Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Yes, I think it is. I've only been doing an hour or so at a time lately, usually after work, but I've been on training days here and there in the past and they have indeed been pretty peaceful. 

You've reminded me I used to do full time voluntary work for BTCV back in the day and did a few conservation holidays with them (none involved walling though). Also did a week with Trees for Life planting trees up in Scotland. Fun times ♥️ I'd love to get back into conservation volunteering when all this is over, and I'm in a good place to do it out here. It's a great way to learn new stuff, both about whatever you're doing and the natural environment too. 

Tis always a balance with me though... full time work plus all we've taken on with this house and land, and I STILL end up adding all manner of other things on the top. No wonder I'm very often tired and a bit overwhelmed! 😮😂

Karmacat

I did a few BTCV holidays back in the day - fencing in Devon comes to mind

Cheery, I think the hard work of you and Mr Cheery has got you into a wonderful situation - with that land, and those outbuildings, and your attitudes, you've definitely got the makings of a smallholding, I think you're doing wonderfully!  And I really think it's completely natural to be tired and overwhelmed with it all at times, it must be like juggling a thousand balls in the air.  I'm sure the skills you're learning will balance out eventually,  and really pay dividends.  And of course you hanker after other things, this lockdown has shown a lot of us how much input tehre is from the outside into our lives.

themadvix

I second Karma - you do an awful lot, no wonder you feel tired at times! The holidays sound lovely - maybe I should get another NT one sorted in the future. It's just time! (Which it's easy to forget at the moment when there's a lot of free time!)

Cheery_Daff

Thank you lovely people. Yes Vix it is indeed easy to forget what time normally feels like at the minute when it currently feels endless!! 😮🙄

Pleased to report I finally got round to claiming a refund for my train tickets yesterday. Good job too as they cost £103 😮 I don't know why I bought them in the first place, they were for a meeting in London on 18th March, I left it and left it because the situation was so uncertain, then finally bought them the day before I was due to travel because I wanted to collect them at the station in advance of travelling not on the day - and then the meeting was cancelled about an hour later. Should have done the refund at the time but never got round to it. Fortunately it was an off peak ticket and there was a 56 day window.

Which reminds me I've still not heard back about the bra I sent back for exchange several weeks ago... must investigate.

Or maybe it's just the post. I sent a parcel to my friend on 4th April and it's still not arrived. It was small enough to go through the letterbox with the normal post I think so not sure where it's gone. Other things I posted on the same day have got there! 

And speaking of post... there have been an ominous lack of birthday presents delivered so far... 🤔 Suspect this is going to be like last year when ALL my close family members rang to say 'I haven't posted you anything' 😮😂 Except this year maybe they did! 

Fortunately I took the precaution of ordering myself a birthday present which has arrived and is remaining packaged until Monday 😁😁

Also need to get on the case with making myself a cake!

PurpleFairy26

Birthday present to self is always a good back up!!

enjoy the lovely weather. 

Pyxis

Cheery_Daff said:

Fortunately I took the precaution of ordering myself a birthday present which has arrived and is remaining packaged until Monday 😁😁

Ooh! Are you wondering what it could be? 😂😂😂

Cheery_Daff

Ha Pyxis! 😂 Oddly enough I know what it us, but as it's a book that I've never physically seen, I'm very much looking forward to having a good delve in! 

Four cards arrived in the post today - saving them for Monday - and my new fencing pliers! Most exciting, although the actual fence itself hasn't arrived yet. Must try not to lose them in the meantime 😂 

Did an hour's walling this morning, then Mr Cheery and I walked into the village for milk (and, er, beer and chocolate - somehow spent £20 in the village shop which is tiny 😮 ). Saw some folk outside their house on the way there, said hello but the bloke glared at us - on the way back we said hello again and after a cautious start we actually had a nice chat. I think they've been getting grumpy about an increased in people driving out to walk here (which I've not noticed at all, but we're a bit more out of the way than them) but once they realised we were local, we swapped stories and they told us tales of people who'd lived in our house, which seems to be the standard topic of conversation round here. 

We lay on the lawn for a while with the chickens pottering in the dust bath and pondered how lucky we were, how very glad we were that we were able to move out here when we did, how fortunate to be shut in out here and not in our old house with barely any garden and noisy neighbours 😮 Feeling so very fortunate, it's completely idyllic out here today, exactly all the good bits you imagine about moving out to the countryside, with none of the commute, muck spreading, being snowed in or whatever else comes with it 😂 Just sunshine and birdsong and the last of the daffodils and some slow bumbling bees ♥️♥️♥️

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, I got an email already to say my rail refund is being processed, I just need to send a picture of my train tickets cut in half 😂 A bit pointless as they were only valid on one particular day in March but I imagine it's a standard email and is easy enough to comply with.

Been outside walling for another hour but I'm hungry now, and I can't believe how warm it is still! Walked to the shop in my sandals and regretted my jeans 😂 

Going to attempt to post a picture of my current bit of wall that I'm working on and my view ♥️

Baileys_Babe

That's a wonderful view @Cheery_Daff

South_coast

It's not down to luck that you live where you do Cheery, it's all down to your hard work! 

I'm liking the idea of the self-gifting for birthdays - at least you know you'll get something you like 😀 (never guaranteed with my BF, so we've given up on gifts now to save me awkward conversations 😂). By pure fluke, my new car arrived on my birthday a couple of years ago and I was very excited to go out cruising round in it. Not so excited about the fact that I got stuck in roadworks and it was raining so it came back dirty, but at least it was keeping it real I suppose!