WRITE CHOICES AND ASPIRATIONS

I suppose I am luckier than most.   Live in an area where traffic is minimal and such things as beautiful sunsets are commonplace.

I don't often see a junkie waiting for his next fix or expect to witness drive by shootings which are becoming a regular event in some cities.

What I do see is beauty all around.

It's in the lichen clad branches

And the yellow gorse

And for the romantics among us there is always the beautiful sunset.

All such simple, natural sights, that cost nothing and yet so many are blind and simply do not see.

Nature is wonderful.   Embrace it.

The heather is out, the lambs are all as big as their mothers.   Kelso tup Sale this Friday.

Really hope it stays fair for them.   All that work should be rewarded with the sun on everyone's back.

A real storm kicked off today.  Thunder, lightning, the lot.

Ive even more photographs of the blackies up around Muircleugh.   Such a lovely spot.

Summer has pulled up the duvet and rolled over, autumn is here with it's first biting wind and glorious colours. Heading to the Highlands this weekend so should get some great snaps en route.  Watch this space.  Meantime here's some more sheep.

Well not so much the computer as the will it wont it work scenario.   

Most important thing to work when out on the van is the online services.   Today I had that worst of all thingy, "an intermittent fault."   In other words for most of the day my online services were down.  Which meant that I was unable to my job properly.   Being told by the help desk that a lot of problems had arisen throughout the country today didn't really make me feel any better.   Sure Jack Bauer never had this problem with his satellite.

Maybe I should join CTU.  Any chance of a job Jack?    Oh bugger forgot the series is all finito isn't it?

Wish I could not work and just watch Wimbledon.   Wonder how England will do at the footie.  wont be watching, absolutely loathe the game and all the hype that goes with it.

But Scottish rugby is fairly flying the flag right now.  Well done boys:)

I drive a lot.   Most of it from an LDV Mobile Post Office van (with no air con, who would design such a thing?)

Some weeks what I see on the roads has my hair standing on end.  this week has been such a week.   I've seen a tanker overtaking an artic on the brow of a hill.  Anyone coming the other way would have been killed instantly.  

Today I saw an artic so close to a double decker bus it's a wonder they didn't touch.  it's total intimidation.   What happens to people when they get behind a wheel?

I've seen cars causing a total obstruction when they've been a few yards from a safe, off the road parking spot.  I've also found myself really hoping that a traffic car was lurking as I watched one wide-o overtake on solid double lines.

Even tonight at the junction near the Melrose Hydro I witnessed one female who had crossed to the middle only to start fiddling with her sunglasses thus causing a hold up while she sorted herself out.

Maybe it's the heat.

I've just uploaded a lovely photograph I took today while on my rounds with the Mobile Post Office.   The drive across the moor between Stow and Lauder is truly beautiful and I snapped this little lot all vying for shelter under a rather naked tree.  Quite sure the ewes are counting the days until their fleeces are removed but the lambs all looked like they were really feeling the heat too.  It's been very humid.  I have no air con so have felt like I am cooking in a biscuit tin.    Everything coming to life but some fields still extremely bare.

Lots of police activity at the bottom of Soutra whatever was going down.  Kept to my statutory 50m.p.h. even though the whole world of white van man keeps on sailing by, every one of them breaking the law, everyone driving as though it was their last day.  It's all crazy.

So the press are waffling about women over 40 wearing fancy lingerie.   So?  Do they think that once we get past 40 that our minds and bodies suddenly fall into big pants up to our ears mode.

I have never worn boring underwear in my life, so why should it change now?  Just don't understand the logic of that one.

I need to get motivated, start writing again.  Just feel knackered when i get in from work.

Today was particularly stressful with all sorts of technical glitches.  No doubt I will get the flak tomorrow at one particular venue I didn't get to today.

ye Gods there has to be more to life than mumping doesn't there.

Lots of bonnie wee blackie lambs on the road between Stow and Lauder today.   There is nothing bonnier than a blackie lamb sitting in the heather.

Shed a silly tear for a baby rabbit today, watched it try to scuttle across the road quite near Denholm today, only to get squashed underneath a van.  Poor little mite.:)

I know bunnies get classed as vermin but my goodness they are so pretty.

It's a bit like the lull after the storm.   The packages have stopped landing in their droves, the mountains of cards have disappeared and I can put my tape measure back in my pocket.  Yes tape measure.  It's all these rules about lengths and breadths etc.

And people still get caught out with the large letter carry on.  If it doesn't fit through the magic slot (and any card that has a badge rarely does) then it's large letter.

Threats of the return of the white stuff are lingering in the air this evening, but with a bit of luck we will miss it.

Since I started on this round with the mobile outreach service two of my customers have lost their wives and another has just had their wee doggie put to sleep.

I used to see the latter every morning walking by with their little friend tottering up behind them.   It is so strange to see them without her.   Losing a beloved pet is so painful.   It's the little routine they create with walkies, din dins and anything else they think they can get away with .

I had to chuckle today when on a day off I heard the icecream van playing a very loud jingle and my neighbour's dog yowling and yapping along with it.  Go Hamish Go!!

I just pray that when I get up tomorrow morning the roads are black and not white.   Most of the roads I am driving on are B roads and most definitely not for the faint hearted.

Tomorrow is one of my days for being spoilt by a very nice lady who brings me coffee and a bacon roll.   Such amazing kindness and a real character too.   It's people like her that make the world a better place.

She is an artist and I just love her paintings.  I really wish I could paint, but I have to make do with photography.   Wielding a paintbrush is something I love to do but the end result is only for my eyes.

The waft of roast chicken is filling my nostrils as I organise my meals for the week.

There is nothing worse than arriving home, tired and brain dead from making polite conversation with punters all day  and then having to decide what you are going to eat.

I can tell you right now that tomorrow night I will be having Cream of Broccoli soup, followed by more roast chicken, roast potatoes and some veg.  Tuesday will see what's left flung in a curry and the carcase put into another pan for soup.

Organised eh?

That's moi!! (sometimes).

Which reminds me I must post the books I bought today out to my Norwegian grand bairns.   Books over there are very expensive.   These ones all look like great fun, with lots of stickers.   No excuse about not getting to the post office.  It's more about escaping the post office!:wink:

The ewes that I meet on my travels are now getting closer to their happy events.   When the salt is on the road the silly things all stand there licking it totally oblivious to the traffic.   thankfully heading over this moor most motorists are aware of their penchant for licking the white line!!   Not long now til wee lambies are skipping round about them learning all mum's bad habits.

That's been the story all week.

Work has been a nightmare.   ON Monday the van wouldn't start so an engineer was called.   He got it going but no one has solved the mystery of what is draining the battery in the first place, so the problem is still there.   By the time the van was fixed I could only make it to my last port of call for a Monday which is Oxton near Lauder.   Driving condtions were poor but we made it.

Sadly the rest of the week was a no no.  It snowed and then the boss coudln't get the van up the hill because it was not gritted.  Even if she had got it out, she would never have got it home again.   it cannot go anywhere else because it needs plugging into the special cables to power all the equipment.   The boxes for these cables are on the side of the boss's house.

My other job is a couple of miles on the other side of the village and I have been unable to get there.   My  car is buried under a mound of snow and would merely slide everywhere even if I could get it out.  Add to that the fact that I stood on my pins all day on Tuesday helping out in the village post office and my ankle was throbbing and you have a hopeless situation for doing anything which again requires you to be on your feet all day.

So it has been a very non productive week.   Worse still, the snow is still lying.  So I am not over optimistic about getting the van out next week.

My kitchen cupboards have been tidied, needlepoint finished, socks ripped out and getting re-knitted.  All the things that would normally have to wait.

I have also managed a Haiku with accompanying photograph to Ink, Sweat and Tears but just can't quite bully myself into a short story.   I need to write several and get myself motivated.

Bread is even baking in the oven.  Such domesticity.

What fascinates me is the way everyone is panicking around as if they have been under siege for 6 months instead of about 4 days.   I keep getting asked if I am alright.

Why wouldn't I be?

I used to live in the middle of nowhere with four little girls and an army of animals to feed.  I shopped roughly once a fortnight.  That's how it is in the country.   We don't dart to shops every day.  Apart from that there is a good butcher and a shop in the village so why the panic to drive to Hawick to give your money to supermarkets who want to kill off all the small businesses.   And if you forget your purse do you think they are going to say, "nae bother, just hand it in next time you're passing,"    Support the private shopkeeper.   Let my father lie easy in his grave.

I rest my case.