June ...ing

Well hello! Thank you so much for continuing to read my ramblings and comment kindly on our lives.

I thought I'd pick up my end of month ... ing posts up again, after a few months of not doing that. I'll spare you the lurid details of our teenage dramas and focus entirely on pleasant things. 

:: Listening to "Raising Hare: A Memoir" by Chloe Dalton. This was a beautiful story of a relationship between a rescued leveret and Chloe Dalton, and how it changed her understanding of nature, nurturing and, yes, hares. Fi Clover on "Off Air" (a favourite podcast of mine) interviewed the author and I was intrigued to hear about this book. I also loved listening to "Last Chance in Paris" by Lynda Marron. Lynda used to blog under the name Sultanbun, you can still find her on the IG (same name). I

:: Watching nothing much at all. If you have any recommendations, please do share (but no Reality TV shows, please)

:: Sewing (one seam, or 10 minutes at the time) a blouse, the Donny Shirt by Friday Pattern Company. I used one of my Parisian fabrics for this, a pinkish broderie Anglaise. I had to be a bit creative with cutting because I didn't quite have enough fabric but the creative cutting is not visible from the outside. 

:: Nurturing Josie after her wee operation to sterilise her. She is such a cute kitten. Completely bonkers still but cute. She didn't get on well with the cone of shame and I replaced it with a medical body suit. Josie was also microchipped and will be ready for the outside world soon. She has made a few escapes already. I hope she won't be a birder because if she is, we have to confine her to the indoors. 

:: Celebrating the Professor. Richard was successful in his promotion application and is now officially a professor. I'll refer to him as the Professor henceforth because I am incredible proud of him. For those of you not familiar with the UK academic system, we don't just become professors when employed as teaching or research academics, it is a long gruelling road. For my track it starts with teaching associate, then lecturer, senior lecturer, possibly reader, then professor. 

:: Puzzling with one of Annie's friends, who is staying with us before returning to New Zealand. She fits right in with us an I've been enjoying working on a fiendish dog puzzle with her, which what seems like a million dogs. It is quite relaxing.

:: Procrastinating... see above, puzzling. 

:: Feeling overwhelmed a lot of the time, mostly related to teenage behaviour but also just plain old work related exhaustion. I still have three dissertations to mark, one survey to create and apply for ethics approval to actually run the survey. Never mind teaching, which is still ongoing (only just) and a million other bits and bobs that are just not disappearing from my to do list. 

:: Walking with my most wonderful friend Jo, whom I adore. With life being so busy, these walks are few but everyone of them is enjoyable. 

:: Shopping with my oldest. He needed some bits and bobs from Ikea for his new little home office. We stopped for dinner, too. 

:: Continuing my running training. I had to take a wee break after I hurt my hip. I think I pulled a muscle but who knows, with that getting old malarky, it is never quite clear if a pain is due to wear and tear, or injury. Anyway, it seems all good now and I am back to going out regularly. I think I'll stick to twice a week rather than three times a week, just in case it is wear and tear. 

:: Looking forward to Annie's graduation this week. 

:: Forgetting to post this!

Thanks for visiting 😊