Green, green its all...wait is that an armchair?

Last week I volunteered with the local Canal and River Trust, cleaning up the Lancaster canal for a few hours.  It was a fun morning spent on a canal boat with fishing nets and rubbish grabbers.   I was a little shocked by how much we came back on the boat with us.   I don't understand why so many people feel the need to throw unopened beer cans or half filled bottles of wine, even the empty ones, crisp packets, take away boxes, everything just chucked  into the canal. I didn't realise people were quite so wasteful and careless.

I personally feel extremely lucky to be living near such beautiful landscapes, but there's obviously a lot of people with no appreciation for our lush green surroundings and waterways. Perhaps they should spent some time in the desert too!

Check out this collection of things we pulled out of the canal and along the verges of the toe path:

In my other volunteering exploits I've been bring new life to some plants, propagating fig trees and lavander and hebes and expanding my plant knowledge massively.  I also made a few festive table decorations with pieces of holly, fern, that kind of thing.   Creativity and practical  aspects of life feeling well and truly satisfied.

The only thing missing some intellectual stimulation!  Although, mi español es mejorar!

The job hunting is fruitless at the moment, but I do have something to look forward to.  I'm leaving the country again on an extremely thin shoe string budget,  in the new year! I'm off to Arizona to spend time with a guy I bumped into at the kibbutz in my last few weeks in Israel,  and haven't stopped talking to since. I feel like I'm kicking off some gossip generator in the ex Ein Hashlosha volunteer network, you'll be sitting there figuring out who it is.   I'm  incredibly excited about flying out there,  but I have 5 weeks before then to make the most of.
I'm looking forward to a Christmas at home with the family, after last years hard work and stress in trying to create some sense of Christmas on the kibbutz.  It had its fun moments and it was certainly memorable, but this time I'll know exactly what to expect,  which can be nice once in a while.  

Having a year away from the UK over the Christmas period, does seem to have meant I missed the arrival of us deciding to join in the with America's mass consumerism fests. Black Friday did not exist in England before I left for Israel, I swear.  Those supermarket fights were
shocking!  Please try to engage in civilised Christmas shopping people.



Hope you're enjoying this extra warm and sunny festive period!