what happened to April?

Well I don't know, I was not well, we were away and getting on with my various activities seemed to take up all my energy. So May is here and I am posting at last.

So, in no very particular order. I have been a couple of times to Leeds, once to see my now given leave to stay and therefore no-longer-an-asylum-seeker friend and once to see two other friends. Both times, lots of chatting and laughing, however I also have to spend hours on the phone for my 'given leave to stay' friend. She only has a pay as you go phone and she needs to cancel a hospital appointment, (she is conscientious and won't just not turn up), and speak to her housing provider. It takes forty five minutes altogether for me to finally speak to someone, on my contract that costs nothing, but on pay as you go................! I am glad that LASSN, lassn.org.uk, has not yet found me a new person to befriend, this friend still needs loads of support.



there is a path under all this

We have had a variety of Coasties, www.northyorkmoors.org.uk, tasks. The usual of repairing steps and cutting back blackthorn along footpaths, but a couple of different jobs too. One sunny day we were clearing paths near Reasty Bank where logging operations had left them blocked with felled trees and branches. The ranger needed to power saw them first then we were able to hand saw them into smaller pieces and drag them off the path. It was hard work, but satisfying when we could walk along the whole path that we had cleared.

the new paving

As usual the last Wednesday of the month we were with National Trust, www.nationaltrust.org.uk, this month at Hayburn Wyke, repairing a path that was eroding into the stream. The woods were really beautiful, a faery glen. But the work was hard and potentially wet and muddy, getting flat stones out of the stream to lay on the muddiest part of the path and then covering them with sand and gravel, also from the stream bed, to bed them in and also make them less slippery when wet.

keeping dry.

One Sunday I did a Voluntary Ranger patrol in the damp in Rosedale, the weather meant that I saw very few people, but I cut back some shrubs obscuring foot path signs and had a chat to a farmer about thoughtless dog owners allowing their dogs to worry sheep. I also spotted this retired goat, keeping dry in a brand new coat.

Two dancers decide what to buy

Finally yesterday, after  a cold start the sun shone, and Morris and other traditional dancing groups kicked off the Malton and Norton Folk Festival www.maltonfolk.co.uk in grand style. Our local Fairtrade group, www.fairtrade.org.uk/ had a stall of snacks, chocolate and crafts next to the dancing area and we did a brisk trade. Then in the evening most of us took the stall to the concert at a local pub, a fine end to the day. Our takings were significantly up on last year, a bonus for the Fairtrade producers, Fairer World in York, www.fairerworldyork.co.uk and the Folk Festival who will get a share of the takings.

So now my small society is back again the public domain, it always was functioning, just not on the blog.