Introduction

Ok. So, as you may have guessed, my name is Jessie. I live in Wiltshire, England, and I'm 17.
I guess I started this blog in hope of improving my writing skills, and this blogging use to be a big hobby of mine, but since I haven't been on my original blog in such a long time I figured it was time to start fresh.
I like to write lists every now and again in my blog posts as they help me figure out how to structure my blog post and include a variety of topics I personally find interesting. So here goes - a list of things about me;

Animals
I love pretty much all animals. I mean, some I find more boring or aggressive than others, such as how I really don't like my sister's ferrets as they barely do anything other than bite people's feet, faces and spray on people, but I would never harm one. My favourite animals are rats (I use to have two adorable girls called Leah and Alice), pigeons, frogs, dogs and deer. My favourite fish is the pufferfish after seeing one yawn and follow my finger at an aquarium.
I have my own dog, Skip, who is an English Toy Terrier. He follows me everywhere and is the best dog I could ever ask for. He's ten years old.
I also have a Border Collie called Kane but he's more the whole family's dog than mine. I have a bunch of other animals but I won't bother to include all of them, except to mention my cat Leonard who I took in when I found him as a stray and covered in blood from an abscess in his mouth. My family also have two other cats, a very beautiful cat named Jazz and her son, the evil cat Cassie. Anyways, back to Leonard; I've taught him to go on walks with me and Skip off lead now, and he loves going to visit this pond nearby.


 Here's a picture of Leonard to the left, and a picture of Jazz on the right.





Photography
So I'm starting to realise this post is going to be quite long, so I hope you enjoy reading!
I love photography, I've been taking pictures on a regular basis for a long time now (I've had my Flickr account since 2011 at least), and I think I'm getting reasonably good at it. Last week I went on my first professional photography course, a one-off lesson which turned out to be really good and has helped me in terms of finding out what I really want in a picture. It was run by a photographer in Stroud, her website is here; http://www.look-again.org/ and is definitely worth checking out.

If you're interested in looking up my photostream on Flickr, the link is on the side of this blog page and here; http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawthornheart/

This Employability Course I've been on in my spare time
So I did a year at Sixth Form and left with AS Levels in Art and Religious Studies. Since leaving I've been very happy with my decision to leave, I had real bad confidence issues from that school, but I'm getting much better now so all's good. I've been accepted into a Forensics course I've been interested in since birth basically, and that starts in September. Since leaving Sixth Form in April, I've been on an Employability course which finishes this week, which was really good. It was run by Project Inspire/Community First in Devizes and it's probably the main reason my confidence has been building recently. It involves things such as improving interview skills, being good team workers and good customer service, but it also has fun days out so we can further build on team working and confidence. For example, so far I've done raftbuilding, head for heights high ropes (which has helped me get over my fear of heights), canoeing, archery (which I love and am quite good at), various other things, and this week we're doing our last session, the 'reward trip', which will involve quad biking. I've also taken part in volunteering to raise over £2000 for Wiltshire Young Carers by waitressing for a 'Call My Bluff Wine Tasting Evening', and I've helped at a food bank someplace I can't remember. There's only been six or seven of us in total including the three people running the sessions, and they're all super-friendly, so it's easier for me to get to know people.

I've got to go teach my brother Blake to make eggs on toast now, and then go dog walking for my mum's dog walking and pet care business, Pack on Track. See Ya :)