checking and typing. Boring, boring, boring.
On top of which, nothing's working. I sent some photos from home, and my pathetic work laptop doesn't have enough memory to open them, so I'm going to have to put them on a data stick or something instead, and my pda jammed this afternoon as well, and is refused to recognise anything on my task list. I've still got to work on that.
Ah well, tomorrow's another day.
I went for a walk after work tonight. I desperately needed to after sitting indoors all day, catching up with paperwork. Although I can see the sunshine outside, my workplace windows are tinted to prevent computer screen glare, so the general effect is of working in a grey gloom. Tough when the sun's shining and the kids and Handsome are still on holiday.
The lambs in the big field up the road from me have got a little older, and a little less worried about passers-by, so I was able to stand and watch them for a while tonight, and get close enough to take some photographs. There was a curious lamb with lovely big transparent ears, who followed me down parallel to the road, obviously trying to work out what I was doing, most of them however, were sleeping off a tough day or catching up with dinner. I found myself talking to them as I walked along the length of the field, lamb anthropomorphism - oh dear. All the lambs around here are numbered to match the ewes - a friend of ours recently came up with the concept of 'lamb bingo'... I wonder if the lambs wonder why people walk past shouting 'House'.
I was talking to my Mama yesterday, whilst we were there for the Easter weekend, and I mentioned the whole taking-on-way-too-much-at-once thing, with particular reference to how guilty I felt about not being out in the garden more. My Mama talked some general soothing good sense at me, all about how life should be lived, and no-one should feel guilt about the chores, all of which I agree with, and then she said something which really surprised me. She said that she felt that my Nana had been a slave to her garden, and that Mama had always been determined not to be the same.
The thing is, that I remember Nana as being devoted to her garden, rather than being a slave to it. She used to take me around and explain how to do things, and she showed me how to potter in a greenhouse when I was really quite small! And above all I remember her as being proud of her garden.She loved her roses, and always had fresh flowers from the garden in her house.
I grew up eating home-grown vegetables from my Mama's garden and vividly recall being sent to the raspberry patch with a colander at my Nana's. I finally got out in my own garden this afternoon, in the sunshine, and while sorting out my herb patch, with my hands smelling of mint and rosemary, I decided that being a gardener is probably a family tradition, even if sometimes it is also a chore.
I've been busy... I've been walking, on part of the West Highland Way with a group of Duke of Edinburgh kids. The huge advantage of not being a mini-bus driver is that I get to do more walking. I camped too, something I'm not known for doing, and I surprised myself by actually sleeping well. Possibly because I hadn't slept at all the previous night in the Youth Hostel at Rowardennan. It's a gorgeous building, with a fantastic view - but I think I have a bit of a privacy issue, and I don't cope well with six women in bunks in one room, especially when I don't know most of them! Much better in a nice private tent, where I don't have to worry about whether I'll snore if I fall asleep and where I can read until I'm ready to stop rather than having to be considerate because other people are asleep.
Handsome and I have been climbing too, with both boys and with my brother who is up for the Easter holidays. Handsome is really getting quite good now, tackling fives and sixes - I'm still struggling with stubborn four pluses, but although I'm a slow learner, I intend to be persistent... there's a five in a rather mucky olive green that I'm going to crack any day now.
