Money Pool

A lady within a circle of online friends has just lost her husband. Another lady within the group has organised a Paypal Money Pool which will go towards supporting our friend until she is ready to work again. I'm grateful to the lady who has made it so easy for the rest of us to contribute. 

Half a pig

We are very lucky to have an abundance of food. Earlier this week we were able to donate half a pig to a local family, for their freezer (my son and his household took the other half). The young man accidentally forgot to take some of the parts and left them in our fridge. Yesterday my son came and collected them and delivered them to him as he doesn't drive. 

Pig lesson

We've been struggling with some of our pig tasks lately, so I'd asked on a swap group for some help in return for products. We had a lovely couple come over today who want to keep pigs in the future. 

They were a great help, and my partner spent ages talking through with them everything they'd need to know. When they left they had a car full of meat and jam. It's been a nice day. 

Trampoline

Once again someone's kindness has made me smile. 

A lady I've never met in person has given me a exercise trampoline. My partner kindly collected it for me this afternoon, and I sent him with some homemade jam as a thank you. 

Now I'm counting the minutes until I finish work so I can try it out ...  

Sandwich

This seems the silliest thing but it created big smiles so I'll include it. 

There was a day of quite challenging farm activities ahead, but I had to go to work. As I had a deadline to leave and partner needed my assistance, he didn't have time for breakfast (he'd had ALL morning, but that's another story!!). He was as grumpy as a grumpy thing on a grumpy day. So when I packed up and got changed for work I made a last minute decision to work from the house rather than my office which gave me ten minutes spare. I used it to make him a fried egg sandwich.

Anyone who believes a man's heart isn't in his stomach has obviously not met my partner! 

Paperwork

A friend is trying to return to Portugal, which was proving difficult as he's lost his residency certificate and isn't awfully good with paperwork. My partner liaised with the department to get this reissued, then I did the paperwork to get it updated post-Brexit. Hopefully he'll be able to get a flight soon.

Paul's necklace

Months ago we had a volunteer who stayed with us for a while. After he'd gone I discovered a necklace down the back of the bed, a worthless looking thing but it seemed to have a sentimental value. I messaged him, and said I'd hang onto it until he could return. 

It's now months later and it's not easy to travel, so I'll just packaged it up and posted it to him. With an origami peace dove  :)

Proofing

I just proofread a condolences letter from one of my students to her professor's wife. Such a small task for me to do, so glad to be able to help so easily. 

Pig delivery

Some weeks ago a lady came to buy pigs but came with a ridiculously small and overloaded car and there was no way partner and I could have sent her on her way with as many as she wanted safely. She was disappointed though, as with kids and a farm to manage the 90 min drive to our place was hard to organise. 

Yesterday I had a medical appointment not far from her place so I made contact and we were able to save her a journey. 

Crystal posting

My crystals arrived today!  Seller included a bonus one, & just asked for a photo & short comment on her page, so I did.  

Scratch offs

 

Someone I've only interacted a little with on a forum tagged me in a post to say Lidl has some scratch off books she thought I'd like.  Yep :)

Coin collection

Remember the stamps lady? We were chatting about her hobbies and she mentioned that her ex also destroyed her coin collection.

What a great opportunity to pass on the few foreign bank notes and coins we have lying about. 

Stamps not-swap

I've always cut the stamps off incoming mail and saved them up for charity, but I've struggled to find charities locally who still accept them. Sign of the times I suppose. 

So I posted a message on a 'swap' group offering them if anyone wanted them for crafts and got a lovely long message from a lady suggesting a whole list of thing to swap for them and telling me that she had a stamp collection for years before her ex had destroyed it in a divorce. Pretty nasty story. Then she wrote back 2 minutes later saying actually I lived too far away so she couldn't come and get them after all. 

I'm preparing them to post to her, and I've had a rummage through my stash of odds and sods and have found some little 'kindness' goodies to include in the parcel. 

Book share

Last night I started reading a book which a friend thought I'd enjoy and posted on to me. Grateful to have friends who share things with me that they think I'll like. She was kind enough to enclose multiple bookmark choices too :)

I've already identified another friend who will enjoy this when I'm through. 

Ping Pauses Pondering

I was struggling to think of a kindness to write about this morning, and while I was wracking my brains my email went ping with a blog update in my inbox. I read it while I pondered. 

I was a description of a friend's morning routine, seeing to her sheep during lambing season, and it brought a tear to my eye as it was beautifully written. 

Kindness dilemma instantly solved! I wrote her a message immediately saying how much I'd enjoyed it and she wrote back saying how lovely that was to hear and how she didn't think anyone actually read her ramblings. 

Now I follow quite a few blogs but I rarely comment. Maybe I'll start making more of an effort to let the writers know they're being heard. 



In other news, the lady in the electoral office that I sent a card to obviously instantly saw through my disguise of just using my first name as she sent me a lovely email saying the card caused a few smiles in the office and thanking me. Happy to have raised some smiles, even if my cover is blown :)

'Immortelle' tea

A friend seems to suffer with an uncomfortable tummy often. I've dug out some boxes of 'Immortelle' tea herbs I'd harvested and will give them to her when I see her next. Perhaps they'll help (and even if they don't, it's really tasty tea!).

Thank you card

A couple of days ago I posted about a wonderful interaction I had with the lady responsible for voter renewals. I just got a free card offer from Moonpig, so I used it to send her a thank you card. It cost me just the postage, the vast sum of 85p :)

The Memory Hunters

I read this article on the BBC this morning and it made me tear up. You will remember that it's the ten year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan which killed nearly 16,000 people and wiped out whole towns. This story is about the kindness of a team of volunteers who came together to rescue, restore and catalogue family photographs for the benefit of the survivors. 

The Memory Hunters

Voter Renewal

I received my voter renewal by email today but wasn't able to print and scan as requested because I don't have a printer and everything is closed because of covid. When I wrote back to the lady she came up with an alternative solution and was so pleasant and friendly that she deserves a shout out for being the kindest person I dealt with today. 

Landwork

 

Today a friend of my son's came round to help my partner with some pretty heavy land clearance. My son can't help out at the moment as he's recovering from an operation, and we have a legal deadline looming. Very grateful for the assistance.

Crystal grids

I sometimes make crystal grids for friends.  Today a friend made one for me 💖

Surprise parcel

Partner is going to the post office today, so I took the opportunity of parcelling up a gift I've been meaning to send off for a while. Surprise parcels rock. 

Hospital visit

Well yesterday was a bit of a drama. A friend went to the doctor's surgery and ended up being shipped off to hospital for some tests. That's not so weird in this country, but hugely inconvenient.

She was worried about her kids being left home alone if she had to be admitted and mentioned this to the surgery, who went a little overboard and told her they'd involve social services. So I ended up being on red alert to go over and spend the night, as a 'responsible adult'. 

I was just giving up on her being home in the evening and getting my shoes on to head over when she was released. We have a ludicrous situation here where they take you TO hospital for something as simple as an Xray but not BACK so she was then stranded in the city with a potential 100 euro taxi bill, so my partner drove into the city and picked her up very late at night. 

Lunch?

One of my workmates got delayed and instead of joining us at the canteen, he skipped lunch.  I offered to go back over & him something but he was happy enough with the chocolate I'd shared earlier.

Tarot reading

A friend did a tarot reading for me. I am an argumentative sceptic so I really appreciate her doing them for me. I find they spark lots of thoughts. 

Easter suggestion

A friend's mum messaged me asking if I was aware of a local flower delivery company as she wanted to send her daughter some flowers for Easter. I had no idea, so she said she'd buy something from Amazon instead. I was able to come up with an idea of something from a local artisan seller who is struggling because of the restrictions on markets etc and she seems to like the idea. I'll help her with communication and with money transfer, if she needs it. 

Supporting Local Business, one step removed! 

Carrot sticks

When I opened the fridge I saw a couple of little containers of carrots sticks husband has prepared for me.  He knows I like to munch on them and never think to prepare them myself.  He did some the other day too, am especially touched that he noticed I'd eaten the first lot & so prepared more.

Bunny bottles

Remember a while ago I gave my rabbit to some girls who's mum bought some pigs from us? Apparent it's already had a nest of babies. I found all my rabbit drinking bottles in the shed so yesterday when I met a friend of their mum I passed them on. Added some kids audio books and a packet of funky pens too. 

Tarot spread

I created a spread for myself yesterday & today I submitted it as a blog post to someone I know is wanting content, & posted in a friend's group as encouragement.

Cards

A friend of mine sadly passed away and I was in need of cards for his wife. It took me a while, but I found some beautiful cards produced by a local lady (part of my supporting local businesses campaign) but she didn't have exactly what I wanted. She went out of her way to sort out something suitable for me and went to special efforts to get to the post office the very next morning. 

My first card to friend's wife is seriously delayed, particularly as it now needs to travel to the other side of the world, but I hope it will remind her that people are still thinking of her. 

I've just posted a review on the cardmaker's FB page. Credit where it's due! She was so nice in tweaking her designs for me so quickly. 

 

Visit from a friend

My friend's husband is staying in a hospice just now. The wonderful hospice allowed her to take his much loved cat in for a visit as he was missing her. 

https://www.st-michaels-hospice.org.uk/a-purrfect-visit/

Reminders

My friend is still stuck in the UK due to the covid situation. I keep an eye on his house for him and popped over again. He has an excellent alarm system which alerts him to movement, but his camera angles are limited. 

This time I walked the whole property, tracking down where the boar are getting in so he could plan his next moves against them and taking photos of his plants and trees springing back to life. And it was a good excuse to take photos of the local area too. The water level is so high just now!

His cameras give him reassurance, but the photos make him feel at home. 

Webcam

I may have mentioned before that I take an online group language course. I know from my own work how much harder it is to teach to a blank screen, so my little kindness to the teacher is to keep my camera turned on.

Self kindness

 Sometimes kindness is all about stopping the car to take photos of beautiful flowers.