Hidden Gems

I was thinking about jobs the other day. At present I am passing time as a part-time receptionist at one of the village doctors but am not convinced that it is 'really me'; so in an attempt to figure out what I might want to do with this phase of my life I started to think about my old jobs and what I'd most enjoyed. 

To my surprise, the one thing that stood out, enjoyment wise, was working as a Countryside Officer for Cambridgeshire County Council. It was a great job, I got to drive around the county, dispensing grants and words of wisdom about habitat management, conservation and meeting lots of really nice people, their dogs and often sampling delicious cake... more of that later.
 

The thing that really stood out for me though was one tiny little linear site that I was responsible for.  It was a gorgeous little gem of mesotrophic grassland and scalloped woodland edge that had formed part of an old railway line and was full of little surprises, such as perforated St. John's Wort. 

Part of my job was to keep an eye on the site which I used as an excuse to pop into the site whenever my schedule and weather permitted to eat my packed lunch.

This was because nestled in this gem was an even more delightful treasure.

Araneus quadratus.

 

 

This amazingly beautiful spider is identified by the four white spots on its body; it comes in an amazing variety of colours from leaf green to brick red with black and white zebra striped legs.

They spin webs and then lurk under tall grasses, soft rushes or umbillifers awaiting their lunch.

 

They confirmed a life long love of spiders!

 

As to the cake, many of the farms and community groups I and my colleagues visited often used to ply us with coffee and delicious homemade cakes - so much so that it became an on going joke that we should include cake quality as part of  project appraisals.  Thank goodness my journey to work was a 45 minute walk each way - otherwise I'd have been bursting out of my trousers within a few weeks.



Domestic comforts

It's been cold, wet, windy, stormy and the village is full of colds, coughs and general winter bleurgghness to which Jean-Luc and I have succumbed.

 It was a hard autumn with Jean-Luc's father sadly dying after a long hospital stay and frankly neither of us have been at our best either physically or mentally.
So this winter we closed the doors, pulled the curtains, snuggled down and embraced some home comforts.

Friends were met and good company enjoyed.

My sister, brother in law and niece visited en route to spend Christmas in Scotland.
It was lovely to see them however briefly.

I can't believe how much she's grown.

 Blankets have been finished.

 Books bought.

New challenges embraced.

 

 Fires and passive solar heating enjoyed.

 Homemade sashimi devoured.

Art appreciated.

A beautiful oil painting by a local artist - Paddy Campbell

Jean-Luc gave me this picture for Christmas, we'd seen it at a local open art exhibition.  I'd spent weeks raving about it to friends, one of whom sat next to me at the pub and listened to me witter on, entered into a deep discussion on art and artists and the beauty of the palette work in this painting; all the while not giving away one iota that she knew Jean-Luc had purchased the painting.  She really lived up to her nickname of Bletchley!

White Wool Mystery Mission

It's out there now.  I've been part of a secret mission.

This winter I met up with my fellow agents and we planned and plotted, we reconnoitred and mapped, sought out allies and got our supplies and weapons of choice prepared.

 

And then we put our plan into action....

 

Yes - we yarnbombed our local church to celebrate its reopening after major repair works.

 

It was a real secret project; although we postered the village asking for wool and volunteers to knit and crochet in white wool,  the volunteers weren't told what they were working for until a month before the event and were then sworn to secrecy.

 

The parish council and vicar knew we were up to something as we had to have their permission, but in a huge act of generosity and trust they didn't ask too many questions; indeed the vicar didn't know what we were planning until it was unveiled just before the celebrations to reopen the church.  He was surprised, charmed and very pleased at what we'd done.

 

I had a huge amount of joy playing with new patterns including...

 

 this spider..

 

...this angel - St. Michael's and All Angels....

 ... this poppy wreath

I absolutely loved being part of this project.  I was overwhelmed by the talent of the ladies I worked with and the huge amount of community spirit.  Most of us who were involved in both the steering group and the larger group aren't churchgoers but we recognise and appreciate the importance of all our community assets and organisations.

 

The village really enjoyed our work too; I don't think we had one negative comment and although we had planned to take it down after the village Christmas fair, due to popular demand we left it up until after Christmas.

 

Three very sneaky women finally blowing their cover.