trying not to be bored

The January drudge has caught up with me, in mid February. My life at the moment is a bit underwhelming but I suppose after all that travelling in the last 6 months, not unexpected. I wake up, work, go for a walk, work some more, twiddle my thumbs in the evening and go back to sleep. I even considered sewing my own knickers, I am that bored. 

Scrap that, I did sew a pair of knickers. I am not sure it is worth the effort, other than for using up fabric remnants.

To stop me eating my way through the snack drawer, I sorted through my wardrobe. I make a large proportion of my own clothes and I am reluctant to pass garments on to charity because I think I should love them more. I am also not sure what charities do with garments that don't have the usual garment care instructions and fabric information. Alas, my taste changes, as does my body shape, and not all me made garments are a success. I hope my garments make it into the charity shop rather than the garment recycling bin.

The other day when it was just Alistair and I for dinner, I made gnocchi with tomato sauce. I thought they tasted a bit like a dank cellar smells and checked the package to avoid buying more of the same. I noticed that they were two months out of date. I felt a bit sick knowing this. Alistair meanwhile scoffed his portion up with great pleasure. Neither suffered any adverse effects.

Jack is slowly recovering from his cruciate ligament injury. He is now allowed two short walks a day, or one slightly longer one. Richard took him down to the river for a swim, he (Jack) was beside himself with excitement. The wee soul!

After a longish break, I am back to my Saturday volunteering. We continue to clear the river bank and woodland edges along the Kelvin. I got all excited when I heard we would be clearing out roots next, imagining myself learning how to use a handy little digger machine. I should have looked up the new to me word "mattock" sooner. My arms were a deadweight after the first root clearing session but I went back for more the following week. On the cleared slope we planted a hawthorn and dog rose hedge and we dug in deep and built a hibernaculum. A bit out of season but there will be another winter. There is still some root clearing left to do but not long now until we can plant up with wildflowers. I think it will be plug plants for the first year. We'll also be planting lots of trees in a different site. 

With bird breeding season not far, I made Richard climb up a ladder to get the bird box down from the shed roof. I wanted to give it a good clean. This sounds like a trivial activity but we live on a hill and the shed roof is level with our two story house roof. The ladder needs to be placed on a narrow terrace with me standing on the bottom rung to keep it stable for Richard to climb up. This is how accidents happen... but we were lucky. I don't know why we placed the bird box in such a difficult spot. I am sure there was a valid reason but it eludes me now. The bird box meanwhile was squeaky clean inside and didn't need taking down.  

I better stop procrastinating and do some work. How do you cope with periods of boredom?