Nov 255 min read

Karen's Corner - 25.11.24

Welcome back to this week’s Karen’s Corner! Join me here each week to catch up with what I’ve been up to both in and out of work and what I’ve been loving and connect with me on Instagram www.instagram.com/karen.anderson.fossoway

Karen xx

WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO THIS WEEK

I wonder if it’s the same for everyone, but it seems like a lot can change in the space of a few weeks here at Fossoway Stables.

Our brand new shed was installed in the garden the other week and our now, mostly sorted belongings are making their way to live inside it. This has elicited a kind of smugness in us I hadn’t anticipated and the pride with which I find us showing off said shed to others is, quite frankly, bemusing. I’ve come to accept that this is peak mid-lifing … finding genuine joy in, an albeit beautiful, garden shed. Of course, it isn’t the shed itself that brings the delight, but what it represents … creating order out of chaos and the getting together of the metaphorical sh!t.

I’ve not had to look far for our share of chaos, both professionally and personally this last wee while. Working for yourself only ever promises to be easy on social media, but those of us living in the real world know this is very rarely the case. My experience of self employment over the last 20 years has been nothing short of a rollercoaster. A few highs, some lows, and plenty of twists and turns that I never saw coming. I’ve never been fond of the fairground on account of the inevitable whiplash and nausea it evokes but I guess, over the years, I’ve learned to stomach it a little better.

We had such a high with our most recent Potting Shed experiment, Pumpkin Day. It was a last minute decision to trial a Saturday opening and tie it in with national pumpkin day. We really didn’t know whether people would come but it turned out to be by far the busiest day we’ve had and it was truly lovely to welcome families in to choose a pumpkin, roast their marshmallows, listen to live music from our very own John McCusker and generally, eat, drink and socialise. This was what we imagined when we sat down and thought about what Fossoway Stables could become.

The temperatures have since plummeted however and I totally accept that no amount of available blankets and logs on the fire pit will entice people to sit outside for a coffee and a pastry. We’ve been delighted with the Potting Shed experiment though and will re-open again in the Spring when we all come out of hibernation.

Another highlight of the last month or so was a particularly indulgent trip I took to meet my brother, sister in law and nephews for lunch in Paris! They live in the USA and were taking a week’s holiday in the French capital so, despite how silly it sounds to fly to Paris for lunch, it would have seemed sillier to me NOT to fly in and out to see them when they were so close. I hadn’t been in Paris for about 20 years so it was lovely to go back. We walked for beaucoup de miles, ate yummy cuisine and attempted, and failed, to be as chic as the locals! The 112 days prior had been spent on Duolingo revising my high school French and I left Edinburgh airport with faith in my abilities to use it … a mere 20 minutes after landing in Paris with the opportunity to impress everyone with my impressive French vocab, my confidence plummeted, my mind scrambled and I found myself fumbling a half English, half French sentence to the homme at the taxi rank. It took most of the day to re-build my now fairly flimsy confidence and attempt anything more than “bonjour” and “merci”. Ah well, la prochaine fois!

Back home, at the stables, the horses, ponies, sheep and goats are now all in at night and it’s comforting to know that they’re all cozied up in the barn on the cold evenings while we’re doing the same in our home. That of course means the start of the winter workload in the stables though with lots of mucking out to be done daily for the next 5 or 6 months. It’s hard, physical work, early in the morning, in often cold, wet and windy weather and I can’t say I always relish it. We’ve reduced our numbers considerably going into this winter which makes the prospect a little less daunting and I’m reminding myself it’s a great way to exercise, care for the animals and carve out time to listen to all the podcasts in my catch-up list.

I think it’s really important to view things in as positive a light as you possibly can - particularly those things that are planned and can be prepared for. It would be really easy for me to focus on the enormity and relentlessness of workload that’s just landed in my calendar and, as a result, become burdened by it. But by re-framing it in my head and actually being grateful for it, the task becomes far less of a load to carry.

When you hand over your money to purchase your ticket to ride the rollercoaster, you’re actively buying into being thrown about by the unpredictability of the movement and, much like the rollercoaster, if there’s anything that can be relied upon in life, it’s that there will always be twists that knock you right off balance. These past few weeks have been one of those times.

In the midst of unforseen bills, a broken down car, the usual full calendar of kids' activities and admin mayhem, we were knocked off our feet with what was coming next ....

Our hugely self-assured, independent, adventure-seeking, treat-loving, sometimes grumpy but immeasurably-loved little dog KenRobinson passed away and we’re all utterly heartbroken. He’d been struggling for a while and we’d thought we were going to lose him a few times over the last few years but even knowing it was going to happen sooner rather than later, the sadness for us all when it did happen was immediate, complete and heavy. It continues to catch me every now and again - when I have to tell someone who doesn’t know, when someone says something kind, when I find myself looking for him or thinking I hear his wee feet on the wooden flooring or when I remember how frail and vulnerable he’d become latterly. I guess with any loss, it takes time to fully process it.

The last few weeks therefore, have been a complete disaster work wise. Both John and I are SO behind on work, John's now been hit with a sickness bug and we're just about holding it all together. Christmas is now 30 days away and I’m trying very hard not to stress too much about how much I still have to do on that front!

As the year starts to draw to a close, I’m finding myself looking a what I’d like to complete by the end of the year and reviewing the year past both personally and professionally. Beyond that, I’m starting to think about what I’d like next year to look like and how I plan to make those things materialise. It’s always an exciting exercise and one I feel I have more clarity and energy for this year. I’ll of course share all that with you, right here in Karen’s Corner over the coming weeks but for now, I’m heading back to those emails.

Until next time ……

K xx