Return of the travelling man

I figured it was time for an update, seeing as the last one was a fortnight ago. There's not much crafty stuff been going on, mainly because I've been swanning around again.

The weekend before last was the Harvest camp at Exmoor. Unfortunately nobody told me it was also the V festival, so I spent two hours parked on the M6, but got there in the end and it was well worth it. Apart from seeing old friends again, and making new ones, there was the usual sense of community spirit and friendship, as well as the sharing of ideas (and home-brew). It was summed up best by Richard; "I've only known most of you for a short time, yet you are some of my oldest friends". The beaded spiders went down very well, and in return I learnt how to play a didgeridoo (well, I can get a sound out of it), how to make charm bags, and how to sing a round. For this camp the harvest ritual was devised and conducted by some of us who don't normally work in a group, and it was a resounding success, culminating in the offering of the communal soup back to the Earth.

It was back to work on the Tuesday for three days before my next trip. Unfortunately those three days included the announcement that 1200 jobs will be going in UK. In the space of 3 hours we were told that we may be redundant, that our jobs are safe and that we are in one of the redundancy areas. When I left work on Thursday the situation stood that we are in one of the redundancy groups, although our jobs should be safe. The 90 day period begins on the 11th so until then little will happen. Sometime after that we'll find out for definite if we're going or not. Personally I think our team is safe, but you never know. Oh well, no use worrying about it, it won't change anything. I'll just bimble on as normal and if it happens, it happens. If it does, I guess I'll have more crafty time :)

Friday was the start of another trip. This time it was off to Uffington, home of the White Horse, for the UKP Southern camp. Nothing as organised as Exmoor, just a handful of us in a field chilling out. Saturday was a wander over a couple of hills to visit the horse and then onto Waylands Smithy. After getting back we sat and watched red kites hunting, along with a buzzard. Sunday was the White Horse country show, so we took a walk over a couple of fields to go and have a look. There were the usual stalls, heavy horse displays, sheep dog trials, etc; and flying displays. First up a couple of wingwalkers on 1940's biplanes (must be mad) and then later, after we'd walked back, a flypast by the restored AVRO Vulcan Bomber. Yesterday was pack-up and drive back, and then taking stock of where I am crafty-wise.

I have 5 days until I'm back in work, and the idea is to get at least one project a day finished to clear the backlog. Last night and this morning it was ATCs. The theme is "I do like to be beside the seaside", and here's my take on it. Unfortunately the scan isn't too good, but the text is from the old music hall song of the same name.

Right, I'm off to the next project, CJ4.