Work In Progress.

I've had some fun experimenting with the shells and glass from the beach to see how I can turn them into jewellery. I have remodelled some pieces of jewellery before but I don't have any knowledge of correct techniques so I just try out different ideas to see what works. I quite like these 2 pendants and the earrings and I'm working on an idea for a necklace.
I was playing with the shells this morning because it was cold and grey outside and I was waiting for a phone call. I did go out for half an hour and nailed up some planks that had fallen off the wood shed and of course when I came in there had been a phone call. No problem as I was able to ring them back and sort things out. It was back to school for the afternoon with my youngest class. I enjoy working with them simply because they are so young and new to everything. I ended the day with a story which is my favourite activity as all children respond well to story time. Last year when I had the Reception Class I didn't read the end of day story to them as I had to listen to children read at that time and the teaching assistant had the fun of reading the story to the class.
It was beginning to rain on my way home so I spent the hour before it started to get dark collecting up various logs and bits of dry wood from around the place and cutting them up so we can have a good fire in the sitting room this week-end. The central heating had to go back on full -time when the temperature dropped but it doesn't reach the sitting room and it gets rather chilly in here. It's half-term now, a whole week off, so hopefully I'll be able to tick off a few more of the jobs on my massive gardening list.

Chilly Morning.

It was even colder this morning with a thick layer of frost on the ground.

Once again the pond was frozen over,

... and the early frogspawn has been hit by the cold.

I opted for some active work outside, cutting down a 15ft willow tree that had been left unattended for 2 years, and getting to grips with more brambles. Being mindful of my back I tried to use brains rather than brawn and made use of a fork, prising underneath and levering from every angle before dragging out those prickly fiends. I now have a very large heap of brambles and twigs ready for burning next week if the weather stays dry.

This afternoon I was back at school with my class of 4 year olds. I am beginning to pick up their names and to know which ones to rein in before they get too boisterous. In this age group we are expected to assess them through observing the things they do and say during child initiated activities so even when playing a little board game with one group I was making notes on other children. One little boy was playing 'mums and dads' in the home corner with 2 friends. He came over to me and told me he was the dad and that he was going to do the ironing (which he did), it sounds like he has a good role model at home.

Despite being rather cold it was bright and sunny today. It is so good to see blue skies.

The sunshine wiped the greyness from the countryside and gave it a golden glow instead.

Brambles Fight Back.

It was rather chilly this morning but even so I had the urge to get out into the garden and do something at least for an hour before I had to get ready for school. I chose the very satisfying and warming task of cutting back and pulling up the brambles growing into the blackcurrant bushes and in the little wild woodland area at the top of the garden. The brambles have got their revenge as my back is twinging from too much twisting and pulling.

My first class at school was another reception class, it is the first time I've taught them and there are a few lively ones in that bunch! That was only for an hour and in the afternoon I was back with my regular Year 1 class. I had completely forgotten that most of the afternoon would be taken up with a theatre company coming in to give a performance of 'Pinocchio'. Unfortunately I ended up sitting right under a loudspeaker. And it was very loud, quite a few children cried and several had to be taken out of the hall to the quiet of the office. The actors were miked up which I think is unnecessary in a small hall with 120 kids, it's so much better when they use their voices properly. The majority of the kids enjoyed it as it was loud pantomime style action but it wasn't the best theatre performance I've seen at school. I got dragged out to the front to perform a silly dance with one of the actors which the kids thought was hilarious. Perhaps it was pay back for the fact that I had to go right from the front to the back of the hall to go out and make a phone call from the office to sort out something that had happened between 2 children. Or maybe even though I was the oldest there they thought that someone who has her hair in plaits and wears bright pink crocs is probably up for a laugh. I didn't mind.

There was quite a pretty sunset this evening. I'm still finding it a bit hit and miss with my sky photos so I take a selection and hope that some are clear. The camera has a landscape setting which I presume gives a greater depth of field but I really ought to read the manual that came with the software. It's just that I prefer to look at real booklet, Luddite that I am.

In general the countryside is looking drab in shades of greyish green and greyish brown. The new leaves usually start to appear in the first week of April. A little sunshine wouldn't go amiss.

Much Colder Today.

Just as I was about to get changed for bed last night Linas called out that Metcheck were predicting low temps for the night. Despite the fact that only 2 hours previously the predicted temp for the night was 7C it was saying that there would be light sleet followed by the temp dropping to -1C at 6.00. Perfect conditions for black ice. So of course I jumped in my Micra and drove it to the top of the hill, just in case. Even though it was 100% cloud cover the night was so light there was no need to use a torch on the walk back down the hill. In the morning although it was wet and windy it wasn't cold enough for ice. I had a lift up the hill with Peter as he doesn't worry as much as I do and his car was still down by the house. It got a lot colder during the day and I drove home through a mixture of sleet showers and dramatic cloudscapes. It was strange driving home as the sudden drop in temp had left most of the road dry with the wet sections splashed and frozen into odd shaped splats across the road.
I've been teaching all day today. I was teaching my old class so it wasn't stressful though I did have to talk to a couple of parents about extremely poor behaviour by their children at playtime. Generally the behaviour in our school is very good and apart from a few children with specific problems we do not have children being hurt or any bad language. (Our school only has children from 4 - 7 years old). I do also enjoy the companionship of my colleagues as we all get on well and have a good laugh together while coping with the pressure we are under. At least, while I am part-time I have far fewer responsibilities and can relax once I get home, not worry about the latest batch of paperwork that needs updating.

No Sunshine Today.

It has turned colder but no sign of snow. This morning I gave my poor little car a wash, it wasn't too dirty because I didn't drive much in the snow. Then as I drove past the Lewis' farm the road was covered in mud from the tractors and I could hear the mud splattering up against the car. Now it hardly looks as if it has been washed at all! I also managed to do some more weeding before going to see my lovely physiotherapist. My neck/shoulder is just about sorted and we spent a lot of time talking about my lower back. He gave me a whole set of graduated exercises that will help strengthen my abdominal and lower back muscles and gave me some tips on how to alleviate my pinched nerve while I am waiting for the spinal injections. This afternoon I taught my old class. No problems such as feet stuck in drainpipes today though we did have a workman drilling away in the cloakroom repairing a couple of holes in the outer wall that the children love to push pencils and small toys through. Too grey for photos today so here a couple from the last beach visit.

Not More Snow !

I'm feeling rather tired tonight. It's probably the shock of having the alarm going off at 5.45 (I'd rather got used to my lie-ins), and teaching all day. The morning class was 28, 4 year olds who only started a few weeks ago. A lot of them are the younger brothers and sisters of children in my year 1 class but it still takes a lot of concentration to be able to relate to all these new faces and to start learning their names. I can definitely see 1 or 2 'characters' who will take some time to settle down within the group. In the afternoon I had my Year 1 class, lovely to be back with them but we had a very packed schedule so I had to work hard at keeping them and me on task. Some of them have become a little lively over the holidays and haven't quite settled down to a work routine. The last of the snow can be seen in a few fields up here in the hills. It feels a bit cold tonight and snow is forecast in some areas to the east of us. I really could do without anymore snow causing driving problems.

Frozen Britain.

It has been rather snowy today. I didn't like the look of the roads this morning so I got a lift in with Peter. As we drove down on icy roads one stupid woman drove just 3 ft behind us until eventually Peter pulled over so that we were then behind her and not in danger of being rammed if we had to make a sudden stop. All morning heavy snow fell covering the playground and field with just the right sort of snow to make snowmen and snow balls. As most of the children had suitable clothing we were able to take them out to enjoy the snow.

I did do some work with my class but most of the children who were doing 'free choice' activities spent their time with their faces up against the windows watching the junior children building snowmen. As most of the other schools in Barnstaple closed for the day, parents came and collected their children from us as well. My afternoon class had halved to just 13 children when we got an invitation from the junior school to come and watch a film (Flushed Away), in their hall with the small number of children they had left for the afternoon. I wasn't too worried about getting home because even if I did have to hitch & walk there was still 1 1/2 hours of daylight left and I had all the proper gear for a walk in the snow. Luckily I was able to get a lift home with a new member of staff whose mum collected us in a 4x4 and dropped me off at Bowden corner which is less than a mile from home.

The main roads had been gritted but all the back roads were snowy and icy. Although we had snowy weather last February that was confined to the hills with even nearby Barnstaple being virtually snow free while we had 3ft of snow on the road. This time the snowy weather is country wide and is being described as the worst snowfall in 30 years with no immediate end in sight for this cold spell. The police have described North Devon as being a 'critical incident'.

Walking on the snow that had fallen during the day it was interesting to see the variety of tracks that had appeared. It took me a little while to work out that these odd sets of 4 were the tracks of a hare hopping through the snow.


Peter is expected to drive 60 miles to work whatever the conditions but if the main roads are closed by tonight's expected heavy snowfall they'll just have to do without him.

I was lucky enough to walk home in the light but Peter has just phoned me from Barnstaple where it is snowing again. He'll probably be able to drive up Whitefield Hill and leave the car at Indicott walking the last mile through the snow in the dark. I'm supposed to be working all day tomorrow but a decision about opening or closing the school will be made at 7.00 tomorrow morning. That will give me enough time to get in one way or another.

Last day Of Term.

It was bitterly cold this morning but very dry so the roads were absolutely fine. Unlike Kent which has had 6 " of snow and 1/2 the schools closed. It has been a lovely day at school. My first stop was to the hospital for a MRI scan. I avoided the indignity of having to put on a horrible hospital gown, by making sure that apart from my bra I wore clothes containing no metal. Then it was just a matter of slipping off my bra and replacing my t-shirt. The air conditioning inside the scanner was a bit cool and the whole process was quite noisy but apart from a slight tingling, (which may have been the way I was lying) there was nothing to it. I was back in school by 9.15 to rejoin my class of hyperactive children. It was dress up as your favourite character day so we had lots of fairies, princesses, racing drivers and spidermen in the classroom. At lunchtime it was the teachers' lunch, we all chip in and one of the TAs gets a lovely buffet - cheeses, pate etc, from M&S. Then we had great fun with our Secret Santa presents. I got a really nice bag filled with strawberry scented lotions and potions from BodyShop mmmm. We were all thrilled to see our old headteacher who has just returned (1 day ago) from a 6 week visit visiting family in Australia. She came in bounding through the door, tanned and full of energy while we were all flaked out in our chairs looking forward to the end of the day.

In the afternoon the children were treated to a magic show by a local entertainer, Dave Hendy, it's a holiday camp type of show and the children were involved all the way through with lots of laughing and shouting. A great end to the term.
GOOD NEWS for me, from January I'll be going back to my 3 afternoons a week contract with the strong possibility of 1 or 2 more half days each week. That means I don't have to panic about finances, phew.
Funniest moment of the day - we were doing the afternoon register , today we were singing a call and response song - **** ***** where are you? to which the child responds by singing Here I am etc. I sang out one child's name not realising he had gone to the toilet. The other children were about to respond by singing He's not here, when a voice as loud and clear as a bell sang out from the toilets beyond our cloakroom Here I am, here I am, How do you do. That was so funny.

A Busy Day.

There wasn't any ice on the road this morning but it was cold and dark and I was very grateful for a lift up in Peter's car. The breakfast news had been showing snow in London and the gritters getting ready to go out. Snow is such a rarity here it causes all sorts of chaos. Tonight we've both left our cars up top just in case. The metcheck says the temperature tonight will be -2C and feel like -8C. Not a problem so long as it stays dry but the slightest bit of wet and our hill road will be a skating rink. Even tomorrow the daytime temperature is set to be 1C and feel like -5C with this icy wind blowing down from Siberia.

It's been a wonderful day in school. We were quietly watching a dvd when a 'message ' came that the whole school needed to be out in the front playground. And who flew by several times to wave to the children? Father Christmas of course. It is always such a treat to see the children's faces as they frantically wave to him. Then it was time for the children to go home for lunch and get changed for the Christmas party during which time we set up tables in the hall and laid out the mountain of food brought in by the parents. When the children returned in their party finery we had games in the classroom, dance competitions with the girls judging the boys and vice versa, musical statues and a few other silly games. I always make sure that every one gets prizes , it's the praise and acknowledgement that they want, not big prizes. Then it was all down to the hall to be plied with food. I did my stint topping up plates with crisps and biscuits and then it was time for me to leave early for a physio appointment. So I missed out on the fun job of clearing up spilt drinks (or worse) and the final clear up.

It was quite unusual to be driving in bright sunshine. I'm so used to it being completely dark when I get in the car in the evenings. It was another good session with the physiotherapist, the deep massage on my spine is really loosening things up. I may even try cutting back on the painkillers soon.

The sun was going down on my way home from the hospital and I stopped by the Lewis' farm to take some pictures. The grey hill in the distance is the plateau of Dartmoor 60 miles away. It is not always visible and I get a kick out of seeing so far into the distance.

Looking south-west across the bay.

It was really, really cold when I left my car up at the top but ...... only 1 more morning to get up early. I still don't know what work, if any ,I will have in January. No use worrying about that right now.

Unruly Shepherds.

It was pretty cold this morning, not much frost around but ice on the windscreen, and it has stayed cold all day. There is talk of snow up in Scotland and even as far down as the Cotswolds. I'm sure I saw a few flakes fall when we were out at afternoon play. This afternoon I looked at Metcheck and it forecast a low of 1C but feeling like -3C. That is for 6.00 tomorrow morning. I never take a chance when it is wet and cold so the car is at the top of the hill. That will save me spending the night worrying.

Our morning was spent up at Pilton Church for the school Nativity Service. The reception class were so cute in their tableau. 'Mary' took her job very seriously, motioning the Angel Gabriel to get a move on up the steps and turning round to shush the shepherds. And what shepherds, no 1 shepherd wasn't too enthusiastic about his robe and kept hiking it up above his knees (and higher). No 2 shepherd spotted mum in the congregation and alternated between waving to her and sticking his fingers in his ears and making faces at no 3 shepherd who joined in the grimacing competition. No wonder Mary got cross with them, it was just so funny and sweet to watch.

At home there were parcels to open, (I so love ebay), one contained 2 chunky,very warm No Fear hoodies, the brown one is perfect for me and Linas has requisitioned the khaki one. I will refrain from mentioning that we look like a 'mother and son' ad, that wouldn't suit his image at all. Having spent the last couple of evenings cleaning I have now put up the main decorations in the sitting room. I was rather disappointed to find that one of the transformers for the lights that I bought last year, isn't working. I know it was a year ago but you should get more than 2 weeks use so I'm going to try complaining at the shop where I bought them.

All Pink And Fluffy.

It was Christmas dinner with the children today. The whole school in the hall to eat together, children and adults. It took nearly an hour and a half to serve up 140 turkey dinners and give a plant to each of the dinner ladies and teaching assistants. The children all get very excited because they have party crackers and silly hats. At least the tiny plastic toys inside the crackers are appreciated by 5 year olds. I have finally given in and started taking down stuff in my classroom. I always leave it till the last moment because I don't like to see a bare class. Back home I had the urge to make a Christmas decoration using up some of the bits and bobs I have lying around.

And I came up with this super girlie fluffy pink creation. It is only some feather trim pinned onto a polystyrene ball. I did use little seed beads on the ends of the pins but you can't actually see them. The fun of doing this kind of decoration using pins is that when you've had enough it is easy to pull the pins out and take it all to pieces. I'm very tempted to buy another ball and use the purple feather trim which has sparkly bits in it .

3 more mornings of getting up early!

A Sweet Little Skunk.

Here's a glimpse of my classroom looking all Christmassy. The children's cards look really lovely and each glitter sprinkled snowflake and shaded background is different. I strive to get as much individuality as possible in the children's art work as I can't stand to see 30 pieces of neat and identical work because then it's not really the children's work.
And here's who came to visit us this afternoon, a gorgeous little skunk. The man from Exmoor Zoo came and gave the children an excellent talk on animal colouration.

As well as the skunk there was this little African hedgehog, who wouldn't keep still, a long corn snake and 2 enormous (the size of bananas ), green stick insects. The children were enthralled and most of us had a chance to stroke the skunk. He then produced a pair of feathered showgirl head dresses and got Chris to get up and demonstrate a bobbing mating dance with him. I did do a video but she would kill me if I published it so maybe I'll just put it on the staffroom pc.

Tonight's staff meeting ( on maths targets) was cancelled as too many people are ill and/or worn out. Instead we had a blitz on the staff room which was looking a bit messy. Each day tins of biscuits and chocolates appear, either from members of staff or grateful parents, so we are all living on chocolate. Peter likes going into surgeries after Christmas when everyone apart from him has gone on a post Christmas diet. Lots of nice biscuits with his tea!

Back home I've completed my last bit of paperwork for school Hooray!

Potato Casserole.

The sun came out today, hooray! We had our final performance of the play this morning. It was quite good fun once it all came together but then again there was the stress of making sure that 31 children sat reasonably quietly and didn't chatter or stick their fingers up their noses. Now all the costumes are safely stowed away and we can concentrate on all the things we are making for Christmas. There is just the small matter of the Carol service at the church. Chris and I had been sitting back fairly relaxed about that as the Year 1 children only have to sing along with the carols, ( reception children do a Nativity tableau - very sweet, and the Year 2 children do the readings.) That is until we were asked to take a whole school carol practice tomorrow as everyone else is out or busy. Normally I wouldn't mind but I've got a rotten cold and my singing voice is more of a growl, still we'll give it a go.

As not much else (publishable) has happened today here is the promised recipe for Potato, cheese & cabbage casserole. It's one of those recipes where exact amounts and times don't really matter. So here goes -

Ingredients.
roughly equal amounts of thickly sliced potatoes (skin on or off),
sliced onions,
sliced white cabbage (same size slices as the onions).
And ....
lots of grated cheese (cheddar or Leicester or any hard cheese)
meat - chopped bacon or boiling ring or chorizo or cooked sausages or similar, omit for vegetarian version.
pepper to season
a little oil
Method
heat some oil in the base of a large saucepan or casserole (or slow cooker)
if using bacon, fry in the oil and then remove
put a thick layer of onions in the pan
next a thick layer of cabbage
if using meat sprinkle over the cabbage
season with pepper, we use very little salt in our cooking so we find there is enough salt in the cheese and meat for our taste, others may need extra salt
add several overlapping layers of potato
sprinkle cheese over the potatoes
repeat layers until pan is full , ending with a cheese layer
add water, 1 mug full (250 ml) for a large pan, 1/2 mug for a smaller casserole. The idea is to have at least 1/2 " at the bottom to prevent burning, the vegetables will also produce a lot of their own liquid.
place lid on casserole dish
Cooking
Cook on medium heat until everything is hot then either turn heat right down or place in a not too hot oven (150- 200C ) for several hours until cooked through. Sorry to be so vague but cooking in a rayburn is dependent on the direction of the wind, how much you put in the oven, if you have guests coming or if it's the second Tuesday of the month.
Enjoy!

Burnt Offerings.

I was making my way home tonight when my thoughts turned to food- What did I feel like cooking for supper? when it dawned on me that yesterday I'd put some breaded scampi in the rayburn thinking it would make a nice evening snack. Then my mind was distracted by Peter arriving home. That's how addled my brain is at this time of year, not enough sleep and far too much to think about at school. Sure enough when I got home I found a tray of coal-like objects still in the oven. The thing about a rayburn is that it has its own chimney and you can only smell what is inside the oven if you open the door. We've had a few similar mishaps in the past. I still fancied scampi today but this time I remembered to take it out of the oven in time.

Back at school the first official performance went well. We had more 'crowd control' so behaviour was better and a mix up in the arrangement of the chairs resulted in my 'front row rats' sitting right next to the teaching assistants who were able to keep order easily. It's been a very wet day, so wet the children have been cooped up in the classroom for most of the day, even eating their packed lunches in class as the stage takes up quite a bit of room in the hall.

These pretty objects are some of my class' coil pots which they are making as presents for their mums. They chose or mixed any colour they liked but then (linking to our science topic of Light & Dark) made a lighter shade for the inside. I gave them free choice over the glitter which has resulted in some clashing colour schemes - green & purple, or yellow & purple but they like them. Tomorrow they'll make gift tags and if we have time they'll print their own wrapping paper. We've nearly finished the cards which only need some snowflakes and lots of silver glitter. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve but we may not have time. Next week we've got to fit in the carol service at Pilton Church, a Christmas party, a visit from Exmoor Zoo (last time they brought the most gorgeous giant lop eared rabbit), and a show by our local children's entertainer/puppeteer.

Happy Birthday Linas.

It's Linas' birthday today. I haven't actually seen him since this morning when he came into our room for a ceremonial opening of his presents. These days he lives most of his life through the web , talking to friends all around the world during the night and sleeping in the day. Perhaps my sweet little lad is transforming into a creature of the night. He has become much more settled these days.I only think it is such a shame that despite having a degree in IT (web design & stuff) he, like thousands of others, is unable to find any sort of job.



( He won't thank me for this picture but I loved his long hair, now reduced to shoulder length.)

And these are some of the reasons I'm writing my blog late at night when I should be tucked up in bed. Tonight's staff meeting was to acquaint us with a 20 page Raise-on-line document and more graphs and charts from Smiley ?! These show how our school is doing versus national data in lots of areas. We are supposed to be familiar with the contents of these documents so that if OFSTED should make a sudden descent we can demonstrate that we are familiar with how our school is doing nationally, where we differ from the national data, what are the reasons for the differences and how we are addressing any issues arising. This is additional to the APP /tracking data which we have to update twice a term for reading, phonics, literacy and maths - all entries on these documents have to be colour coded for gender & further high lighted for 3 more categories. All very good for data analysis but cuts heavily into teaching and planning time but the government must have its data. Oh, and new systems seem to come on line with monotonous regularity. Oh woe is me!

Shopping.

( Barnstaple bridge taken in Dec last year.)

A complete dearth of photos today as I have been rushed right off my feet and even though I left school early to go to Brian Ford's to do some shopping it was already dark by the time I had driven across the river. This morning was pretty stressful as my TA for the morning was ill so I was going to have to get 30 children dressed, face painted and photographed on my own. Luckily another teacher came in to help me and I decided to leave the photographs until Monday. The overall performance and my class' dances went well but there was an awful lot of fussing and chatting from some of my children while the narrators and actors were trying to speak. After praising them for their dancing I did have to give some of them a real telling off because otherwise they will spoil the older children's performances. The shimmering bracelets look very effective but we are leaving a trail of silver strands wherever we sit, little fingers will pick! The 'stars' from the other class had some very glittery silver facepaint, I'll see if I can find some in town tomorrow as the person who brought it in had borrowed it from her daughter. I decided to go and do the household shopping at BF's tonight even though I'll be in town tomorrow. I find it some much more relaxing if I only have to make one stop to wander round town and walk to the post office and the library rather than have to finish off with a food shop run as well. I quite like going to BF's which although it has the slightly run down warehouse feel of a budget store it has a surprisingly good range of fresh fruit and veg . I don't feel guilty if I treat myself to some exotic fruit (chocolate and cakes are a terrible temptation), and tonight I bought a fresh fig (and some persimmons from Lydll's) . BF's is always a bit of an adventure as you can find cheap short coded items and they have interesting frozen items from a catering company that supplies restaurants and pubs. They even have some quite exotic items such as ostrich steaks (yes - from farmed ostriches), and tinned chestnuts but no canned pumpkin (in joke here). They have a good selection of Christmas puddings but as only Romas and I will be eating it I bought a cheap one but then splurged out and bought a panettone which we usually have on Boxing day.

Practice Makes Perfect.

It was not quite so dark on my homeward journey tonight as I had left school early to go to the hospital for another physiotherapy session, (some lovely deep massages on my spine have really loosened up my neck and shoulder). I stopped up past the Lewis' farm to take some pictures of the evening clouds and the sheets of rain over the bay. These dark clouds have been releasing nasty hailstorms and I'm so glad the central heating is keeping most of the house warm. I have had to resort to my cosy dressing gown and fingerless gloves to keep the chill at bay in the cold sitting room but now I'm as warm as toast.

Back at school the day has been mostly about the play, another rehearsal - this time on the stage blocks and my class sitting on chairs by the side. I had hoped to have my children sitting more comfortably on pe mats but the feeling was that change wasn't necessary. Then another run through of the dances in the classroom to check if the rats' ears would stay on through the dance and to see if the stars' shimmering wrist bands were not too tight or too fragile. Actually they looked very effective. Tomorrow will be the first dress rehearsal and as we'll be taking photographs they'll need their face paints on as well. It's nothing too dramatic, just nose & whiskers for the rats and possibly teeth if I have the time. The afternoon was more relaxed as the children started painting some clay coil pots that they are making into tea-light holders as Christmas presents for their mums. We don't have a kiln so we use air drying clay for such projects. As I didn't have the chance to set up my classroom for tomorrow I'll be heading in extra early tomorrow so that I can get organised, get costumes set out etc. Maybe I'll even beat Chris who is always the first one in at around 7.30, I'm usually the next - about 10 mins later though I tend to stay longer in the evenings. I won't know what to do with myself in January, only joking!

Dark Evenings.

Welcome to all of you visiting this blog. The map on my site manager is showing visitors from all over the globe which I find fascinating.

It gets dark so early these days, no wonder ancient people celebrated the turning of the year. As I drove home along the dark lanes this evening the headlights of my car picked out a large barn owl sitting ontop of a hedge. The owl turned its large dish-like face to me before gliding away majestically.Today was the Christmas Fayre at school. Many of the parents came and took their children around the fayre but I still had 9 children to supervise. Father Christmas has lost a lot of weight since last year but it is so sweet to see how thrilled the children are to talk to him. In the last week of term we will also get a helicopter fly past with Father Christmas waving from the doorway.

We had PPA again this afternoon, I'm finding it strange not to be having to think ahead for next term. There is still plenty to complete for this term and at the same time my fingers are itching to make preparations for next term's topics but it won't be my responsibility anymore. That's good in terms of stress but sad in terms of buzz and adding my input. Oh well, something always turns up.

Close Encounter With A Buzzard.

It was very cold this morning, so cold that I had to de-ice the car before going off to work.

Even so I couldn't resist stopping up at Ashelford Corner to capture the colours of the sunrise, my poor little fingers were frozen by the time I had taken a few pictures.
A little way down the road I was just thinking that now I have a better zoom on my camera I should be able to get a decent shot of a buzzard when suddenly there was a buzzard, standing on the road ahead. I braked hard, the buzzard did his best to do a vertical take off , slid past the windscreen and missed the roof of the car by a few inches with a most indignant squawk. Further down the road there were 2 more buzzards who were sitting sensibly on top of the telegraph poles waiting for the sun to rise and the air to warm. It became a bit warmer during the day as the rain, (not so heavy today) returned. In the afternoon we had playtime outside even though it was raining because the children had spent over an hour in the hall at another rehearsal. The performance gets better each time , let's hope we don't peak too early. My kitchen table is currently covered with strands of silver lammetta being turned into shimmering wrist bands for my 15 stars. Off I go now to carry on making those 30 bracelets.

Sunshine !

Not a drop of rain today but it was brrr cold with the wind blowing directly down from the North Pole. It was so good to see the sun today that I took some pictures at lunchtime. Looking across to the junior school.
There are still plenty of flowers around the school,

and down in the Secret Garden.

Hopefully the bug houses will provide winter shelter for ladybirds and solitary bees.

It was play rehearsal again today and we are getting all the costumes ready for Friday's dress rehearsal. At the moment most of my class are in school though the tedium of sitting through the rehearsal produces a lot of headaches and tummy aches which all get miraculously better when it is time to go out to play. It will be another late day tomorrow as we help set up the Christmas Fayre which will take place on Wednesday. I'd better get off and have an early-ish night.