News From the Hill

Archive for October, 2008

I had a “time off” crisis this week. We had worked three weekends in a row and have been very busy for the last two months. We work together and often work from home so getting time off or even time alone can be difficult.

When I was single I spend quite a lot of time alone and really enjoyed it. I would read, cycle, walk, go for drives and camp alone. I also had more time for thinking and connecting with myself, I have had a journalling habit for some time now and find it very useful for keeping in touch with how I feel about what is happening around me and in me.

It might seem strange to some but I find that it is very easy to lose touch with what is really going on with myself. It’s not that I wander around completely out of touch with myself, I do try to live in the moment as much as I can, however life has a way of distracting me from connecting at a deep level with myself.

I do find it a struggle to maintain a healthy connection with my own feelings. It seems easy for me to let my habit of writing in my journal slip and then a few weeks or even months down the line I find myself badly in need of time alone in order to catch up with myself.

This time around I had trouble trying to find a way to spend a few days by myself, the weather was too cold to go camping (yeah- what a wimp, only hard frost, it’s not as though it’s snowing yet!), I was reluctant to go stay with friends because that would not be “alone” time. I did consider staying in a hotel but I could not bring myself to spend €100 just for a night away, even in a nice cosy hotel, I kept thinking about what else that money could buy – like food!

So we organised a heater in the little garden shed which is down in the lower fields and I camped out there for the day and wrote in my journal, shed a few tears, napped and caught up with myself. I also really enjoyed looking at our land, at our trees changing colour and the views downhill from a different perspective.

It turns out that I didn’t need as much time as I thought I would and I had the added benefit of cuddling up to himself that night – much better than a night by myself in a hotel, cosy or not.

I wonder how often people need this sort of “time off” and don’t get to take it? I am blessed to be able to look after myself this way, even more fortunate that I can recognise when I need to take time by myself and I have learnt to never ignore the signals – it’s never worth it!

Today was a beautiful autumn day, the sun was shining brightly and the morning was crisply clear. We had a few wee showers but mainly it was a gorgeous day. We arrived back home last night and it was great to be home this morning to see the lovely day unfold.

Luckily I was outdoors for some of the day doing some jobs in the garden, raking up some recently strimmed grass which will end up in the compost heap as a covering and I was emptying the compost loo, a regular job in our home.

i enjoyed the feeling of autumn sun on my face, listening to bird-song and watching kittens play.

Today was a good day, I hope you had a good day too…

If you are new to reading this blog you may be confused by entries appearing in a very strange calender order – the explanation being that I had lost all my entries due to a large technical hiccup in Canada where my blog was sitting on a server that became non-existent.

I found some of my articles backed up on a usb thingy and put them up on the blog a few evenings ago and then I discovered last evening that most of my blog was still saved for me on my google reader – hurray for google!! I have spend the evening copying and pasting my entries back into the blog so very little has now been lost, isn’t technology wonderful after all?

As I write this i am looking at the rising moon out of the window and I have to admit that it is very difficult to stay focussed on the screen, my eyes are constantly drawn to the wonders of nature outside the window.  There is a storm forecast for tomorrow with 110mph wind so we will have more wonders of nature to observe. We will be visiting friends who have a wind turbine and the wind will certainly test it tomorrow, hopefully everything will stay where it is supposed to.

Sleep well and stay safe…

I spent yesterday creating a bank in which to plant a hedge (whitethorn) to fill a gap that used to be a gateway and is no longer used. I was using a large pile of cow dung and straw that a neighbour kindly delivered to us last year when he was cleaning out a cowshed and it had been sitting for the year composting away, the top was well composted and filled with happy worms but in the middle, it was very much recognisable as what it was – cowshit.

Yesterday alot of people were shovelling manure – it was budget day in Ireland, however in Dublin they were busy shovelling bullshit! It was also readily recognisable – taking away automatic medical cards for those over seventy years of age, taking away special needs and library grants for primary schools, I won’t go on. I could – but I won’t.

I guess I was lucky, I knew what I was shovelling and something beautifull will grow in it, the whitethorn (hawthorn) hedge will shelter and nuture the vunerable during the winter months, feed many small creatures, provide beauty for the eyes, delight the nose when in flower, provide challenge for the two kittens climbing skills and the hedge, firmly rooted in cowsh*t, may very well outlast me.

Guess who found some of her articles backed up on a usb drive? I am going to put up the articles that I found and think that I might even get my old theme back – yahoo – back in business!

Remember, dear reader – back up, back up, back up – you never know what cyber gremlins may be about…