The Evening Sun.

School planning this morning, picked Linas up from the bus station in the afternoon and finally some gardening in the last of the afternoon sunshine.

Romas was making smoke signals burning up some old wood that wasn't fit for the winter fuel pile. He's also getting on with other gardening jobs. Hopefully the weather will hold for the week so that he gets a lot done before he leaves for uni on Saturday. I've started gathering up the things he will be taking to Keele but I expect it will be the usual mad panic on Friday night.

The evening sun made it easy to see the webs spun by these hopeful spiders.

As the shadows began to fall the butterflies left the flowers that were now in the shade and instead kept landing on me as I took a coffee break.

As I sat there one landed on my hand right next to the camera, no chance of photographing that one.

Job Hunting.

It was so good to wake this morning knowing that I could turn over and go back to sleep, which is precisely what I did. Even with an extra snooze I was out feeding the hens by 8.00 in the misty but warm morning. After that I went ahead with my plan to be a bit more proactive in my NZ job search and emailed 14 schools that have suitable vacancies. And that is only the schools on North Island, my first choice. There are at least the same number of vacancies on South Island.
Later I took Linas into town as we needed a few things. He decided to go on down to Plymouth so Romas and I spent the rest of the afternoon beginning the job of overhauling an ornamental grass bed that had become somewhat wild and weed ridden.

The butterflies were out in force once more in the last patch of evening sunlight.

Time at home is so limited now that I am back at work that I decided not to go into town again for a wander round the fair and the evening fireworks even though I still have a childish delight in big firework displays. Instead we have started our annual transformation into ballroom dancing experts as we watch Strictly. Costumes are definitely better this year, last year's designers created some terribly unflattering outfits.

The Weekend At Last.

At last it is Friday. It was really hard to open my eyes this morning and actually get out of bed. It's been warm again today though rather overcast. The weather of the last few weeks has been so much better than during the 'summer holidays'. We had the school nurse come and talk to the class about going to the opticians and when at the end of her talk she asked if anyone had any questions about the opticians lots of hand went up. However when the children were asked to give their questions most of them said 'I'm going to the fair tomorrow'. We did get some children who informed us that Granny or Mummy wears glasses. Well it was Friday afternoon and the fair is a big event in their lives.

I had a quiet walk around the garden this evening before entering the bombsite that is the kitchen. That's what happens when 2 lads cook their own suppers and 2nd suppers. Both of them met me at school for a lift home and we called in at Sommerfields to pick up a few bargains and treats. A whole corn fed chicken and some quarters were amongst our haul and they've already been roasted and will no doubt be demolished in a day or so. Linas was working again today and got roped into helping move some cattle including a large bull (placid) and a small bull (unruly) which leapt over and broke through fences. He's certainly learning some new skills.