Keeping Busy

Duke of Edinburgh Award activities are happening. A has a practice overnight hike next week and had a list of items that she needed for it. Now it’s rarely over freezing here so sleeping in a tent would be my idea of hell, but she’s looking forward to it. The funniest thing about this activity was A telling me all horrified that they were going to have to pee outside and that their leader suggested they practice “performing” (their word) in the far corner of their back garden (yard). A’s friend responded, “I don’t have a back garden”. A offered her our back garden. While I want them to be prepared do the girls really have to squat in our back yard?


She also started her volunteer work three weeks ago and loves every minute of it. She’s working at the farm we visit and she is getting a workout. I wonder if she will come out of this experience either wanting to be a farmer or a vegetarian because she loves the animals. She cleans chicken coops, collects eggs, feeds sheep, cows, and pigs, and lots of other things. They don’t seem to coddle her. She comes home absolutely exhausted. When I picked her up Saturday evening she said that a calf had been born that morning.

She’s also enjoying her horseback riding lessons. I don’t understand it at all, especially when it is just a few degrees below freezing, raining, and I’m sitting in a stinky barn while she is having her lesson. After sitting out in that, it is difficult to warm up the rest of the day. It’s made me look forward to my business trip to Florida this week.

Figures, as I drink my coffee and get ready to pack the last of my things the sun looks to be making an appearance in the UK!