EMW you are right. It turns out my particular  contact in the society is the person who made the arrangements. As I had not had a response to my email by this morning and was still fuming I called in at the History Room having spotted her car parked outside. When we had a moment alone I raised my concerns about the way things had been handled, and also pointed out that as the person in question has clearly not been doing Tuesdays for the seven months I have been turning up, that her demand to have 'her' roster slot back seemed unreasonable. Particularly as she clearly wanted to retain her flexibility as part of the proposed arrangement is that she can phone me in the morning and let me know if she is unable to come in (thereby leaving me stranded without any lunch or having to lock the place up, trek out and find some food and return to duty).

I suggested that it would be a good idea for her to recognise that personal family research does not impose an obligation to volunteer, and that she was welcome to as much privacy as she felt was necessary if she found Tuesday to be the only day on which she could do it. Poor Steph seems stuck between a rock and a hard place, but did have the grace to hear me out and promise to talk to the person again. I explained that as I have arranged my entire life around my volunteer commitments that other days would be very difficult for me to do so again, after having had my roster upset once already.

That aside it has been rainy and windy all day, but i managed to get my sheoak off the new neighbours, as well as a bonus banksia. Both are safely in the ground, mulched with newspaper and surrounded by a tyre.

Walking the dog this afternoon proved hazardous as strong gusts of wind came out of nowhere. I mean tree-felling strong. A section of fence fell over, and bits of tree were flying everywhere. The dog took shelter in the lee of the remaining fence so missed the gust that blew me off my feet, and we scurried home with rather too much assistance from the wind. He does like a good towel-down, and is now drying out in front of the fire.