Steadily climbing the mountain, enjoying the view along the way

savingholmes

Well at least it 'caught' me up - and put me to current day. I also miss the blue haired screaming emoji

debtfreewannabe321

I'm still struggling with this update 🤣 and it's taken me ages to catch up with people because it keeps reverting to newest thread created and I forget to put It to last commented, so I keep thinking there's no one posting.

Hope you're alright KK ❤️

KajiKita

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82140379#Comment_82140379

The new format is quite off putting isn’t it. I keep hoping I will adapt but it’s not got any easier so far … I am definitely visiting less, as there is just too much metal ‘friction’ and effort in it …

Thank you for checking in on me ❤️ That’s really kind.

I have had an intense week as the new boss started on Monday, two weeks early in the midst of major contractor activities (I was mid induction with three of them when he was introduced to me, and I literally had to hand him his pile of PPE and policies to sign and say I would find him later for his induction!) and I had to pull together and deliver a complex management review for 9001 and 14001 in three days … It was a bit full on. 😂

Part of the work time pressure came from me being on leave yesterday and today and I have been at (and will be again today) the Y3o valley organic gardening festival 😊 Really interesting talks and speakers and it has made me pretty determined to learn more about soil health, soil succession (yes, there is such a thing 😊) and start watching ‘Joe’s Country Garden’ on u-tube. The other, really heartening thing, is that every, single, speaker, has basically said, in these mad and crazy times, where everything is shifting (climate, water availability, temperatures etc), throw away the rule book and just try things, experiment, play … It’s been really comforting to hear about their disasters and struggles this year and encouraging to hear about what they are thinking of trying next. And that was just one day …! 🤩 A completely different vibe to something like M@lvern show, which is beautiful, but really just sell, sell, sell, sell. I’m actually tempted to do the full three days next year as ‘my’ holiday and treat to myself …. 🤔

The journey down here was reasonably challenging as you kind of have to wriggle through the outskirts of Bristol and the cheddar gorge and the road layout is NOT intuitive. Thanks to the timing, the worst of the commuter traffic had dispersed yesterday morning but this evening will be mental I suspect, so I have booked a table at a restaurant half way home so I don’t have to worry about food. I’m stuffed after last night so it will be a light lunch today and probably two starters this evening as I don’t like the look of their veggie main … I did take a packed lunch yesterday and was verrr proud of channelling Greying 😊

Pub I am staying at is pretty cheap - £107 for dinner, bed, cooked breakfast. It is spotless as well, but I will ask for a room away from the kitchen next time! 😂 ( I ALWAYS seem to end up with the room next to the kitchen vent, in every hotel I ever stay in! 😳🤷‍♀️🙄😂).

Anyway, quite proud of self for doing all of this on my own ❤️

KK

Watty1

That sounds really interesting. I've been reading a lot about land management in these changing times.

greenbee

I'm very envious KK - and feel justified in my decision to leave my tomatoes as they are still happily ripening, and sow crops on the off chance our first frost date is later than usual.

themadvix

That sounds like an excellent festival - also envious here! @greenbee it's good to know I'm not the only one optimistic about how much more growing time we have this season - still hoping for new squashes on the plants I ordered from R0cket Gardens in the sale, which is very optimistic I think!

Greying_Pilgrim

KajiKita said:

…..I did take a packed lunch yesterday and was verrr proud of channelling Greying 😊

YAY! Way to go KajiKita!

At events like that, even if there is good stuff on offer to eat, the lines 'munch' into your time looking around, or you have to risk missing your talk or tour or whatever. I know the huge yarn/fibre festival that is on in America around this time has vloggers making the same complaint that they lose so much 'festival' time to queuing - and for lasses we have to pick our queue priority! 🙄

Greying X

rtandon27

@KajiKita - what a wonderful festival to spend time at! Proud that you got on top of the logistics xxx - I love a good talk rather than the hard sell of products, you picked a good one.

PennysIntoPounds

That sounds fantastic and I am proud of you for going and engaging. Definitely get an allocated pot going to do the whole thing next time!

Happily the diary threads now revert to recently commented as long as you press bookmarks at the bottom of the page rather than from your profile pic menu

KajiKita

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82140595#Comment_82140595

I would love to find a course but on initial goggle, everything is very farm / land focused. As small as you get is homestead … 🤷‍♀️

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82140627#Comment_82140627

Yup, that’s pretty much where I have come to. The lady who presented about her localish garden (Herefordshire) commented that people used to tell that she should have watered her lawns in hot dry weather. No they turn up to see what has coped with the weather and what hasn’t in the garden of someone they consider ‘expert’, so people’s expectations of their gardens are changing to something less ‘rules driven’ too 😊

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82140641#Comment_82140641

If you have a sheltered spot, who knows … 🤞 <sends squash vibes!> 😉

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82140644#Comment_82140644

The toilets were individual unisex compoost toilets, everywhere, all over the site - I will let your imagination do the rest … Suffice it to say, there was plenty of sawdust to use. 😉 But it did mean that queues rarely happened. They asked for feedback, so I suggested staggered lunchtimes for the three big ‘venues’ and allow 45 minutes for lunch rather than 30. It will be interesting to see if they take that up next year … To be fair, the food concessions were really good quality and quite varied. They even left the site cafe running for the three days, so it you wanted a proper, indoor, sit down meal, that was an option too.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82140692#Comment_82140692

I did didn’t I 😊 This is the garden I visited in June with the local garden society and absolutely loved. The owner, was talking about it the and the tickets weren’t crazy expensive so I thought, why not … 🤷‍♀️😊 I learned a lot from this year in terms,of the logistics, so I can improve things for myself next year 😊

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82141335#Comment_82141335

Thank you 🙏 ❤️ And thank you, thank you, thank you for the tip about the link at the bottom of the page. Wonderful! Even if the view remains cluttered when you get there … 🙄🤷‍♀️

I will tell you what I made of the second day in a bit, but this is already fairly long … 😉

KK