Prompt Time

April 8, 2023 ~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

What job would you do for free?

I’ve already done the job I would do for free, for free. Well, it was ‘work experience’. You know, that thing where workplaces use students for free labour? Yeah. That.

The job would be working in the Vet practice again. It was so great, and I felt like I was doing something that actually served a purpose. Which is different from my current job.

I was training to be a Veterinary Nurse, and had to give it up, because the cost of assessments and stuff was just too expensive. Which is pretty depressing. But I did love the experience. Getting to help people’s pets, as well as wildlife. It was so good. I’d really like to get back into some kind of animal care, even as a volunteer.

I’ve really noticed how much I miss being around animals, since we lost the family dog and my cat. No one is at home enough to get another pet, so I haven’t any for years. Animals are so grateful towards people being kind to them.

I might actually look at volunteering opportunities, see if any animal charity needs help. Would be easier to find somewhere if I had a car, but I’ll just have to try with what I can get to by bus. Hopefully there is something out there.

Life is deer

April 5, 2017 ~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Today I went to The Scottish Deer Centre, which is a wildlife park by Cupar in Fife. The park hosts 12 types of deer, as well as wolves, Scottish Wildcat and Northern Lynx. A lot of the animals used to live in the wild in Scotland, but as things have changed, they are no longer present.

I have always been funny about zoos and the like, especially when the animals are kept in tiny enclosures. But that didn’t seem to be the case here. There is a whole ‘buy food pellets for the deer’ thing I really wasn’t sure of. I always think animals should be better in the wild. But maybe I should look into it more, and see what problems the wildlife in this country are experiencing. I mean it’s all fine and well repopulating a species for an area, if the problems in that area aren’t fixed. Because all that is going to happen, is that some animals will be released all in vain. Which is horrible.

The whole park, I believe, is a converted Farm. So all the buildings, like the gift shop and the indoor play area, are all part of the original farm. Inside the play area, local schools have decorated the walls with murals of animals found at the park. It gives the idea that the park is a part of the community, which is nice. Although, with some areas peeling, maybe the the idea could be re-done.

The Journey to White Deer Park

January 11, 2017 ~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

I am a bit of a bookworm. But in periods where I become a bit ‘stuck’, it can include finding it difficult to do hobbies, as well as create things. That means, i find it hard to relax to music and I just can’t focus on a book to read. Now, these can be issues, as both music and books are ways I like to relax. So sometimes, i feel like I just can’t unwind, and it is so frustrating.

So I made a choice to try and read 50
books this year. Its a big number, as I really struggled last year reading that same target, in fact I think I ready 11 books. 11 books in 12 months is really bad, as I used to read ALL THE TIME. So, in keeping of 2017’s plan I thought I’d try and red a book from my childhood to get me started.

The Animals of Farthing Wood.

It was a good idea. Because although the story was a lot mor simplified than I remember, was still super entertaining. And it made me think. If I want to do things, and am finding it hard, then maybe do baby steps. Working a really small bit towards your goal is better than working towards nothing at all.

When I was young Farthing Wood was a favourite. I read it so much, and became convinced I was going to get a pet fox. As a fox was one of the main characters. I loved animals, and the idea of different animals banding together to travel to a safer place, after the pond in their home of Farthing Wood is filled in by humans. People were building on their homes, and the animals leave whilst they still have the chance. But where do they go? To an animal reserve called White Dear Park, where they could all be safe. So the animals, a badger, fox, snake, weasel, mole, owl, rabbits, mice, voles and more, make a pact to live together in unity, until they reached their new home.

I read the book when the cartoon, based on the book, was aired on Children’s BBC, when I was about 10 or 11. The book disappoint, in fact, when I re-read it last week, it still kept me entertained. Okay, the way the animals all talked to each other was just like they were people, did annoy me. But it was still a book I could get right into.

So maybe, if you are struggling, try to do something you loved as a kid. It might help you re-discover why you love what you do, and give you the push to carry on.

Out & About

January 6, 2015 ~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

Today I ventured outside with my new camera. The Canon PowerShot SX510 is a digital bridge camera, something that I wanted since I did a photography course at college many years ago. I like taking pictures, although I am not the best at it. But that is the good thing about hobbies, you do not have to be particularly good to do it, you just have to do something that you enjoy.

Anyways, I was to meet a friend today, and because I was in town early, I went for a walk down the main park in Dunfermline, Pittencrieff Park (also known as The Glen). It was a gift by Andrew Carnegie to the people of Dunfermline, the town of his birth, after he made his fortune in America in the steel industry. He also donated a library. gymnasium and concert hall to Dunfermline, and also various projects through the USA, particularly New York’s famous Carnegie Hall. Carnegie believed that one third of life should be spent learning as much as they can, the next third spent making as much money as he could. The last third of one’s life should then be spent giving earnings to worthwhile causes to better society. The Glen is one of my favourite places in my hometown, so I thought it was the perfect first trip out with my new camera.

And then I ventured up to the Abbey, a building dating from the early 1200s. A beautiful place.

The one thing that struck me as strange, was the number of squirrels about. I am sure that the squirrels used to hibernate, but the mild winter and constant food from visitors mean that they haven’t done so in years. Visitors are encouraged to bring nuts and seeds to the park to feed the birds over the winter, and the squirrels feed off them. And because they get food of people, they have no fear and can come right close to you.

Universally Speaking

February 1, 2011February 11, 2011 ~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

I was sitting thinking, the other day about the blog post I did a few days ago, where I was talking about relationships. And despite me being rather cynical about love, you can’t deny that it is something that bypasses language and other barriers. Gestures of love and kindness are something that is not restricted to the English language. And that, is rather romantic in itself, thinking that love rises above the barriers our modern world has created.

So, even if we go more primal, and think about the concept of finding a mate. This is something which goes beyond humankind, a great variety of creatures mate for life. Wolves, coyotes, beavers, Golden Eagles and Ospreys are just a few creatures which mate for life. This isn’t them living together and playing happy families, a lot of the time it is just that they are programmed to be social with the opposite sex, and assist in the raising of young. It is mechanical, something which is where a persons need to be in a relationship comes from. It’s the biological urge to have a place where you have a family of people around you, as a network of support, because ultimately that is why animals like Wolves live in packs.

The network that people have has changed over the centuries. No longer are people together simply as mates, and build a network around their mate. They have networks of colleagues, of friends, of people other than the traditional parents, and various family members. So, as our world takes more steps away from nature, so do our network of relationships. So rather than the basic, man meets woman, they have sex, have children, that’s their lives, people have jobs, ambitions and are not so focused on finding a partner. Especially when you see that it used to be that girls where paired with a suitor by the time they were 16.

I guess amidst all my rambling, what I am trying to say is that the human race isn’t unique in having urges to show fondness towards others. A lot of our behaviour comes from our past as more basic creatures, it’s just third party causes, such as money and technology, has distorted what should be the most natural thing that a person should experience.

You can’t talk about love, without your mind going to the polar opposite, which is hate. Hate, in most aspects is thought of as ‘revenge’. Why? Well, again it comes down to the basic families and networks that people have created over time, be it religion, work, or anything. If anything threatens our network, people resort to their primal instinct of trying to defend it. Which then brings intolerance, as people get overly sensitive, and well…you get a whole of bother.

But, fights and duels happen all the time in the wild, as creatures try to protect what is theres’. It’s just the ‘more sophisticated’ humans, use guns and destroy everything, to the point it becomes mindless. But it all stems from urges and behaviours that are built-in to our nature, something that makes us no different from any other person, or any other creature on earth.