Tag: redundant

Being Positive

On By tontowilliamsIn Being Positive, redundancy
Always Looking Up
Always Looking Up

Yesterday marked an unusual day for me, for the first time since 1994, I found myself technically unemployed. I took voluntary redundancy from my last employer, after 17 years with them, and yesterday was the first working day that I have been out of full time employment.

Now I’m hunting for jobs, I applied for three yesterday as well as preparing a proposal for some self-employed work that I’ve been asked to do. The latter needs finishing today to submit to the client. I must admit, if I could make a living self-employed, then that feels a better option but it could be a feast and famine existence.

One things for sure I need to remain positive. Today is only day two, so it’s a bit early to see where this will go and how it will turn out. I believe the phrase is that “I have  a few irons in the fire”, but they could all come to nothing. If they do, then I’m sure that something else will come along, but in the meantime, I have a proposal to finish; dogs to walk, washing to hang out to dry; and all other jobs to do around the home (& allotment)! I’m sure that I’m not going to be idle.

Catch Up

On By tontowilliamsIn books, Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Wildlife/Nature, writing

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve managed to post here and there are a few things to catch up with.

Allotment

 It’s been a busy couple of weeks on the plot, with lots of the seeds I’ve sown germinating and coming along well. The potatoes have shot ahead, and are now earthed up in their final ridges. I’ve got my fingers crossed that we won’t have any hard frosts because they are a little exposed. I’m sowing and planting most weeks now, and by the end of May most things should be in, and then succession sowing can begin. It’s also been a great couple of weeks for seeing birds on the plot. Buzzards, heron and kestrel have been some of the highlights.

I’ve also written and submitted my first blog for Regatta. I won a competition to write for them, in return for the exposure and free kit. Writing for them stopped me from writing here last week as I was up against a deadline, but hopefully normal service can resume. I’ll post a link to that post when it’s live.

The last few weeks have also been pretty dry, with little rain, so it’s meant hand watering the plot. As most of the seedlings are under cover this takes a bit of time, as they have to be uncovered first. Yesterday we had a lot of rain though, which has even things out a bit. Not sure what the long range forecast predicts for the next few months but hopefully it won’t be too hot and dry, and although it’s an old wives tale the Oak was out before the Ash this year.

Work

Probably most significantly in the last two weeks is that I’ve found out I’m going to be made redundant at the end of July. This is partly voluntary, so I have at least been able to make some short term plans, but it means I’m going to be job hunting soon, which I’m not particularly looking forward too, having pretty much been continuously employed for the last twenty years!

Reading

Has been a pretty mixed bag. I finished reading “The Peregrine: The Hill of Summer and Diaries. The Complete Works of J. A. Baker” which was a fantastic read. It was an Easter present, and a book (The Peregrine) that I’ve been meaning to read for some time. I have another copy of the single book, but have never gotten around to reading it until now. I’d recommend if you like nature books.