Changes

My laptop in the house is playing up so I’m sitting in what was Simon’s barn office using his computer. Apart from a few small things everything is as it was. As yet I don’t feel able to deal with deciding what to keep and what to throw out even though I know that it would make so much more sense to move my work things over here instead of having them cluttering up the house. The barn, its contents and their organisation represent a large chunk of who Simon was and I'm obviously not ready to dismantle it yet.

Who can resist kicking up a pile of leaves at this time of year?

I can’t believe that it’s three weeks since I last wrote. Since then autumn has definitely arrived and the Sierra Leone trip I was getting so excited about has had to be cancelled due to the SL national elections being held in November. Schools are closing next week and will stay closed until after the elections or longer if there is any trouble. Hopefully there will be another opportunity to arrange something in the spring. Both daughters have had disappointments too and I am proud of how they are dealing with them. Grace didn’t get offered the job in Scotland and has had another interview since which she also didn’t get but on Tuesday this week she’s going up to Scotland again to be interviewed for a research assistant job with a MEP -  we’re keeping our fingers and toes crossed for that one. I do love having her at home though; the delicious evening meals she makes and of course the company and someone to come home to. In Eve’s case the extension work has stalled because of the company who were supplying and fitting the windows going bankrupt and lots of little problems constantly need sorting out.

Two things have given me a real buzz recently. I went to Bradford University and ran a workshop on food ethics, mostly in relation to Fairtrade and food miles for second year undergrads on a BSc course. The students were an eclectic group and very appropriate for One World Week. The free One World Week event in Skipton I help to plan every year was all day yesterday. It was a great success and for the first time it looks as if we will have covered all our overheads through the lunch, coffee and tea sales. We had a speaker from OXFAM who was talking about the Birth Rights Campaign – despite free antenatal care for pregnant women in their country since 2008, 75 women per week are still dying in child birth in Ghana. We also started a book of messages for Malala, the 14 yr old schoolgirl from Pakistan who was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for education for girls, and who is now recovering in a hospital in Birmingham. Lots of people wrote messages and children drew pictures for her. Let’s hope she makes a full recovery and is able to resume her education soon.

I am reminded of Margaret Meade’s words ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has’.  What do you think?

Plenteousness

How many pencils and pens do you have in your house, more than ten, more than twenty, more than fifty? I had more than fifty and still have lots even after Grace and I went through drawers, pots and pencil cases this week to find some to go into the two backpacks we’ve been putting together. We’ve also had lots of fun trawling charity shops in Harrogate and Ilkley looking for metal spoons, children’s shorts, t-shirts and dresses. All this because our vicar decided that this Harvest, as well as fresh produce and non-perishable foods, we would collect items for the Backpack Project, a simple way to help children from poor families in Liberia and Malawi get an education that will help them escape poverty in later life. The whole idea obviously caught the imagination of many  people in the congregation and the ‘Smiley Faces’ group I help to lead on Friday afternoons, as we got loads of items this morning and we’re going to have lots of fun making up the backpacks this week.



Some of the backpacks in the process of filling

Africa has always had a special place in my heart since Simon and I spent two years in Sierra Leone and I’m so excited because I have the opportunity to go back for the first time next month. If all works out I will be travelling with a teacher from a local Dales primary school to Bo, the second largest city in Sierra Leone, to visit some of the schools there that have links with Craven schools. It will only be a short visit but hopefully the precursor of a future visit longer visit.

When we were working in Sierra Leone one of my very good friends was married and next weekend is her Ruby Wedding Anniversary. Today (Sunday) I drove across to Pilling, on the Fylde Coast of Lancashire where I grew up, to celebrate this milestone. The party was a surprise and at a daughter’s home, a farm that specialises in breeding dairy cattle - as soon as the heifers calve they are sold and their female selected calves are reared until they themselves have their first calf. After a delicious lunch some of us borrowed wellies and were taken on a tour of the farm. When I was a teenager I used to help my granddad milk whenever I could so I really enjoyed being up close and personal with the cattle, especially as nearly all the farms that used to have dairy cows in our village now only have sheep.  Whilst we were walking around hundreds of Pink Footed geese flew over in several V shaped formations back to their roosting places on the marsh after feeding on the rotting potatoes and corn yet to be harvested on the moss land. A wonderful sight and very common in Pilling at this time of year.



Just a few of the geese