Love What You Do

❤ The HouseCat is a Happy School-Marm ❤

Here's my mid-month status report for the 'This Is CorpGoth' blog. 

As my longer term readers may know, I work at a primary school. I won't state which one because I like to keep my personal, private, Goth life separate from my work life. I really enjoy my job, it's probably the most rewarding jobs I've done. I also cannot be too specific due to the school's social media policy. 

I'm not a teacher, and my actual roles are quite varied, and I do extra things in a volunteer capacity. I'm hoping to go back to studying, and gain the required qualifications to become a teacher, but that's not possible right now for various reasons, mostly financial ones. I've had a rather different career before, having worked in retail and then getting into retail management, and this was a complete change. After I got made redundant within a month from my previous retail job because the store closed, and having seen so many shops go out of business while I was unemployed, I stopped applying only for more retail jobs, it just didn't seem secure, even applying for big high-street institutions, as several of those have gone under recently. I knew already that I didn't really want a long-term career in retail, and that I only got into that sector via the evening job I had at college, but I was torn between trying to make a living via running a gallery, or via illustration work and going into academia or teaching art, and didn't know which way to turn, but now I have worked with children for nearly a year, I've found that I love it.

The most important thing is knowing that my job contributes something positive to the world. I didn't feel that in retail, but it is really rewarding to know that what I do helps, even in a small way. Education is a very complicated thing, and needs a holistic approach - it's not just about teaching the subjects, but making sure the school environment is conducive to learning, and that the children are in a productive frame of mind, and I know that doing even minor things like wishing pupils "Have a good day at school!" first thing in the morning contributes to that. What I say is not scripted, it's not the forced politeness of working in a customer facing role, where people check to see if you're smiley enough. I don't need anyone to tell me to be smiley at work because I genuinely have a reason to smile.

Low sun on an evening commute in springtime.

I like that I get to spend time outside as part of my job, I also like living just close enough for it to be possible to walk to work in the summer, when it is light enough out for me to be walking that early in the morning. I've seen red kites, herds of deer, rabbits, foxes, hedgehogs, buzzards, and all sorts of other wildlife while walking first thing in the morning - including deer running across the patch of grass behind my local supermarket, which was quite an unexpected spot to see them! I rescued a baby crow on my way back from work last spring! I will probably start walking home from work now that the days are significantly longer, but I start too early to walk in. I get an absolutely amazing view in the morning, and watching the morning light over the mountains is enough to stop me in my tracks temporarily just to watch, sunsets over the other mountains in the evenings are also pretty special, and as I live a long way up a high hill, my reward to myself for walking all that way is to have a cup of tea next to my nice big living-room window and look back over that view. 

Trip To Dundreggan With Trees for Life

I will unashamedly say that I think Scotland is Paradise. If it wasn't for the lack of mead and boar, I'd say this was the afterlife and that I'm already dead :P 

Today I went to the Dundreggan Estate (::read more here::) to help with the efforts of replanting the Caledonian forest. I left Inverness train-station at 09:00 this morning, so I was up fairly early in order to get ready and to the city for that. The journey to Dundreggan was certainly scenic. I saw deer. It was a silvery landscape; everything was covered in glittering crystals of hoar-frost. Mist from the sea, the lochs and the rivers hung trapped between the mountains. Things are beginning to look distinctly wintery, but the snows haven't come this far down yet; the peaks shine white, but the slopes and the valleys are still autumnal.

River Moriston

Dundreggan Lodge was at the end of a lovely drive, shrouded in mist. Things were less wintery, more autumnal - the trees have golden leaves, which have begun to fall, and the grass, while frosty, was definitely not snowy. At the lodge we went indoors for a cup of tea, and a discussion of the plan of action. The discussion turned to life in bothies, being snowed in, and living in winter without running water and being cut off from modern life - I recalled fond memories of Raven's parent's farm in Wales, during deepest winter. I met a Buddhist lady, talked about life, and eyed up the Lodge's piano (but didn't touch!). 

Misty Avenue

We then went to the tree nursery, where I observed young saplings being tended, before heading off to the carpark to get organised. I borrowed some waterproof trousers, and hopped into a minibus that took us further up the mountain. Our trip was, for reasons I don't yet know, being filmed. As I got into the minibus after a group had already been filmed getting into it, I had to get out of the minibus, stand out of camera shot, and wait while the minibus was filmed arriving and everyone getting out was filmed, and then the minibus was filmed arriving again, and everyone getting out was filmed... again. 

We then hiked our way to the exclosure (it's an inclosure if it keeps animals in, this fence was built to keep deer out of where the young saplings were growing, so it is an exclosure), through some very, very lovely countryside. I really, really wish my photographs from my walk by the river, through the trees and up to the exclosure had turned out reasonably well, but sadly they were mostly blurry or badly taken. Instead, have a photograph of some melting hoar-frost. 

Glittery, glittery, glittery.

The exclosure is out on the heather, on some very open and wind-swept slopes.  The view was spectacular, but it isn't a place of many colours, only leaden sky and bronze slopes. 

Trees for Life have so far planted over a million trees - the millionth was planted in May of this year - and today I planted 96 more. Our target for the day was 1,000 trees, and we may well have exceeded it. Our saplings were as 'plug-plants', and all we had to do was dig a hole, put in a sapling, fill in around it, and tap it down - hard to do when the ground is frozen and there are crystals of needle ice growing OUT of it! (Although, when the needle ice formed, the ground had not yet frozen.) I also spent an awful lot of time talking with a chap who turned out to be a fellow LARP enthusiast, gamer, guitar player and person with an interest in swords, knives and weaponry (and who once fenced sabre) - it's amazing the places you meet like-minded folk.

Trying to put up a fence,
Dec '11. Photo by M. Drury

It rained, then sleeted, and I got very wet, and my waterproof trousers proved not to be very water-proof, for water and mud seeped through and my legs got soaked, and then chilled by the cold, cold wind. Tree planting with Trees for Life is certainly a rewarding task, but generally involves mountainous hikes and inclement weather, followed by hard work, so is something for adventurous and outdoorsy types. As well as the day trips like the ones I attend, they also run conservation weeks, with accommodation, for those who would rather do something useful when they take time out of their regular lives. I've been volunteering with Trees for Life since last autumn/winter, and while my trips are always an adventure, and every time I go out I go "I'm never getting that cold and wet EVER again!" and then every time I get the chance to go again, I'm rushing to sign myself up.

✥⚜✥

I would like to clarify to readers that despite certain rumours, I am not a Pictsie, am very much alive, and am decidedly Franglais.