I am so tense after a difficult support line call right at the end of my shift, that I have to take myself out for an evening walk to calm myself down. My poor service user was so very distressed, but I was trying to deal with her problem through an
interpreter and it really wasn't easy. More especially as there didn't seem to be an easy answer to her dire problems.
Thank goodness for my supervisor, who found a useful phone number for me as I struggled to communicate with my poor lady, and
her interpreter whilst searching my data bases and communicating with my supervsor all at once.
But thank goodness, too, for a calm evening, a graze on blackberries and wild raspberries, and a gaze at the hills, and a chat to the cows.
By the time I get home, the physical symptoms of stress have left me and I can cook and enjoy an evening meal.
It's been a busy month with lots of grandchild care. The McGraths first.....rather a wet time with them, but it was just
about dry enough to enjoy the Jungle Book as an outside promenade performance at Williamson Park. Tom and the boys came the next day and eventually were joined by Ailsa. Tom and Ailsa went away for a night and the days around it, whilst I fielded the little
boys. After a week at home I then went down to look after Fyfe while Beth worked. Now I am home and I have taken a service, and picked up quite a few Red Cross shifts as there seems to be a dirth of volunteers just at the moment.
Meanwhile, we have
had the heatwave. Here in the Lakes it is still green, though we are in need of rain. In Warwickshire it is a totally different landscape, and while I was there I found inside things to do with Fyfe, the heat was so intense.
All the
family have been or are at present on holiday. Tom is home again now, and so is Sam after a wonderful tour of Italy and Switzerland with all the family. It is A level results day tomorrow and I have everything crossed for Holly. This year's cohort have had
the most unsettling time, and now face an effort to reduce grade inflation on top of everything else. It seems a bit mean.
On Monday I had a wonderful walk with Mary, up Barbondale. Lovely views of the hills, and the Heather is in
bloom. We walked in the most unspoilt landscapes up the river and to the top of the hill, where there is a pot holing club as there is an amazing underground cave system up there. We were disappointed the wonderful Chourch Mouse cafe was closed by the time
we got back. We had been delayed by Circumnavigating a field which had a bull and calves in!