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?