PART OF THE COMMUNITY

I've had a great couple of days.

At Baby and Toddler group on Thursday - the happy clappy one (at which we arrived very late - we missed all the religious bits and arrived just in time to feed our bodies rather than our souls on grapes (Edward) and coffee and a chocolate biscuit (me - though he did try to grab the biscuit)) I chatted to some new people including Jenny, the wife of a newish GP in our surgery, who not only has 3 children - with a 'sneaking desire' for a 4th - but wants to sing in a choir.  She was interested in Solway Singers so I've asked our choir master, who is also potentially interested in her.  She seems really nice and moved here most recently from Chew Magna, near Bristol, so we had that in common.

Friday morning Isabella's class were doing assembly and David needed the car to get to Penrith, so I decided I'd walk home from Hayton with Edward.  He was fine: apart from when the cover blew off the buggy.  I got wet.  But what was lovely, and which would only happen in a rural area like Cumbria, was that I got offered loads of lifts including one by some complete strangers!  I turned them all down as nobody had a baby seat for their car, but I did wonder by the time I got towards Brampton and my skirt was soaked through and my legs were wet and cold whether perhaps lack of car seat could have been justified!

Yesterday evening I had arranged a group to sing carols and read christmas poems at Off the Wall, the cafe I know I have mentioned at least once before, just after the Brampton Christmas lights got switched on.  We got loads of positive feedback and are provisionally booked in for next year: plus everyone who sang really enjoyed it, and we raised £45 for Parkinsons UK.  I've never seen Off the Wall so full, which was great: and apparently they were doing quite a roaring trade in take-away hot chocolate as well.

Then today I manned the Hallsford farm stall at Brampton Farmers Market.  It meant standing up in cold blowy weather from 8.30 until 1.30 but I really enjoyed myself.  Hallsford is owned by Andrew and Helen Tomkins - Andrew sings in the Solway Singers with me - and they pride themselves on producing good quality, locally-reared meat.  I got to chat to loads of people I didn't know, knew a little bit, or knew quite well, and sold about £50-worth more of meat than Andrew had anticipated I would.  It was noticeable however that with the recession people are buying sausages etc. rather than the more expensive joints, although one of the local GPs didn't take too much persuading to purchase a rather nice leg of lamb (I was really pleased to sell that as it was £15 or so).  I also sold the lamb shank to a couple with whom I was discussing recipe ideas.  Andrew is going to pay me for my time in meat, which is great.

One of the people I saw was Elise, who is married to the family which owns the pub at Talkin.  She and her husband only moved up a year or so ago so he could get involved in the family business, and we met at swimming back in the summer as her daughter and mine were in the same class.  As I was going along each week with Edward she asked what having a third was like as she had found out, unexpectedly, that she was pregnant with no. 3.  A week or so later she had another surprise as no.3 was actually nos. 3 and 4!  I hadn't seen her for a few months and so today she looked really big as she's due to go in for an elective caesarean at 37 weeks on 22nd December - the due date would otherwise be around the time that Edward was due last year.  It was good to see her as I liked her, and she now has my mobile number so we can meet up once she's a bit more settled!  It will be great to see some tiny babies again and funny to think that a year ago I was in a similar position - Edward is SUCH a character now!  He and I were playing a game which had him giggling hysterically this afternoon - I can't even remember exactly what it was but he has this appealing way of getting very giggly about things which nobody else would find particularly funny: the other two love it when he thinks something they are doing is hilarious.  Maybe it was in part just the fact that I had, and took, the opportunity to play with him: which is a rather sad reflection as maybe I don't spend as much time playing with him as I should, but then I feel that about the other two as well and they were both in nursery and I was back at work full-time by the time they were each 6 months old.

The downside of this week is that only one person turned up to aerobics so I've decided not to teach until after Christmas (if they want me to start again then): it's a waste of my time which could be spent on my music 'stuff'.... or at least on helping get the children to bed.... so I'll be £15 per week down but on the other hand maybe the music things will start paying more.  There's also a vague possibility that I'm going to get an article in Cumbria Life (http://www.cumbrialife.co.uk/) (fingers tightly crossed: they prefer not to use non-regular contributors) and I'm also - finally - being published in Cumbria magazine (http://cumbriamagazine.co.uk/) next month, so will get some money from them.  We manage on David's salary and most months I get a little something extra one way or another: money's tight, but do I really want to move to Canada when I feel so much part of the local community here?