I’m starting what I hope will turn into a little purple patch of pbase postings – I do have things for a few days worth saved up in my head.

My start point for today is an apology for being out of touch – I’m flattered that people have missed me and touched that people have been worried that there may be a “problem” in my world that’s prevented me from posting on pbase. I apologise both for causing concern and for not replying to people who’ve been kind enough to contact me.

To be brutally honest, the reason for my absence is a simple one of finding myself so scarily busy that I’ve needed to cut back on non-essential things in order to get through my days.

Since I last posted a “normal” posting, that is, one that wasn’t holiday-related, I’ve found myself a new job. I took it on because my other job has been limping to an end for some months now so I urgently needed work to plug the financial gap that was left. I applied for, and was offered, a part-time (two days a week), temporary job working for a massive charity about ten or so miles from home. Perfect, I thought, some income, working for a good cause and outdoors all seemed like the perfect combination.

Then the misfortune of a couple of my new colleagues led to being asked to work more days, at the same time as my other job just won’t lie down and die properly so I’ve ended up juggling two jobs, while growing as much of our own food as possible and trying to manage a long list of “things needing doing in my holiday”. My feet rarely touch the ground and when they do, I find myself flaking out on the sofa and sleeping.

Still, it’s GOOD to have the income and I LOVE my new job – it could have been made for me. The downside is that for all its pleasure-bringing virtues it’s really hard physical work and I find myself physically exhausted at the end of each day, not to mention coated in dust and mud (on a good day) or coated in mud and soaked through to the skin on a bad day – that’s the double-edged sword of working outdoors.

Our food growing is starting to stack up now, we’ve harvested a number of crops and the produce is safely stored to be used over the coming months. These nasturtiums are a foil to stop caterpillars eating my cabbages because they get distracted and eat these instead! There are still loads more to get in but all in good time!

One of my “jobs needing doing” that’s actually got done was to clean out, repair and decorate a big walk-in cupboard that had been knocked about by builders ages ago and left full of rubble ever since. I’ve sorted it out, enlisting David to help me by repairing the ceiling that had been taken down to do some plumbing and boxing in some wiring. It’s now a usable space and contains a huge freezer that was given to us by a neighbour. The freezer in turn contains boxes and boxes of frozen produce – broad beans, sugar snap peas, runner beans, eggs, bread, courgettes all in more-or-less un-tampered-with form along with ratatouille, soups, stocks, bread and other things that I’ve made with stuff that we’ve been cropping. I am so thrilled when I open its door to see how much we’ve grown and how well we’ve been able to store it all.

However, all of that pales into insignificance because the best bit of the last few weeks has been getting my exam results for my first year – my lowest mark was 79% and my top, 98% and with these results I get into the University’s roll of honour! So, I have been invited to “come on in” for next year. Hurrah.