Things got busy, and I predictably stopped writing.
These are some brief catch-up notes for May & June, to be followed (hopefully) with some proper month notes for July.
May 2024
Work in May continued with themes from April. I continued to support the RMV team in Nova Scotia, and dipped in/out of some fantastic roadmapping work in Ontario.
I got stuck into a bunch of biz dev, and thinking around how to build and grow our tech practice.
All of this left very little time to give the level of support needed for the work in Kyiv - so I handed that over to someone else who had more bandwidth available and could get more into the detail.
Recognising when I’m stretched too thinly doesn’t come naturally to me, so I’m grateful for the team challenging me on it, and pushing for additional help.
My board work continued with the usual committees and board meetings. Continued to chair the Long Term Strategy work I mentioned back in March.
We’ve had a few changes to the Independent Members, with some coming to the end of their terms and new replacements starting. This has meant committee membership has been tweaked a bit - I’ve left the People and Culture Committee, but formally joined the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee.
Away from work, everything was dominated by work on the house.
One of the joys of rural life is that we’re not connected to either the gas network or sewage system. Instead, we have a heating oil tank, and a septic tank - both of which need regular maintenance. This month we had our oil tank replaced - so it’s safer and less likely to leak. And we’ve had our septic tank cleaned and inspected.
Building work started in June, so May was filled with packing stuff into boxes and putting it into storage, clearing things out, trips to the tip etc.
Dilys’ recovery from IVDD and surgery continued. She had her stitches out, started walks again and we began working with a physio to build up her strength.
Photo of the month (May)
June 2024
Building work finally began! The fantastic team from Sims arrived, and immediately started taking the studio back to a shell, insulating it and started to close it all back up. We also got the foundations in for the link that will connect it to the house.
It’s been a long time coming, it was great to see so much progress. Next steps will be to replace (and insulate) the roof and divide the space into two rooms. This will eventually become home offices for Ann and I.
I spent a couple of days with Nina and Duncan up at Silver Circle Distillery - helping them design and make their new gin (buy here).
Really enjoyed the process of foraging for local botanicals, working out which ones would work best, and then actually making the gin using their still. Final stages of bottling and labelling to happen in July.
Dilys started hydrotherapy, so help her rebuild strength in her back legs. Evie and Bethan at Westmac Canine Therapy in Trellech are fantastic. Dilys wasn’t convinced at first, but she’s gotten used to it.
In work things were a little bit quieter. We wrapped up our work in Ontario, got ready to kick off a new project review for British Columbia, and continued with various biz dev activities.
I spent a few days in London. A great away-day with my Americas sector team, and then PD’s summer social.
For my board - all the usual things. But - the absolute highlight has been watching the team work on the long term strategy. They’re out listening to people from across our area to understand needs, and they’re regularly writing about what they’re doing and learning. It’s fantastic that they’re spending so much time just listening, before they even think about writing the strategy.
Photo of the month (July)
We had friends visit for a few days, and took them to the national coal mining museum at Big Pit. While there, we showed them the family forge.
