A Hot Day.

It's been another very hot and humid day. At school the coolest place was the main building which has lovely high ceilings. Most of the classrooms and the staffroom are in huts and they were horribly hot even with all the windows open. I don't know if it is just the heat but a lot of my class seem to be sickening and wailing. I sent 2 home today, one with either heat rash or chicken pox. The trouble is that as soon as you send one child home there is a group of ailing children who get mysteriously better when it is playtime. We had a successful whole class baking session in the morning though there was a bit of disappointment that they weren't going to eat the cakes. Tomorrow I've got some little ice lolly moulds which fit in nicely with our curriculum objective of investigating freezing and melting.

There was an interesting sky this morning, it has been overcast for most of the day and the forecast is the same for tomorrow with a 10 degree drop on Thursday.

I can't get over what an incredible year this has been for roses. This was idea I had in mind when I first designed the garden. I love designing gardens especially when there are challenges such as limited space (as in our London garden- 120 ft long but only 15 ft wide), or a complete lack of soil as in this current garden, and of course a limited budget. I'm pretty happy with this garden but it takes more time than I can give it when I am working full-time. I'm looking forward to giving it a good tidy up once the summer holidays start.

Parents' Meetings.

Phew ! it was a long hot afternoon, nearly 4 hours non-stop talking to parents. And I'd had to stay in the classroom for most of my lunch hour before hand so I was quite exhausted by the time 4.45 came round. Same again on Wednesday though hopefully I'll get a lunch break. For tomorrow morning I decided it would be a nice idea if the whole class baked a couple of cakes as a thank you to the mums who come in every week to cook with a small group of children. As I'm only used to baking in the Rayburn I stayed behind on Friday to bake a cake in the new school oven. All went well and while I was waiting for the cake to cool enough to put in the car I amused myself by playing on the school piano in the hall. It might be in tune but it has a horrible tone. Today as soon as I had put my classroom to rights I gathered up Linas and Romas who were waiting for a lift and came straight home.

I only had time for a quick whizz around the garden to see what's new. These are still more of my hardy geraniums. They are doubles, tall but only a couple of cms across.

Small farms

A 'Family Farm Tour' in Western North Carolina (organized by the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) was a rewarding way to spend some time this weekend. ASAP works to keep farmers farming and reconnect people with their food and is a wonderful regional support for small farm operations and promoting eating food grown locally.

I've trying to learn a lot more about where the food we (my gardening companion and I) eat comes from and how it's produced (beyond what I grow) and it's a fascinating pursuit - and extremely humbling and not always pleasant.

Are we as American consumers ready to pay for sustainably and humanely produced food?

Currently, I'm afraid the answer is probably no (based on my question to my gardening companion about chicken $6 for an organically raised, free-range bird vs a $3 mass-produced broiler - but he's not the cook and food buyer in our family).

My answer is yes.

My Breathing Space Continues...

Enjoying the view from the cabin deck at low tide...
Oh the peace and quiet and solace of nature... the poetry of Earth.
Good tidings! I am still on mini-vacation (tis so hard to tear myself away from this sanctuary splendour)
Will be back soon... I promise!!

A Proper English Garden.

I finally got a phone call from Vytas to say they had arrived at Kentisbury but they were going to Tescos first to pick up food for the week. I drove into Barnstaple to collect Romas then we called in at Sommerfields to check out the late bargains before driving out to Kentisbury. The sudden downpour and the high temperatures caused small clouds to form dramatically in the Muddiford Valley and I managed to find a vantage point to photograph them and the evening landscapes.

I drive this way to work and every morning I see this wonderful view across Bideford Bay to Hartland Point.

The mist in the valley almost looked as if the hills were on fire.

The evening light gave a beautiful depth to the colours and dramatic shadows. As we stood on a slight rise enjoying the scenery and listening to the sound of birds and sheep we suddenly became aware of the sounds of live rock music drifting over the hills. Somebody was having a party on that lovely evening.

We headed off to Kentisbury Grange to wait for Vytas. I've been there a few times before but never further than the car park but the site warden came out and invited us to have a walk around while we waited. This is the main lawn where Vytas and his fellow karate club members will be doing Karate and Aikido (and meditation) for a whole week. He's been a keen member of the karate club since he started university 5 years ago and is now a brown belt. I remember on our initial visit to Leicester Uni, showing him all the clubs advertised in the student union building and suggesting that this was a good time to follow a new interest. When I went to uni I took up pistol shooting, it was something different, but I didn't keep it up despite Peter's interest in guns.

Wandering aroung the grounds at Kentisbury are various fowl, this magnificent leghorn was escorting a couple of pretty hens. Usually the peacocks stand right infront of the cars but I didn't catch sight of them. We finally caught up with Vytas and arrived home for a roast dinner 2 hours later than planned, Peter was not pleased. We watched some of Glastonbury on the tv. One of the children from my class has gone there with his dad so I kept looking for them in the crowd shots. I'm quite jealous that a 5 year old gets to go and I've never had the chance. The peace and quiet of our valley was disturbed until the small hours by a disco being held in the barn right next to our house. I can understand that we weren't invited as it was for the local hunt and Sarah knows my views on hunting but I would have thought a courtesy call to say it was on would have been in order. Even with the windows shut, (on a really hot night) we could hear the music through the double glazing. It was still going strong at 1.00 but my knockout tablets sent me to sleep then.

Today we've been over to a colleague's house to celebrate her Ruby wedding anniversary. She has an immaculate garden with the most wonderful views to the sea and across to Wales.

Can you imagine having a view like this from your sitting room windows ?

It doesn't show up on this picture but the Gower Peninsula is clearly visible on the horizon. The garden is spotless, not a weed in sight, with beautiful roses everywhere. I'm really ashamed of my own garden, there are so many areas that need tidying up. Lots of colleagues came, with children and 2 tiny babies, the food was wonderful, lots of excellent nibbles. Champagne, strawberries and cake completed the refreshments. It was just a shame that there was light rain for part of the time. The children didn't mind and spent most of their time running around the vast garden.

Now that's a proper English garden. I was going to go out and do some late weeding but Linas and Romas are out there target shooting (airsoft) so instead I'm going to watch Status Quo at Glastonbury with the volume right up.

Free Strawberies.

I went into town early today for a gentle shop before the crowds filled the streets and the car park. I bought several summer tops as we are due more hot weather. The Met office has put out an official Heat health warning for next week saying temperatures may go up to 30 C and not drop below 18 C at night. They haven't specified where this will be and I doubt if it will be so hot here on the west coast. It has been hot today interspersed with dark clouds and now it is finally raining. In the High street, for the first time in my memory, there was a stall giving away strawberries and clotted cream. A lovely idea but it wasn't easy to see the purpose as there were just a few leaflets about the Pannier market on the stall. In terms of publicising the market there should have been some signs rather than leaving it to the girl handing out the strawberries to say that strawberries could be bought in the market. Still they did taste very nice.

At home the garden is now filled with flowers, (and a few weeds). I don't like formal rose gardens but I do enjoy having sprawling bushes covered with scented roses. I did some weeding when it was really hot and then I altered one of the tops I bought. It was a little too young for me and unflattering around the hips so I removed the bottom layer and am happy with the result. I'm very specific about the clothes I wear and while I'm not the world's greatest seamstress I'm happy to alter hems or even take out sleeves to end up with something that is to my taste and shape.

The honeysuckle is all in flower. One side of the house is covered with a honeysuckle and the scent by the front door is delicious.

I haven't yet heard from Vytas. It is about 4 hours drive down from Leicester providing there are no hold ups on the motorway. The campsite they go to at Kentisbury is only 8 mins drive away and the roast beef is all on the go. I also have to collect Romas from town at 7.00 as he missed the earlier bus. He phoned to say his battery was out so I can't check on his progress and Vytas' phone also seems to be out of action. That's my boys.

Eastern Cottontail rabbit habitat

In our garden, currently, 'our' rabbit hangs out here.

the 'front meadow' aka the Piedmont prairie

But all of the young okra seedlings, and a number of squash leaves in the satellite garden disappeared yesterday evening, so I don't know whether to think 'rabbit' or 'young woodchuck.'

Oh, well, we don't much care for okra (it was an experiment) and unless the squash vine borers hurry up (there have been a few casualties already), we'll have more squash than we can eat.

We're fortunate (and I'm grateful) to have plenty of space to spread out herbivore impact.

Probably the mama woodchuck will come up from the woodpile and eat all of the squash vines while we're up in the mountains this weekend and I won't sound so positive!

Reports Are OK.

Hooray ! My reports are finished and been passed. And all the photos done. That's a big hassle over with.

This evening I sat in my outdoor office (surrounded by the sound of birdsong) and wrote in all the children's comments about the past term/year. Now I just have to collate the profile printouts with the comments documents and the photographic record pages and then all will be ready for the parent interviews next week. After that we have to send data to a central collection point and photocopy the reports once the parents have returned them with their comment sections filled in. Oh and then we send the reports home again and file all the copies in the office. A teacher's work is never done.

I couldn't resist a walk up the hill to say hello to the horses and to try and take some pictures of the sunset. Every now and again there was the beautiful scent of the wild honeysuckle growing in the hedge. I got back from my walk just before 10.00 while it was still quite light. Even once the light had gone there were still birds singing loudly.

When I first came home I went up to the bedroom to find a swallow frantically flying around our bathroom. I did toy with the thought of getting my camera but I thought it was stressed enough and I opened the window so it could fly out

I've got lots to look forward to this weekend. Tomorrow Vytas will be coming over for supper. ( He's down for his annual Karate club camp which happens to be only 8 mins drive from here.) and on Sunday we're invited to a fellow teacher's house to celebrate her Ruby Wedding with strawberries and cake in her lovely garden overlooking the sea at Coombe Martin.


I took this picture of a perfect rose, (ignore the blackspot on the leaves), yesterday morning.

Elliston Lutz

Happy Friday everyone. I thought I'd leave you with some attention-grabbing photography by Elliston Lutz. Have a fabulous weekend!

Janet Lohman

Interior designer Janet Lohman has a traditional approach to decor but spices things up with antiques and some modern touches. I adore the tile in the first two bathrooms, and how comfortable and lived-in these spaces seem.