What have I been up to? – November 2016

These monthly posts are mainly an exercise to encourage myself to reflect on the past month and hold myself accountable. But if you are curious about what I have been up to, read on – and hopefully you might be encouraged to do something similar!

The joy from spending time with people, especially outdoors, is even more noticeable in colder times. I got really excited about spotting two bambis (known to some as muntjac deer) at a green gym session earlier this month. Later in the month visiting the Cotswold Wildlife Park alleviated my “crap I woke up late” stress and turned my birthday into a lovely day.

I have been feeling quite conscious of the impact of food on my body: I felt horrible and heavy after a “Mexican” meal (an insult to Mexico and to food) at the usually satisfying Open University Hub; whereas I feel upbeat and energised the mornings I have greens for breakfast. Before you roll your eyes and close this page, kale and broccoli (and anything really) taste delicious with enough garlic and olive oil involved. It’s even more important to eat healthily right now because as I’ve managed to roll my ankle three times in three weeks I can’t exactly run anything off!

It has been a good month for Treezilla.org with some promising opportunities that I can’t yet share (or I would have to kill you!) and some interesting days, for instance when the website went down because of overuse during a hackathon… I attended a tree officers conference in Telford, which offered me insights into the support tree officers need in these times of austerity. I am gearing up for a talk I will be giving at the Trees, People and the Built Environment conference in April and for the research it requires – more on that later!

I have been (figuratively and literally) putting a lot on my plate recently; my performance on the Open University course I’m taking has suffered. The end of the month culminated with a lot of stress to complete course activities and submit the first tutor-marked assignment. I have learnt my lesson and distributed the work for the rest of the course in Todoist, so that nothing “creeps up” on me again!

Highs in November included a big family party in Abingdon at the start of the month and travelling “up North” a week ago. It was lovely to spend time with both sides of the family and to be a human climbing frame and have my hair over-brushed and “styled” by my little cousins. I’m still rubbish at bowling, nothing new on that front.

It would be absurd to do a monthly round-up without acknowledging how much of a blessing having my boyfriend in my life is. He has been patient through the wobblies I’ve thrown and I’m aware that I’m a very lucky girl!

Reminiscing about this past month (with piles of presents around me), I feel content and grateful and I look forward to the new season to come. My goals in December involve:

• Finally putting together a research proposal for my PhD applications
• Sending off the freelance work I have to do in order to adapt Treezilla.org to UK data
• Reading block 5 and doing the related activities for my Open University course

Please share what you’ve been up to in November and let’s all celebrate together!