Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Walking the dog



I have been musing - this being my second year doing the CL Fair - whether I am better prepared, both in terms of stock levels and, more importantly, in terms of stress levels.

I think that I am - and part of that is remembering to properly walk the dog. At Christmas I got so tied up with work and so stressed with orders that I stopped doing anything else. Jasmine was neglected and she turned into a wee tub looking morosely at me from her basket.

Now I have begun to realise that, counter-intuitively, doing things away from the business gives me a better perspective and moreover seems to actually stretch time. You also notice things - a couple of days ago Jasmine and I walked along the track at Craigievern, part of the West Highland Way, and saw ditches full of billows of frogspawn. Spring.

These photos were taken yesterday evening. Katie and I went for a walk by Loch Lomond and up through the woods. Zoe was at her piano lesson. This time last year I would probably have been sat in the car frantically punching holes in price labels. . . . so I think I am improving.

Euan disagrees and claims that I am still being followed around by a big black cloud of stress.

I made a list of everything that needs to be done between now and Tuesday when the stand goes up and put an estimated time next to it. It added up to . . .300 hours.

Now that will take some stretching of time.

6 comments:

Gigibird said...

what a pair of cuties:)

weirdbunny said...

About the birch sap wine, the woodcutter says it depends how much sugar you add to it as to whether it's dry or not. He's put a kilo of sugar in so far so that would be dry, however lots of receipes suggest 3lb which would make it sweeter.

You made me laugh about whittling arrows. John was teaching our kids to do that out of hazel. One morning the kids were doing it and Gwenny sliced her hand open using a plane, so that was the end of that. Kids, tools and arrows are currently a no go around here at the moment. Good luck with the spring fair. I've seen a few other blogers will be there too, Elfie and Me, and Plump Pudding.

Rose said...

Well this is my first visit to your blog. I'm always happy to see people that are pursuing their passions. So many people think that it can't be done and you are just another example of someone who is actually doing it.

Since I work from home too I can definitely relate to the "stress" thing adn it all does come down to "stop and smelling the roses" along the way! Last Sunday I just relaxed the whole entire day! I haven't done that for a very long time!

And again you are right about stepping away from work every once in a while and doing something else. Doing that does make your work perspective a lot more enjoyable.

Anonymous said...

Darling Jane, I can feel the stress and understand totally. Geez, how does it get to this point? What I do know is that your utter passion and dedication to, not only your business, but also its ethos will pay off. And you have done something which many would never do; you have actively taken a step back. Even with 300 hours worth of work to be done. The silly thing is that your time at the CL fair will be wonderful if you do get it all done and if you don’t. But then it's easy for me to say that!

Isnt your daughter beautiful!!!!

Cherry xxxxx

Primrose Hill said...

Jane,
If I wasn't in the same boat myself I'd come and help you out. Last year come 10am on opening day, nothing of ours was tagged and nothing was priced but we muddled on through very discreetly tagging things when people weren't looking, although the madness of the first day is actually quite scary. At least we'll be prepared for that this year! I have tagged and priced as I've gone along this year, I've learnt my lesson!
Walking the dog is a must, especially when you have a very excited collie bouncing around in front of you every time you put your wellies on!
At the end of the day, we wouldn't put ourselves through this madness if we didn't love it!
L xx

Jane said...

I now find that given enough pressure I can delegate after all.
So Sally is wrapping up dahlia tubers, Mum has made the skirt for our kitchen table which is coming to our stand, so that I can hide boxes of stock under it and jo is coming to chop all the blooms off the plants for the planting so that it doesn't all peak too early.
No prices yet, but no-one's perfect. The labels arrive tomorrow!