The rest of May 2016

On Sunday 10th May, we went for a family walk in a nearby wood, and had our Ward Conference in the evening, followed by a Munch and Mingle.

On Wednesday 11th, Donna, Rachel and I went to Ely to meet up with Priya who now lives in Ely, to celebrate mine and Priya's birthdays. I had no idea of the way to Ely, and so was blindly following the Satnav, but ended up getting nearly all the way to Spalding before realising we were way off track. Scott had been to Spalding the day before for work, and somehow I'd pressed something on the satnav to revert to his route! Then there was a road closure due to an accident, so we eventually got to Ely about two hours late!
We managed to park right outside the cafe where we met Priya and had a really lovely time!

A walk along the river.

It was a gorgeous evening on Thursday 12th, and Lucy and I decided to go for a walk at the Blackhurst's farm, while the oil seed rape was still flowering.

Walking up to the reservoir.

On Friday 13th, it was Jack's 'Dress For Success' day at school. He got these photos of him and friends in his year.

On the 17th and 18th, I cut out and sewed together a quilt top for a Stake Relief Society service project. I don't have large amounts of any one kind of fabric, so it was a mishmash of fabrics which vaguely matched! 

On 20th May, the fire service did a social media article on the Ambulance Co-responding trial I am part of. This was one of their pictures. We started co-responding on 23rd May.

Some of the sisters went to Northampton on Saturday 21st to complete the quilts for the service project.

Lucy got the train down to London on Friday 20th, to go to a Missionary Preparation weekend at Hyde Park Chapel. She absolutely loved it and came back buzzing!! We went to church in the morning at Huntingdon on 22nd, so that Scott could go and collect her from London in the afternoon.

On Wednesday 25th, just as I was walking out the door to go Visiting Teaching, I got a phone call seeing if I'd go to a fire. I wasn't on call, but there was a big fire nearby in a tree surgeon's clearing in some woodland - loads of huge mounds of sawdust and logs had caught fire. I drove to the fire station, where the fire engine was returning for something, and drove back in the front seat, with Phil, to the fire. I had to make a very noisy siren-filled phone call to Theresa Guy apologising for cancelling my visit!

We spent most the day at the fire, trying to stop it spreading to the surrounding vegetation. It was pretty hot work!

I also went back the next day with a crew to do some more damping down around the edges. The fire had all burnt out, but was still smoldering in the deep piles of woodchip.

On 26th May, I posted this on Facebook:

''I was just thinking how proud I am of my kids. I took Lucy to her last ever early morning Seminary class this morning - she has completed 4 years, she's just approaching her A level exams, and is getting her missionary papers ready for sending off. Today Jack is officially half-way through Seminary and half-way through his GCSE exams (not that you'd know, he's so laid back!), Tom is quietly, happily getting on with life. He set himself the challenge to run for 4 hours a week a while back, and has stuck to it. He's representing the school at an athletics meeting today. And Harry has one crazy skilled brain, and keeps life lively!

This is the first picture I have of them all together. (Sorry about those trousers Lucy!)''

At about 2am on Friday 27th, I had a call-out to a fire near Bedford. We were going as a support vehicle for our water carrier which was needed for a huge 3000 square metre fire at a warehouse. When we got there, we stopped quite a way down the road from the fire, just to be on hand when water was needed. Twelve fire engines were there, and over 80 fire fighters. I asked if I could go up and see the incident more closely. The fire was well developed, and the fire fighters were mainly trying to protect a petrol station and house behind it from becoming involved in the fire which was burning on three sides of them. There was no saving the warehouse.

I spent most of the day helping with the water supply. We set up a big dam (like a large kids' paddling pool) which loads of fire engines and water carriers kept filling with water. It was feeding a fire engine which was supplying two hoses being used on the fire. Two of my crew were with our water carrier further up the road, and the rest of my crew spent most the day driving our fire engine to the nearest hydrant to refill it with water. All the nearby hydrants weren't working, so they were travelling 3 miles to the nearest working one. I went on one run with them, but stayed mainly with the damn, directing new crews on delivering their water. I met a couple of other probationers from St. Neots and we had a good chat and a laugh getting the water in the damn.

At around 1pm, two smart black cars pulled up and two guys got out with big bags - bringing us McDonalds! It was so good!! We finally left in the midafternoon, stopping off at the tree surgeon's fire just to check it again on the way home. The first water carrier crew had already come back and bought doughnuts and stuff for us and we sat around for a bit chatting. I was shattered but happy! To make matters worse, my period had started that day, and my new fire boots were too small and really hurting - it really was quite a feat of endurance for me! (From that day I ended up losing one of my big toenails and blackening the other - and ordering bigger boots!) I got home just before 3pm in time to pick up Harry from school.

These are photos from the media.

I bought my uniform home with me that night too, ready for a training course the next day.